Skip to main content

Holy Super Bowl contenders, Batman!

For your consideration and pleasure, I hereby present the following facts after two weeks of NFL play:

Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has thrown just two touchdowns this year to three interceptions.

The Broncos have needed last-minute heroics from Jason Elam to save face against teams like Buffalo and Oakland. (Against Oakland, they even needed a timeout that even I'd call cheap, had the opponent been anyone else.)

The team is scoring just 19 points per game.

Oh, and the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns put up ridiculous numbers Sunday, combining for 96 points and over 1,000 yards of offense.

And now the question: who has the top offense in the NFL?

The answer, of course, is the Denver Broncos.

Who has the top defense in the NFL? The New England Patriots. In this ranking, the Broncos tumble all the way down to No. 2.

These official rankings are made solely by yardage, rather than points. (I hope this illuminates for you the foolishness of judging these things solely by yardage.) Having said that, if the Broncos are No. 1 in offense and No. 2 in defense this year, they're going to win the Super Bowl.

The offense has had its ups and downs, but some things have worked out really well.

1. Cutler's arm. Cutler still makes some weird decisions, including one crazy pass/fumble in Buffalo that almost cost the team the game. But he can make some impressive throws. I just wish people would stop comparing him to John Elway.

2. Travis Henry. A terrific back in a proven system...who could have predicted this would turn out well? 267 yards in two games puts him on an obscene pace.

3. The receiving corps. Javon Walker's great. Again, no shock. Brandon Marshall has been terrific, too. He was fine last year, but it was in limited action, and it's always nice when a guy can step it up full-time.

We've also got a third receiver now. By the way, you might have thought Dale Carter was a hard Bronco to root for, but try cheering for former Colt Brandon Stokley in a Brian Griese jersey.

4. The line. I can barely name half of them any more, but they're as solid as ever, and will only improve if Ben Hamilton ever comes back.

And the offense can get even better if Cutler continues to improve.

The defense has been fantastic in the passing game, holding both opposing quarterbacks under 100 yards. (They were J.P. Losman and Josh McCown, but still.)

Against the run? Not so much. The Broncos have given up 312 yards on the ground at 5.1 yards per carry. We're playing Jacksonville this week, but then it's at Indianapolis and a home game against San Diego. There are encouraging signs now, but after those games we'll know if the Broncos really have championship potential.

Comments

John said…
Those are amazing stats . . . but what has encouraged me the most is that we have been able to win close games late, even if by dubious means . . . In the post-Elway era I have grown so accustomed to not being able to pull it out that I get a sinking feeling anytime we are in a close game in the 4th quarter.

The next few weeks will be telling - I think we need to win 2 of the 3 to show we can get it done against the big boys.
3:40 PM
John said…
And Brandon Stokeley just hurts . . . I guess we are reserving #14 for mediocre white position players.
3:40 PM
Mike said…
I am glad we're winning, especially with late drives, but concerned that the games are so close. Rivalry games (like with Oakland) can often be inexplicably close, though, so this trend may not continue.

I've had no confidence in the Broncos in the fourth quarter the last few years, either...but, that said, we're still weeks away from having a start half as impressive as last year's. We all know how that ended.
11:51 PM
David said…
indy is going to be ugly.
zoiks.

we need to get this party started.

c'mon cutlah!
3:05 PM
blaine said…
Care to change your predictions based on the pathetic performance against the Jaguars?
11:04 PM
Mike said…
Not really...all I said was we'd win the Super Bowl if we kept up our ridiculous statistical pace, and I was so confident because it wasn't going to happen, and didn't.

If the Broncos can't start to stop the run, it doesn't really matter what else they do.
11:10 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And now that it’s gone, it’s like it wasn’t there at all

I never thought this blog would last longer than Jay Cutler's career with the Denver Broncos. He was a talented young prospect so good that the Broncos, a powerhouse organization only one game removed from the Super Bowl the season before, traded up to get him—or, in other words, a player whose upside was so huge, the team sacrificed its present to get his future. And now? He's gone . How did it come to this? * * * Often I'll play devil's advocate with a move like this; you know, I'll try and explain how it makes sense from the other side of the table. Today, during the most disastrous Broncos offseason in memory—and the draft hasn't even happened yet, so settle in—I just don't have it in me. I don't think move is really defensible from a football standpoint. But what the heck: as the article above says, the Broncos are sending Cutler and a fifth-round draft pick this month to the Chicago Bears for quarterback Kyle Orton, Chicago's first-rounder in t...
11 comments
Read more

Who cares?

So we finally got done with the NBA playoffs after nearly two months of stretched-out play, and tomorrow's the draft. I really couldn't care less. I'm so burned out on the sport. Sadly, there's nothing else going on worth mentioning, so we might as well get into it. (Yes, baseball, Pugs, but I haven't really started following that this year yet, sorry.) Would the NFL hold its draft five days after the Super Bowl? Of course not, and not just because the league doesn't want to distract from the highlight of its annual calendar, the Pro Bowl. Of course, the NBA's situation is a little different. College play ended two and a half months ago, and the teams want to get draftees ready for the all-important summer league play (because the kind of guys that need the summer league always end up players). Not that when college basketball is over is relevant, anyway-the league is overrun by a bunch of high school players "just months removed from their prom" (...
12 comments
Read more

Payback

It's a nice little coincidence. Sunday the Broncos face the Steelers, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. Tomorrow night the Nuggets play the L.A. Clippers, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. Friday the Avalanche host the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. (All right, the part about the Avs was a complete fabrication, but you believed me, didn't you?) Forget the Steelers game. The last thing I want to talk about right now is Denver's football team. (Seriously, what was that Sunday? I finally start to fall for the defense, and voila! Peyton Manning, for the first time ever, gets the better of it. You win some, you lose to the Colts.) I'm not so excited about the Clippers game either, per se, but I am glad the NBA is back, especially after this week. So what has changed from when we last left the squad? (Not that much.) New guys: The Smiths, Joe and J.R., might be Denver's most effective sibling duo...
4 comments
Read more