Broncos 34, Cleveland 30: What a game!

This is a game that started off miserably and looked to get worse. By the fourth quarter, the usual cast of negative nellies in the liveblog were crowing about how it was over, calling every throw an interception. And indeed, this game had the potential to be another nasty blowout, like Kansas City or New England.

Then something magical happened. Jay Cutler connected with Eddie Royal for a single play variant of The Drive that ignited the offense and inspired the defense.

Up until that point, though, things were bad. Cutler threw a pick early, which was turned into 7 points. Torain went down in only the 2nd quarter, not even making it half a game as the featured back. He had 68 yards and a touchdown only only 12 carries, and though he looked a little raw and perhaps sometimes hesitant, he was the most electric runner we’ve seen all season, able to use finesse or power to achieve the result. But he landed on his knee badly. The team is currently calling it a sprained knee. With the Broncos taking the next 3 days off, we may not hear much about Torain until Monday, though we can hope for some kind of a report tomorrow.

Matt Prater missed only his third field goal on the season.

Tony Scheffler made some fantastic catches, but as usual he sacrificed his body for the good of the team, and he was walking around like a man who probably shouldn’t have been on the field. But with the running game simply annihilated by injuries, Scheffler’s mere presence was a key factor in the game. Even if he’s not making the catch, he’s drawing attention away from Eddie Royal, who had 162 yards and a touchdown today, or Brandon Marshall who had 89 yards and a score of his own.

In the first quarter, the Browns ripped the Broncos for 53 yards on the ground. It looked like it was going to be a long game with the defensive line unable to hold their gaps and the linebackers consistently overpursuing and leaving big holes allowing Jamal Lewis to pick up chunks of yardage. But the defense managed to settle down and play a little bit more disciplined, doing better against the run and leaving it up to Brady Quinn to beat the defense in the air.

Unfortunately, beat them through the air he did. Despite moving to a tighter man coverage defense and trusting the safeties to cover up top more than we’ve previously seen, Brady Quinn completed a lot of short yardage, high percentage throws that tended to favor the tight end. In fact, Dre Bly blanketed Braylon Edwards all day — Edwards’ only reception came on a Bly blitz that Quinn nimbly dodged, leaving him free to toss an easy one to the completely uncovered Edwards. But other than that, Bly had the man covered.

The danger was Winslow, who caught 10 balls for 111 yards and two touchdowns. What was absolutely fascinating is that both of those touchdowns came with Elvis Dumervil right in Quinn’s face. But Quinn showed no fear. He was calm in the face of impending doom and launched a perfect ball right to Winslow who simply bullied defenders out of his way. The Broncos linebackers have speed, but they are a poor match for a body like Winslow, and the Broncos safeties are just not good at covering him. I’m not sure how many times Quinn picked himself up off the turn to run 15 yards to the new line of scrimmage, but it was way too many.

Another name I expected to hear a lot tonight? Karl Paymah. But he quietly kept his side of the field covered. He was allowed to play close to his receiver, and he did a good job in coverage. He also had a fantastic special teams save, and recovered the fumble which represents the only turnover for the Broncos defense all night. In all, Paymah has had two surprisingly strong games as Bailey’s replacement, and at this point I would be unsurprised if we see a push to get him signed to a decent extension to prevent him from hitting the free agent market in the offseason. With Bailey and Bly both over 30, there’s no telling how long we’ll be able to keep them and Paymah is earning himself a job.

What else did we see tonight? Jamie Winborn and Wesley Woodyard simply being everywhere, registering 22.5 tackles between them. Woodyard would often be seen getting into the backfield to get after Jamal Lewis, though he did have issues getting off blocks. Still, he showed a great amount of promise, and for a rookie playing in relief of DJ Williams, he did a simply surprisingly good job. We also saw Niko Koutovides come in to replace Nate Webster, look like he was playing at practice speed, and quickly come back off the field replaced by Louis Green. I’m not sure but I think Woodyard actually moved to the middle. K2 (our K2, not the Brown’s) notched only half a tackle.

Another name that surprised me tonight was Calvin Lowry, who was playing more over the top to give Bly more freedom as a ball hawk. Bly got his hands on a couple of Quinn’s passes, but he wasn’t able to reel them in. But Bly was responsible for the strip of Kellen Winslow (recovered by Paymah) and he kept Edwards quiet. He didn’t even give Edwards the opportunity to have the dropsies in this game.

Speaking of that fumble forced and recovered, it came right after Royal’s 93 yard touchdown saunter. If a single play 93 yard drive isn’t enough to light a spark in an offense, getting the ball back immediately sure helped. That fumble led to a 10 play, 62 yard touchdown drive capped off by a 28 yard touchdown catch by none other than Daniel Graham, who had his own case of the dropsies earlier in the game.

But more important than that was when a valiant attempt to keep Jamal Lewis from getting less than a yard in two plays just barely failed and the Broncos were once again under the gun, down by 3 with the clock ticking away, probably the single most important play of the game, Peyton Hillis struggled and through a sheer force of will, converted a must have fourth and one. A rookie seventh round draft pick out of Arkansas who just had a career game as a receiving fullback, now giving his all to be a tailback when none of the others are able to walk onto the field, and this kid converts when it counts. And it wasn’t an easy yard to gain, either. He was stopped, and he fought for every inch, stretching out and putting the ball exactly where it had to go. I hope he got to keep that ball, because he deserved it.

And finally, that drive ended with Cutler and Marshall back in perfect sync, putting just the right touch on a lob into the endzone where only Marshall had a play on the ball for Cutler’s 3rd touchdown of the night…and the quarter. But was it too soon? With a minute and fourteen long seconds left, and Brady Quinn looking like Tom Brady in the pocket, it sure was a nailbiter, wondering if the defense could keep him out of the endzone.

But he couldn’t do it. After a 9 yard completion to Winslow that looked like it was going to be the start of the end of the game for the Broncos, the defense stopped two and Kellen Winslow dropped one, the most important ball of the game — for the Browns, at least — and that was it. Four and out, a beautiful ending, where a defense that had been beaten up, battered and bruised but without giving up, managed to live up to its end of the bargain.

Cutler, Royal, Graham and Marshall got the Broncos back into the game, and the defense, despite all its failings this season, managed to win it. Jarvis Moss even showed up and is starting to contribute, at least a little bit.

Now the team gets the next three days off, to do whatever they will. The hope is that they will heal themselves up. Get one of the running backs able to stay in for an entire game, that would be a start. People like to blame Cutler for mistakes, but when no one is afraid of the running game, and a team becomes one dimensional, the passing game is a lot harder to pull off. Go ask Peyton Manning, who is struggling with the same problem over in Indianapolis. If the other team isn’t afraid of the run, the rushers come more freely and the coverage gets tighter. There are more bad throws, more picks, and more frustrated helmet tossing on the sidelines. And when the defense is too afraid of the run, there are days when Damon Huard looks like Tom Brady because the team is so afraid of the run they make mistakes in coverage.

What are we going to do if Torain’s knee turns out to be a bad sprain, or worse? I don’t know. Cedric Benson got signed last week or I’d say we go for him. There’s not much out there on the market. Wali Lundy, anyone? We could probably get him for a song. And we possibly should anyway, we’re so thin there.

But we’ve got five wins, a game up on the Chargers, and a few days to think about the Falcons and how we’ll give Matt Ryan an opportunity for a perfect passer rating. Until then, though, this is a victory worth savoring.

And let’s savor Eddie Royal, who now has 52 receptions for 625 yards and 4 touchdowns on the season. The second round pick that made the entirely of the NFL world go “Watchoo talkin’ ’bout Willis?” when he was drafted. I’d say if the draft were a do over today we wouldn’t have gotten a shot at him. If you’re counting, the league leader is Andre Johnson with 834 yards, and Marshall isn’t doing too shabby with 714 yards of his own. Seriously, can we lock these two up with ten year contracts?

We may not even go to the playoffs this season. The defense is too patchwork, lacking quality safeties, and we just aren’t likely to get a running game yet this season. But there’s no doubt, watching these games, that we’ve got a shot at building a dynasty team if we have just one more good draft. An impact safety and an impact defensive tackle could turn the defense around just like that, and the offense just needs a little more discipline, and a running game that scares a defense enough to keep the downfield threats a little more open.

That’s not asking too much is it?