Monday, November 14, 2005
NFL Quick Hits
First, for KC fans, yesterday’s game had to be like voluntary, un-anesthetized dental work. With a chance to put pressure on the Broncos with a win and the Broncos facing a divisional away game, they rolled over ugly. Their saving grace? A much easier schedule than the Broncos for the remainder of the season; but, even if they come up with the wins it would be hard to mistake this team as having Super Bowl potential. They are uneven and simply not coming up with the kind of play that you’d expect from champions.
Secondly, I’m really hoping that the Eagles can come up with a win tonight if for no other reason that to prove that they can be successful without T.O. Unfortunately, as banged up as they are and as good as Dallas has been playing, it just doesn’t seem likely. I can hope, though.
Thirdly, the Broncos are better than I expected. Quite a bit better. They have a balanced rushing and passing attack, special teams that are mostly improved from last season, and a defense that gambles and comes up with big plays when needed. They haven’t given up the ball a lot, they’ve been efficient at controlling the pace of most of the games, and they’ve come up with a solid record of 7-2 after playing some pretty tough opponents. They have a long way to go ‘til the playoffs and still have it in their power to stumble badly, but this has already been a better season than I had expected.
Fourth, it has to be noted, though, that the Broncos aren’t playing just to get into the playoffs. They are playing for a first-round bye and home field for at least one game. Indy’s schedule is pretty easy, so it is highly unlikely that the Broncos could catch them for home field throughout, but, for them to have playoff success, they need to be playing one at home. And Shanahan can script a particularly good game if he has an extra week to prepare.
Lastly, this has been a pretty fun season. Lots of surprises and the only truly dominant team (Indy) hasn’t played a truly difficult schedule. While the NFC has been pretty ugly, a lot of the AFC is playing helaciously good ball. Good luck to the Eagles tonight (although I’m thrilled that Drew Bledsoe has been having such a good season--he’s a great guy who deserves the success).
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Comments & Trackbacks
You know, you could/should have ended this post with the conclusion, “And some people scoff at idea of evil in the world”, too!
Seriously, though, the KC game was bad. We’ve followed up each big win that we could build upon with a disappointing loss. Like I said a few weeks ago in my article, the Broncos never quite look ready to go...but they could look “not quite ready to dominate” all the way to a Super Bowl win. Meaning, they continually improve, they get the big plays when they need to, they stop the big plays when they need to...but it’s also not luck, as they win even when they don’t make big plays, and win even when they don’t stop big plays from the other team.
Obviously, the season-opening loss to the Dolphins was a fluke (pun sort of intended).
Things could still go badly for the Broncos. They opened the season with more home games than away, and end with 4 of 6 on the road. Plus, the 2nd half is the tougher part of the season by far. But they’ve avoided injuries and got some young guys and rookies significant playing time when things were easier. Now that they’ve gelled as a team, they shouldn’t see any drop-off in the 2nd half of the season. I’m thinking they’ll probably go 7-1 for the 2nd half, but even 6-2 is a strong 12-4. And they have reason to continue pushing, as you pointed out. There’s not much they can do to wrest homefield advantage for the AFC Championship game away from the Colts, but they can control their destiny to get a 1st-round bye and a home game at the Divisional level. They are coming together, and Jake Plummer looks like he is finally becoming the player the Arizona Cardinals hoped he would become something close to a decade ago (whenever it was that he entered the league).
Good year for the Broncos, snatched from what looked to be a rebuilding season.
Secondly, I’m really hoping that the Eagles can come up with a win tonight if for no other reason that to prove that they can be successful without T.O.
How’s that workin’ out for ya’?
I turned the game off after three quarters, the ‘boys were playing so ugly. There’s serious trouble in Philly this week.
For a bit there, I thought that Philly was going to do the job. Man, the last few minutes of the game--not even the whole quarter--was ugly for them.
Can’t help but be happy for Parcels, though (and, on that subject, how great a job has he done in Dallas?).
”...Jake Plummer looks like he is finally becoming the player the Arizona Cardinals hoped he would become something close to a decade ago....”
I consider Jake to be (at most) a third year player. Any time spent playing for the Cardinals is not time that involves positive player development. Sure, he’d seen lots of defenses (mostly while they were laying on top of him), but along with that came a set of really bad habits. The evolutionary niche of “quarterback for a bad team” is very different from that of “quarterback for a contender”. The selection pressures are entirely different.
There might be some truth to that. Whatever it is, Jake is definitely having a good year--the kind of year that keeps Mike Shanahan from finding himself in job jeopardy.