Mike Shanahan is trying to kill us fans!

Seriously. Any one reading this with a heart condition feeling as though their life is in danger? Last week we had the late field goal, and then this time we watched the Broncos lose, then not lose, and then win. I think this game is taking years off of my life. Good thing I don’t smoke or I’d be dead about three years ago.

So what did I see this game?

To start with — and I saw this last week too — The Raiders are a much better team this year than they were last year. And their defense, strangely, isn’t as good. But then again, there was a lot of talk about their defense being so good because offenses didn’t have to be as aggressive, so they tended to play it safer which meant a lot more stops. So maybe I’ve been overestimating how good the Raiders’ defense really is.

Here are my five things:

1) Special teams coverage — While our kicking team did very well, I was unhappy with our receiving teams. Every time I saw Hixon get clear and start to move, there was a sea of white jerseys there. That’s on our blockers — they simply could not stay in position. And that onside kick that we missed? Well, fool me once, I guess. It was a trick play and I’m sure that won’t happen to Curome Cox again. Hixon had himself some good moves, but good moves alone won’t get you throw a sea of the other team’s jerseys. The unit has to do some blocks.

2) Jay Cutler — There’s a couple of rookie mistakes coming out, and that first interception was one of them. I’m dubious about the second one; it was tipped, but he needs to throw it clear of the defender, too. On the flip side of that, 23 of 33 for 269 yards? That’s not quite a 70% completion rate. That’s a number I like to see. 1 TD, 2 INT? That’s not so good. Even with that he got a 79 rating; reverse that and it would’ve been a much, much healthier rating. Do I miss Jake Plummer? Not even a little bit. And my boy Brandon Marshall? Another good game for both he and Walker, though sadly shut out on TDs for all the principle fantasy players.

3) The O line — Matt Lepsis was having trouble with the Oakland D-line, and Gerard Warren certainly got his revenge in this game. But they created holes for 181 yards rushing, including a helluva 40 yard run by Selvin Young. Two serious penalties by Montrae Holland — kmonty adores him but he seems to lack the discipline of a typical Shanahan offensive line. But I suspect that will come. I think we’re probably really missing Ben Hamilton in there still, but over all they did a really good job against a line that is known to be big and aggressive.

4) Elvis and Jarvis — Don’t they sound like they could be brothers? We didn’t see a lot of Jarvis Moss this game, but he did have some impact. But Dumervil played a lot and I think he’s really picked up his game from last year. I see a great season ahead for him, and he may well be the league’s next Dwight Freeney. Undersized defensive ends may well be in vogue.

5) Stuck in the middle — Way too often I saw the Raiders’ O-line able to freeze the middle of our D-line and create holes out to the second level. Now, to give them credit they’re vastly improved from last year and are running the same zone blocking system we do (and two ex-Broncos linemen who know how to run it, no less) but we should not be letting Lamont Jordan run as much as he did. If there’s any one thing that killed us in that game, it was the amount of yardage we let Jordan get; that kept drives alive.

No matter how you slice it, we’re now alone atop the AFC West with a one game lead. The Chargers are about to lose as I write this, unless they can come up with a 24 point 3 minute miracle. The Chiefs are so much meat to everyone they’ve faced, and the Raiders are dangerous but currently two games back.

So, we have jumped out to an early lead. Next week we host Jacksonville, which is probably better than both of the teams we have faced so far. We need to improve our red zone offense, and we need to shore up our run defense. I’d really like to see Broncos blowout just to show people that the team is really coming together. But so far, we’re doing well. We’re winning and the team clearly has chemistry.

Tomorrow I fly to Barcelona, so I have to listen to the game on the NFL internet cast, assuming I’m awake for it (it’ll be the middle of the night over there) as I almost assuredly will be. See you all in a week and a half!