Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition. Such is the case after the Panthers beat the Broncos 30-10 on Sunday.
“The better team won today,” Broncos’ wide receiver Brandon Marshall candidly told 850 KOA after the game.
Sometimes football isn’t that complicated.
The Panthers’ offense features running backs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, one of the best, if not the best, rushing duos in the NFL. “Smash and Dash” lived up to the hype. The Panthers racked up 147 yards rushing and Williams’ 56 yard touchdown run on Carolina’s first series of the third quarter ended up putting the game out of reach.
On top of the effective rushing game, wide receiver Steve Smith again showed that he is well past his training camp issues, hauling in 9 receptions for 165 yards and a touchdown.
The Broncos defense had been making progress but all of that was too much to overcome on the Panthers’ home field. Carolina closes out the regular season a perfect 8-0 at Bank of America Stadium.
I would have loved seeing a healthy Champ Bailey get a chance to cover Smith one-on-one. I’m not so sure the result would have been the same. Smith probably would have made his share catches but Champ undoubtedly would have made some plays, too. And he probably would have made it harder for the Panthers to establish their passing game early.
The Broncos can be encouraged by their early offensive success. Jay Cutler drove the team to a touchdown and a field goal on the first two possessions. That was a terrific start.
But they needed to continue that. I know, it’s easier said than done. For some reason, the Broncos lost their momentum. Chris Gamble intercepted Cutler at the Denver 27 yard line and soon after, the Panthers tied the game at 10 on John Kasay’s 39 yard field goal with 10 seconds left in the first quarter. Denver could never regroup.
I’ll give the Panthers some of the credit for that. Gamble made a huge play. The Panthers had an opportunity, they seized it and built on it. Good teams do that. The Panthers were the good team on Sunday.
And they have been a really good team this season. You don’t get to 11-3 by accident and you don’t battle for the top seed in the NFL by being a fluke.
The issue for the Broncos becomes whether or not they will be a good team next Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. If they are, then they will find themselves champions of the AFC West and bound for the playoffs.
If they are not a good team next Sunday, then the Broncos could be going to San Diego on December 28th with a division title and a playoff spot hanging in the balance.
Like I said, sometimes football isn’t that complicated.
What do the Broncos have to do to beat the Bills? Feel free to weigh in; I enjoy reading your posts.
Thanks for reading and have a great week.
Sincerely,
Mike
Tags: 2008, Brandon Marshall, carolina panthers, Denver Broncos
[...] Rice Takes » Blog Archive » Tip Your Cap to Carolina [...]
[...] Rice Takes » Blog Archive » Tip Your Cap to Carolina [...]
To beat Buffalo the key is to be more physical. I watched the KC/SD game and I watched those young safeties for KC make some pretty good hits. That’s one of the things we’ve missed this season is some big time hits. With Lynch gone our safeties have played “OK” but where are the big hits? When Lynch was back there WR were hesitant to go across the middle. Now it seems like that is a weak point. Our D-line needs to keep working on getting to the QB and pursuing the ball carrier. Our CB need to jam the WR at the line better, there has been plenty of times this season we’ve gotten lucky that a ball was over or under thrown because our CBs were beat. Now that’s easier said that done, gotta watch out for penalties. It just seems like we’ve been kind of floating along this season waiting for something to happen. We need to get more physical and Shanny’s seen that too, when he decided to go full pads. The key is to be more physical than the opponent, we have the talent, we have the coaches, we have home field advantage.
Now let’s tan some Buffalo hide!!! Go Broncos!!!!!!!!!
Hey Mike,
I agree, it’s not that complicated.
Do what you always have done. Find a running game of some sort and let it fly.
Look, when our offense had like 9 offense drives with zero points it says it all! They had a bad day..fine but let’s move on.
Take that long run from williams away that should of been nailed behind the line of scrimmage (great running on his part) and the duo rushes for less than 100 yards.
Let’s get Champ healthy, rely on Tatum more and move on. We’re not the #3 ranked offense in the NFL on a fluke, it’s for real…..
It was just not our day…better now than in January
Let’s clinch at home and be done with it!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Bottom line – The better team did win yesterday. It sucks to have to say that but its true. I knew we would be in for the fight of our lives if we didn’t try to build on that first TD drive and we just couldn’t keep up with Carolina’s momentum.
Now I don’t want to put all of this on our injury factors and say this loss was because we have a very young team because the truth is if they could have played as a dedicated team from start to finish then we would have given the Cats a true fight. But I will say that Carolina has a much more veteran team – they got some oldies but goodies over there and once again they showed it. There were times where I thought we were doing pretty darn well for going up against that team but then it all just fizzled out. They figured us out way earlier than I expected and there was no way to outsmart them, which is what we had to do.
As for next week, I truly think we can win that game. Again, we will have to fight for it and earn it but if our offense can come in to their own home and just take charge throughout the ENTIRE game, we’ll be fine. And our D will have to make some major improvements if they want to get the division and defend it. I’m not real mad about yesterday, because I saw a very good team win and I can respect that – I don’t like it but I respect that they came out strong, did their jobs and earned their win. I knew that Carolina wouldn’t be an easy team to play especially in their house but its done with, its over and I’m over it.
And yes, I would have LOVED to see Champ go one-on-one with Smith… guess I’ll be left wondering for quite sometime as to how different that game would have been with Champ in there. As much as we could have used him and as much as we needed him – if we get to the playoffs I’d much rather have him healthy as a horse for that time then yesterday’s game and him possibly further aggrevating his injury. Its all about TEAMWORK and the players not letting all the injury stuff get to them mentally. That game yesterday was all in the players’ heads whether or not they thought they could win it or if they were good enough to win it.
I’ll say this till I’m blue in the face or till the season is actually done…
IT’S NOT OVER YET!!
Keep believing and have some faith Broncos Country…
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
agreed 07elway we werent the better team. this was prolly the hardest game on the schedule. since i live in nc i go tto watch it. other than the 1st quarter we played liek crap. i would of liked to see champ on smith. but if we make the playoffs i want champ then, than now. hopefully we can clinch next week and rest some guys. and i would like to clinch in front of our home crowd. go broncos. take care of the bills
That game was lost because the offense couldn’t control the game.
This proves how important Peyton Hillis was to this team. They had virtually no running game yesterday.
As good as our offense is with Cutler, he will always need a good running back to help open things up for the pass offense.
Without Hillis, this team can’t win against a great team like Carolina.
Our defense gave up 30, but they were constantly on the field. Our D plays good when our offense plays good. We’ll never win a game with 10 points!
i think once tatum gets a few more reps he’ll get back into it, i noticed there were a few runs yesterday, that instead of cutting back into the lane he kept on trying to reach the edge, hopefully that will improve
When on EARTH is Champ going to be back!?!?!??! I know groin injuries are tough but I think Shanahan is babying him a little too much expecting him to make a impact in the playoffs. Well, I think we all know he is going to need a little time on the field before hand to refresh. Things are not looking good BroncoLand. I think they can pull off Buffalo though and they better! Rest the starters in San Diego and focus on Indi or Baltimore for Wild-Card Weekend.
I will be there Sunday and I cetainly hope Broncos Country can step up and actually be loud for once! For the Chiefs game the crowd only stepped up when they REALLY needed to, on those last couple KC drives. Stand up and make some noise for our D on every Buffalo possession! GO BRONCOS!
For some reason I was not completely guttered over the loss. Yes the better team won but I feel that our D played really well..
Lets take away 3 plays (Willams 56 yd TD rush and Smiths two 20 yd recpts in thier first drive) and we have a stellar effort from our D!! I was really impressed with the effort from our defence and can only seeing it get better in our efforts to make it deeper into the playoffs.
The Offence again went back into thier shell, at which point I was thinking “What in the blue Hell??” Cutler needs to shrug off any mistakes and bounce back and continue with his gun slinging mentality similar to Brees.
Can anyone shed some light as to why we have resorted to the rotation of the RB’s?? We had one RB (Hillis) and it worked, all of a sudden we go back to 3 RB’s and we got nothing!!! COM’ON MAAAAAAAAN! lol
I hope both sides of the ball turn up next Sunday and it will be Buffalo on the Mile High BBQ!!!!!!
OK usually I don’t bash our team but I have some things to get off my chest.
As I was watching the blowout yesterday we were so pathetic that CBS switched games to a more “competitive” contest. While watching the Steelers-Ravens game I realized that their defenses made our defense look like a division 2 college team. First just let me say I know that we have had injury problems(but who don’t). The reason we are below par for an NFL defense is because of our coaching and philosify. when you watch the good defenses in the league, they have an identity. They know what they are going to do when they take the field and they execute!
We our always doing different stuff because we never have anything to hang our identity on. Wesley Woodyard at safety? Playing ten yards off the WRs? 4-3 to a 4-4? I have no problem with letting young guys play like Bell and Barrett but at least give them a chance! Don’t line them up ten yards off and expect them to make plays! We need to “toughen up”. Start jamming the WRs to break there rhythm; Play our actual 4-3 scheme and make them adjust to us by actually putting pressure on the QB! We need to start attacking and get hungry instead of sitting back and waiting to be devoured! And whats up with Tim Crowder being de-activated every week? When drafted in the 2nd round and you havent played let alone start all year, thats bad! Also our 2007 1st round pick Jarvis Moss hardly plays and when he does, he doesnt have an impact. We need to “man up” and be aggressive and this week would be a perfect time to start.
Now on offense…. GIVE TATUM SOME CARRIES! we cant throw the ball every time and be one dimensional. get the run going and thus the play-action going! Now lets beat the bills and make the playoffs!!
Let Tatum run the ball. And have Selvin back him up until he gets to playing shape. Thats it. No rotation.
Defense is too boring. We let their offense dictate our defense. Lets use some imagination on schemes to get the offense to commit turnovers.
Remember the Greg Robinson days of the Super Bowl years?
Off. coordinator needs to adjust to the game throughout the game. He is good when the Offense is going well but when it doesn’t he looks lost. One
Example. WR screen passes early in the game when the defense is play everybody close to the line of scrimmage. That will not work. But he never went back to it later when the defense was playing off. I don’t get it. He is too young and not enough experience to run a high power offense.
I agree with all you!
Enough of the rotation of running backs. I don’t play pro ball so I truely don’t know, but don’t they need to get into a rythm too?
Wear them down….run, run, and run some more then open it up.
Tatum is the guy! Put him in and let him run unless there is something we the fans don’t know!
Can he do it? What is shanny seeing that we need Bell, Pope, and Young all running?
We still win the division this week!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
C2 it was pathetic but carolina is prolly imo the hottest team in the nfl right now. woodyard is a hell of a player and shanny just wanted him on the field. i agree give bell the ball some more. let him and selvin share and i wanna what cory boyd brings to the table. jarvis plays and makes impact. he hasnt even played a total of 16 games in his career. give him time and he will be one hell of a pass rusher. crowder i have no idea why he is inactive every game. he isnt gonna get better sitting on the bench. champ idk his deal i guess shanny doesnt want him to reinjur. but i wanna clinch next week badly. i dont want the division on the line at san diego. hopefully tampa wins next week vs them
Cutler is a GREAT QB, BUT WE NEED A RUNNING GAME. Without a solid running attack, our offense will struggle. Some of the play calling was very questionable. When it’s 3rd and 1, we should pound the ball. The coaches lack of confidence in our running game was quite obvious. This game showed us how valuable Hillis was to our offense, so hopefully one of the 4 active RB’s will step it up. Hillis, without a doubt, should be our starting tailback next year. I love B. Marsh, but getting the first down should be the most important thing on his mind. Everything starts with moving the chains.
The offense had way too many “3 & outs”, so our defense did ok considering they were on the field most of the game. I agree with C2, our defense needs an identity. I don’t understand why we don’t blitz more often. If you look at the good defenses in the league, all of them blitz and they do it quite often. If our front 4 cannot get pressure and we don’t blitz, the opposing QB will pick our defense apart. We need to get pressure on the QB.
We need to beat Buffalo on Sunday because I don’t have a good feeling about clinching the division in SD. We need to clinch on Sunday and rest against the Whiners. Hopefully Champ comes back soon.
GO BRONCOS!!!!
I don’t understand how the O had two impressive drives and then it just died….it was like Cutler turned off a switch and completely tuned out the rest of the game. A few decent drives afterward and this would have been a much more competitive game.
What was Josh Bell doing out there on Defense? Smith made him look like a high school back up DB. He looked just plain AWEFUL.
The scary thing is that this is the type of calibre teams that will be in the playoffs, so what’s the point of squeaking in if you can’t do anything about it when you’re there? It’s not going to get any easier!
Buffalo, even though they’ve been on a major slide lately, played pretty well yesterday and I think they will give the Broncos trouble. I sure hope the whole team shows up…..including Champ, cause I seriously don’t see us winning in San Diego with the playoffs on the line……GO TAMPA!
Let’s get these young guys some playoff experience!
WE LOST THAT GAME BECAUSE CHAMP DID NOT PLAY. WE WERE DOING FINE STOPPING THE RUN IN TELL WE HAD TO BRING ARE SAFETY BACK 20 YARDS TO DOUBLE COVER STEVE SMITH.
CUTLER IS TRYN TO HARD TO FIT THE BALL IN SMALL POCKETS, THATS WHY HIS INTERCEPTIONS ARE SO HIGH. ITS A GOOD THING WHEN HE MAKES IT INTO THAT SMALL POCKET BUT WHEN HE DOESNT HE SUFFERS FROM IT THE WHOLE GAME.
TATUM BELL IS A GREAT RUNNING BACK AS WELL AS PJ POPE USE THEM SELVIN YOUNG WAS NOT 100% AND WE USED HIM WAY TO MUCH THIS GAME.
Yes I agree we need to give Bell more carries to let him get in a rythm.
I think last game was a good example of where our team would be if we didn’t have Cutler or if he had bad games often. lol. Ya Carolina was the better team but after the first quarter our offense never found there rythm
C2 …..Have to agree. Like I said before we are a very young team with a below average defense. We can talk all we want about how we are going to draft big on defense in next years draft but its apparent that we dont play the best players anyways. We have Webster starting at the mike position who has 3 tackles in 2 games. Freakin genius? And we finally start Barrett afer how many games? He is much much better than anyone weve had at that spot this year. I will say that this team is much different with Hillis in the lineup…..
Situational play-calling is horrible. Horrible. Nice way to end the half. We had all 3 TO’s, but we let the clock run 30 secs or so. Then we let it run all the way down to 10 secs and run a sweep. Genius.
Having said that, keep your heads up and take care of business Sunday!
This is very simple on how to beat the Bills.
P.J. POPE!!!! Play him as the starter he has played better than anyone else, especially Tatum Bell. Tatum is not the answer, him and Selvin are good change of pace backs. PJ POPE!!! PLEASE!!! His avg. per carry is through the roof.
wow,,everyone here made good points…
just a few points for me
I gatta hand it to Barrett…I’m not sure but I think he ended a long drought for our safeties to get a pick,,i dont know..although he made some mistakes in his tackling angle (especially the long TD), he showed how capable he was and I liked what i saw..I mean who wouldnt make mistakes, being a rookie and left all the way in the back to cover whoever gets through..he laid out some mean hits on the receivers and that something we’ve missed since Lynch and ultimately Atwater…as for Josh Bell, going up against Steve Smith is never a pick-nick,,aha..did you guys see the intensity in Smiths game? Would’ve loved to see Champ against Smith, probably the two BEST at their respected positions, who knows when they’ll meet again….
overall, the Panthers are a good team,,handed us 3 sacks that game,,NON for Peppers..lol…prep for next week should be intense…we need the extra game off..
Im not gonna be one of those fans who gets down on everything when we lose….. But the bottom line is that we are not going to win football games if we cant score a single point the final 3 quarters.
We need Champ back, it’s obvious. I think Bell will be good as a sub, he plays consisitent.
Barrett played well with the absense of the big run by Deangelo Williams. Barrett can be a very solid player for us.
And how on earth did we allow 3 sacks?!!!!
Clady held his own against Peppers respectfully.
Going forward, we need to play stronger and more consistent. We can’t rely on other teams to help us get to the playoffs.
i have so many things to say and ask. as for josh bell he did great 9 tackles is fantastic it really is. now josh barret also had a great game a int and 7 tackles nice i think thats the most tackles a safety of oyrs has had in one game… now for my Q’s, why did shanny put woodyard at safety i believe he is a way better linebacker than webster is, WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR RUN GAME!!!!? the broncos always had a run gameits a fact not an oppinion, i think if there is no run game there no way to win. now for cutler… sigh… he is a great qb but he forces to many balls in tight coverage… sometimes he’ll be rewarded and other times he can cause the outcome of the game… but thats the type of QB he is and i wouldnt trade him… ok now for next week we MUST ESTABLISH A RUN GAME againts the bills… i was thinking shanny should start Cory Boyd or Tatum Bell… and for the defense shanny should put woodyard back at linebacker, put in winborn, START BARRET! thats all ive got to say
DONT GIVE UP ON THIS TEAM BRONCOS COUNTRY
GO BRONCOS!!!!!
I am not saying that Boyd is the answer to everything, but
I am a South Carolina fan and watched this guy for 3 years. Very hard downhill runner who is hard to get down. He does a great job of getting the hard yards and catches well out of the backfield
You know I like most of you was hopeing for a win but getting a win at Carolina at thier house !!! NO body has done it. So back to reality. we should win this sunday and S.D. should lose this sunday . That makes the game at S.D, A PRIDE GAME
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!
offense must have stockley in for the whole game he is a great guy to go top on third down and if you notice cutler plays better with stockley in there . on defense we must put pressure on there qb. i say woodyard has to play linebacker on everyplay he earned that position let woodyard play get webster out of there he is always out of position. i want marshall to play hard every down if he does he will be the best wr. in the nfl. i still like the option pitch its run effectively by cutler that will bring the safety up so he can throw deep . i just didnt think we played hard as a team sunday .
Mike Shanahan said “we tried to establish the run game and we could’nt” and goes on to credit the Carolina Panthers instead of looking in the morror again. Don’t get me wrong Carolina is a Great team, and will go along way. Also I’m not saying Shanahan suck’s either. BUT WE HAD THEM RIGHT WERE WE WANTED THEM!
The Broncos did establish the run in the first Qtr. four run plays on first down, and six pass plays on first down that’s establishing the run and good ballance. Then when you call three pass plays and try to run a draw on 3rd & 16 Thats trying to fool the D! and you forsake everything you did before that. Running draws and short sreens in the shotgun formation only works so often and does’nt set anything up. ( Once again Tacticks without strategy is the noise you hear before DEFEAT!) 9 run plays on first down and 17 pass plays on first down and no Fullback is NOT establishing the running game. I don’t care about the loss as much as I care about the way the TEAM plays! Ballance out your first downs.
TIME OF POSSESSION! ! !
GO BRONCOS! ! !
They should have activated FB-Pinnock and had Cory Boyd run behind him.
I just found out they cut Mr. Boyd? why?
What, they cut BOYD!! That would be so stupid. where did you see that
The loss was disappointing, but life goes on and we’ve got to decimate the Bills. Buffalo has imploded numerous times this season so the Broncos need to usher in the final detonation. GO BRONCOS!!!
1. pick ONE rusher,not cycle in different players, you can only get confidence by repetition 2. keep cutlers ego in check, for the time being, he is a legend in his own mind, respect is earned not demanded. 3. believe in each other, only then will you believe in yourself 4.injuries. injuries. injuries. sometimes bad luck finds everyone, but each player has to decide if hes going to use it as an excuse, or motivation.
The loss hurts I was hoping to continue our winning streak beating a quality team but they gotta move on to the next challenge and beat up on the bills so we can get ready to play Indy in the first rd dont lose hope we will come together when it counts!!!!!! GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Denwu. Pope has been more effective than both Bell and Young. He’s also a more physical back. Our O-line is not creating huge holes this. Our best runners this year have been backs that can break a tackle or two.
I loved watching Selvin Young last year, but even when I watched the opener live at Oakland, he does not seem to be the same back. Last year he could break a tackle, move left to right, and even move the pile a little. I’m not convinced his knee is 100%.
Even his ability to run off the screen isn’t what it was last year, which makes me think he’s lost a step…
We really need to be able to run the ball this week so we don’t have to throw every down and risk turnovers.
The last thing any of us want is for our play off hopes to come down to our final game in SD.