Could the D Keep This Squad From Being Something Special?

Look around folks, Denver sits atop the AFC at 3-0 with Buffalo and the Titans as the only other undefeated teams in the conference.  That’s right, I said conference, not Division as in AFC West.  We all know things could change in a hurry and we’re also counting out the Ravens having an early bye week thanks to Ike.  But lets face it, the AFC definitely is not what it was last year and certainly not what it was expected to be this year.

First off, the obvious factoids.  Pats lose Tom Brady, you’d have to be dead not to know this one, but it puts the automatic favorites as a team struggling to make the playoffs in a blink of an eye.  Second, the Colts have something wrong.  What’s wrong with them?  Their offensive line.  I’m surprised they haven’t snatched back Gandy to help out.  With the Indy O-line not being themselves it’s left Manning and Addai discombobulated to say the least.

Pittsburgh looks tough, but not unbeatable.  They lost a close one to a very good Eagles team today and now Big Ben is out with an injured hand and an already beat up shoulder.  As for the other undefeated teams, we know we can take it to the Titans and Buffalo just sqeaked by Oakland today, not really a concern.  So where am I going with this?

If you’re east coast biased or like I said above, dead to the world, Denver’s offense has been dominant this season.  Great thing to hear, isn’t it?  We haven’t put up points like this since the Super Bowl days and haven’t posted a 3-0 record since 2003.  I would even venture to say our offense has looked even better than that of our 97 Championship team omitting the running game of course.  The media keeps saying Cutler has all these great weapons.  These are the same people that said Denver was made up of a young inexperienced mish mash of players last year.  Where I don’t think we’re the end all be all of NFL offenses, this group just seems to click.  More importantly they have role players that do just that, fill their role.  Scheffler is not the best all around TE in the game, but he is a killer down field.  Stokley is not an every down WR, but he gets open on key third downs.  Seriously, I could talk about this stuff all day people.

We are pulling ahead of team we still have to take very seriously in the Chargers.  After all, they caught us in this situation last year.  But this is a different year and a different team.  But it could be arguably the biggest shame in the history of the Broncos if we had a completely prolific Offense only to have our Defense squander everything.  By everything I mean a real shot at a Super Bowl.  That’s right bowl, not playoff contention, not hope to make the post-season, CHAMPIONSHIP.  Now I’ve always been pretty apologetic for my Broncos defense.  I always feel like they have just have a few things to tweak here or there to be great.  Last season it was “Oh, they’re just learning this new system”.  In seasons past, it’s been “Wow, the secondary looks great but the run D isn’t there”.  Oddly enough it’s also been the other way around.  But this season they haven’t given me much to hope for.

Trust me, my hope is still there.  It’s not for lack of talent.  The defense is loaded with it.  I’m not going to repeat the merits of what we have, just that I thought we made all the right upgrades in the off-season.  Is it just Slowik finding his way as a first time coordinator?  The unit needing to gel a little more after bringing in new faces?  I don’t have that answer, but it has me concerned.  They have shored up our run stopping problems from last season, I will give them that.  Also, moving D.J. back to his old spot has made him an absolute beast once again.  The Saints game today was his coming out party as Earl mentioned earlier.  Other than those two pieces, this squad has given me nothing to get excited about.

Yes, we held the Raiders in check by only allowing 14 points in garbage time.  I thought it was a sign of things to come, but the last two games have shown it was just the lousy Raiders.  We have faced two very good offenses in these past match ups but we have not been able to stop a team on their own side of the field for the most part.  Today we made the Saints punt once, just once.  We also had that nice turnover, but no other bright spots here.  Drew Brees was able to play field general on us all day, much like Marmalard last week.   Here’s a few fun little facts that need to be locker room bulletin board material: Weeks two and three combined Denver has given up 798 yards passing. ESPN’s general consensus on the defense going into week three: “Over-rated! Seriously, could there be a more overrated pair of cornerbacks in football than Denver’s? No doubt Drew Brees, even sans Marques Colston, can give this team fits.”

We’ll see how we do against middle of the pack and lower end teams in the coming weeks.  We need to figure out how to shut down the middle and underneath soft spots in the secondary and for the love of all that is football get a pass rush.  But mark my words, if the Defense doesn’t get it’s crap together quickly this team will lose out at a shot for something special.  2008 could be a one year opportunitly for Denver to shock the league as a rising powerhouse against a conference on a downward spiral.