Looking Ahead at the Schedule – Weeks 7-10

The players are now headed for their four-day vacation destination of choice. It’s their only weekend off during the four month football season, so many have been looking forward to the chance to get out there and relax a bit. As long as I don’t hear about their activities on the police blotter, that’s alright with me!

When they come back, they better be focused, because they still have 11 games to play to try and turn this thing around. And it doesn’t get any easier for quite awhile.

Since there isn’t a ton to talk about during the bye week, I figured I’d post quick scouting reports on the remaining teams on our schedule. I’ll do it in 3 sections – Weeks 7-10, Weeks 11-14, then Weeks 15-17 to finish it out.

Week 7 – Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1, 1-1 away)

Average Points Scored: 26.4 (5th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 9.4 (1st NFL)
Remaining Schedule: BYE

The Pittsburgh Steelers easily represent the greatest challenge left on our entire schedule, and the way this team is looking right now they will be tough to beat. They are on a bye week as well, neutralizing that potential advantage, and will hope to follow-up their performance against the Seahawks this past Sunday (a 21-0 shutout). Our first prime time game of the year will be a tough one, there’s no doubt. We’ll have plenty more on the guys from Steel Town as the BYE week progresses, so I’ll move on.

Week 8 – Green Bay Packers (4-1, 2-0 away)

Average Points Scored: 25.0 (8th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 18.6 (12th NFL)
Remaining Schedule: WAS, BYE

Brett Favre and the Packers finally lost a game to the resurgent Chicago Bears, in a story that may seem familiar to Broncos fans. Home game against last year’s division winner, who is struggling, and turned the ball over enough to give themselves no shot at winning. Until this game Favre has done a remarkable job taking care of the football, and many people credit that (along with their young, often-stifling defense) for the team’s surprising success thus far.

What the Packers do lack is a running game, ranking 31st at 67.6 ypg (ahead of only the Chiefs). This is why I see this as a beatable game. The Packers have relied on an air attack to beat their opponents, and the Broncos still rank 1st in pass defense. I see our corners shutting down their receivers, and the Packers lack a real threat at running back and tight end (the positions that have simply destroyed us the past two or three weeks). If our offense can score some points, I can see us winning and winning impressively, somewhere along the lines of 28-17 on Monday Night.

Week 9 – @ Detroit Lions (3-2, 2-0 home)

Average Points Scored: 26.4 (5th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 31.0 (31st NFL)
Remaining Schedule: BYE, TB, @CHI

Jon Kitna‘s preseason prediction of a 10-6 season looks possible this point in the season, as the Lions offense is doing everything a Mike Martz offense should be doing. Mostly through the air, the Lions are putting up the 5th best points in the NFL each week and show no signs of slowing (even rookie stud Calvin Johnson went down and the Lions didn’t lose a beat).

Much like the Packers, the Lions are a beatable team because they rely so heavily on the air attack to beat their opponents. Again, this plays to our strengths. They’re ranked 30th in the run game (72.8 ypg) behind Tatum Bell and the healthy looking Kevin Jones.

Coming off a brutal loss to the Redskins last week (34-3), the Lions are heading deep into the toughest part of their schedule, with games against the Buccaneers and Bears after their bye this week. Then they face the Broncos. They may beat the Bucs, but I doubt it, and I’m certain the Bears will handle them this time on their home turf. They could be angry at their three game losing streak, with their backs against a wall mentality. I still think we’ll win, in a close one, something along the lines of 24-20.

Week 10 – @ Kansas City Chiefs (2-3, 1-1 home)

Average Points Scored: 12.6 (31st NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 16.6 (9th NFL)
Remaining Schedule: CIN, @OAK, BYE, GB

The Chiefs were controlling their own destiny after they upset the Chargers in San Diego two weeks ago. After their loss to Jacksonville – almost a shutout, if not for the (literally) last second touchdown toss by Brodie Croyle – they now find themselves tied with the Broncos and Chargers at 2-3 for the year and 1-1 in the division. The quarterback controversy in Kansas City may continue for the next few weeks, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Damon Huard on the bench by the time the Broncos come into town on November 11.

Their defense is the real story, and the only thing really keeping them in games. They could cause the Broncos fits if we haven’t started adding points to our yardage totals by then. Their statistics on offense are low – surprisingly low even, as the Larry Johnson led running attack ranks dead last in the NFL at 65.6 ypg. I still respect Johnson as a back more than Detroit or Green Bay’s versions, and think this could be a real challenge as the Chiefs would look to get the ground game going often and early.

Preseason this is a game I (and many other fans) were penciling in a win, for the first time in a long time. It’s safe to say it won’t be as easy as many had anticipated due to our numerous struggles on defense, and playing in Arrowhead in a rivalry game we consistently lose won’t make it any easier. I think it’ll be a close one that goes down to the wire, with few points scored on either team, and could go either way. If the Broncos have improved on offense by then we could give them a run for the money. I think we will, and predict 17-14 Broncos win.

It would take a huge turnaround to beat the Steelers next week, and at this point I just don’t see it happening. Luckily we have three winnable games to look forward to after that, which would move us up to 5-4 for the season at that point. I’ll be breaking down early previews of the next games in the days ahead. Go Broncos!