It is pretty clear that Sunday’s loss to the Chargers put a huge damper on what the Broncos had hoped to accomplish in the 2010 season.
We all know anything can happen. We know the Broncos have not been mathematically eliminated from anything. And even though they have not been able to string together a run of wins, that possibility, however small, still exists.
I don’t know what the final six games hold for the Broncos. Perhaps they will put things together and play better than they have to this point. Perhaps things will continue on the path they are on.
Given where the Broncos currently stand, I hope to see a few things out of this team in the final six games.
1 – FINISHING STRONG. Yes, some wins would be nice. But I want to see this team play hard to the end. It has been a tough year. I can only hope the effort stays high. Head coach Josh McDaniels said they will continue to prepare hard as they have each week. I have no doubt about that. I hope the team turns in solid effort. When the situation has pretty much arrived to the point where playing for pride takes center stage, I can only hope the Broncos will do just that. I expect they will.
2 – UNITY. It’s too easy to bail out and do your own thing when times are tough. Let’s hope the Broncos don’t point fingers and don’t completely pack it in. Again, I don’t see that happening. There is a solid group of veterans on this team and many of them have, at various times, been on successful teams. Many of those veterans are talented players who don’t want things to go from disappointing to completely embarrassing.
3 – PASSION AND FUN. Let’s hope the Broncos simply don’t go through the motions. Everyone knows the situation they are in. Everyone knows they have a major uphill climb. But these guys have an opportunity to go out and play football for at least six more games. I want to see them leave everything out on the field. I want to see them fly around. I want to see them play with reckless abandon.
In saying these things, I don’t want to imply they haven’t been leaving everything out on the field or flying around or playing with reckless abandon. At times they have done all these things and more.
At the same time, that has not translated into wins. Regardless of the outcome, I want to see the Broncos play the right way, even though to this point, the season has not gone anywhere near the way they have wanted it to go.
I understand that in the bottom line world of the NFL, these types of things are not the same as winning. But the situation is what it is. This is where the Broncos find themselves. There will be a time to discuss why, how come, what next and all the rest. That time is not now.
Now is the time for the Broncos to finish the right way…and see where that puts them.
What are you looking to see from the team in the final six games? As always, thank you for reading and sharing.
Sincerely,
Mike
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Mike Rice
“At times they have done all these things and more. At the same time, that has not translated into wins.”
Not only has it not translated to wins, it (mostly) hasn’t even translated to being close. I would feel much better if the team were losing by 3-7 points, but these blowouts are just sad. It’s like there’s no sense of being a team – it’s just a bunch of guys who occasionally do their jobs right, but mostly have no connection with the rest of their teammates and no sense of how to come together to fix something when it goes wrong.
Oh, well. They’re my boys, and I’ll keep watching to see what develops. Maybe by the end of the year, they’ll be more cohesive and consistent.
“But I want to see this team play hard to the end. It has been a tough year. I can only hope the effort stays high.”
Stays high??? 2 of the last 3 games have been classic cases of a team folding in the face of adversity. It’s a disgrace. The “solid group of veterans” Mike mentioned have plenty to answer for.
I have zero expectations for this team. I can only hope McD will play all the young guys more so that we can see what we’ve got to build on, because there is no future in guys like Champ and Dawkins.
Mike-Good points. I have the same hopes that our guys play tough show improvement and if we can’t make the playoffs( which is nearly impossible now) to at least play for pride and be spoilers. I will cheer to the bitter end and watch for players who show they want to be part of the future. I will trust and hope our coaching staff and players can turn this around and at least finish strong. I neither drink kool aid or wear blinders nor claim to have all the answers. Just a Bronco fan.
Well said Mike
In these last games I just want to see some good old fashioned Football nothing more nothing less just Football
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
Even though I believe Orton is not the problem, I`m looking forward to Tim Tebow starting a game. It don`t have to be this week, but soon I hope. Time will tell.
Agreed Strandoftds, I am looking forward to the new era!
What am I looking to see for the final 6 games?
I am looking forward to see what we truly have in players like Tebow, Decker, Vaughn, Syd’Quan, McBath, Bruton, Mays and Hunter, because I already know what we have with players like Bailey, Dawkins, Hill, Goodman, DJ, Orton and Royal, and what about activating Brown from the PS so I can fin out what we got there also since I know what we got with Moreno and Bucky. And once I find out I will have a better picture of who should stay and who should go for next year.
And yes the time to find out is now, holding on to mathematics is just wishful thinking and counter productive in my opinion. With three teams ahead of us and better than us in the AFC West it would take nothing short of multiple miracles to even have a remote shot at the division title and since the AFC East will get one of the wildcards (Jets or N-E) and the AFC North will get the other (Ravens or Steelers), we are in my humble assessment done for 2010 and therefore must play for 2011 now.
That is what I’m thinking and I hope we won’t get back into the unending must win game argument of last year because of the mathematical isssues. Every one has different opinions and that’s great. This is mine, we are done and out in 2010 let’s play now to get ready for 2011.
Carsonic said it best when he said the guys seem to have no connection with the rest of their teammates and no sense of how to come together and fix it. The reason for this starts with the coaches…….the coaches need to point out and assess what is going wrong so they can traslate that to the players and get them in a better position to reduce mistakes and fix problems. None of that happened on Monday and doesn’t seem to happen when we starting falling behind in games. In most of our losses when we’ve gotten behind we’ve showed no chance or glimmer of hope of getting back in the game. Except for the Jets loss and Jags loss (we were actually in these games and should have won). We get down by 10 points and it looks like they just mail it in at least that’s what they’ve shown me and as a fan that tells me the game is over so why continue to watch and hold out hope. The team hasn’t once this year clawed back in a game in which they were down by 2 scores.
So where do we go from here, the division is out of the question unless we win out and honestly I don’t see that happening. So in hindsight just looking over the schedule we either go 5-11 or 6-10. This is sad, I can’t remember a team that finished a season this way or who when they lost got blownout in almost all of their losses. Give me something to be proud of on Sunday and let’s blowout the Rams!
amen Baylinorcrush……..well put!
I concur.
I hope to gorge myself on turkey to the point I pass out and go into a broncoma for the last six weeks of the season….
Just Kidding….lol
Happy Thanksgiving Bronco Fam!!!
I don`t know if it really matters to anyone, but I`d rather have Dj Williams be suspended this year because of his DUI rather than the start of next year. But the question is for how many games?
The two players I`d really like to see start and play is Tebow and Decker
I want to see the team remain healthy. And play with a little passion. We as fans watch the games to cheer win or lose, as long as its competitive. Not watch or cheer for lackadaisical effort!
I don`t like to repeat a broken record but Josh McDaniels is going to be our HC for the next two years. If you want to fix this team, draft all D.
Broncos 24-20
I think we should draft D too, patrik peterson in the first (If Bailey goes) but I personally would like us to pick up a dependable pass catching tight end in the second or third. IMO having a true tight end in the red zone could help this offense big time! but honestly, thats the only offensive position I think we need to draft for. Aside from that I think we should do all D!
i personally hope we take a look at Marcel Darrius for our DL. guy is an absolute beast, and would be a tank at DE in our 5 tech scheme. although he was suspended for a few weeks at the beginning of the season so we wont even look at him. even if he is the best DL in this years draft lol. gotta have our softy character guys
and for this weeks game:
STL-28
DEN-17
Steven Jackson too much to handle and they dominate TOP with their running game. Sam Bradford also has a career day on our lackluster D
Baylin….Andre Brown has been signed by the Redskins. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=nfp-20101124_source_redskins_sign_rb_andre_brown
So, other than that, I agree, lets see what we have in some other players. If Tebow shows promise, we can improve our drafting position with an Orton trade and the same with our plethora of WRs.
Most of all, I want to see some real orange crush, I want to see angry defense, ruining the chances of the others and setting the tone for next year.
For the last six weeks, I just want to see effort, plain and simple. I know that sounds obvious, but I’ve only seen true effort for 60 minutes in 3, maybe four games out of 10 this year. Let’s see some real effort for the last 6 weeks.
Is that really too much to ask?
14-35 broncos we would have beat any team beside the charger they had a bye week the week before and they
What you are saying is we would have beat the Raiders!?!?!?!?! Always like a good laugh even if you didn’t finish your thought, thanks 504.
Thanks 007, didn’t know that, too bad, it seems like we lost quite a few players we planned on keeping this year, oh well, the merry-go-round is alive and well.
LOL@OC
Broncoma and self induced at that!!
Happy turkey Day Broncos Country!!
FTR
I too would love to see the Broncos play with passion and fun. However, I’m not sure they will do it for 60 minutes. This is a direct reflection on the head coach. These players are professionals and should play for fun and with passion every time they suit up, but good/great coaches get their teams ready to perform, play, and execute for 60 minutes. I don’t see the current head coach being able to motivate this team he has designed.
Happy Thanksgiving Denver Broncos. May we have success the next 6 games.
Mcd says that Orton is the best for the team & is a good leader on the field. My opinion is Mcd see’s things about Orton that not very many other people see. Mcd says that Orton is good under pressure, well I haven’t seen it yet. I think he is very bad under pressure & I’m not just talking about the pass rush. I haven’t seen a leader on the team since the season started. I’ve seen a bunch of old guys when they get behind in a game they quit (give up) & just go through the motions. We need to get our younger guys in the game including Tebow so we as fans can see what have going into the future. The reason we won’t see the younger players is in my opinion Mcd is to stubburn & the only person he listens to is Mr. Bowlen because he signs his check. We don’t have an offensive cordinator because he wants to run everything himself.
Great coaches with bad starts.
Tom Landry – Didn’t even make .500 until his 6th season. Took 12 seasons to win first SB. (would have been fired today)
Chuck Knoll – Took 4 seasons to reach .500, and 6 before first SB. (would have been fired today)
Mike Shanahan – Took 3 seasons and 2 teams to reach .500, and 5 years before winning SB.
Bill Belechick – 4 seasons to reach .500 in Cleveland, with 4 of 5 years losing record. 5-11 first year in NE.
Bill Cowher – Took 14 years to win SB. Started off great then went through some lean years. Had they fired him during the tough times, they might not have won the SB.
Bill Walsh – Went 2-14 first year, 6-10 second year before winning SB third year. (what if they fired him after his dismal 2nd year?)
Bill Parcells – 3-12-1 first year, took 4 years to win SB against Broncos in 1986. 5-11 first year with NE.
Dick Vermeil – Reached .500 his 3rd year with Eagles, also took 3 years to reach .500 with Rams and win SB, and 3 years with Chiefs to
reach .500.
Based on history, is Josh McDaniels really doing that bad?
I SAY WE GIVE THE KID SOME TIME TO LEARN! This team did not quit on him against the Rams. We need a defensive line, like we have for years going back to Shanahan. Even John Lynch said our secondary is awesome. Kyle may not be the SB savior, but Josh has made him into a legitimate QB with a deep ball. Tebow will get his shot and it is clear that McD can develop QB’s.
It’s just not fair to throw him under the bus like most of the media and even some fans are doing. Coaching a team to greatness is not like microwave popcorn.
Go Broncos! Go McDaniels!