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Posts Tagged ‘2008’

Not Where They Want To Be

December 29th, 2008 - 2:36am by mike_riceOther posts by

This is not where they Broncos wanted to be or where they thought they would be. But it is undeniably where they are. The Broncos will be sitting home for the post-season.

The Chargers made sure that would happen with a convincing 52-21 win Sunday night in San Diego.

So many of the issues that have plagued the Broncos cropped up again.

–The Denver defense just could not stop the Chargers’ offense. San Diego scored on six of its first seven possessions. The Chargers set a franchise record with 289 rushing yards. Their two running backs, LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles combined for 211 yards on 28 carries to score five touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving). The Chargers had 10 possessions, scored seven touchdowns, kicked a field goal and punted once. The first half ended on one of their series. That is a really good night at the office.

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Opportunity Lost

December 22nd, 2008 - 3:09am by mike_riceOther posts by

There is no sugarcoating this one. The Broncos’ 30-23 loss to the Bills on Sunday was as tough as they come. Everything was right there for the taking: an AFC West title, a playoff berth and a home game in the first round of the playoffs.

But the Broncos stumbled against a team that entered the game with a 6-8 record, had lost seven of its last eight games and was out of the playoff race.

In many ways, the loss to the Bills was the season in microcosm.

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Tip Your Cap to Carolina

December 14th, 2008 - 10:39pm by mike_riceOther posts by

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.

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Cutler Has the Touch Again

December 8th, 2008 - 1:14am by mike_riceOther posts by

They came. They fell behind. They battled back to win. They sustained another tough injury. And No. 6 came up absolutely huge. It was just another Sunday at the office for the Broncos.

But as is usually the case in the NFL, those are just the superfluous details decorating Sunday’s bottom line, which was a win over the Chiefs, 24-17.

By now, the Broncos have long since buckled the seat belt to the roller coaster ride that is the 2008 season. Wherever and whenever the ride ends, one has to admire the way this team continues to battle, continues to gut it out, continues to overcome itself and continues to insert obscurity into its lineup and win.

Running back Peyton Hillis was the latest impact player to succumb to injury, hurting his hamstring in the second half. Head coach Mike Shanahan told 850 KOA after the game that things didn’t look good for the rookie out of Arkansas, who might miss several weeks. We should know more early this week.

No matter. Tatum Bell, while hardly unstoppable, was effective enough to keep the Chiefs’ defense honest to pay a degree of attention to the Broncos’ running game.

More importantly, quarterback Jay Cutler engineered three scoring drives of 80 yards or more. The final one was a 12 play, 95 yard gem that consumed 6:07 and resulted in the go-ahead touchdown on a six yard pass to Brandon Marshall with 10:10 left in the game.

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Road Warriors Close in on the Playoffs

November 30th, 2008 - 10:04pm by mike_riceOther posts by

It’s not official, but it’s pretty close. Barring a major collapse and a major resurgence by the Chargers, the Broncos are going to the playoffs.

After three games, this looked like a foregone conclusion. Then at the midway point of the season, it looked like a remote possibility at best. Then for the past four games, the prospect of a post-season berth has been a week-to-week roller coaster ride.

Believe what you want about how good you think the Broncos are or how you think they will fare in the playoffs, assuming they do indeed make it, the fact is there has been one huge constant in the last month: The Broncos have been a terrific road team.

The latest example was Sunday’s 34-17 domination of the Jets.

I must admit I didn’t think the Broncos would win the game; my guess is I was not alone. But there was absolutely no way I thought the Broncos would make it look as easy as they did.

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A Crazy Season Continues

November 25th, 2008 - 9:18pm by mike_riceOther posts by

It looked like the Broncos were heading in the right direction. They had won two straight road games, the offense was starting to roll again and the rushing defense was coming along.

But after Sunday’s 31-10 loss to the Raiders, I still have no idea what to expect from the Broncos, except a little bit of everything…good, bad and yes, even ugly.

Unfortunately, the bad and the ugly took center stage on Sunday. The Raiders offense generated three consecutive second half touchdowns after the Broncos had tied the game at 10. Remember, the Raiders are a team that had trouble generating anything on offense the four games prior to Sunday.

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More Than A Passing Grade

November 16th, 2008 - 9:51pm by mike_riceOther posts by

I doubt many people predicted the Broncos would beat the Falcons, which is what happened Sunday at the Georgia Dome. Denver won 24-20.

I admit I was not in the group that made such a prediction. I believed it was possible but a big part of me had to see it to believe it.

I believe.

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Broncos Gut Out a Win

November 7th, 2008 - 1:34am by mike_riceOther posts by

Just when you thought the sky was falling down on the Broncos season, they gutted out a big-time win on the road against Cleveland, 34-30 on Thursday night.

Never mind that they lost linebacker Nate Webster in the first quarter to an injury. Never mind that they lost running back Ryan Torain later to an injury. Never mind that running back Selvin Young was shaken up and couldn’t get back in the game. Never mind that tight end Tony Scheffler was, in the words of quarterback Jay Cutler, “about 75 percent” because of a groin injury.

“(It was) maybe the gutsiest win I’ve ever been associated with, considering the number of guys we had down and (the) guys stepping up who hadn’t even practiced,” head coach Mike Shanahan told 850 KOA after the game.

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Not on the Same Page

November 3rd, 2008 - 12:08am by mike_riceOther posts by

It is official: the Broncos are average. A 4-4 record qualifies as such. At times, they have been really good this year. At other times, they have been on the other end of the spectrum.

Sometimes they have been just good. At other times, well, they have not.

When you shake everything out at the halfway mark of the season, the Broncos’ pluses have about equaled out to the minuses.

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Back to Work

October 28th, 2008 - 10:23pm by mike_riceOther posts by

Nine games remain in the regular season. Heading into this week’s game against Miami, the Broncos lead the AFC West by a game-and-a-half. They are in first place but they haven’t consistently played like a first place team.

It doesn’t take a football genius to figure out where the Broncos need to improve:

–RUSH DEFENSE. Opponents are averaging 154.6 rushing yards per game against the Broncos. That is simply too many. If a team doesn’t stop the run on a regular basis, that team will not have success.

Check out the running backs the Broncos still have to face, assuming they all stay healthy: Ronnie Brown/Ricky Williams (Dolphins), Jamal Lewis (Browns), DeAngelo Williams/Jonathan Stewart (Panthers), Michael Turner (Falcons), Thomas Jones (Jets) and LaDainian Tomlinson (Chargers). Wow. And that’s to say nothing about possibly going against Larry Johnson (Chiefs) if he gets his off-field issues ironed out.

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