Down, but not out.
Another tough game, but we did show up to play. Colts fans were worried until the very end. Defense did everything humanly possible to disrupt the future league MVP Peyton Manning but with no real pressure on the QBwe held him to 220 and three interceptions but Peyton still racked up 4 TD’s as we struggled in the red zone loosing 26-16. On a day when Dawkins caught two heads up interceptions and Brandon Marshall broke the league’s single-game record with 21 receptions. He finished with 200 yards and two touchdowns, tying the reception record on a 5-yard TD catch. Orton helped him break the record on the last play of the game on fourth down to take the record into his grasp (breaking Terrell Owens’ record of 20 receptions in a game), Marshall was targeted 28 times, compared to 13 for the rest of the team. The run game was non existent held to 95 total yards they kept trying to get it going but Marshall remained the only unstoppable force on the field. A game we were the heavy under-dogs in we still played them well and nearly staged a heroic comeback after 21 unanswered points to start the game. The Broncos need to work in practice on capitalizing in the red zone. How about Brandon Stokely, Eddie Royal or Scheffler, are we going to try hitting anyone else on the team. They were double and triple covering “the Beast”, Brandon Marshall by the end of the game. Unfortunately the Chargers beat the Cowboys but the Jaguars lost again securing the Wild Card for now.
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6 Responses
Woody December 14th at 12:05 pm
Our short yardage play is what ultimately lost the game for us I think. We got stuffed so many times on 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1. Had we converted a couple more of those I think we could have won.
Defensively, we were impressive for all but the first 20 minutes of the game. Manning made it look easy early, but we made the adjustments and virtually shut him down after that.
As far as a loss goes, I think it’s the first loss this season that I feel “okay” with. We looked decent and played them tough. There are some obvious things to work on - like moving the ball around - but it was cool to see how dominant Marshall can be even when the defense knows it’s going to him. We are definitely capable of beating the Colts, and anyone in the league, thanks to our amazing defense. But it’s hard to win when you only score 16 points, especially with 3 takeaways.
David December 14th at 12:20 pm
There are some positives to take away from this game however, there is one negative that is hard to avoid and makes me disagree with Woody because this loss was concerning. I agree the short yardage plays were awful to watch and like the Colts we should start throwing a little wrinkle in the offense on 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1. The positives I saw were Orton and Marshall I finally feel are really on the same page… I also like the defense’s game after they showed up in the 2nd quarter… Orton seems to be moving better in the pocket… The major concern with the game was we should have won the game… That’s right I said it we should have won the game. We were unable to capitalize on the mistakes the Colts made such as, 3 INTS by Manning and good field position. That underthrown pass to Marshall really hurt in the endzone too.
If our defense would have shown up in the first quarter and we would have capitalized on some of the Colts’ mistakes then we would be the talk of the league today. So this loss bothers me because the Colts really did try to give it away.
Carie December 14th at 9:59 pm
I can’t call myself a fan but I have been following the Broncos since I have a co worker that can be called a rabid Denver superfan. I agree with David- this was a tough game to watch because Denver just could not get it together enough to capitalize on several mistakes made by the Colts, nor could they complete on the short yardage plays. How could Manning throw three interceptions and still win?!! The answer is… Denver let them. Where is the team that put a spanking on my Giants last week? Come on guys- you need to play better than this to win me over!
Drew December 14th at 10:46 pm
I’m not sure they tried to give it away. The INT’s weren’t “Cutler-esq” dave and in that Manning wasn’t hitting Broncos players in the numbers, two of them were tipped passes and great awareness on Dawkins part the other was a great athletic catch by rookie McBeth but like any great Shakspearean tragedy he broke his arm in his break out game. The offense was totally stuffed with one obvious exception, I thought it was horrible play calling. The short yards were hard to come by and the blocking was atrocious. We were feeling the loss of Harris and Larson and Buckhalter got banged up early and Moreno was getting blown up 5 yards behind the L.O.S. So going back to last week David, that’s why I like McDaniels and I’m not in Like with McD like you pal. How do you have so many weapons and only find a way to get one involved. Red Zone is the key, short yards were too hard to come by. Hell if you don’t want to involve say Hillis (for you Woody) give in to one of our stud TE’s! I’m just trying to win the Mother Fu$%*ing Game too.
Woody December 15th at 4:10 pm
After Buck went out, I was actually thinking how great an opportunity it’d be to get Hillis some carries.
Drew December 15th at 6:12 pm
Ohhhh Woody has jumped the Hillis Bandwagon?