THURSDAY NIGHT FOOSEBALL- INDY COMES TO MILE HIGH!

[Dbrog24]

I've been in a sour mood after that game and think still would be if we won because of how trash our offense is. What infuriates me to the point of yelling at the TV is that our offense is WORSE than checkdown teddy. Think about that...teddy was moving the chains more often and had less 3 and outs than russ and a clearly upgraded offensive group. 

We were scoring more points with Drew fricken Lock under vic fangio...I mean what are we doing here? That dude threw 10 ft over receivers every time he tried to hit em outside 20 yards...and that was better than what we are seeing right now. My wife was talking about how fans shouldn't be booing or leaving but damn, I don't think any of us estimated that this team would LOOK worse than those teams. That's the most shocking and infuriating part for me.

Positive note our defense is insane. I mean we have 2nd string dudes going out and making highlight reels (shoutout sterns and browning). Our injuries have been truly horrific and our poor depth has very much impressed.

[Broncofan]

14 minutes ago, jolly red giant said:

I don't care who your QB is - scoring the sum total of 9 points against the lump of soft brown smelly stuff that is the Indianapolis Colts is all on the HC. If a HC can't figure out a way to score more than 9 points against team that gave up 24 to the Jags, 20 to the Texans and 24 to the Titans - then something is seriously wrong along the sideline.

When you have a team over five games that scores 16, 16, 11 and 9 points in four of its first five games - with the talent we have - then that is all on the HC.

You have to wonder if Paton hired Hackett as plan A to get Rodgers - if it was then a huge red flag should have gone up when Rodgers chose to stay in GB. If Rodgers believed that Hackett was the guy then he would have come to Denver - but Hackett was good for a laugh and for playing darts - not for coaching the offence.

I had such high hopes - but if we still had Vic Fangio we probably would be 5-0 (with comfortable wins in the pocket). Sure we should go after Payton - but if I was Paton I would by a big bunch of flowers, get down on bended knee, apologies profusely and beg Dan Quinn to come to Denver. In the meantime Hackett should be sacked today - and for those of you who dread Capers taking over as interim HC - he established two expansion teams because he was a solid steady pair of hands - and that is exactly what Denver needs right now. Boot Hackett to the kerb and tell to take his side-kick with him - install Capers as a CEO HC for the rest of the season - give Klint Kubiak the reins on offence and see what he can do with them (ask his dad to come back as an advisor) - and try and build some momentum for next season. Seattle must be licking their chops now with a top 5/10 pick in the pipeline next draft.

Last point - Joe Ellis has an awful lot to answer for and is 99% responsible for what has happened - shafting Kyle and forcing Elway into hiring VJ (and then shafting Elway when he wanted to dump VJ and bring Mike back in to run the show). We have had six years of a dumpster fire because Ellis's ego got in the way. 

Honestly, I'm with you except on the Capers part.   If you're going to can the HC (and I obv agree we should), then let Klint run the O, and let Evero run the D.     If Evero can handle it, let him be the interim HC.    Only if Evero says "I've got enough on my plate" do you go elsewhere (and yes, Capers is the logical choice - just so meh).    Klint's calling the O, Evero already runs the D.    Evero is the bright shining star on this coaching staff, and I have ZERO problem with going on a flyer out of all the choices - but only if Evero wants it.     

One of the biggest concerns fans have raised with firing Hackett - the prospect of losing Evero as DC.   That would clearly send a signal Paton wants Evero to work out.    If we're going to do something as aggressive as firing a HC in-season, again, only if Evero wants it - you have nothing to lose with Evero as interim HC, and everything to gain, if he's as good as we think he can be.   It's not even close to ideal as far as who you hire interim-HC wise, but we're far from any ideal situation to be even talking about this 5 games in.   

I won't go nuts if Capers is named as interim HC if Hackett gets fired in-season, but if you want bold, that's where I fall. 

[Dbrog24]

Side note and something I'll be keeping an eye on. Last game we had 12 first downs, and 4/13 on 3rd and 4th downs. This game we were 3/17 on 3rd and 4th downs with 18 first downs. NOT a good trend...we have to be able to finish in those spots. We are effectively only working with 3 instead of 4 downs according to those stats...that's quite the handicap.

[BroncoBruin]

By the way, another pathetic Jeudy performance even with the Russ misses. He just doesn’t get it and why should we think he ever will? Any tough play and he wilts like a daisy. Bad drops constantly, doesn’t lay out for passes, can’t/won’t block, terrible body language all the time, doesn’t sell his routes when he knows he isn’t getting the ball, horrific at getting upfield for YAC.

He’s a talented athlete. He’s also a bad NFL player. I don’t care how cool his routes look. He’s a player that loses at the margins in every way. It’s no surprise QB numbers targeting Jeudy have been horrible since he came into the league. And it’s always something with him, you can never escape his drama and bull****. Such a bad pick.

[Griff254]

30 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

By the way, another pathetic Jeudy performance even with the Russ misses. He just doesn’t get it and why should we think he ever will? Any tough play and he wilts like a daisy. Bad drops constantly, doesn’t lay out for passes, can’t/won’t block, terrible body language all the time, doesn’t sell his routes when he knows he isn’t getting the ball, horrific at getting upfield for YAC.

He’s a talented athlete. He’s also a bad NFL player. I don’t care how cool his routes look. He’s a player that loses at the margins in every way. It’s no surprise QB numbers targeting Jeudy have been horrible since he came into the league. And it’s always something with him, you can never escape his drama and bull****. Such a bad pick.

Maybe I’m being sympathetic but think how if things keep going the way there are Hamler will be pretty disgruntled overall too. But imagine being Jerry and dealing with this offense the past 2-3 years after having so much success before the nfl. Running routes getting open for almost no reason, getting hurt, dropping passes he should have caught early on it’s got to have messed with his head a little. It’s only a matter of time until the gasket blows with this team. WRs and defense are going to have enough of it eventually. I feel things are going to get real ugly for this team soon. But I hope I’m wrong.

[Broncofan]

1 hour ago, Dbrog24 said:

Side note and something I'll be keeping an eye on. Last game we had 12 first downs, and 4/13 on 3rd and 4th downs. This game we were 3/17 on 3rd and 4th downs with 18 first downs. NOT a good trend...we have to be able to finish in those spots. We are effectively only working with 3 instead of 4 downs according to those stats...that's quite the handicap.

It's definitely a trend, but it's also on the playcalling on 1st/2nd to begin with, and compounded last night by Wilson making the wrong read.   2x Hamler was open and Russ went for the short flat pass,  or worse, the Cleveland pass (against the guy who had the best game <Gilmore>). 

Hackett's calling 1st down runs vs. 1st down passes success rate in the first 3Q was just astoundingly bad.   Now, when EDGE Kwitty Paye left the game in the 4Q - the run was successful (and the IND D was also gassed).  The take-home message wasn't that the O needed to run more in the 1st 3Q.   They were stonewalled.   We ran 6x out of 7 1st downs to start the game.  We got 3 yards on 1 of those runs.   Less for every other run.   If you're having trouble getting your passing game in rhythm, 2nd and 9-10 isn't how you suddenly get there, not against a pass funnel D's like IND's. 

Hackett absolutely limited the O's ceiling in the 1H (with Wilson) by going run-heavy then.    It's absolutely brutal how Hackett isn't getting vs. pass funnel D's, you pass first and often...and then the success sets up the run.     Against teams that drop back and let the run happen, totally fine to run heavy.   But that wasn't IND, though.

Now, again, though - even with that - Russell Wilson missed wide open guys at key times.   Not just the TD throw to Jeudy, but read-wise.   Hackett earns criticism from the perspective that this clearly shows how crazy it was to not get game reps for a new system and a D on the field in the preseason.  But what's done is done.

Simply put, last night Wilson was bad in the reads on 2nd and long or on 3rd down.   They could have NOT had 3rd and 10 5-6x like they did by being so run heavy, but Wilson's poor play compounded the issue.   Witness...

Here's the Hamler wide open on 3rd down one (can't get the other one, but it's there).

Here's the Jeudy flag play I referenced (clearly a flag pattern that you need to throw to the corner, instead it's lofted to the center where the safety is):

 

 

And the Cleveland one (this time, it's Jeudy, there's no safety on that side out back):

 

 

Here's the thing though - Wilson wasn't the reason why we lost the SEA game.   Wilson certainly wasn't the reason why we lost the LV game.   Hackett earned both of those L's (along with the run D and MG3 turnover in LV, it wasn't Hackett alone).  But last night, Wilson alone missed reads and throws he could have won easily.   

Hackett is still a massive part of the problem, last night included.   But for the first time, Russell Wilson owns the L on his own merits.   Hackett just joins for the ride this time, where he's front and center for the first 2 L's, and a massive reason why we almost lost the HOU game.   

Edited October 7, 2022 by Broncofan

[paul-mac]

Bolles and Darby out for the season 

[jolly red giant]

7 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

Bolles and Darby out for the season 

Talk about the wheels coming off the cart

 

[Broncofan]

8 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

Bolles and Darby out for the season 

Mathis has played well enough, with Evero I could see us surviving and the D playing at a high level.

Bolles, though - ugh.   Calvin Anderson at LT, and Billy Turner at RT.    Upgrade RT (as long as Turner can stay on field)....but then downgrade LT.   Ugh, ugh, ugh.

 

[paul-mac]

Just now, Broncofan said:

Mathis has played well enough, with Evero I could see us surviving and the D playing at a high level.

Bolles, though - ugh.   Calvin Anderson at LT, and Billy Turner at RT.    Upgrade RT (as long as Turner can stay on field)....but then downgrade LT.   Ugh, ugh, ugh.

 

Mathis was horrible last night. He played well when PS2 was hurt though. 
 

Bolles and Darby both save us $10m to cut after the season. Tough to justify bringing them back at those salaries. 

[AnAngryAmerican]

1 hour ago, BroncoBruin said:

By the way, another pathetic Jeudy performance even with the Russ misses. He just doesn’t get it and why should we think he ever will? Any tough play and he wilts like a daisy. Bad drops constantly, doesn’t lay out for passes, can’t/won’t block, terrible body language all the time, doesn’t sell his routes when he knows he isn’t getting the ball, horrific at getting upfield for YAC.

He’s a talented athlete. He’s also a bad NFL player. I don’t care how cool his routes look. He’s a player that loses at the margins in every way. It’s no surprise QB numbers targeting Jeudy have been horrible since he came into the league. And it’s always something with him, you can never escape his drama and bull****. Such a bad pick.

Agreed 100%. 

Classic saying that’s usually used to describe baseball pitchers who bust - million dollar arm and a 10-cent head - applies to Jeudy. 

[Broncofan]

5 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

Mathis was horrible last night. He played well when PS2 was hurt though. 
 

Bolles and Darby both save us $10m to cut after the season. Tough to justify bringing them back at those salaries. 

I won't criticize anyone on the D last night lol.   
 

Bolles won't get cut, not with a leg fracture, unless there's a problem with the recovery.  He hasn't been great at all this year, but unless you have a LT alternative, zero chance.  Unless Bolles has a complicated recovery like Alex Smith, it's just not worth it.  With a leg fracture recovery that's uncomplicated, he should be at full strength next season.    Unless Calvin Anderson has an "are-you-kidding-me" type season in his place - I don't see it (especially since Anderson couldn't beat out a struggling Cameron Fleming at RT).   Even if you say Bolles is just league-average - you can't find league-average LT's for 10M (and in this case, it's not the total salary, it's the $ saved that matters).

Darby, though I agree is likely gone.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Broncofan

[paul-mac]

Just now, Broncofan said:

I won't criticize anyone on the D last night lol.   
 

Bolles won't get cut, not with a leg fracture.  He hasn't been great at all, but unless you have a LT alternative, zero chance.  Darby, though I agree is likely gone.

I think Bolles will most likely be back unless Anderson balls out.

 

Darby can take his dodgy knee somewhere else. Either Mathis plays well the rest of the year or CB2 is a priority need next year. 

[Broncofan]

1 minute ago, paul-mac said:

I think Bolles will most likely be back unless Anderson balls out.

 

Darby can take his dodgy knee somewhere else. Either Mathis plays well the rest of the year or CB2 is a priority need next year. 

And I think you can find CB's who can thrive in Evero's system.    No need to spend 10M on a guy who can't stay on the field.  No-brainer IMO.

[anewdawn]

1 hour ago, BroncoBruin said:

By the way, another pathetic Jeudy performance even with the Russ misses. He just doesn’t get it and why should we think he ever will? Any tough play and he wilts like a daisy. Bad drops constantly, doesn’t lay out for passes, can’t/won’t block, terrible body language all the time, doesn’t sell his routes when he knows he isn’t getting the ball, horrific at getting upfield for YAC.

He’s a talented athlete. He’s also a bad NFL player. I don’t care how cool his routes look. He’s a player that loses at the margins in every way. It’s no surprise QB numbers targeting Jeudy have been horrible since he came into the league. And it’s always something with him, you can never escape his drama and bull****. Such a bad pick.

Honestly there is a lot to be upset about but to me Jeudy upsets me the most.  Oh we see an fn glimmer here and there but overall he is an fn dud!!  He was supposed to be elite - again elite and yet he is so far from it.  I took so much flak at the gym today but I did talk to the hockey guys about the NHL forgiveness policy - when you get rid of a bad contract and spread out the dollars over a certain amount of years.  I think the NFL should do this and hopefully the Walton's think of it and push for it.  Like maybe your allowed to do this once every five years and spread the dollar damage out over ten years making it impossible to do more than once every five years.  I guess I'm just desperate at this point and want help.  Why did we sign him so early on?  Should have made him prove his worth - there were rumours and Seattle moved him for a reason!  NFL please come round to something like this.   PS who is starting the qb thread back up?  Sadly, lmao.............I am in a bad place, we likely all are.............