Mile High Report
Talk about the best of times and worst of times… The Denver Broncos treated us to one hell of a ride on Sunday. The first half was fairly rough. The offense sputtered. The defense got exposed a few times. The score was 17-3 at the end of the half, and as we gathered for lunch, I remember hoping this team could regroup and come back to at least make a game of it in the 2nd half.
That’s exactly what happened. The offense found a scoring drive. Momentum swung solidly to the Broncos, and the team fought to make sure that the Philadelphia Eagles never got back on their feet.
I gave my game ball this week to Sean Payton. I think it is very clear that his preparation of the team, strategic play designs, and (most importantly) aggressive decision-making were the primary reasons the Broncos won this game. We got to see some pretty inspired football played by this team. Credit needs to go to the head coach on a day when most other NFL coaches wouldn’t have had the stones to go get that win.
One of the most frustrating things in this game was how many near misses the offense had. There was so much left on the field from this game because of overthrows, drops, and minor route-running issues. If the Broncos hit on just half of the plays that I’m talking about, they win the game by at least two scores. There’s a lot of good film in this game of things that the players can improve on. We haven’t seen the best out of this Broncos offense yet this season.
It may not be the flashiest play from Sunday, but my favorite call of the game was the sneaky offsides call to bring man in motion and freak out the defense with the quick under-center snap call. It was 3rd and under 5 and got us a free first down. I damn near fell out of my chair laughing.
My one critique of the game was the many home-run plays that the offense went for on 3rd downs. I like doing that here and there, but the Broncos did this too many times and it didn’t work. Mix in a couple of plays where you need 5 and are throwing to an outlet route that is only 3 yards up the field, and you have a situation where Broncos Country is pulling out its collective hair.
The 2-point conversion was the key play of the game. I fully believe they had a read on how the Eagles defend short yardage and knew they had a winning play. I thought that when the play happened, and it seemed to have been confirmed in Sean Payton’s press conference after the game. The NFL is as much a mental game as it is physical. Having smart coaches paired with players who can execute tends to be the teams that consistently make it to the playoffs....
