Broncos / Jags

Here are my thoughts on the Broncos loss to the Jags today. First, the Jags have a defense that swarms, moves fast, hits hard, and plays smart. Second, the Broncos defense is nearly as good--barring one good punt return, the Jags may not have scored today at all.

This is going to be the Broncos season, though. There will be ups, downs, big hits, big mistakes, big plays, and, at times, big disappointments. Today's game, for instance, probably should have ended with a Broncos victory; if an untouched Quentin Griffin doesn't fumble the ball away with half a minute left and the Broncos already in field goal position, Jason Elam would have had a shot at making the score 9-7. Instead, the ball just bobbled out, the Jags recovered, and the game was over.

For the Broncos, this has to be a reality check, though. Quentin Griffin fought hard and played hard, but couldn't come up with the big plays that the Broncos needed to put them over the top. The same could be said of the QB and the wide receivers--there were yards rolled up, but not the ones they needed at clutch time. That might not be such a knock against Griffin, though, considering the talent on the Jag's defense; frankly, he may have played about as well as could be expected.

It comes down to this, though: too many dropped passes, too many overthrown passes, and too many penalties. Worse, they were playing an opponent who just didn't give them that many opportunities: Broncos starting field position throughout the game was poor to pitiful, there weren't too many long gains, and the running game wasn't what would be expected from a modern day Broncos team. And by the end of the game, the offensive line was getting pushed around--on a third and one with time starting to run down and a serious need for a first down, the o-line couldn't get any push, couldn't open any lane, and watched the running back go down for a loss.

This is going to be a season of ups and downs, and some of these downs are going to be pretty painful.