Sometimes you just have to put your foot down. The Broncos did that in Sunday’s 16-13 win over the Buccaneers.
Don’t get me wrong. I love watching shootouts. But there is something to be said for winning a defensive struggle. The Broncos showed they could do that.
I won’t pretend the Buccaneers have an elite offense. The fact remains, however, that they were averaging 350.2 yards per game entering Sunday’s game. They had only 307 against the Broncos.
They were also averaging 22.8 points per game before Sunday. They had just over half that against the Broncos.
The Bucs had allowed just four sacks in the first four games and none in the two games leading up to Sunday’s contest against the Broncos. Denver had three sacks in the 16-13 win.
For as much as the Broncos’ defense struggled early in the season, it toughened up against the Buccaneers. In seven of their 11 possessions, the Buccaneers had the ball for under 2:30. Only four of their possessions netted 37 yards or more. The other seven drives netted nine yards or fewer.
Beyond the stats, the Broncos defense simply stood firm. It didn’t get gashed. The tackling was better. The guys made plays when they needed to make them.
Perhaps most importantly, the Broncos showed they could be physical. They never let Bucs’ running back Ernest Graham get going. They allowed 38 yards to Warrick Dunn on one play; the rest of the game he had 36 yards on 10 carries.
Broncos’ cornerback Champ Bailey knocked Tampa Bay quarterback Brian Griese out of the game with a huge hit near the Bucs’ goal line.
The Broncos defense played tough on Sunday. And so did the offense did. The Broncos knew how good the Buccaneers defense was and is. They knew points would be at a premium.
Yet when Denver had to have a drive, the Broncos delivered. In a 6-6 game in the third quarter, they took advantage of great field position and Cutler found Brandon Stokley on a 10 yard touchdown pass to take the lead for good.
On their next possession, the Broncos went 62 yards in 14 plays, took 6:17 off the clock before Matt Prater hit a 27 yard field goal. Denver converted three third down situations before turning to Prater. The lead was 16-6 and with the defense playing as well as it was, the Broncos were in good shape.
The Broncos still have plenty of work to do. But so do a lot of other teams. Through five games, only one team in the AFC has a better record than the Broncos, and that team is the 5-0 Tennessee Titans.
Moreover, only two other teams in the AFC are 4-1, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills. Most importantly, the Broncos again have a two-game lead over the San Diego Chargers in the AFC West.
It’s never too early to watch the standings. It’s never too early to be at or near the top of the conference. And it’s never a bad thing to win a game because you were just plain tough.
One last note. Congratulations to Broncos’ head coach Mike Shanahan. He became the seventeenth NFL head coach to record 150 wins. Outstanding.
What stood out for you in the Broncos win? I enjoy reading your comments. Thanks for reading and have a great week.
Best,
Mike
Tags: 2008, Brandon Stokley, Champ Bailey, Defense, Denver Broncos, Jay Cutler, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Awesome! Go get em Broncs!
THE MOST BALLANCED OFFENSIVE ATTACK OF THE YEAR!!!!!
Yes the D stood up and played thier best game of the year, and the O controlled the clock, then Prater & special Teams kept the the Bucs on thier own side of the field.
What a great game, a game the fans can be proud of. Thank you Oline for openning holes. Thank you Dline for the pressure. Thank you Broncos for making the Fans proud to be a BRONCOS Fan.
It was’nt a shoot out and I for one am glad. This TEAM found out something about themselves they can control everything about a game and they’re not one demetional. Just keep doing the little things right and good things will come.
Jay you sold the play action well, after runs between the takles that keeps the linebackers thinking instead of reacting. We all know when a linebacker has to think you have them right where you want them and thats when you pick them apart with the tightends and recievers. Great job!
Matt just keep kicking that ball 9 yards deep to give our D a good chance and good things will come. NICE!
Oline just keep opening those holes, and they will get bigger & bigger for the Tailbacks. Those are the little things that control the time of possession and keep the opposeing Team off the field. Thats Football!
Defense just keep on fighting and good things will come. I knew the D was’nt as bad as everyone said its a team effort. I’m Proud!
it just goes to show you when you do things right no one will know you’ve done anything at all… or wiil they?
So this just shows us that our defense is not a horrible unit, I dont want to hear it after this game, we had 3 good sacks, and do u guys know why, we blitzed more, thats what I’ve been saying, srry for the gloating, Im just very happy of our performance, the Defensed showed up, and for those worried in the beggining about Elam, Prater silenced those critics, hes stepped in nicely, I have big hopes for this team this year, just hopefully royal or Scheffler come out healthy, those are some good guys!!!! Good Game whos next??? lol!!!!
i gotta be honest when we signed pittman in the offseason i wasnt excited and didnt think hed make the team but hes proved me wrong in everyway which im happy for and the guy seems like a class act watching his postgame interview he wasnt talkin smack or saying thats why they shouldnt have let me go he is focused on helpin us win and i like it alot, and i say thomas should get a pass for that fuble he still made a good play for a dt and was just tryin to cap it off
i gotta be honest when we signed pittman in the offseason i wasnt excited and didnt think hed make the team but hes proved me wrong in everyway which im happy for and the guy seems like a class act watching his postgame interview he wasnt talkin smack or saying thats why they shouldnt have let me go he is focused on helpin us win and i like it alot, and i say thomas should get a pass for that fumble he still made a good play for a dt and was just tryin to cap it off
oops didnt mean to post that twice lol
I am SORRY defence, I said that you could not stop anyone and you proved me to be wrong, this is the one time that I can say I am glad that I was TOTALLY WRONG,
way to go great game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good game broncos way to put some pressure on the qb. get manuel off of my defense and call up barrett and let mccree and barrett at safeties. i dont care manuel is terrible. defesne looked sound and the linebackers were fantasic trio of webster dj and boss. champ is amazing and dre had a solid game. doom was good lookin like his old self. marcus thomas steppin it up showin why he is top 10 talent. run d looked improved in the 2nd half. didnt let them do anything. offense was good but got the win all that counts. 4-1 GO BRONCOS
THOSE WERE OUR GUYS OUT THERE KICKING ASS!!!!!
NICE JOB!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
P.S. Hey Rivers, your mom called she wants her rent money….you freakin’ bottom feeder!
Ekuban has been pretty solid. I hope we start him on the opposite side of Doom because hes big and strong enough for the run but also talented and skilled enough for the pass rush. He even looks to be moving pretty fast at times lately. I’m very pleased to have won this game the way we did. I think we will be a lot a trouble for that jags defense next week as well. Marshall torched them last year too but this they are worse and they let a sub-par o-line and a banged up BEN ROTHELISBERGER torch them with no real running threat in the backfield. Hopefully we can capitalize and D-JAX will get his chance to show his worth this weekend. Go Broncos!!!!
Mike Rice, nice post. One thing that has been asked for a couple of times is info on the ‘other’ players. Like how did Larsen, Woodyard, and Williams do? We can watch and see the OL did very well but who graded out well?
I do not know if you can gleen this type infomation but it would be dynamite. Thanks
Ekuban is the one DL we CAN NOT LOSE. Hope the groin strain is small.
Jay showed that when he takes his reads, he can really control the game. Look at the distribution. A couple of errors on third and short cost keeping the drive alive.
Very good game, but IMO Manuel will cost us another game. His reads are slow. NO I do not want Lynch back. I guess the other players are no better? Lowry, Fox, or Barrett?
Well, wasn’t that an eventful afternoon yesterday!!!!!!! I loved every minute of it.
Our defense stood out to me more than anything. I posted yesterday, that leading up to this game all I was hearing about was Tampa’s D and how fabulous and great and blah blah blah they were… well how do you like their D now???? That’s all I could think about during the game is our D finally shut up some (of course not all) the haters. For once, our D was in the spotlight and for POSITIVE reasons. I’m glad they stepped up and actually did their jobs as a team… what a concept!!! Now, all they have to do is keep it up. Just b/c we played ONE good game defensively doesn’t mean that we can sit back and relax… that needs to get better and stronger as the season rolls on by. We have to be 10 times better and stronger for each game. That’s what makes a team, not good but GREAT. And I expect that from the Broncos, always have.
Champ was pretty quiet till he had that hit on Griese. I thought that was the funniest thing. They kept replaying that while they were tending to Griese and the more I watched it the funnier it got. If you really watch Champ, he looked like a raging bull (or Bronco) just charging at Griese. I couldn’t stop laughing… for me that was the highlight. I got pure enjoyment and entertainment out of that.
As for the offense, they really didn’t do anything wrong it’s just Tampa’s D did do a good job at holding us to only 16 points and only 1 TD out of that but we really were the best offense. Cutler knew he wasn’t going to be able to fire rockets at his receivers like he usually does, and very well he does, so other than him being held back like that we were pretty darn good. I just shake from my mind about what the commentators said about our #6. They kept saying that Cutler would have to have patience b/c of the high expectations everyone had and knew about Tampa’s D and Cutler being himself doesn’t want to have patience, he’s not that kind of QB. But he did in the first half and for him and our offense it TOTALLY paid off in the 2nd half when we got our TD and the lead. Patience IS a virtue!!!!!!!
I was very happy with how we played, that matters more to me than a win. Yes, winning is a VERY good thing but how you play the game will determine if you’ll get the win or not. We earned that win yesterday… our D was on a whole new level and it was SOOOOOOOOOO exciting to see them step up to their full potential. They just have to keep it up, I can’t say that enough. We all know it, they know it, our offense knows it for Heaven’s sake…. they know it so they have to do it. I can’t wait to see what they do as the season comes along. If our D can really step up and our offense stays on fire like they were against Oakland… we will be the team to beat. We already have the #1 offense in the league… keep it up Orange & Blue.
Oh, and to put the icing on that yummy cake, the Chargers lost AGAIN. Serves that Old Man Rivers right for being a low-class act. Loved what you said about Rivers Broncfalls – HA HA HA!!!!!!
With faith…
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!
This was, without a doubt, the most complete victory of the year. The defense was solid all day, only giving up a meaningless touchdown late, the special teams didn’t give up any big plays, and Cutler showed a lot of maturity not forcing anything against that ball hog defense. The thing that stoo out to me most though, the offensive line. Why in the world is nobody singing their praise? Nobody thought that Cutler was going to have a great season like he is having because there were so many questions on the offensive line, but these guys are kicking some serious butt. Just watch them and they will amaze you.
07Elway, great post. I have to agree with you on all of it.
I think when you watch a game like this (and I’m certainly not calling anyone out) you understand that some things take a little time. Everyone knows we had to see something from the defense and I think we got that this Sunday. Look, there is a lot of talented football players on that defense, a lot! It could be a number of things. A new defensive coordinator, possibly a new or altered scheme, there are new players in new positions and new players on the field. Lastly, there’s chemistry!
Let’s let this group play the season out and then grade them. 5 Weeks into the season is to early for me to be calling for coaches or players to be let go and certainly to early to be calling the Orange Crush out for comparision.
I am excited for the players. Especially on the defense. They needed this. They needed to go into the locker room and feel that they helped seal that victory against a good oponent! They did just that. Offense you’ve had your glory game already. (actually you’ve had a couple of them)
Lastly, to coach…Congratulations on your 150th victory. What an accomplishment! Here’s the honest truth……..I’m glad every Sunday I see that man with the headset on coaching my team! Best in the league. PERIOD!!!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
we need to have a great game this coming weekend?? if we can go 6-1 in this stretch of tuff games….sd,jac,no,tb,NE,KC, OAK…….we should be 12-1 the next six..
I was so happy watching the game that was the perfect way to play the Bucs. They proved they can control the game. We needed this type of game because the D had to be losing there confidence, and this was just the type of game to get it back. I was so happy for the team. The D has been taking a pounding from US, the media and themself. We keep this up they will just dominate.
Ramboskithefan – I agree with you that we’re going to have to come out hard against Jacksonville. But be sure not to overlook Miami, New England or Atlanta… Hell, don’t overlook anyone, since I think that’s most of what got us in trouble in KC. But we have some very difficult games remaining on the schedule, and I hope the Broncos don’t forget that.
I can’t I believe I forgot this… shame on me.
Anyway, a BIG congratulations to Shanahan on 150 wins. I as a very dedicated fan to this team my whole life… I can’t imagine any other coach standing in his place. I dread that day but for now I’m loving him coaching this team. He’s done one heck of a job and I too am very happy that he is the guy with the headset, our head coach.
You’re the best (head) coach this team could ask for Shanny!!!!!!
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!
Nice to see a more balanced game! I was pretty negative on my last posting, but that’s only becuase this team can do better. Defense showed signs of life and I hope they continue the intensity and adjustments. Offense looked good, but I still think the play calling can be a bit better. This last game, no one was getting open and Cutler was doing much of the running himself. I think if we run the ball more it will set up the pass better. For instance they ran the ball a little, then when Denver ran that run fake Cutler was able to find Stokley for the TD. More run plays, more bootlegs and a more multidemensional offense that utilizes all Broncos weapons can rule this league!
And how about Pittman? I never would have thought he’d be leading the team in rushing TDs. None of the running backs have had consistent carries so it’s hard to say who’s doing good and who isn’t producing enough, but Pittman is a freak of nature! He runs like the Incredible Hulk! Hulk Smash! The schedule gets tougher from here, so lets see some classic Broncos football! GO BRONCOS!
I LOVED that we BLITZED! I was so excited to see that when we blitzed we tended to get pressure, but it also opened up holes for when we didn’t blitz. Kept their o-line on their heels and enabled our front four to keep pressure in coverage plays.
I liked that we started to run the ball a little more, it helps Cutler sell the play action easier. I think we still could run the ball more though, still uncertain on the rotation we run. Anyone else think alternating backs each posession keeps them from a rythem?
I have to say though Rice, what I absolutely loved the most! NO TURNOVERS! You could call thomas’s fumble one, but technically he just gave them the ball back on a third down, so it was more like a first down conversion for them. Cutler was patient to the surprise of the announcers. I think that was good to watch, Cutler knowing it didn’t need to be a shootout and just kept moving the chains. Great game guys! Well earned, now lets prep for the Jaguars! I never called for any players or coaches heads, just asked for them to make adjustments to get pressure. Which they gladly did. Continue to get pressure and look what it can do, (NY GIANTS) not a great team, but they get pressure! Pressure can crack anything!
One last thing, anyone know where the hater RNST or whatever his punk @$$ name was is at? I would like to see what he has to say now! I’m willing to bet he was a bucs fan and just made a name to post and get a reaction.
CONTINUE TO RISE BRONCOS!
I’m with ya 2champ, I never called for Shanahans head I just wanted him to make some adjustments and the TEAM did. Great job Coaches!!!
I agree with Headless Pitman is THE MAN between the takles, and Selvin should get the pitch outside. Lets commit to the two let them get a rythem.
Hey Broncofalls you forgot one thing about the Defense, it could also be the Offense not running the ball and controlling the clock. I’d say that 90% of the time the Broncos go 3 & out it starts with an incomplete pass on first down. I’m really happy the O was more ballanced this week and running the ball on first down does’nt ever get allot of yrds but it makes the linebackers think.
Yo Cutler4Pres I gave the Oline thier do, they’er the foundation of the whole TEAM! They just need to keep working on openning those holes .
BORN & RAISED BRONCO FAN. GO BRONCOS!!!
Yeah, we looked awesome. It was kind of a boring game, but we needed it. Nothing flashy or wild, just good strong Denver Broncos football. Go Broncos!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey with all this talk about moving Jarvis Moss to a OLB, and us toying with a 3-4 scheme, I think that he could be able to do some things as a pass rusher off the edge. what do you guys think?
I think that the 3-4 system is great as long as you do use it to apply pressure to the quarterback. It does us no good if we only rush three and allow the opposition’s quarterback (ala what Drew Bree’s did) to pick us apart. Overall a much improved performance over the K.C. game and hopefully some momentum to build on.
I think if we pursue Lavar Arrington and put him in the middle or a Takeo Spikes also we will have a solid middle linebacker for this season like a Al Wilson Also we would benefit better in the running game if we sign that Battle kid thats on Kansas City practice squad he a hidden gem at running back and hes a one cut and go back with alot of strength and allusiveness… hes a career back …. Sorry Nate Webster you make some plays but your not a nfl linebacker your just a gut that never reached his potential cause he was not tough against the run and you get lost in the past coverage and when the play is almost over you have no hustle… thats not how Al played or any other bronco great linebacker or any other NFL greats…. and the d line you should be one of the best in the league if you have the type of corners we have back the we need more COVERAGE SACK!!!! Also Calvin Lowry THATS NOT HOW YOU PLAY SAFETY AGAINST THE RUN OR THE PASS you have talent but you play like its not a game but its only for a paycheck thats how you play…. SO DENVER am from Texas and i am a huge bronco fan Dont let me down