The outlook is growing dimmer by the week in Denver as the Broncos offense sputters.
Hines Ward gains yards - again.
After one half, it looked shaky, but manageable. Sure, the offense had completely stalled and despite some effective short passes couldn’t put the rock in the house. But the defense was holding steady and making Big Ben look as uncertain as Orton. In that sense, it was an even playing field.
That’s all Pittsburgh wanted, was an even playing field. That meant they had the advantage. Dueling defenses? Check. Struggling quarterbacks waiting to see who breaks out first? Check. Seemingly even split among fans in the stands? Check.
Unfortunately, that meant Pittsburgh had Denver right where they wanted them: within just a few points and an entire half of football to play. At one point, the only scores in the game were Denver’s opening drive field goal and a defensive strike from each side. From there, it just got ugly. I was loathe to echo Dennis Green’s “they are who we thought they were” after the Baltimore game, but after this performance, I’m beginning to wonder. Bronco fans who jumped on the bandwagon are already surveying the softest landing place for when they jump off. I’m still not convinced it’s that bad, but McDaniels now has to face his first real test as a head coach. How do you coach this team from the opposite end of the spectrum? Coaching a team that is winning, and getting all the lucky bounces in the meantime, is easy. Coaching a team that seems to have completely lost focus, not so much.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is the offense. You can’t expect the defense to come out and hold teams to 10 points on a weekly basis. The defense just got worn out, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Offensively, Orton showed up with 3 really bad throws resulting in picks (one came back for 6), and a few throws where he just missed his man. He also brought out the cannon and gunned a few to exactly the right place, but overall Orton looked shaken. Maybe it’s leftover from the first sack of the Baltimore game, but this is not the same calm and collected guy who marched the field against New England. However, outside the interceptions, Orton’s numbers weren’t that horrific – but take a look at the running game. 27 yards rushing, for the entire team. Twenty. Seven. Quite simply, that will not do. This team will not win another game this season if it cannot rush for more than 27 yards. Polumbus showed his inexperience, though I don’t envy his having to make his first NFL start against the Steelers. Overall, the running game struggled from the very beginning. It’s clear that in the NFL, one-dimensional offenses ultimately fail. Defenses are too good to get beat by the same thing again and again. When Denver has a consistent running attack, the short slice-and-dice passing game can be effective. But when the running attack fails, the lack of a long-field passing game rears its ugly head. It’s becoming obvious that Orton can’t stretch the field, and when the run stalls, the defense only has to cover a 15-yard field. Is it any wonder that they’ve scored one offensive touchdown in 2 games?
Defensively, I want to blame them for letting Ben and company march the field in just a few minutes, and I’m sure there were some defensive breakdowns that happened, but any defense that spends 23 minutes of the second half on the field is going to be gassed. Football is the ultimate team game. Offensive ineffectiveness burdens the defense. Defensive ineffectiveness puts the offense in a difficult position of needing big scores all day… ultimately, this game was a full-team failure.
Next week, the Broncos get to play a team that is really, really, really bad. They need to build their confidence by performing on all cylinders in all aspects of the game against Washington, because the week after that an angry and surging San Diego Chargers team comes to town looking for revenge and to regain their place in the division race. Is Denver “who we thought they were” from all the preseason predictions? I’m not so sure of that. 6 games straight with quality wins shows that this team can perform. But can they hang with the best of the best? It’s looking grim, to be sure.
