GDT: Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs

[OrangeNBlue86]

Damnit. Note to self, read the thread before posting so you aren’t beating a dead horse. Sorry. 

[lomaxgrUK]

Case and the OL was abysmal in the 2nd half. Usual stuff of penalties, turnovers and mis-execution. It seems whenever the pressure is on for us to move the ball in a 1 score game, we choke.

Elway's 2016 and 2017 1st round picks looming large this year. Bolles on the road has been as bad as any player in the NFL. Simply not good enough.

It's such a shame, because this Defense showed so much heart. They played fantastic in that 2nd half and they deserve better from the Offense.

On a side note, can someone please explain why with 5.30 mins left and down two scores, we decided to punt on 4th and 5? You're 3-4 and on the verge of your season ending, and you frickin' punt in a two score game. 

[germ-x]

1 hour ago, AKRNA said:

Oh well, we all have our crosses to bear.

No doubt.  

[Broncofan]

8 hours ago, BroncoBruin said:

I think the Broncos cover, FWIW. 

I salute the call.

I mean, today was a rehash of our prior L's, so I don't think I need to break it down in detail.   It's pretty simple...

The Good:

1.  Our young guys again were our best players.   It was nice to see Huermann used in the RZ, too.

2.  Our pass rush definitely gave Mahomes & co. more trouble.  It was nice to see Von & co. get to Mahomes this time.

3.  Our run game just dominated an admittedly terrible KC run D.

4.  The team didn't quit.    That's probably the best long-term thing we can hang our hat on.

The Bad

1.  Keenum.   I mean, there's not much we can say.   No vision, no internal clock, no pocket awareness, and no placement/accuracy.   Patrick's TD was blown coverage, and Sutton just made plays on 50-50 balls (which is fine, but it does nothing to credit Keenum).

2.  Our pass pro is just abysmal.  

3.  Our pass D vs. Watkins / Kelce was unsurprisingly bad.   Remember Watkins left last game vs. us early, and that was a matchup they exploited mercilessly.    I will also bow to the greatness that is Kareem Hunt - it's a big reason why their O is so unfair.   Mahomes as a generational physical talent, Kelce as a top 2 TE (if not the top TE IRL), Hill as the fastest & most elusive WR around.   And K-Hunt as a top 5, elite RB talent.   SMH.

_______________________

Now, the extra salt in the wound was that was that we lost both Sanders and Marshall to injury.   Sanders hurts big-time because without him, teams are just going to take out Sutton/DT to a much easier extent.  Marshall's injury seals that he's untradeable (iffy, but now a lock).    

Not much else to say.  I will say again that we showed heart & effort, and so that tells me that the core is something to really look forward to in 2019.  But yeah...with  no future QB on the roster, it's hard to get excited about our team RoS.

Next week, we get to see another flawed team (terrible OL, bad run D, succeptible pass coverage)...but with a true franchise QB in HOU & Deshaun Watson.   They lost a huge piece in Will Fuller (a better version than Watkins when healthy, but done with a torn ACL).   But they're still rightfully favorites over us next week.

I do hope Elway doesn't change his idea of being a trade deadline seller.   At 3-5, with the schedule we have left, we are sunk.  Many of us saw it before the season started, but it should be obvious to everyone for 2018. 

[germ-x]

Is sanders hurt long term or just banged up?  He was on the field on the last play.

[Broncofan]

38 minutes ago, germ-x said:

Is sanders hurt long term or just banged up?  He was on the field on the last play.

Yeah I forgot to mention he was back, so hopefully it's not a serious injury.  If there was a fracture, you'd think he wouldn't be out there.  And there are plain x-rays they can do in the stadium to check it out.   So we may have dodged a bullet.   

Being a direct impact mechanism, it's not going to be torn ligaments/etc.  Either there's a bad bruise, or there's a fracture.   If Sanders is still in a lot of pain tomorrow, they should do further tests, but if he was good enough to play, and they did plain x-rays on-site, then hopefully it's just a scary bruise.  They can be that painful early on.

[AKRNA]

Lets keep the defensive effort in perspective. 

KC went three and out on their 1st possesion. They didn't punt again until the 4th quarter, when all 4 of their drives ended in punts. They scored on 5 straight possesions and got us into a game of catch up. Not our game.

Now it's true our D shut 'em down late in the game and our offense couldn't take advantage, no denying that. The way this team is built though our D needs a lot more stops in the 1st three quarters of a game for us to win. 

Anyway, still a lot of scrap in this team. We'll see how they adjust to the roll of "spoiler". Our next 4 opponents all have playoff aspirations so the games count and we'll get everyones best shot.

Should be fun. 

[BroncoBruin]

5 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

Lets keep the defensive effort in perspective. 

KC went three and out on their 1st possesion. They didn't punt again until the 4th quarter, when all 4 of their drives ended in punts. They scored on 5 straight possesions and got us into a game of catch up. Not our game.

Now it's true our D shut 'em down late in the game and our offense couldn't take advantage, no denying that. The way this team is built though our D needs a lot more stops in the 1st three quarters of a game for us to win. 

Anyway, still a lot of scrap in this team. We'll see how they adjust to the roll of "spoiler". Our next 4 opponents all have playoff aspirations so the games count and we'll get everyones best shot.

Should be fun. 

Yeah, the defense has really run hot and cold throughout the season, especially on the road. They have stretches of ineptitude sandwiched between stretches of dominance. But even when they play well, does it ever feel like they are going to make a big play? 

It's just not a unit with much "bite" anymore. Some plays you'll have the Von/Chubb duo looking pretty scary, but there's just nothing else that really threatens offenses anymore. In 2015, you had the feeling on every snap that they could make a game changing play. Regressed a bit in 2016 with the run defense falling off plus losing Malik, last year you still saw flashes but the rush wasn't getting there enough and at times they seemed to quit. This year, there's nothing resembling the old core left. They are so normal looking. It's really just an average NFL defense with a pass rush that can heat up at times. 

[AKRNA]

7 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

Yeah, the defense has really run hot and cold throughout the season, especially on the road. They have stretches of ineptitude sandwiched between stretches of dominance. But even when they play well, does it ever feel like they are going to make a big play? 

It's just not a unit with much "bite" anymore. Some plays you'll have the Von/Chubb duo looking pretty scary, but there's just nothing else that really threatens offenses anymore. In 2015, you had the feeling on every snap that they could make a game changing play. Regressed a bit in 2016 with the run defense falling off plus losing Malik, last year you still saw flashes but the rush wasn't getting there enough and at times they seemed to quit. This year, there's nothing resembling the old core left. They are so normal looking. It's really just an average NFL defense with a pass rush that can heat up at times. 

Pretty much hits the nail on the head. 

[germ-x]

2 hours ago, BroncoBruin said:

Yeah, the defense has really run hot and cold throughout the season, especially on the road. They have stretches of ineptitude sandwiched between stretches of dominance. But even when they play well, does it ever feel like they are going to make a big play? 

It's just not a unit with much "bite" anymore. Some plays you'll have the Von/Chubb duo looking pretty scary, but there's just nothing else that really threatens offenses anymore. In 2015, you had the feeling on every snap that they could make a game changing play. Regressed a bit in 2016 with the run defense falling off plus losing Malik, last year you still saw flashes but the rush wasn't getting there enough and at times they seemed to quit. This year, there's nothing resembling the old core left. They are so normal looking. It's really just an average NFL defense with a pass rush that can heat up at times. 

This defense isn’t what it was in the SB years, by any means.  More than anything they’ve been awful vs the run.  But what happened vs KC was a hell of an effort, in both games.  That’s maybe the most talented offense/system....maybe ever at the rate they’re going.

Holding KC to 30 on a shanked punt and the offensive TOs is exceptional.  Denver still sucks, but that was a hell of a defensive effort regardless.

[lomaxgrUK]

6 hours ago, germ-x said:

This defense isn’t what it was in the SB years, by any means.  More than anything they’ve been awful vs the run.  But what happened vs KC was a hell of an effort, in both games.  That’s maybe the most talented offense/system....maybe ever at the rate they’re going.

Holding KC to 30 on a shanked punt and the offensive TOs is exceptional.  Denver still sucks, but that was a hell of a defensive effort regardless.

Totally agree. And in one of the bigger home field advantages in all of sport.

I liked our Defensive plan. It really is a "pick your poison" Offense to play against, and I would much rather take my chances on Sammy Watkins to be the one to beat us than the usual of Kelce going off for 150 yards.

Our CB depth got exposed a tad today, as did our inability to cover TE's on 3rd down, but that was nothing we didn't know.

[thebestever6]

1 hour ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Totally agree. And in one of the bigger home field advantages in all of sport.

I liked our Defensive plan. It really is a "pick your poison" Offense to play against, and I would much rather take my chances on Sammy Watkins to be the one to beat us than the usual of Kelce going off for 150 yards.

Our CB depth got exposed a tad today, as did our inability to cover TE's on 3rd down, but that was nothing we didn't know.

I just hate todd Davis covering watkins on his first td lol.

[BroncoBruin]

I thought the Monday Night game was a hell of an effort that only Mahomes' individual greatness overcame.

This game was pretty much in line with what I expected. 5 straight scoring drives, four of them touchdowns. For an offense with a limited QB and pass pro issues, that stretch killed the game. 

[lomaxgrUK]

1 hour ago, thebestever6 said:

I just hate todd Davis covering watkins on his first td lol.

I will have to go back and rewatch it, but I remember in the first game Mahomes missed a couple of mismatches like that when we were blitzing. This isn't a criticism of Mahomes at all, but in this Offense he very rarely has to go through more than 1 or 2 reads.

The concept of the play defines that there are normally on 1 or 2 reads (Jet Sweep Motion, Run-Pass Options and Play Action being the most prominent play types). Therefore, if Mahomes doesn't identify the mismatch presnap then the chances are he will miss it unless the mismatch is one of his 2 reads. It's the exact same with McVay's Offense for Jared Goff.

I am guessing we took our chances a couple of times in gambling on Mahomes missing these mismatches to allow us to blitz or double team (or both). I guess a breakdown in coverage is also possible.

I was watching the All 22 from the Arizona game and we actually stayed in our base 3-4 vs 11 personnel; Justin Simmons played man coverage vs Larry Fitzgerald. This was an obvious counter to us getting shredded in the run game in our Nickel personnel. Perhaps we got caught trying this against the Chiefs and rather than have a Safety in man coverage vs a WR, we got caught with a LB in coverage vs a WR?

[AKRNA]

7 hours ago, BroncoBruin said:

I thought the Monday Night game was a hell of an effort that only Mahomes' individual greatness overcame.

This game was pretty much in line with what I expected. 5 straight scoring drives, four of them touchdowns. For an offense with a limited QB and pass pro issues, that stretch killed the game. 

We watched the same game. I'm not sure if our defense really stopped them in the 4th quarter or if Reid just took his foot off the gas. A bit of both I'd imagine.

Anyway, I have a hard time finding a reason to applaud the defense. I can't overlook fact they were an absolute non-factor for the first 3/4's of the game. A few stops in that period, even just 1 or 2, may have made a huge difference. We couldn't do it.

Putting our offense in a position where they have to feel like they need to score every drive won't win us any games.