Listening to Sirius NFL Radio yesterday and was able to catch a caller’s question to Shannon Sharpe (who co-hosts with Brian McGovern) regarding the Broncos. Here’s what was said:

Caller: Hey I got some questions, especially for Shannon. What’s going on with the Denver Broncos? You’ve got to be watching your old team – I mean, I’ve been kinda expecting here the defense to be a little slow off the ball, and slowly gelling as the year moves along in the new Jim Bates system. I expected the Special Teams to be getting better with them bringing that guru in there [edit: Scott O’Brien], but their offense is not that good. I was watching them, and I was actually really impressed with the first half at Indy. They were up on Indy, they were ahead at one point, they held ’em, they were right in the game until the end of the first half. And then they lost the game, but I kinda expected that being the game was in Indianapolis, but I mean… last week, that wasn’t the same team that showed up. What’s going on with these guys?

Shannon: Well, let’s start with the defensive side of the football. They can’t stop the run. They have patchwork guys trying to get [indecipherable] men’s work done. They’re just not very good defensively. I’m not so sure if you take Champ Bailey and Dre Bly out of that defense, that you don’t want really anyone else. D.J. Williams is playing out of position. Ian Gold is playing his [D.J.’s] position but is playing all over the field, and Nate Webster, uh, he’s a guy. He plays well, but I don’t know if that’s a guy you say you’re pinning your hopes on getting it done. Elvis Dumervil – he can do some things. He can rush the passer, he’s a lot better playing the run than I anticipated…

BM: Yeah.

Shannon: ...and I think a lot better than a lot of people anticipated. I don’t know if the offense is that bad, but Jay Cutler has not progressed in my estimation. When I look at it, I see the same guy, making the same mistakes that he made last year, and when you can run the ball – I mean they have Travis Henry who is the second leading rusher in the National Football League – there’s no reason. Well obviously with Javon Walker being out, that hurts them, because you’re now counting on Brandon Marshall being a #1 receiver when you’re really counting on him to be a #2 receiver.

But defensively, they can’t stop the run. And if you can’t stop the run, you can’t win in the NFL. Period.

BM: How about Shanahan saying he was embarassed? You know, and we saw half of that stadium gone in that third quarter, Shannon. You don’t see that a whole lot in Denver.

Shannon: I was embarassed! And I don’t even play! So imagine how they felt!

BM: Tough spot. 41-3, I mean, geeze.

Shannon: At home! At home!

BM: Made Rivers look like Johnny Unitas!

Shannon: You know, I’m trying to think. I think the worst I got beat in my career was probably 41-19. The Raiders beat us one year, 1994, I believe 41-19.

BM: That’s not terrible.

Shannon: No… [pause]… Denver really was never in that game.

BM: No.

Shannon: I mean, because they drove right down the field and scored. And when San Diego kicked off, they get the ball back and they’re already right back in the end zone. So it’s 14-0 with 3 minutes gone, uh, 4 minutes off the clock. And your offense, Denver’s offense, has not even been on the field yet. And they’re down 14-0.

BM: That’s a bad loss. I mean, where do you go from here now? You talk about Cutler, he’s not making the plays he made last year. And obviously Javon Walker and that injury has something to do with it, here, that’s clear. But you have the bye week now, and you come out of the bye week with two huge games, and they’re both at home. Again, this Bronco team at home loses to San Diego, lost to Jacksonville in week 3. You come out of the bye – Steelers, Packers, at home. Welcome back.

Shannon: You know what? You knew they were living on borrowed time. They struggled in Buffalo. They struggled at home against the Raiders ball club. So you knew they were playing with the devil’s money. When you do that, and if you’re they type of team… If you’re the type of team you think you are, if you’re a playoff caliber team, you don’t struggle at Buffalo. You don’t struggle at home. And now, the Raiders may be a little better than we thought, we’ll see how that plays out. But there’s no way, I mean, they were in control of that ball game, and then all of a sudden the Raiders started running the football.

BM: They moved the ball all over the field against the Bills! They almost had 500 yards! And they had 15 points.

Shannon: And what did it come down to? Turnovers at the one position you could ill afford to have the guy that touches the football every single play prone turn it over. And Jay Cutler has been prone… I looked at the interception he threw early in the game, down the middle to Marlon McCree. I don’t see what he saw. No once can convince me he should have thrown that ball. He can’t convince me, Mike can’t, the offense, nobody can convince me, because I dont’ see what he saw. He’s not playing… now, I don’t know if the offense is that bad, I don’t know if it’s the offensive line, I don’t know what’s going on. But I haven’t seen the same conviction that I saw last year.

Part 2 of my series looking ahead at the Broncos schedule, and our chances to win. If you missed yesterday’s edition scroll down or check it out here – Weeks 7-10.

The bottom line with these four games is simple – we’ve got to win the close games. Teams like the Bears and Titans are struggling in their own ways, and we will have to put a better product on the field to compete with these teams.

Week 11 – Tennessee Titans (3-1, 2-0 away)

Average Points Scored: 21.0 (16th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 14.8 (6th NFL)
Remaining Schedule: @TB, @HOU, OAK, CAR, JAC

The Broncos’ second foray into Monday Night Football this season will be touted as the clash of the draft class, as quarterbacks Vince Young and Jay Cutler will square off in the first meeting between the two 2006 first round draft picks. Hidden behind the Vince Young spotlight is the Tennessee defense, which is quietly coming together to form one of the bigger playmaking defenses in the league. Across the league, they rank 6th in points allowed, 5th in yards, and 3rd in run defense.

Vince Young didn’t amaze people through the air last year – the plays he made on the ground helped lead the Titans to a remarkable 8-4 finish after starting 0-4 last year. His stats thus far – 62/100 (62%) for 583 yards with 3 TDs and 5 INTs, and a quarterback rating of 67.2. Rushing however, he’s carried the rock 29 times for 123 yards and a touchdown.

It’s the running game of the Titans, along with the solid defense, that will cause the Broncos fits. I don’t see our defense having much of a chance once Young takes off, and I can see our offensive line struggling against the Tennessee playmakers on their defensive line (particularly Albert Haynesworth in the middle and Kyle Vanden Bosch on the edge). This one scares me – I think we could end up losing big by double digits in our current state. If we’ve righted the ship we could pull out a win. Vince Young might give us the game too – he threw three picks last week and could throw more against our corners. Right now though, I’m guessing 27-17 Titans win with very few passing plays.

Week 12 – @ Chicago Bears (2-3, 1-2 away)

Average Points Scored: 17.4 (22nd NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 23.0 (21st NFL)
Remaining Schedule: MIN, @PHI, DET, BYE, @OAK, @SEA

The Bears are hoping their big win in Green Bay will be the launching point for the rest of their season. Looking at their schedule up to their bye, you could easily conjure up a scenario where they win the next 3 and head into Oakland at 5-3. Depending on how legit the Raiders are, and how well the Seahawks bounce back from their tough shutout loss last week, they may win both their next or lose both. I’d guess 1-1 and say they’ll be heading strong in their game against the Broncos at around 6-4.

In other words, they’ve had a tough schedule so far and look to bounce back big by the time they face Denver.

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• Come on, Rockies, keep it going!  1-0 in the NLCS after their handling of the best the D-Backs have to offer.  Pinch me! – Purple Row
• Young players stepping up will be the key to turning this thing around. – Denver Post
• Judge has granted Travis Henry three weeks to file motions, meaning he’ll be playing football through October. – Denver Post
• The case will be closely watched, as some say it will be a landmark victory if Henry were to win against the strict league procedures. – Denver Post
• How many linebackers can you work out in two days?  If you’re the Denver Broncos, the answer is 9. – Rocky Mountain News
• Vinny Testeverde was on the street this time last week.  Sunday he’ll likely be starting for the Panthers.  Hilarious read on the Six Degrees of Separation of Vinny – Rumors and Rants

My Fox Colorado reports that Travis Henry, along with the NFL Players Association, will be receiving a letter indicating that Henry has five days to appeal a one-year suspension from the league. You can find the quick report below, but it seems to me that this letter is happening while the trial is pending in New York. Again, this is my personal interpretation of the report, but I don’t see anything telling me that Henry’s B Sample would be or has been tested. In fact, the report suggests that the league may just be going through the motions with the suspension at this time, despite the pending litigation (added emphasis in the quote below).

I’m a bit confused to say the least. How can they officially suspend Henry without the confirming B sample? Yet the court case won’t influence the “in house” NFL suspension/appeal process?

If someone out there can clarify this, please, post a comment below. I’m off to work in a few, if anything more happens we’ll do our best to let you know.

I have confirmed today (Wednesday) that the N.F.L Players Association has received an official violation letter regarding Broncos Running Back Travis Henry testing positive for marijuana. Additionally, I have learned that the same violation letter has been sent out to Henry as well. Here is what happens now. Henry has 5 days after his receipt of this letter to make an official appeal. If he chooses not to, a one year suspension would be effective immediately. If in fact Henry decides to appeal, his hearing would be heard by the Commissioner’s designee. It is likely Henry’s hearing would be scheduled 1 to 2 weeks after notification of his appeal, according to a highly placed N.F.L.source.

Henry has challenged in court the testing process for his “B” urine sample. The N.F.L reportedly had until today (Wednesday) to file a response in the Suffolk County Court in New York. The source who broke Henry’s story to me though says Henry’s lawsuit will not inhibit the “in house” appeal process. Calls to Henry’s lawyer and his agent were not immediately returned for this report. Henry was present at practice today (Wednesday). Henry did not communicate with televsion media at that time.

The players are now headed for their four-day vacation destination of choice. It’s their only weekend off during the four month football season, so many have been looking forward to the chance to get out there and relax a bit. As long as I don’t hear about their activities on the police blotter, that’s alright with me!

When they come back, they better be focused, because they still have 11 games to play to try and turn this thing around. And it doesn’t get any easier for quite awhile.

Since there isn’t a ton to talk about during the bye week, I figured I’d post quick scouting reports on the remaining teams on our schedule. I’ll do it in 3 sections – Weeks 7-10, Weeks 11-14, then Weeks 15-17 to finish it out.

Week 7 – Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1, 1-1 away)

Average Points Scored: 26.4 (5th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 9.4 (1st NFL)
Remaining Schedule: BYE

The Pittsburgh Steelers easily represent the greatest challenge left on our entire schedule, and the way this team is looking right now they will be tough to beat. They are on a bye week as well, neutralizing that potential advantage, and will hope to follow-up their performance against the Seahawks this past Sunday (a 21-0 shutout). Our first prime time game of the year will be a tough one, there’s no doubt. We’ll have plenty more on the guys from Steel Town as the BYE week progresses, so I’ll move on.

Week 8 – Green Bay Packers (4-1, 2-0 away)

Average Points Scored: 25.0 (8th NFL)
Average Points Allowed: 18.6 (12th NFL)
Remaining Schedule: WAS, BYE

Brett Favre and the Packers finally lost a game to the resurgent Chicago Bears, in a story that may seem familiar to Broncos fans. Home game against last year’s division winner, who is struggling, and turned the ball over enough to give themselves no shot at winning. Until this game Favre has done a remarkable job taking care of the football, and many people credit that (along with their young, often-stifling defense) for the team’s surprising success thus far.

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• Champ Bailey insists that leadership is not missing on the Broncos squad. – Denver Post
• Simeon Rice is disappointed in himself for missing last Sunday’s game. – Denver Post
• Special Teams coach Scott O’Brien has yet to live up to his “guru” status. – Rocky Mountain News
• The Chiefs will start Damon Huard against the Bengals this Sunday, despite his injury and disappointing play thus far. – Kansas City Star
• Raiders head to San Diego for an AFC West/California showdown – complete breakdown of the game’s matchups. – BoltTalk
• Michael Vick owes the Falcons a lot of money. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Game of the week is Dallas v. New England.  Terrell Owens has a unique way of preparing for the game. – Hashmarks

The Denver Broncos announced Wednesday the signing of two offensive linemen – both guards – to their active roster. P.J. Alexander returns to the club after he was waived by the Broncos in August of last year. Second year guard Isaac Snell was also signed off Tennessee’s practice squad.

P.J. Alexander is no stranger to Denver – he was a member of the active roster from 2003-2005. The 6-4, 297 lb. guard out of Syracuse spent last season in Atlanta, where he earned his first four starts. He was waived by the club in early September and has been a free agent since.

An undrafted free agent in 2002, the 6-4, 297-pound Alexander has played nine career regular-season games (including the four starts) and also appeared in Denver’s AFC wild card game during the 2004 season.

Isaac Snell is a second year player out of North Dakota State. Snell joined the Broncos from Tennessee’s practice squad, where he spent the first five weeks of the season. The 6-6, 288-pound Snell joined the Titans as a practice squad signee on November 1, 2006, and remained there for the rest of the season.

For the veterans on this team, the frustration of losing like we have lately permeates past the game field and into the locker room and practice field. You can see it in someone like John Lynch during his press interviews – he’s a little less happy. He smiles less. He has less praise for his teammates. He’s the consummate professional, but nobody likes to lose the way we have, and you get the feeling he’s just tired of their present situation. Some think it might be the defensive players not “buying into” new defense coach’s Jim Bates‘ system. I don’t know anything about that, but I’m getting this nagging feeling that one particular superstar shutdown corner is definitely getting tired of what he is being asked to do this season. Really, who can blame him?

Champ Bailey has never had a problem helping out in run support. He is beyond a solid tackler – if the opponent sees #24 heading his way, 9 times out of 10 he knows he is going to get wrapped up. Year after year, statistically he shows up in the tackle column about twice as often as any other cornerback on the team. It’s remarkable.

With our special teams and run defense especially pour this season, the coaches have given Champ an increased role in both fronts, and one gets the feeling that Bailey is tired of playing triple-duty. In special teams, Champ is out there on the coverage units. The worst part about this is that game after game, he’s the one making the tackles. 9 other guys and the punter/kicker could be making that play, but Champ finds a way to get to the returner each game.

In run defense, you can see Bailey having to spy on the runners. He’s playing off his receiver, watching the opponent’s backfield instead of focusing on shutting down his man. The result – he’s been getting beat lately. Whether it’s Dallas Clark moving the chains in a huge third down in the second half in Indianapolis, or Antonio Gates busting a short pass for a big gain vs. the Chargers last week, Bailey simply can’t do everything. As good as he is, he needs the front seven to step up and stop a runner so he can focus on shutting down the passing game.

Which means he needs the coaches to stop asking him to do so much.

We did better at stopping the run for the most part last week (don’t chew my head off for that comment – we were actually holding runners to 2-4 yards each run, rather than 7-12 every single play, we just still blew it and allowed the big runs). In return we had our worst game of pass defense thus far, allowing 270 yards through the air (the first opponent to go over 200). The corners were asked to sneak up on the line of scrimmage even more than usual, and while the Chargers didn’t exactly spread the ball around they still beat us through the passing game consistently.

Our best game defensively this season was Week 1 against Buffalo. While our run defense looked like a potential weakness, we didn’t get burned like we have since then. Week after week since, we’ve allowed more points and more yards without fail. Our defense is getting worse as we ask our cornerbacks to do more.

This is of course my personal opinion, but I think we have a better defense if we just let our cornerback tandem worry about their receivers and only focus on the running back if he’s heading right for them. Let Bailey and Bly worry about the opponent’s receivers. Shut down the passing game. Stack 8 in the box with Lynch up front. It’s our nature to still allow a good amount of yardage that way, but at least we won’t be getting beat both ways. With a little luck, and perhaps some continuity among the front seven (perhaps stop deactivating seemingly random players each week?), we’ll figure out this run defense just in time to go on a decent win streak and maybe, just maybe, make a push for a Wild Card or even the weak AFC West.

If we keep asking Champ to do it all, he’s going to get tired, injured (oh, too late for that), and just plain disillusioned with this team. And the thought of this defense without Champ Bailey is something I’d rather not think about right now.

The Broncos’ struggles have been well documented here and elsewhere. Now some fans are losing patience with our young quarterback, perhaps expecting him to perform better than most would after only 10 starts. Someone over at the Freak posted this article and I thought it was a great read: enjoy!

A ‘true test’ for Elway

By Michael Knisley
The Sporting News
September 10, 1984

DENVER — For this man, the Denver Broncos gave up Chris Hinton, Mark Herrmann and a No. 1 draft choice?

For a man with a 47.5 completion percentage? For a man with twice as many interceptions (14) as touchdown passes (7)? For a man who was the lowest-rated quarterback in the American Football Conference?

For John Elway?

Where is the return on that investment?

It was called the Trade of the Century in May of 1983, when the Broncos obtained Elway from the Colts for Hinton, Herrmann and a first-round pick in the ’84 draft. Bob Irsay’s pockets got picked, they said. The Broncos got Elway for far less than what other teams had offered the Colts before the ’83 draft.

It still may be the Trade of the Century, but the emphasis may switch to the Colts. Hinton was an All-Pro guard in his rookie season in Baltimore. Elway was an all-low quarterback.

“I really don’t think it can get any worse than it was last year,” Elway said as Denver’s 1984 training camp opened.

It began in Minnesota in the last exhibition game of ’83, his first as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. Elway was sacked five times and was 100 percent ineffective. Denver lost, 34-3.

It ended in Seattle in the AFC wild-card playoff game, Elway standing on the sideline in favor of Steve DeBerg. The long day’s journey into night closed with Elway silently leaving town just after Christmas, accompanied by none of the hubbub and clatter that marked his arrival.

In between, there was a trifling of promising moments — a three-touchdown fourth quarter against Baltimore and a 284-yard day against Cleveland.

That was it, however. There was nothing else.

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• Are we suffering from major problems on defense? No, according to the coaches and players. It’s the little things, piling up, that are causing our defensive decay. – Rocky Mountain News
• Jim Bates has never experienced these struggles on defense. He’s optimistic we’ll turn it around. – Rocky Mountain News
• Chris Myers is the “landslide favorite” to replace Tom Nalen at center. I was pulling for Eslinger, but this article had a part in convincing me that Myers is the man for the job. – Denver Post
  
• Tony Scheffler played as Dallas Clark on the scout team two weeks ago, which he says energized and inspired him. – Denver Post
• Travis Henry was excused from practice Tuesday to fly to New York as part of his challenge against the NFL. It is speculated he might participate in a hair follicle test or lie detector test. He may miss practice this morning as well. – Rocky Mountain News
• Karl Mecklenburg is joining forces with Colorado officials in designing an interactive video games that teaches money management skills. – DenverBroncos.com