NFL Scouting Report – Week Four

Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan is a notorious work-a-holic, rumored to research opponents weeks, if not months ahead of time. Instead of covering the entire NFL, what we at The Denver Bronco Talk Blog are doing is covering the NFL that you should care about. Every opponent the Denver Broncos face this season will get full weekly coverage from the first Sunday until the Broncos play them. As fans you will be able to focus on which player/team did what from week-to-week. Heck, you might even look better than Shanahan when the Broncos face off against a team that you’ve been scouting for the last six weeks.

Week 5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa’s defense may be the strongest defense that the Broncos face all season. The team is clicking on all cylinders (defensively) and held a very potent Green Bay Packers offense ineffective. They were even able to take Aaron Rodgers out for a bit and the Packers were forced to play backup quarterback Matt Flynn. Buccaneers kicker Matt Bryant, who tragically lost his six-month old son during the week, accounted for half of the team’s points with three field goals and three extra points.

Defensively, the Buccaneers have one similar flaw to Denver in their pass coverage, running the modified, “Tampa 2,” coverage- there are sure to be at least one or two moments when a Bronco receiver is wide open in-between coverage circles. The strength in Tampa’s defense is their strong linebackers.

Offensively, Tampa was, well pretty bad. Newly anointed starting quarterback and former Mike Shanahan protege Brian Griese threw three interceptions to only one touchdown and only 149 yards. The bottom line is that Griese has won eight of his last nine starts for Tampa and with him at quarterback, they never seem to be out of the game. Running back Earnest Graham and veteran Warrick Dunn have had their good games and their bad games, though neither appears to be a break-out sensation this season Graham can easily put up 125-150 against the Broncos defense. Graham is usually good for one giant spurt in his ground game and the Chief’s Larry Johnson ripped Denver with a simple counter- Tampa will be sure to test this weakness at least once or twice (Boss Bailey, D.J. Williams beware).

Ultimately, the battle of the Bays was won on turnovers, Tampa Bay had three interceptions and one forced fumble, Green Bay had three interceptions. Teams are going to key on Denver, turnover wise, now that Kansas City has exposed a weakness; so it will be important for Denver to pickup those few yards as Tampa tries to force a fumble. Those few yards, holding onto the ball and a stronger special teams will put Denver in a position to own this ball game throughout it’s entirety.

Week 6 Jacksonville Jaguars
Montell Williams looked a little like Devin Hester in his spectacular 41-yard direct snap on fourth down, he must have been touched by every member of the Houston Texans defense. The first time Denver saw this play was against the Oakland Raiders, but the Miami Dolphins made it mainstream in week two.

Gary Kubiak and Kyle Shanahan nearly escaped with the win in this one though, against a still strong Jacksonville defense. Josh Scobee kicked a game winning field goal for the second week in a row and the Jaguars now sit at 2-2 and in second place in the AFC South.

The Jaguars team showed no signs of improvement, quarterback David Garrard however did. With hardly a recognizable name at receiver Garrard threw for one touchdown, 236 yards and led the team in rushing yards with 41 yards on seven attempts. The Jaguars, while not able to hold the Texans’ passing game in check, held Houston’s running game down to just 79 yards (with Schaub picking up 24 of those). The storied Jaguar defense faces a hurting unit in Pittsburgh this week.

Week 7 @ New England Patriots
The Patriots were off in week four, but coming out of week three there were a couple questions surrounding the team: Who will be quarterback by week seven? Has Randy Moss turned it in for the season? How accurate of a gauge was the game against the Dolphins? Do the Patriots still matter in the AFC?  I fully expect New England to turn it around coming out of their bye and defeat an over-achieving team in the San Francisco 49ers. However, it continues to baffle me how a team that employs both Wes Welker and Moss can be ranked 28th in the league in passing. In the meantime, here’s something NSFW, directly related to football and the Patriots that you may find funny.

Week 8 Bye Week

Week 9 Miami Dolphins
Miami did so well in week three against the Patriots, that the NFL gave them week four off. Let’s see if last week was in any way legit, the Dolphins draw the San Diego Chargers in week five.

Week 10 @ Cleveland Browns
Romeo Crennel ignored, legendary Brown and executive adviser, Jim Brown who was calling for the replacement of Derek Anderson. Anderson repaid Crennel’s loyalty with a win, though barely. In week three the Cincinnati Bengals looked like they might have defeated the New York Giants, in week four it looked like they might have defeated the Cleveland Browns. Anderson threw for a whopping 138 yards, one touchdown and one interception and the Browns has a whole rounded together 261 yards of total offense. In Cleveland there is proof that money cannot buy you a playoff game, by the time Denver comes marching into town backup Brady Quinn will likely be starting.

Week 11 @ Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons rookie quarterback Matt Ryan threw 41 passes, yet all of the team’s points came off the leg of Jason Elam. The Falcons will need to prove that they can beat a good team before they can be considered a formidable foe.

Week 12 Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders appeared to be in full meltdown mode during their game against the Chargers. Coach Lane Kiffin, who was on his way out, had an opportunity to put the Raiders in scoring position late in the first half- yet the Raiders offense (with seconds left) walked slowly to the line before Kiffin finally called a timeout. To attempt a 76-yard field goal. What! This guy was screaming to be fired, even while cracking under pressure, the Raiders nearly defeated the Chargers in spite of themselves. By the time that this article hits the blog the Raiders will have hired a new head coach and he’ll be Tom Cable.

Week 13 @ New York Jets
Brett Favre went off against the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday. Let me correct that, Laveranues Coles went off, then Jericho Cotchery went off on the Cardinals. Any way you cut it, someone on the Jets put the Cardinals playoff hopes on the, “Hah!” line (in the first-half, at least). Then Kurt Warner put up 472 yards on the Jets defense, some running backs don’t run for that many yards in their career- Warner threw for that many in one game! Granted, Warner also fumbled four times and threw three interceptions, but imagine what Jay Cutler may be capable of doing against this defense…

Week 14 @ Kansas City Chiefs
At least Denver knows what not to do next time, sweep the leg… Just kidding, keep Boss Bailey on Tony Gonzalez, match Champ Bailey up with Dewayne Bowe (the whole game) and rush eight, as often as possible. On offense, stick with the no-huddle, hold onto the ball and put up 21-28 points per quarter. Sounds so easy, right?

Week 15 @ Carolina Panthers
This team has a legitimate shot at 12-4 (or better), sure, maybe they looked past their opponent a little this week. However, Atlanta did not score a touchdown on Carolina the whole game. If Jake Delhomme stays healthy, the media won’t be able to crown the NFC East sole proprietor of the NFC. Steve Smith looks as good as ever, combine Smith with Muhsin Muhammed and Carolina may have the most potent one/two punch at receiver this season in the NFL. Carolina did surrender 90 yards to penalties however and will continue to focus on improving that.

Week 16 Buffalo Bills
In my opinion last weekend was the beginning of a downward slope for Buffalo, they’re about to let their true colors shine through very soon. They only put up 276 yards against arguably the worst team in the NFL. Sure, a case can be made that Buffalo may not have needed to dig too deep in their playbook, but with teams like Arizona, San Diego and New England we shall see where they really stand in the AFC.

Week 17 @ San Diego Chargers
San Diego nearly lost to Oakland, I could make a strong case, that had Raiders’ coach Lane Kiffin not had a couple off (to put it lightly) calls- Oakland may have won this game. As hard as it is for me to say, I believe that San Diego can beat anyone in the NFL. Saying that, they could just as easily be 1-3 going into week five,

Week 4, who is the best in the NFL? I was looking towards Philadelphia, then they lost to Chicago on Monday night… New York (Giants) are not all that they’re cracked up to be and really, I don’t think that Dallas is either. Let’s say who’s the best in the AFC? Is it the Titans? Very talented defense, but I’m not sure, Buffalo- definitely not. Despite the Kansas City game, I truly believe that Denver, even with the defense can win against anyone in the AFC (no homer), but I do expect Indianapolis to get themselves together any moment now and would not want to see them in the playoffs. There’s always San Diego too.