It’s Trick or Treat for the Broncos This Year

Hope all our readers have a safe and happy Halloween. Looking at the games the Broncos have played thus far, it isn’t a stretch to take the Trick or Treat theme of today’s holiday and relate it to the Broncos team thus far.

– The run defense has been inconsistent to say the least. Letting the worst rushing team in the NFL’s fourth string running back put up over 100 yards on our defense is simply insulting. It makes you scratch your head, too – we had just held Willie Parker to under 100 yards (partly due to the Steeler playcalling, to be certain), and follow that up with a piss poor performance against the Packers.

– The running offense, on the other hand, has been pretty good, sometimes great. Even with Travis Henry dealing with injury and possible suspension, we’ve found a running game against good defenses like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, and Selvin Young looks like he could be a nice find and a promising prospect for next season and beyond.

– We’ve been really hurt by injuries this year. It all started last year with injuries that have resulted in the absences of both Rod Smith and Al Wilson (seriously, if you had told me last year we would lose both these guys, I would have told you we were in trouble. Can we really be that surprised?). Add Ebenezer Ekuban, Tom Nalen, and Ben Hamilton‘s season ending injuries, along with long-to-short term ailments to Javon Walker, Tony Scheffler, John Lynch, and Champ Bailey, and we’re a regular MASH unit out there.

– For the most part, the backups have stepped in and done their job. Chris Kuper and Chris Myers looked really good against Pittsburgh, but the offensive line as a whole struggled to protect Cutler against Green Bay. Elvis Dumervil earned his starting spot after Ekuban went done and has done simply phenomenal. And Brandon Marshall and Brandon Stokley are doing a good job making Javon’s absence a little less noticeable.

– Our 3-4 record, and third place in the AFC West. Being below .500 is never good, and we need to play better, particularly at home.

– The toughest opponents on our schedule are behind us. We may be on the road for all but 3 games for the rest of the year, but most of them should be considered winnable games.

– Our athletes’ issues and incidents are keeping the fans’ focus off the field. Between Travis Henry’s pending suspension for smoking marijuana, Brandon Marshall’s recent DUI arrest (on top of his other marks this past offseason), and the always looming fear of our rookies toking up again, we have our fair share of the NFL Personal Conduct Policy covered. I’d love it if we could stop hearing our Broncos on the police blotter.

– It’s why they call the evening news the bad news… not enough focus on the guys who go about doing service in the community. Just check out the Broncos community development blog that’s all about the boys doing extra in the Denver area – from the Drive for Life to the Boys and Girls Club (including the new Darrent Williams Memorial Center planned) to their own personal foundations, the Broncos have more do-gooders than bad apples.

– It doesn’t look like this is the year we return to the Super Bowl, not with the two-headed monster that is the 2007 NFL and the Chargers bouncing back strong.

– Despite all our woes, we’re still a mere game behind first place in the AFC West, and as they say, anything can happen in January.

Again, Happy Halloween and Go Broncos!