Week 2 GDT: CHI (0-1) @ DEN (0-1)

[thebestever6]

Offense didn't hold it's end of the bargain but that was a team loss. Long term going for two is minuscule. 

[BullsandBroncos]

Bottom line is, time ran out and the refs chose to take the bears sign and not ours.

[thebestever6]

This team should be analytical when they have a great team to contend. 

Now save the analytics for the draft. 

[jolly red giant]

1 minute ago, BroncoBruin said:

"Baited them"? What kind of cowardly mentality is that. The defense is the strength of your team, they need to finish there. They had 4th and 10 with Chicago nowhere near FG range, they just didn't make the play. 

They wouldn't have had to make a play if Fangio kicked the PAT - Miller and Chubb did nothing all game - if they had been making plays then it would have made sense.

[paul-mac]

If we kicked the PAT we'd have won that game in overtime, their defense was so tired

[thebestever6]

Just now, jolly red giant said:

They wouldn't have had to make a play if Fangio kicked the PAT - Miller and Chubb did nothing all game - if they had been making plays then it would have made sense.

In the end the game was in the hands of this teams best unit. You can't be afraid to put the game into your best units hands.

[MakeDenverGreatAgain]

1 minute ago, jolly red giant said:

They wouldn't have had to make a play if Fangio kicked the PAT - Miller and Chubb did nothing all game - if they had been making plays then it would have made sense.

Just smh. Quit while you’re behind. You have to be trolling.

[broncos67]

9 minutes ago, MakeDenverGreatAgain said:

Pass rush? Von has been terrible and Chubb isn’t any better. Shaq Barrett was our best pass rusher the whole time.

This is one of the most absurd things I've read on here.

[broncos67]

Another week, another comedy act. And by the way, things won't be any better next week @GB. 0-3 is a certainty, IMO.

• Scangarello is a horrific play caller. He'll have some moments, and then it just flies off the rails.
• Garett Bolles is done. The minute James is back, he's getting benched. He is absolutely awful. There's no defending it. He's a first round pick, and was a terrible one at that. Every single person here knew it.
• Pass rush is non-existent. To have no sacks through this point in the season is just yikes.
• The defense generally played well otherwise. The Bears aren't particularly good, and Denver really should have won, but, alas, they didn't.
• The timeout call was bogus- it was anticipatory, and if it was called when it actually was applied, the clock would have run out.

 

When Lock is healthy, he needs to play. There's no point to continuing this charade with Flacco. Same old Broncos, just a different coach. Death by inches, though, Big Vic wasn't wrong about that. Too bad his guys don't practice what he preaches.

[lomaxgrUK]

I can't believe not one, but two people are saying that's Fangio's fault for giving us a lead rather than tieing with 30 seconds left ...

There can be no denying that the refs have had a nightmare with that rougher the passer call. You just cannot call that on the final drive of the game. Refs called two horrendous ones on the Bears but they had so much time to compensate. 

I didn't like our Offensive gameplay. For the 1000th time I will say - NFL defenses will not let you dink and dunk for anything more than 14 points or so. That ain't going to cut it long term. You need shot plays from favourable defensive looks. Did we take a single deep shot from play action on 1st down?

Fair play to the Bears D. As good as advertised. They ain't going anywhere with Trubisky at QB, though. Inaccurate and just as worryingly, unintelligent.

@AKRNA I respect your opinion but enough is enough now - Bolles isn't an NFL player. And no I'm not exaggerating. He doesn't and won't ever get it. He needs to be benched and I genuinely don't care who it's for. Let someone else fight for a career.

Edited September 15, 2019 by lomaxgrUK

[paul-mac]

6 minutes ago, broncos67 said:

This is one of the most absurd things I've read on here.

MakeDenverGreatAgain is a troll, so it's no surprise to see him posting absurd things.

[thebestever6]

1 minute ago, broncos67 said:

Another week, another comedy act. And by the way, things won't be any better next week @GB. 0-3 is a certainty, IMO.

• Scangarello is a horrific play caller. He'll have some moments, and then it just flies off the rails.
• Garett Bolles is done. The minute James is back, he's getting benched. He is absolutely awful. There's no defending it. He's a first round pick, and was a terrible one at that. Every single person here knew it.
• Pass rush is non-existent. To have no sacks through this point in the season is just yikes.
• The defense generally played well otherwise. The Bears aren't particularly good, and Denver really should have won, but, alas, they didn't.
• The timeout call was bogus- it was anticipatory, and if it was called when it actually was applied, the clock would have run out.

 

When Lock is healthy, he needs to play. There's no point to continuing this charade with Flacco. Same old Broncos, just a different coach. Death by inches, though, Big Vic wasn't wrong about that. Too bad his guys don't practice what he preaches.

I agreed with this whole post 

[jolly red giant]

6 minutes ago, thebestever6 said:

In the end the game was in the hands of this teams best unit. You can't be afraid to put the game into your best units hands.

So you consider the offence as the team's best unit - because it was the offence's hands that Fangio put the game by going for 2. If they had failed we lose the game - they got it an we lost anyway. Fangio was taking two chances - going for 2 and then having to stop the Bears - we lost. 

I agree with Paul-Mac - we win in OT if he kicks the PAT. Kicking the ball was the percentage play.

[AKRNA]

Just an interesting point. Last week GB had 11 QB hits and 5 sacks against the Bears.

We had 2 hits, both by Chubb. Does Von still play?

[Broncofan]

OK well time for the summary...

The Good

1.  Justin Simmons, CHJ & Kareem Jackson - Simmons was all over the field today, made 3 breakups on pass plays that we've been waiting for, and had excellent timing on the blitz and run support.  This was what we've been waiting for.  We've seen flashes before, though, so it would be nice to see this consistency.   Have to put a big shout-out to CHJ for limiting A-Rob to 2 catches for 13 yards after he torched GB for 100+.  CHJ wasn't the cover guy on that 4th and 15 (more on that later), so I'm not putting that on CHJ.   He's too expensive to keep in our future, but he's still a baller.  Elway, get a nice Day 2 pick for him at the trade deadline.  I should point out that Kareem Jackson made all the plays in front of him, and and had great coverage.

2.  Manny Sanders - the OAK game didn't show me enough that #10 was back - but this game certainly did.  Those were out, curl, and cross routes - which use more stop & go an and change of direction.  That's what I want to see when I talk about recovery post-Achilles.   Steve Smith was a freak, so losing some agility he could afford.  The Q is whether Sanders had enough - OAK's game was in garbage time and the big gain was blown coverage, so less clear - but today, Sanders showed up.   That last TD / 2 point convert was a thing of beauty.

3.  Royce Freeman & Philip Lindsay - Freeman actually had more juice between the tackles, but Lindsay deserves special mention for getting a couple of crucial first downs as a pass catcher.  His evolution as a pass catcher is coming along.  This is more what Elway likely had in mind as a thunder & lightning combo last year when he drafted Freeman.

The Good & Bad

4.  Flacco - While I had an issue with his placement on MNF, today his location on key passes in leading guys, especially with the Lindsay 4th and 2 and the 4th down conversion to Sutton & TD pass to Sanders were spot-on, and he was was much better than on MNF @Oakland.   But that pick to Fuller was a terrible read and throw.  And he still takes a while to get through reads, and his statue-like lack of mobility really hurts our O.   But that would be manageable if our OL wasn't bottom-5 to bottom-10 - because he's still a huge upgrade over what we have been watching at QB since Peyton retired.  It's just that it's not nearly enough for a team to be a contender, but it's an upgrade over 2016-8, so there's that. 

5.  Run D - not elite by any means, but better than on MNF.   Montgomery was a beast, he made most of his plays after contact.   CHI actually helped us a ton by playing Mike Davis a lot.   But it's progress.

 

The Bad

6.   Our ST - until the very last punt, we got our field flipped so many times, it was ridiculous.   It was good to see the last return get a positive return, hopefully we'll be better, but man, we are still losing this area of the game, and given our other deficiencies, not good at all.

7.  Pass Rush - I won't say any part of the D is a reason why we lost the game when you give up 16 points - at home, ou should win those games every time.   No excuse for the O.  But for the 5th overall pick investment in Chubb and our franchise guy in Von, we need a better pass rush.   What's pretty clear is that teams are getting the ball out early to negate our pass rush - so I will say that our D did a MUCH better job of playing press on the short stuff.   But we need game changing plays, and that's what sacks are for.

8.  The PF calls - everyone will be upset on Chubb's call, and rightfully so - to be fair, the drive where Fuller picked off Flacco was extended for the exact same awful call.  So it's not like the zebras called it all on one side.   It's just a bad call to try and legislate (body slam).  It's a live play, there was no ill intent with Chubb or Floyd on both plays.   Sucks.

 

The Ugly

9.  Our Red Zone O - 4 drives in the RZ - 14 points.   We just are a bottom 5 team here right now.  Not on 1 person, the whole unit save Sanders & Freeman/Lindsay are just not winning when the field is short.     Nothing more can be said.   Sanders TD & 2-pt makes it look better - but we can't get away from the fact if we convert even at league average rates, at worst we're at 16 if not more points.   

10.  The OL (and yes, most of all, Bolles) - Leary gets a fair amount of blame here too.   But Bolles was the ringleader by a fair margin.  If it was just that Khalil Mack or Leonard Floyd beat him (they did a few times), there's no shame in that.  But 4 holding calls (and frankly, Schlereth pointed out 2 more that the refs seemed to take pity on him), and especially with technique as the reason, is just unacceptable.   If this was a Day 2 pick, it would be reason to worry in Year 3.   1st round picks are taken to have a year 1 impact, usually year 2 at latest.   The tough part - it's not his toolset, he clearly has the tools - but his problems are EXACTLY the same as 2 years ago.  And he was a 24 year old rookie - so there's little likelihood he's going to max out more, and make up for bad technique.   Ugh.

11.  Prevent D & Clock Management - The Chubb call was a huge part of the final drive - but man, I hate prevent D.    It was literally the only way you give an easy throw on 4th and 15 with 8 secs left.   Fangio & Flacco really have to get their 3-minute drill down better, they're wasting so much time.   I will give Fangio credit for being bold enough to go for the W - but that's not an every-week decision.   Clock management and calling prevent are way more common and Fangio, Scangarelli, Flacco & co. HAVE to be better.   Just no way around it.    

Now, a few points on the Bears' side:

I.  Trubisky missed a couple of wide open throws - but overall, was much better.  That throw to ARob was clutch.    He's not an elite QB and CHI fans will be perpetually sick that RM Ryan Pace passed on both Watson and Mahomes for him, but what's done is done.  He did enough to win, and he actually made plays to win.    Nagy used a limited playbook to simplify things on the road with the noise, and it worked.  But I expect we'll see them open things up, and use Trubisky's mobility (like the 4th down conversion, he actually is better on the move than just sitting in the pocket).

II.  David Montgomery is going to be a BEAST.   He made 2/3 of his yards after contact.    They've got a special 3-down back on their hands.   

III.  The CHI D pass rush faltered in the 4Q not because our OL play improved - but they got gassed.   Khalil Mack missed over half the plays in the last 2 drives.  The Bears D had their hands on their hips the whole time.

IV.  Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith & Kyle Fuller are sick players.   Jackson almost had a pick-6 early that would have made it a runaway game, and Fuller prevented the Sanders TD the play before that sensational pick.    Those dudes are ballers.

Anyways, tough, tough L - I love the fight our D showed, and I give nothing but love to #10, and tip my cap to Flacco for a money throw (but it's a mixed basket, that pick was equally awful).   I have to give the coaches another C- today - the RZ play calling was vanilla, and OMG prevent D killed another team....again.  

The one big take-home hope - our youngest guys were again our best players.   The part to despair - our trenches were bad, and when our best players aren't spectacular, we have no margin for error.

Given how close we came to winning, I realize Elway won't likely see this is a lost season yet - but the reality is going to start sinking in.  I am heartened by the lack of quit in the team, though.  But soon it's going to be time to think 2020+ officially (most of us are already there, but soon Elway will be calling it, more likely in mid-late Oct if our OL/RZ O don't improve).

Edited September 16, 2019 by Broncofan