Following Denver’s loss in Buffalo, Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway will join Broncos TV’s Chris Hall for another ‘Elway Live’ show at 2 p.m. MST tomorrow — Tuesday — on DenverBroncos.com. Elway and Hall will breakdown the team’s loss to the Bills and look ahead to a critical Week 17 matchup against Kansas City on the live, online-streamed audio broadcast. The show is 30 minutes long and features fan-submitted questions for Elway.
Questions are currently being taken via Twitter and will continue to be taken during the show. To submit your questions, tweet using the hashtag #ElwayLive.
After the show, the broadcast will be archived to DenverBroncos.com and will also be available as a podcast through iTunes.
To listen to any previous episode, visit www.DenverBroncos.com/ElwayLive.
On 9NEWS KUSA-TV’s show Monday night, Elway talked about the regular season finale vs. Kansas City.
“It’s a playoff game for us and that’s the way we have to look at it,” Elway said. “We have to go out and take care of our business.”
Tags: Elway Live, Kansas City Chiefs, Week 17
Our whole secondary has taken a beating with injuries, so we need to put things in perspective..
To the house!!!
Off the ESPN Blog from earlier tonight B. Williamson
‘Passing yds per game: 1984 – 205; 2010 – 336. Marno’s record “adjusted for passing inflation”: 8,236!’
Funny and True… Today’s game is sooo different than the game 30 years ago… still entertaining, but hardly the gladiator mentality any more… Now it’s just take the money, and sell the tickets…
My all time favorite matchup from NFL History would be Otto Graham and any one of his Browns 10 Consecutive League Championship Teams vs. Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts from ’58 or ’59…
My Second favorite ‘Fantasy Game’ would be the ’89 49ers rematching Elway and his ’98 Bronco Squad… Can you imagine?
)
Keep D off the field!
That’s why we call them take away’s.. Hope we’re taking notes
LOL @ passing inflation!!
’89ers vs. Elway ’98 would be nice.
agree, some redemption for that embarrasing Super Bo
History!!!
The team is gonna beat him up again!!! LOL
oh, and it was a TD as well!
45 – 16 and ATL looked good!
Good for Brees, good for NOLA!!
Matt Ryan has the better numbers in this game!!! LOL
Broncos 17
Chiefs 26
Hope I’m wrong, but this one looms large – I think the Chiefs are a better all-around team right now …
How about listing the “top ten”, Bay – and their total points … maybe you have, but if so I missed it …
Notice how quick Brees is at getting the ball out … ‘course he’s played a lot of years – just like Rivers, he knows where his receivers will be, even on broken plays … notice also that an ex-Charger still has a lot of gas in the tank … I think he’ll be in the league longer than AJ Smith, the GM who said sayonora to him …
For the Broncos – yes, it’s now “Playoff” mode … lose and they’re done, most likely … could be three teams at 8 – 8, I guess, and then we’d be in by default … but for what?? … truth is, we really do have a LONG way to go … to think we’re down to playing 2 rookies at safety – can’t go very far doing that … I shudder to think what Orton will do against them if he has (a) time, and (b), receivers who don’t drop the ball … wouldn’t he get GREAT satisfaction in stomping his former team, and all the fans who will surely BOO him next Sunday … yes – he’ll be at the top of his game, and it remains to be seen what the Broncos can do about it …
I really want our boys to win this weekend but I have a really bad feeling about this game. For the first time ever I will be cheering for the chargers.
Unfortunately I think the Chiefs will win in a rout. The Broncos are having difficulties putting a full game together in any phase the last few weeks. I also think there’s a lack of leadership on the team now. Don’t get me wrong I think Fox is a nice guy and all, it seems the players love him but, he’s not the type of coach that can fire a team up. That’s not his style and I think the team needs that now.
As I kinda said after the loss I think Tebow may be getting too focused on his faith and being a role model to effectively lead this team. Where the hell did that badass, fiery, angry leader go ? The things that made me support him in the first place ?
When the team needs somone to fire them up, now he’s on a knee praying. It’s like after the loss ‘it’s only a game, it’s ultimately more important that I gave the kid I invited to the game hope.’
That’s starting to concern me. It was his ‘defensive player’ like intensity that I felt set him apart from other quarterbacks. There are clips of him in college and a few from last year in his few starts that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I’m not seeing that anymore. I’m afraid if he loses that he’ll most certainly lose his fan base, his starting position and the platform he wanted use to do good from.
I hope I’m wrong.
Broncos 24-20
ty – it’s not the taking the knee that removes the fire. It’s ‘standing in the pocket trying to analyze the game instead of playing the game’ that is the problem.
It’ll be a rout – just who comes out on top is the question!!!
I do agree that the fire and passion has been gone the last few games. That’s bad.
Wow what a quiet blog this morning.
WieminCA:
This is how we stand Top Twenty overall after 16 weeks:
1. oldsouthstander, 25 points
2. timmah, 14
3. thecladybunch, 12
4. Pdp1408, 11
5. killekod, 10
Tie for 6th. BroncoRoyaltyEst.1979, RabidOrange, Orange_Crusher , baylinorcrush, all with 9 points.
10. lonewolf7, 8 points
Tie for 11th. raidrhadr, broncosmex, MANDIEGO, alexanserg, denver0723, rayjr26, Denver15, Atwater4HOF, minidisaa, mikew007, all with 7 points.
ty-one-on just said the same thing I said about Tebow with different words, maybe there is something to it after all.
“You can’t give up touchdowns in all three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams — and beat anybody good in this league,” 10-time Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey said Saturday after the Broncos’ 40-14 loss at Buffalo, a rout that ended the Bills’ seven-game losing streak. “They didn’t have much to play for, but … everybody wants to win no matter what their record is. When they saw the opportunity to win, they took it.”
Denver’s offense is in a rut. Opponents clearly have declared what they want to do defensively against Tebow and the Broncos. Opponents are now playing smart, disciplined defense. The result? Tebow has committed five turnovers and has been sacked five times in Denver’s last two games.
“We were able to make them do what they didn’t want to do,” Bills outside linebacker Chris Kelsay said.
“We made it very simple,” safety George Wilson said.
“(Tebow) locked on to guys,” safety Jairus Byrd said.
That’s what players on the winning team tend to say.
What the Broncos need to do is make adjustments to their blueprint for success. And they had better do it in a hurry.
Proper perspective as assessed by Legwold:
Look at the Broncos’ body of work. By season’s end, they may have played just three teams that will be in the playoffs — Green Bay, Detroit and New England. The Broncos are 0-3 against those teams, having lost 49-23, 45-10 and 41-23.
Denver has been pounded the last two weeks, first by the Patriots in Denver and then 40-14 by the struggling Bills at Buffalo. That may be a sign of where the Broncos are on the road back from where they have been. They gave up at least 400 points in three of the previous four seasons. That’s not a sign of robust team health. And they haven’t had a winning record in their last four games of any season since 2005, their last playoff year.
Coming off a 4-12 season, the Broncos had a big hill to climb when this season started. A lot of that hill remains.
“By season’s end, they may have played just three teams that will be in the playoffs — Green Bay, Detroit and New England. The Broncos are 0-3 against those teams, having lost 49-23, 45-10 and 41-23.” That is really the bottom line as far as how much we have inmproved to become a contender again, and the answer is not very much at all in reality, but I knew it would take minimum three years, Elway said 4 to 5, so here we are climbing that hill one step at a time.
Orton about playing us:
Orton, after Saturday’s game, didn’t bite on questions about any thoughts of payback when he faces the Broncos.
“I’m motivated quite a bit for every game,” Orton told The Kansas City Star.
Fox is getting a bit uptight about the whole Orton/Tebow thing, and considering the question I can see why, but it was just a joke, just like on the blogs, things hurt at times but we all need to lighten up:
Fox not amused. Fox frequently said in training camp and early in the season that Orton gave the Broncos the “best chance to win” and that’s why he was playing him over Tebow.
Asked Monday if Orton now gave the Chiefs the best chance to win Sunday’s game vs. his Broncos, the coach was clearly not amused.
Fox did not crack a smile as he said, “That’s funny.”
Exactly what I brought up yesterday:
No decision on scoreboard. The Raiders and Chargers will be playing at the same time (2:15 p.m. kickoff) as the Broncos and Chiefs. Fox said he hasn’t decided yet if he will allow the score of the game in Oakland to be displayed at Sports Authority Field at Mile High — an effort to prevent his players from checking out the scoreboard.
“I would hope our focus is on Kansas City,” Fox said.
Also something I talked about here last week, the Chiefs playing for Romeo is a carbon copy of last year Broncos playing for Studesville.
Romeo could be the difference in this one, no way Haley was going to beat us:
Playing for Romeo. Kansas City players also will be playing for Crennel, the interim head coach. He will be among the candidates considered for the head coaching job.
“We definitely want to get a win for Romeo,” Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers said, “but also for the whole organization, the fans, each other and everybody.”
Going into the season we supposedly had one of the toughest schedules
I think to say we only played 3 teams who will be in the playoffs is a bit short sighted. I say that because at the moment we played many teams, they had winning records and were possibly on thier way to the playoffs. And us beating them probably didn’t help, Bengals, jets, raiders, and maybe some im missing. Its easy in hindsight to say … oh they didn’t beat any playoff teams … but at the time these guys were supposedly way better, and possibly playoff bound and we didn’t stand a chance. At that time, those team were playoff contenders on the right side of the win loss ratio. So I mean yea we only played 3 guys that will be in playoffs (possibly 4 counting the bengals) but still … all hindsight … at the time, many people we played were supposedly way better and we stepped up to the plate adequately.
I do not fear Orton (I hope im not wrong) but I see him having alot of yards and like 1 INT and a fumble. Never could get it done in denver … and he still won’t. He will crumble as usual. And we will win. This will be the first time in the past 3 years when Orton will crumble in our favor.
our coaches were supposedly good for makign halftime adjustments … now they need to make game by game adjustments. Got a whole week … 2 actually counting the NE game but nothing has shown forth yet. I honestly don’t believe its what the other team is doing tho, I personally believe is what we are not doing. We have traded our identity to try to win the “conventional” way. IMO
Kiszla is all passionate and dramatic as usual:
The Broncos are choking. Can Tim Tebow save them? Better not fail, or else Tebow will make his boss look dumb and cheap.
If Denver can’t beat Kansas City and outcast quarterback Kyle Orton with an NFL playoff berth at stake, then it will be the costliest fumble of Broncos executive John Elway ‘s career and rank among the worst blunders in franchise history.
It smelled like desperation at Dove Valley on Monday afternoon, so I figured it was a good time to ask Denver coach John Fox:
Is Fox confident the better quarterback will be on his side against the Chiefs?
“I know we made that decision,” replied Fox, well aware his team cut Orton in late November, banking $2.6 million in payroll savings with the transaction. “As I would say about anything moving forward, time will tell.”
Now Orton could really make Denver pay.
Should his heroics cost the Broncos a spot in the Super Bowl tournament, there would be no positive way to spin it. In order to be penny-wise, Elway, Fox and general manager Brian Xanders would get pounded for being so dang foolish as to set up Orton for sweet revenge against a city that never particularly liked him.
For Tebow, the stakes could not be higher.
Choke against the Chiefs and Tebow would make Broncos owner Pat Bowlen appear cheap, cheap, cheap.
While the Tebow faithful will forgive their beloved quarterback for any football sin and try to ignore the sobering fact Denver has failed to score 20 points in seven of his 10 starts since taking over for Orton, it might be wise to remember: Tebow is not Elway’s quarterback, but a first-round selection of former coach Josh McDaniels .
Tebow has earned the right to be a starter in Denver at the outset of next season. But I don’t like his long-term prospects for holding the job should he stumble against Kansas City.
This is a must-win game for Tebow, unless he wants to trade his Superman’s cape for the shadow of doubt certain to follow him from now through the NFL draft, as Elway carefully evaluates every quarterback prospect.
“I wouldn’t doubt it if Kyle Orton delivers the speech (to the Chiefs) the night before the game,” former Broncos safety Nick Ferguson said. “He wants to come back to prove to John Elway, the fans of Denver and John Fox that you guys chose the wrong quarterback.”
For a Hall of Famer, Elway has displayed surprisingly little instinct for handling a sticky quarterback situation during his first year calling signals for the front office in Denver.
From the failure to trade Orton on the eve of training camp to an obvious reluctance to let Tebow play until the booing from the home crowd grew too loud to ignore, from allowing a veteran quarterback to assist an AFC West rival in the name of saving a few bucks to being browbeaten into giving Tebow a lukewarm endorsement for 2012 after the magic of a winning streak was gone, Elway has seemed uncommonly indecisive for the fearless gunslinger we remember wearing No. 7.
LOL. I bet Fox didn’t crack a smile … thats the one line he regrets the most. Because the media harps on one line more than anything. And that has been the one of choice since Orton was losing and when TT came in and we were winning. Earlier on in the year he was laughing but I think its getting old for him now. Im sure the question was all in good fun tho. Just like Elway saying “He is a good football player, it is our job to make him a great QB” … probably the most accurate statement ever, and he said that from the very start. TRB
Since the Broncos made their last postseason appearance in 2005, they are 9-19 in games played in December or January.
That includes this year’s 2-2 mark in December. Fox has said he likes to divide the season into quarters, and the Broncos haven’t had a winning record over the final quarter of a season since 2005.
“These are the games when you have to get it done,” cornerback Champ Bailey said.
Legwold on Tebow’s latest difficulties:
It’s clear defenses have made the decision to pin Tebow in the pocket and take their chances. With each passing week, over the last month especially, defenses have played with more and more discipline, taking away the running lanes Tebow likes to use on the outside to escape the rush. The Patriots and the Bills rushed Tebow without allowing the rushers to go any deeper into the backfield than Tebow, so they limited his ability to duck underneath a defensive end who had strayed too far up the field.
As a result, Tebow is having a more difficult time escaping pressure and is often getting caught far behind the line. It’s why he had a 28-yard sack against the Patriots, then a 12-yard sack against the Bills. His only opening to run on occasion has been to go backward.
Additionally, Tebow has not been able to consistently complete passes from the pocket. He has the lowest completion percentage, 48 percent, of any starting quarterback in the league with at least 240 pass attempts.
And of course Tebow’s problems are also tied into locking in on Thomas, said I saw that as a major problem when it first started out like 4 games ago:
When the Broncos do throw lately, Tebow has stuck to the same targets. Eric Decker did not have a reception Saturday and has just 10 catches in the past seven games. Eddie Royal has only two catches in the last four games he has played. But Demaryius Thomas has 22 catches in the last four games. Defenses are layering their coverages to take away Tebow’s favorite targets, believing he will not survey the field for other options before starting to run.
Dramatic indeed
The sad thing is that is how they will try to spin it. If the chiefs win it means the wrong decision was made at QB … so they will say. Different QBs in different schemes and different supporting casts do different things. At the end of the day, the decision was right. Not because I support Tebow but because it was quite apparent Orton was not the guy and is not gonna be the guy in KC to. Now whether that guy is TT is yet to be known but it wasn’t orton. Same way I agreed with trading Brandon Lloyd. The Broncos did what we asked and what they should do. They found out alot about not just QB situation but also WR and Safety. They dared to take a risk, won some games doing it and learned alot more than they woulda if DMT, TT and the Rookie safeties were riding the pine. TRB
And of course Bailey knows better than anyone that if we don’t tackle we don’t have a chance in hell:
“You just have to match up and make the plays,” Bailey said. “The best defenses in the league are always the best-tackling defenses in the league. When we have a chance to get a guy down, we have to get them down.”
Tebow has locked in … but i wonder if that is part of the game plan to an extent. The only reason I say that is because I feel liek every week we are trying to highlight someone. I dunno about you but last saturday I saw them attempt to use Royal more … almost to the point of forcing the ball to him on every play … he was like the designated reciever for the game. I dunno if that was a tebow thing or a playcall thing but I noticed they were trying to use Royal more. So is Tebow locking in … or are they giving him only one real option with a bunch of decoys running around or are they only giving him one option because they know he won’t even look at the rest because he sucks at his reads. But I do notice that they try to highlight recievers. Maybe its just me. TRB
The one thing Kiszla is dead on in that article is his last paragraph, as you know I have voiced myself here over and over saying the way the organization handled the QQ was marred by inconsistency from the start, a cacophony of errors, so that’s what they have on their hands now, they only have themselves to blame for all that.
It’s obvious at this point Tebow goes through his first read and that’s it, mainly because his release is sooooo slow that he would have no time to deliver if he was to go to a second option, same as the reason we don’t have the quick short throws like slants and such is he can’t, too slow of a release, so he locks on to the play call downfield with one receiver and all the defenses are salivating.
And the other reason I say that was because I saw royal involved in more offensive plays on saturday and even after he took that return to the house (that illegal block was nonesense and had no bearing on his tough running) … it would make sense to use him for the rest of the game on return to see if they could catch lightling in a bottle twice because the blocking wasn’t that good on his TD return he just fought for it, but no … apparently he was the receiver of the day and couldn’t use him more in the return game. I guess all im saying is i saw them trying to use royal way more like he was the receiver of the day. TRB
The funny thing tho is that he has often had alot of time in the pocket to get from his first read to his last and back to his first … i don’t understand whats happening. He doesn’t have a shortage of time in the pocket most of the time (I believe their might be more people in coverage because they know as long as they pin him in the pocket he won’t be able to find the tight window) … maybe his slow release is the problem that in the sense that by the time the ball is released the window has closed … in which case he has to anticipate his receivers getting open … I guess that comes with experience and familiarity.
TRB
But honestly I bet the organization doesn’t really care how bad they handled the QQ this year because all along they have thought none of the QBs on the roster are the answer anyway. That’s really the only thing that makes sense to me as to how badly they handled the whole thing, it was not life and death for them whatever they did with the current QBs. The long term QB is not on the current roster was probably the most accurate definition of our QQ all year. I know it’s not a popular way to think on this blog, but please realize I’m not trying to sway anyone into seeing it how I do, I just merely state how I see it and good for you if you see it another way. So, you all bug off ok, LOL!
So TRB must have the week off, unusual to see you here in the am.
Many people said the future QB wasn’t on the roster, so u wouldnt be the first and im sure some people would agree … im just glad that IF thats the decision that is made, it wasn’t made without seeing what Tebow had … because we truly had nothing to lose.
TRB
KC 21
DEN 24
Hopefully.
But you have to say, the irony of this coming match up with the Chiefs is unparalleled:
They try to trade Orton before the season starts.
They can’t get it done so they start Orton.
He can’t get it done, so they start Tebow.
Bowlen wants to save money so they put Orton on waivers before the trade deadline.
And you guessed it, KC puts a claim for Orton and gets him.
And the whole thing comes full circle Sunday.
How is that for a beehive for you, LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn’t say I said it at all, just something that was said.
yea i know … i just said that because u said may not tbe the popular thought and u are not tryign to sway anyone but im sure some would agree was what I was getting at.
Nah, no day off … i wish … actually at work … which is the reason i am even up this early lol
TRB
I get you, I did kind of always agreed that unless Tebow shows him different, the long term Bronco QB isn’t on Elway’s team yet, and Tebow is unfortunately seriously running out of time to seal his decision. But due to his contract he will be given next off season to compete for the job once again I’m pretty sure. So not all is lost for Tebow regardless of how things end up Sunday.
Short of a superbowl appearance … i cannot say for sure that Tebow will be the Qb next year … i still believe he will be but i cannot say for sure … either way … he did himself a favor …. he got us far from the andrew luck sweepstakes … not not unless we wanna trade the farm and i doubt it … i believe this new administration understands the values of picks …. I doubt we move up … I guess we could draft a QB in the later rounds in which case Tebow will be fighting for a Job again … and thats all he can ask for … a chance to fight for a job, assuming he is not traded. TRB