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Published on 09/15/2008 at Mon Sep 15 17:11.
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Brandon Marshall Makes 140 Catches Look Easy

Posted Mon Sep 15th by

Brandon Marshall crazy catch Chargers
Yes, Marshall caught this one, too. (Getty Images)

Wide receiver Brandon Marshall‘s offseason goal of 140 catches in 2008 was well documented, as was the prohibitive difficulty of the task. Only Colts WR Marvin Harrison has had more in a single season. Marshall would have to average 8.75 catches per game to reach his goal, given a full-16 game slate. With a one-game suspension to add to the task, it looked all but impossible.

A 39-38 thrilling victory over the Chargers later, and Marshall’s goal doesn’t just look attainable – it looks eclipse-able. Marshall set a Broncos franchise record with 18 receptions Sunday, gaining 166 yards and one TD along with countless first downs. His day left him tied for second in NFL history in single game receptions. With one game, he’s already back on pace to set the record (something we will officially be calling Marshall Watch all season long).

If his two game average in receptions equals the past two games (really one game), he’ll reach his goal and break the record with 144 receptions. If it’s anywhere in between his one- and two-game averages, he’ll smash it.

Let’s look at some other Broncos stat projections:

Jay Cutler has completed 52 passes (2nd in NFL) out of 74 attempts for 650 yards (1st in NFL). He has six touchdowns (T-1st in NFL) and one interception for a QB Rating of 118.6. If those numbers hold up all year, Cutler will finish with 5200 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions. Those are mind-blowing numbers. I’ll be the first to admit that that’s just a very early and inaccurate look at what they will be come Week 17, but they’re fun to look at nonetheless.

Running game – Selvin Young predicted a 2,000 yard season, but sorry, Selvin – that ain’t happening. He has 114 yards on only 15 carries, but the combined effort of Broncos runners look like they will really do some damage. The rushing attack has gained 286 yards in two games, good for 143 yards a pop and 2,288 yards in 16 games.

The two-headed monster of Young and Andre Hall have toted the rock 32 times for 206 yards – a 6.4 yard average. The Broncos have a league-leading four rushing touchdowns on the season – three by Michael Pittman – that equates to 32 rushing scores over a 16-game season. That’s a lot more than 10 – the rushing touchdown total of last year.

Super Eddie Royal is also projecting quite well. The rookie has 183 yards in two games and two touchdowns, bolstered by a strong Week One performance of 146 yards. He has 14 receptions thus far – if he can keep up an average of 6.14 catches per game, he’ll give the Broncos another 100 receptions on the season. In 2000, Broncos WRs Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey became just the second tandem in NFL history to pull off such a feat.

This Broncos offense looks unbelievable. The defense and special teams have me nervous, but this offense looks like it could make up for just about any unit in the NFL.

  • Steve

    I beleive our defense will get better as the season goes. They faced about as tough an offense as they will and held them off during the first half. IN the second half it was big plays and an inability to get them off the field on third down that killed our D. As our D gels hopefully those are things that will improve as the season goes. I think Jack Williams should be in instead of Paymah as Paymah has been a weak link in the first two games at least Jack Williams has play making abilities. Our defense will improve but I dont know if it can get beyond just average but with our O an average D would be great. There is no doubt about it that our offense is going to steamroll this year, we will have a lot of 30+ point games this year. My only concern on offense is it seems like we may be depending on the pass too much. With a average D we need to keep the ball longer on offense.

  • Richard

    THe numbers are impressive if projected over the season, and I agree that the O is one of the best I’ve seen. But lets look at the Chargers. Not this years version, the 80’s version, aka air Coryell.

    Don Coryell put together one of the most famous and explosive Offenses in the history of the NFL.

    But then how many championships did they win. Well, no Lombardi trophies. And why was that? Dan Fouts, John Jefferson, Chuck Muncie, Kellen Winslow et al, and a monster oline were regularly scoring touchdown after touchdown with drives that lasted 1-2 minutes at most. They played shoot out football week after week, but they had a fatal flaw.

    Their Defense for many years was run by a guy named John Bass who had a big problem. His guys were always on the field, because of the lightning pace the O was scoring. The Charges D were usually gassed by halftime. Regularly leading by 3 TDs or more only to lose the game in the last few minutes to lesser teams.

    What I see in this years Broncos echos some of those traits. The O is phenomenally explosive. Thats great. We can score almost at will this year if we keep the pressure on. Our Oline is excellent, and should be getting better as the season progresses. Unfortunately, our Defense is looking too much like the old Chargers, except they had a pass rush. THe old guys were effective in the first quarter, then died from exhaustion by the half. We don’t seem to be able to generate anything that resembles one. That concerns me, because later in the season we’re going to need it, and I see no indication that we are improving on that side of the ball.

    Granted, Shanahan is smart enough to slow things down and keep our drives 5-6 minutes, something Don Coryell never learned to do. But it does concern me that our defense isn’t making it and I don’t see it improving.

    The O stats are great, unfortunately, the D stats are quite frightening.

  • dbroncos

    Well obviously he wont get 18 catches a week but if he does is looking at 270 catches.

  • LorDog

    Richard..good insight from an historical perspective! I agree about the D. Where’s the pass rush? They are not getting totally buried at the line but they’re not really winning either. Furthermore, SD started picking on Paymah and knew instantly that they found the weak link and exposed him for the remainder. Hate to say it, but Foxworth would not have been much better. D’will was our man from that draft and we’ve been hurting ever since his death in the secondary. I haven’t seen Jack Williams play much, but am praying he’ll be solid and SOON. Finally, special teams and the big play run defense. It’s one thing to give up 5-6 yards on a run but we can’t let the big play go. Sproles ate our lunch. On special teams they were able to bury them once when he miffed the catch. Can’t count on that very much. We’ve got to make the tackle!!
    Anyway, great point about an explosive offense not necessarily being a golden ticket to the playoffs. It sure is fun to watch though!
    GO BRONCOS!

  • http://broncotalk.net Ben

    I think the d wasn’t too shabby, it’s def. a bend but dont break style. The yardage against them was bolstered by 2-3 check down passes that went for huge yardage.

  • Kawike

    The defense is definitely extremely explosive, but they have what it takes to run down the clock and get first down after first down. It isn’t just big chunks of yardage to the endzone or nothing. What I saw on the field against the chargers was a very methodical offense. In case you missed it, the offense did put together an 8+ minute drive using mostly short passes before the interception in the endzone. Obviously, this team has the capability to make the big play when needed, but they also have the ability to develop long drives that will wear a defense out.

  • Kawike

    The *offense* is definitely extremely explosive

  • flbronc

    richard- good point and i agree with you to a degree. another offense to look at would be the ‘greatest show on turf’ Rams. They seemed to do a bit better with an explosive offense and decent defense.

    the defense worries me especially with paymah and our safeties. if we can jump up on a team and force them to play from behind we need two things, excellent coverage on thier recievers and a good pass rush. we have bly and bailey who i have confidence in and nothing else in coverage, and we couldnt get any pressure to speak of last week. i hope we dont use a single draft pick on offense next year.

    our special teams will kill us if they keep playing the way they do. almost every team we play has a kick returner capable of bringing the ball back for a td. lets just kick it out of bounds and take the penalty.

  • Richard

    Flbronc
    you’re right about the greatest show on turf, but I used Air Coryell because they were the extreme example of bad clock mgmt. Shanahans instinct to start eating the clock on drives in the third quarter was the right way to go, we just didn’t get that part of the O going. Something we should have a discussion on in future.

    The D is still the red headed stepchild of this team, and the 2009 draft should be used mostly on that side of the ball.