While any win is a good win in the NFL, defeating the winless Miami Dolphins is hardly a major accomplishment. Sure, the Broncos will take the win, but this week, things should get really interesting when they face the Detroit Lions.

Detroit is loaded with offensive weapons and defensive playmakers.

If the Broncos play like they did in the first 53 minutes last Sunday against the Dolphins, my guess is they’ll be trailing by more than 15 points. It’s time for Tim Tebow and the offense to take some steps forward.

“We have a long way to go, I think,” offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said this week. We need to do a lot better job in the passing game, number one. We have to get off to a faster start. Tim has got to do a better job early in the game of trusting the system, going through his progressions and just executing the system the way it’s supposed to be done.”

The Broncos’ offense will have its hands full trying to deal with the Lions’ defensive front. Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh dominates inside and grabs the headline. Suh has three sacks, as does fellow defensive lineman Cliff Avril. A third defensive lineman, Kyle Vanden Bosch, leads the team with four sacks.

As much as Tebow might need to do a better job of executing, the Broncos’ offensive line has a huge test. And if they don’t pass it, the day could get really long for the guys in orange and blue.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in what they’ve been doing,” McCoy said of the guys up front. “They’ve done a nice job all year long. We’re going to be as successful as our offensive line allows us to be.”

And on the other side of the ball, the Broncos’ defense has to be ready for quarterback Matthew Stafford (assuming he is healthy enough to play), wide receiver Calvin Johnson and others. The Lions average 27.7 points per game, third in the NFL. They can strike with the big play at any time.

“That’s really what we needed to be aware of and (will) be critical to our success on defense (to) make sure that we limit those explosive plays down the field. When they get in the red zone, we’ve got to do a good job and understand who the threats are,” said Broncos’ defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.

The Broncos did a good job of doing those things last week Miami. But the competition level dramatically increases when the Lions come to town.

Therein lies the challenge. For all of the attention generated by the recent change at quarterback, the Broncos will need to play well as a team to beat the dangerous Lions. If they can get a win, then perhaps the hoopla truly has some substance.

What do you think will happen on Sunday? Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.

Best,
Mike

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Mike Rice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.