2012 AFC West Watch – Week 2

The AFC West Watch will start with a look back at the huge win Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos had over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. The game was much closer than it appeared, but after being used and abused by Ben Roethlisberger for much of the game, the Orange Crush defense woke up and dominated the final five minutes of the game. In a way, they Tebowed the Steelers again – even though Tim Tebow is a Jet. In case you missed it, Von Miller struck that point home with his second sack in at the end of the game, by Tebowing. All in all, it was a great weekend for Broncos fans. Two of their hated rivals fell in defeat, one embarrassingly so. Next week, the Broncos get another challenge going into the Georgia Dome to face an NFL powerhouse in the Atlanta Falcons.

Note: Broncos win tiebreaker by virtue of being my favorite team.

Oakland Raiders – 0-1

The Oakland Raiders are masters at shooting themselves in the foot. Then they are masters of lackadaisical effort whenever the chips are down. This is what I love about them, all you have to do is frustrate them for a couple of series and you can easily run away with the game. It is wholly apparent that the simplest way to shut down this Raiders team is to make sure Darren McFadden is blanketed on every play. Once the San Diego Chargers did that, game over.

UP NEXT – Miami Dolphins (0-1).  The Raiders should win this game. The Miami Dolphins should not win more than two games this year and if they do, I hope one of them is against the Raiders.  That said, its the Raiders we’re talking about here. I kid, I kid, the Raiders actually looked pretty good last night. There were a lot of positives, but they just couldn’t seem to put together scoring drives. This game shouldn’t be close. Raiders 31, Dolphins 10. 

San Diego Chargers – 1-0

I wouldn’t say the Chargers dominated the Raiders last night, because the Raiders mostly beat themselves. What they did was they frustrated the Raiders into playing undisciplined football. It appears that Phillip Rivers and the Chargers will be the Broncos main threat for the AFC West crown, for now anyway. Knowing this team, it won’t be long until its mid-season and they are sitting at .500 wondering what the hell happened to their season.

UP NEXT – Tennessee Titans (0-1). The Tennessee Titans look like a team that could be good, while the Chargers look like a team that used to be good. The Chargers defense has some serious short comings and I think the early season slump that always seems to happen with Norv Turner‘s Chargers starts now. Titans 27, Chargers 23.

Kansas City Chiefs – 0-1

The Kansas City Chiefs began the 2012 regular season getting exposed by the Atlanta Falcons. Personally, I thought the game would be a blowout, but I missed the mark by about 10 points, so instead of 30-13 it was 40-24.  The Chiefs got some garbage time yardage and with Matt Cassell they will continue to be ineffective. The bigger concern is the holes on defense, which Peyton Manning should tear to shred to pieces later in the season.

UP NEXT – Buffalo Bills (0-1).  At least the Chiefs get to play an opponent more evenly matched this week in the Buffalo Bills – who are also coming off a shellacking of their own. Unfortunately, the game is in Buffalo and C.J. Spiller sure looked good late in that game. As much as I dislike picking the Bills, I doubt they get rocked at home to the equally hapless Chiefs. Bills 24, Chiefs 20.