GDT Week 3: Denver Broncos @ Green Bay Packers

[thebestever6]

3 hours ago, Cutler06 said:

2 What’s the word on Wolfe’s injury ?

Initial diagnosis on Derek Wolfe is no break but serious high-ankle sprain that may sideline him awhile. MRI tomorrow. “It doesn’t matter what they say, I’m fine. If it’s not broke, I’m fine.” #9sports Mike kliss

[BroncoBruin]

I've said my piece and he's on ignore, I recommend others do the same. Sorry for my part in the nonsense @Counselor

Edited September 23, 2019 by BroncoBruin

[BroncoBruin]

Wolfe can say he's fine all he wants, the next month will be a great opportunity for DeMarcus and Dre'Mont. Their progress is more important than whatever a banged up Wolfe can give us. 

[thebestever6]

11 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

Wolfe can say he's fine all he wants, the next month will be a great opportunity for DeMarcus and Dre'Mont. Their progress is more important than whatever a banged up Wolfe can give us. 

Agreed, Wolfe has been a great Bronco and has put his heart and soul into this organization. With that in mind he hates losing wouldn't mind sending him away for a swap of pics or something minimal value when he gets healthy. Give him a chance to win a chip.

There's no reason Dre'Mont should be a healthy scratch going forward.  That's a John Fox at his worse type move.

[BroncoBruin]

1 minute ago, thebestever6 said:

Agreed, Wolfe has been a great Bronco and has put his heart and soul into this organization. With that in mind he hates losing wouldn't mind sending him away for a swap of pics or something minimal value when he gets healthy. Give him a chance to win a chip.

There's no reason Dre'Mont should be a healthy scratch going forward.  That's a John Fox at his worse type move.

Agreed. If there's any market for Wolfe, take what you can get. I think he's the type who will want to stay no matter what, but there's no reason for the Broncos to commit a dollar to him going forward. 

Good sign that he was already getting time. It won't be another DeMarcus Walker situation, and I think they'd try to avoid that situation again. 

[1234567]

I love Wolfe. That's the kind of guy you wish then entire locker room was like. He never did have elite ability, but was close at one point in his career, and caused a lot of problems for offenses with his motor and attitude. Injuries and age have definitely diminished his skills though. Wish there was a way to retire him as a bronco, but I'm betting this will be his final year here. I hope he gets a chance to win another ring wherever he ends up though. 

[Broncofan]

I was at work so I missed different sections (but I had the TV on the game where I could sneak peeks lol), but man, I don't know if I have the stomach to watch this again. 

I will only highlight some positives:

1.  OC Scangarelli's play scheming for Lindsay - we can start to see some of the ideas that Scangarelli has that are more innovative.   Time and again we had Lindsay isolated against the weakness of the GB D - their slow footed ILB play.   And it was a thing of beauty to watch. 

2.  Our run blocking - the one area we held up.  

3.  Risner - man, he's an elite G already IMO.  He's holding up the left side on run blocking and helping McGovern & Bolles a ton (which speaks to the latter's struggles even with great help).    Don't move him to T, he's going to be elite there.   Get James healthy, and hit T again in the next draft if Bolles isn't the 2020 answer (or flip them and see what happens...and still draft T if there's a franchise one there lol). 

4. The effort - the team hung in valiantly until the TO's came.   I don''t blame the effort at all.

I will also echo the obvious on a few important long-term fronts:

1.  Flacco's a clear upgrade on our 2016-18 QB's.  But he's not a difference-maker.   His limitations are just exposed by our poor OL play.   And until you get a complete team like we did in 2015, you need to look for a difference-maker QB.

2.  Our pass pro is just atrocious.  Bolles didn't get a penalty - but he traded that for getting beat on key 3rd down plays (the first sack on 3rd and goal, and the other sack given up, and he probably gets 0.5 for another saw if I got the assignments right).   Wilkinson is in his first year of actual playing time, so there's room to be patient, but he's not good at present (but given it's year 1 playing, there's potential Munchak can fix this up - less so the further along we see guys playing without progress, or when they are reaching decline phase (Leary).

3.  The TO's were a killer, because we aren't a better team than the Pack, and certainly not on the road. 

4  We just lack talent across the board.    It's that simple.  Whether it's Todd Davis back, or Hamilton as our 3rd WR (who I'm willing to be patient with for this year, but it's fair to say today didn't show any progress), we don't have even middle-of-league talent depth.    

5.  Our vets were better fits in the old D scheme - I have no doubt Von is still an elite skill player - but 3 games can't be a fluke to have 0 results.  And it's not like there are near misses, A-Rod had a TON of time to spare on a lot of plays.    I agree that the time has come to see what we can get for Von - but I would echo the sentiment we don't sell him at all costs.   Teams need EDGE desperately and they can see the scheme fit is the big issue.  It's nothing against Fangio, it's pretty clear it's just not a match, but even if it was - we are at LEAST 2 years away from serious contention. 

I thought best-case we could think about it in 2020..but that was based on having real hope that we had our QBOTF, and our rookies/2nd year guys progressing.   Frankly, that's not really happened.   The good news is that they are still our best players - which is the best reason to be hopeful.  It just means we have to be realistic on ETA.  And if that's the case - get what we can for guys we aren't wise to retain.  Wolfe, CHJ - get the best return (unless in Harris' case it's no better than a 4th).  

The crazy part - when I looked at the schedule 3 weeks ago, I had JAX as a game where we'd be the home favorite.   It's hard to feel that way now.  Ugh. 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Broncofan

[thebestever6]

8 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

The crazy part - when I looked at the schedule 3 weeks ago, I had JAX as a game where we'd be the home favorite.   It's hard to feel that way now.  Ugh. 

Oh I feel this team will be favored and I kind of expect them to win( might even be my survivor pick since Giants saved me this week)As limited as Flacco is he makes a QB like Mariota look like childs play. If Mariotas first read isn't open kiss the play good bye. 

I feel like Fangio will have an answer for Minshew. Unless he just torches Yiadom all day. Calais Campbell and their front 7 are my big worry. Chark looks like he's coming around at wr as well.

[Broncofan]

3 minutes ago, thebestever6 said:

Oh I feel this team will be favored and I kind of expect them to win( might even be my survivor pick since Giants saved me this week)As limited as Flacco is he makes a QB like Mariota look like childs play. If Mariotas first read isn't open kiss the play good bye. 

I feel like Fangio will have an answer for Minshew. Unless he just torches Yiadom all day. Calais Campbell and their front 7 are my big worry. Chark looks like he's coming around at wr as well.

I"m sure that's the way it will go down when Vegas releases the odds.  But you have to admit that it doesn't look like the lock "W" ppl envisioned when they saw last year's JAX team coming to town.   

There's a saying we're not as good as our best game and not as bad as our worst game.  It's hard to say the 3 L's and our play during there gives reason to think it's not a real trend (ref call notwithstanding, but keep in mind Goldman had the same call cost CHI 3 pts as Chubb's did for us).

Edited September 23, 2019 by Broncofan

[thebestever6]

4 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

But you have to admit that it doesn't look like the lock "W" ppl envisioned when they saw last year's JAX team coming to town. 

I never viewed the Jaguars as a lock especially early in the year. Granted, I was expecting a healthy Saint Nick. 

The AFC South this year as in years past is just very unpredictable imo. They play inconsistent football it all depends on what defenses show up. I'd be shocked if we go winless I see a .500 record in that division can't tell you what teams lol.

 

 

[thebestever6]

[BroncoBruin]

I'd be fairly surprised if we lose next week. The Jags won their Super Bowl (Thursday vs. the Titans). I'm sure it won't be easy, of course. And this weirdness with both of our home opponents getting so much rest, could hurt us. 

Next week just feels like a perfect storm with Gardner on an unusual roll for a late round rookie, and this defense making zero plays up to this point. I don't think either of these trends are sustainable. 

[lomaxgrUK]

Same old story. I thought we showed improvement in a tough environment. The Offense, for what it was asked to do, was precise for large portions of the game and we looked good on 3rd down for a change.

The Defense, whilst not creating turnovers, did well when not given a short field and it was good to see Bausby take his chance.

However, we saw once again that this team is not good enough to beat up on itself. We simply don't have the quality to commit 3 giveaways without a single takeaway, especially in our own half. Without those giveaways, I firmly believe we win that game. We also aren't good enough to compensate for officiating cost us 4 points either. That Sanders holding call is as bad as that Chubb RTP call last week.

That Fant fumble was a back breaker and also a bit worrying in my eyes. Rookie mistakes like running the wrong route and getting overpowered by 280lbs NFL vets I can live with, but not tucking the ball, carrying it loosely in one hand on the SAME SIDE as where the contact is coming from is the sign of someone who isn't an instinctive Football player in my eyes. Either truck the guy (you're 50lbs heavier) with the ball tucked, or switch the ball into your right hand stiff arm the guy. It was a truly awful play by Fant, especially when he had the 1st down by like 3 yards anyway.

As for the Offense as a whole - again, I was impressed with our efficiency but like I've said for an eternity - we aren't a precise, efficient enough team to dink and dunk our way to wins. We'll hold on the OL, we'll drop balls and we'll throw errant passes. This team NEEDS chunk plays to score points. When you've got single coverage outside like we see ALL the time on 1st down, Throw. It. Deep. It sure beats running an injured Royce Freeman for 2 yards on 1st down (Freeman was very poor again, too). Even if we're very good on Defense I question whether we could win this way, so with our Defense struggling to turn the ball over, we just won' win in this manner.

I will get to look watch All 22 this week so I look forward to looking at the OL.

I thought Joe played well for what we're asking him to do. Him holding the ball too long with poor movement in the pocket is what he's done his entire career so that isn't surprising. But, he played well on 3rd down for large parts of the game and if we didn't turn it over, we'd be looking at a good outing for where we are as a team right now.

On the whole, I expected a loss and we were more competitive than I thought we would be.

Edited September 23, 2019 by lomaxgrUK

[thebestever6]

1 hour ago, lomaxgrUK said:

On the whole, I expected a loss and we were more competitive than I thought we would be.

They were a phantom hold on Sanders and a missed extra point away from 21 points. That's even with the 3 or 4 turnovers. 

[Broncofan]

45 minutes ago, thebestever6 said:

They were a phantom hold on Sanders and a missed extra point away from 21 points. That's even with the 3 or 4 turnovers. 

Credit should be given where it’s due - OC Scangarelli drew up a much better game plan this week going after the GB ILB.  It was refreshing to see.   We just weren’t good enough to overcome mistakes.  

Re: Sanders, I have nothing but love for his effort and the rehab has been amazing.  I would be a little concerned yesterday’s struggles were because it against Pettine’s press man coverage.  Sanders did most of his work vs. the CHI zone scheme (the last TD drive he was being covered by Fuller man to man so I didn’t think much of it - but the context was that the Chi D was gassed in altitude; remember that Fuller had neutralized him in previous drives when matched up man to man in the RZ).   That’s the potential issue with an Achilles recovery - even the gains so far are amazing, but it’s possible this is where the lack of separation ability  would be seen.  Not enough of a sample to say it’s a trend - just bears watching.  

Edited September 23, 2019 by Broncofan