One game later than it needed to be, the Broncos dominate

And oh, did they dominate. They clicked in every phase of the game en route to a 41-7 victory over the Chiefs. Special teams coverage was beautiful, often tackling on first contact and rarely letting it go too badly when the first contact wasn’t enough. Jamie Winborn and Paul Smith both made plays worthy of praise. These are two important special teamers, and it’s very, very good to see our special teams playing well.

The defense. Holy cow, is this the same defense that gave Justin Fargas a revolving door? I realize the Chiefs don’t have a lot of gas, but they had nothing, the entire game. Tony Gonzalez was the only factor in that game, and that’s it. Dumervil got 3 sacks, putting him at 11, meaning he has 3 games to get 4 more sacks to get his 15. With Houston and their weak O-line coming up, there is a chance, still. This is something I would like to see.

But the offense. It came out, both guns blazing on the first drive, and never let up. Cutler was beautiful. Nobody had the dropsies. Marshall, Cutler and Graham both put up their best games to date; Stokley was a solid pro, and Martinez managed to contribute as well.

But really, does Selvin Young deserve Rookie of the Week consideration or what? He opened with a 50 yard run and set the tone, and that tone stayed throughout the entire game. Henry still looks hurt, and Young looks good. There’s always the question of whether or not Young can handle the load, but I think Young is a back that we have to keep. If Young’s durability is an issue, I have no problem with a two back system of Young and Hall, though I would worry a bit about the power run game between the two. We haven’t seen enough of Hall to know if he can drive the rock up the middle.

Looking at the schedules, we need some help from the Chargers — they need to lose 2 of their next 3 and we need to sweep. That means they somehow have to lose to the Lions, and when that fails, we actually need Oakland to do us a favor and beat the Chargers. The Titans were our best chance of the Charger’s going down.

For a wildcard, a lot needs to happen, and mostly it includes the Browns having a catastrophic meltdown along with a couple of other teams. That seems highly unlikely at this point. Worse, the Texans and Vikings are both playing stronger at the end of the season than the beginning, so our end of season soft schedule isn’t looking as soft as it once did. The Vikings defense is sensational, and the Texans have a pretty good front four which is the kind of thing that can give the current Broncos’ O-line problems.

I’d say our chances of getting to the playoffs are currently under about 20%. There’s still a chance, but a lot of things have to happen that don’t seem all that likely. And it also means having to root for the Raiders, which is that much harder after the embarassing loss last week.

And after this week it’s way too easy to just assume we can win anything, but the Chargers and the Broncos both have similar problems right now: Nobody can ever tell which version of the team is going to show up on game day. The thing we lack most is consistency — and on bad days the team, as a group, just makes too many mistakes to be true playoff contenders.

AP Game Recap/Photo Courtesy