An Empty Loss

The last game of the NFL regular season is either a snoozer or a thriller. I watched a Broncos game that left me a bit deflated.

A Packers team that was playing for the barest hope of a playoff spot against a Broncos team that was resting and playing with what appeared to be a seriously slenderized playbook was a snoozer. I expected, in honesty, the Pack to come out and play the socks off of the Broncos. The score was 31-3, so, in a sense, I suppose I was right.

The whole story, though, is far more interesting. The Pack looked lackluster through most of the game. The Broncos sat seven starters and played, through most of the game, players I've never heard of before. I don't even remember some of the these guys from the pre-season.

Every sack or interception of Jarious Jackson was greeted by Pack faithful with roars and applause. To put it in perspective, neither of the Broncos quarterbacks on the day were with the team when the year started. In fact, neither Danny Kannel nor Jackson were with any team when the season started. Both were brought back when the regular back-up, Steve Beuerline was lost after a nasty injury left him sidelined. Outplaying these guys, especially without the leading receivers and with a back-up running back, shouldn't be celebrated, it should be expected.

Jackson, particularly, had a bad day. Most of his passes were sailing nowhere near his receivers and the ones that were close were being dropped. When he did start to hit stride and connect on a few consecutive passes, the drive ended in a turnover.

By the end of the first half, the Pack were winning by a score of 10-0. The Broncos were stubbornly in the game because the defense kept coming up big when it needed to. In fact, the final 14 points that the Pack scored came in an 8-second period in the final quarter of the game--after the Broncos turned the ball over on downs on the Green Bay 2 yard line, Ahman Green ripped through the line for a 98 yard touchdown which was absolutely beautiful. On the following kick-off, the Bronco returner (some guy named Adrian Madise who I had never noticed being a Bronco before Sunday--and who had a beautiful return earlier in the game) muffed the punt. He chased the ball back down to the goal line, picked it up, and was pounded by the Packer's special teams--the ball came loose and the Pack recovered.

Yes, Green Bay won, but they looked less than special doing it against a Denver team that played without Jake Plummer, Clinton Portis, Shannon Sharpe, and Rod Smith on offense. Ed McCaffery was sidelined mid-way through the game after a concussion left him flattened on the field. Does Green Bay really feel good this morning? They are going to the playoffs, but this game wasn't really much of a test or much of a showing for them.

For the Broncos, it was just a capsule of the whole season. The defense carried the team as far as it could, but the offense, when stripped of its stars, wasn't even good enough to keep the team in the game. The defense, even with its injuries, has turned out to be a standout this season; not simply solid, but downright good. The offense, though, is a little harder to like.

The offense, when playing with it's starters, is good enough to beat most teams in the league. There isn't much depth, though. An injury at quarterback kills the team. At running-back, the talent runs as deep as the offensive line--a lot of talent, yes, but the o-line makes the Broncos running game special. At wide receiver, there is barely enough talent to make a starting line-up. Rod Smith is still a talented, fast receiver, but Ed McCaffery is quickly coming to the end of his career and Ashley Lelie is still learning his position. None of the back-ups really impressed at the position, although Madise showed some brilliance on special teams (along with a muff and a fumble).

The bright spot was at tight end. With Shannon Sharpe nearing the end of his career, it was nice to see a guy named Jeb Putzier, playing in his second season, come up with four clutch catches. There's talent in that one--good hands, good routes, and a little speed after the catch.

The most difficult to watch, coming full circle, was Jarious Jackson. He's been around the Broncos for a few years now, and everyone who watches practices says that the guy has all the talent in the world. He's big, strong, powerful, with a good arm, and, in practice, makes good reads quickly. The tough part, though, is that he just doesn't seem to be able to bring all of that talent into the game on Sunday--he never seems to settle in enough to make good passes, he seems nervous to make decisions, and he doesn't know how to rally the troops.

Admittedly, he wasn't getting a lot of support from the rest of the team yesterday, but he didn't really do much to distinguish himself, either. A few flashes of good don't make up for a whole helping of mediocre.

The next game means something. The Broncos go back to Indy to play a team that will be bringing their very best game in hopes of embarrassing a Denver team that whipped them in their last meeting. This one won't be easy--and, if the Broncos manage to win, then they go on the road to face a New England team that beat them earlier in the year.

The Broncos, on a good day and with a full roster, can play with any team in the league. But on a bad day or with injuries, this is a team that can lose to the Chicago Bears.

While the Pack really did nothing to impress yesterday, neither did the Broncos. Winning a Super Bowl usually takes a level of depth on the roster that the Broncos just don't seem to have. What they showed yesterday was that they need to address those depth issues for the future and that we fans need to hope that the team stays healthy through the playoffs.

I could see the Broncos surprising everyone and making it to the Super Bowl. I could also see them melting down as early as next week in Indy. That's the Broncos whole season: impressively good and woefully bad and hard to predict.

The best news for the Broncos, though, is that they truly seem to have found a quarterback for the future and a running back that is a legitimate threat to be a 2,000 yard back. There is a lot to look forward to with these Broncos, but it's anyone's guess as to whether any of it will coalesce in this year's playoffs.

Posted by zombyboy at December 29, 2003 02:48 PM | TrackBack