Denver Broncos: Week 7 State of the Franchise

Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley (R) celebrates his fourth quarter touchdown against the San Diego Chargers with teammate linebacker Mario Haggan in the fourth quarter of their Monday Night NFL football game in San Diego, California October 19, 2009. The Broncos won the game. (REUTERS/Fred Greaves)

The latest weekly goodness from the Broncos. View the full press release here (.pdf).

Following their 34-23 win at San Diego on Monday Night Football, the Denver Broncos (6-0) join five other NFL teams with a bye for Week 7 of the 2009 season. The club resumes play on Nov. 1 when it visits Baltimore to play the Ravens (3-3), who also have a bye this week.

QUICKLY:

• The Broncos enter their bye week without a loss for only the third time since the bye week was introduced by the NFL in 1990. Denver, which is one of four teams with a perfect record this year, also was undefeated at its bye week in 1997 and ‘98 (6-0).
• Head Coach Josh McDaniels is the fourth rookie coach in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to begin his coaching career with a 6-0 record. He joins Red Miller (1977) as one of two Broncos coaches with that distinction.

• The Broncos have been one of the NFL’s best teams in the second half this year. They have outscored opponents 76-10 (+66) while posting a 1,368-605 (+763) advantage in total yardage and a 112:07-72:44 (+39:23) advantage in time of possession during the final two quarters/overtime.
• In the game following a bye week, the Broncos are tied for the third best record (15-5 / .750) in the league since the bye week began in 1990.

OFFENSE:

• QB Kyle Orton is 9-1 in his previous 10 starts dating back to last year and ranks third among active quarterbacks in career winning percentage (.692 / 27-12).
• Orton’s only turnover this year was on a Hail Mary pass attempt vs. New England on Oct. 11. He leads the NFL in fourth-quarter passer rating (142.1), touchdown-to-interception ratio (9-to-1) and lowest interception
  percentage (0.5 / 1-in-194).
• Led by RBs Correll Buckhalter and Knowshon Moreno, along with their offensive line, the Broncos are seventh in the league in rushing yards per game (132.7 ypg.). The Broncos lead the league in lowest percentage of rushes going for negative yardage (4.4% / 8-of-181 / excludes kneeldowns).

DEFENSE:

• Coached by long-time NFL defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, the Broncos rank first in the NFL in scoring defense (11.0), second in yards per game allowed (262.5 ypg.) and second in yards per play allowed (4.4).
• Denver has not allowed a third-down conversion in the second half of its last four games for the longest such streak in the NFL since at least 1992. For the year, opponents are converting just 2-of-35 (5.7%) third downs in the second half.
• OLB/DE Elvis Dumervil leads the NFL with 10 sacks. He is the second-fastest player (6 games) to reach 10 sacks since they became an official statistic in 1982 (fastest since Michael Strahan in 2001, 6 gms.).

SPECIAL TEAMS:

• WR Eddie Royal became only the 11th player in NFL history to score a touchdown on a kickoff (93 yds.) and a punt return (71 yds.) in the same game at San Diego last week. He was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week following the contest.
• With two return touchdowns this year, Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer has now coached units that have accounted for nine specialteams touchdowns in his eight years in the NFL.