Deberg_1990
12-14-2015, 05:05 PM
How long?? Soon, or wait until the playoffs start to unleash Hell on the AFC!
DENVER – Since Owen Daniels followed Gary Kubiak to Denver this spring, the veteran tight end has served as a translator for nearly everything about Kubiak’s offense. He knows how the running game should work, and how the play-action passing game is designed to function, and what plays work best in the red zone.
But now that the Broncos have been shut out of the end zone for seven consecutive quarters, including all of Sunday’s 15-12 loss to the Oakland Raiders, even Daniels is out of simple answers. Yet he knows this: The issues with Denver’s offense are far bigger than just the quarterback.
“We want Peyton to get back healthy. He's one of our guys. But Peyton or Brock, you know, I think with either situation, we have got to play way better around those guys,” Daniels told USA TODAY Sports. “We have to hold up our end of the bargain on that.”
But the Brock Osweiler or Peyton Manning question that has hovered over the Broncos through the past month, even as Kubiak so deftly managed to avoid it while Manning rehabbed his injured left foot, will soon come to a head whenever Manning is cleared to make his return to practice, even on a limited basis. And with the Broncos’ recent offensive struggles, including in a win at San Diego last week, the answer is becoming increasingly less clear.
Two weeks ago, after a home win against the New England Patriots, the only thing difficult about a decision to stick with Osweiler would be concern for Manning’s feelings. But now? The Broncos offense does not look ready to match up next week with the surging Pittsburgh Steelers, let alone ready to make a serious postseason run.
The offense the Broncos showed on Sunday, when it settled for four first-half field goals and then were shut out in the second half, was hardly better than it was when Manning was running the huddle in the first two months of the season. Many of the problems that plagued the Broncos early in the year, like a stagnant running game and a porous offensive line, remain. The Broncos, who were playing without No. 2 tailback C.J. Anderson, rushed for just 34 yards, while Osweiler was sacked five times, all in the second half, and all by Raiders outside linebacker Khalil Mack.
“We lost the line of scrimmage,” Kubiak said. “There is no doubt we got pushed around.”
This is not a new script for the Broncos.
This is a team that has been carried by defense for all but a handful of games, and Sunday was no exception. The Broncos’ shorthanded defense, playing without three of its top four safeties and without starting inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, dominated the Raiders in the first half in holding the Raiders to negative-12 yards. Yet the scoreboard read just 12-0 at halftime. Four times the Broncos drove inside the Raiders’ 25-yard line, and twice they had a first-and-goal only to be kept out of the end zone.
“I’m hot. We were not supposed to lose that game,” cornerback Chris Harris said. “Defensive-wise, we played great. I don’t know how many yards they had, we shut them down.”
That sounds like this could be a locker room headed for a split, especially after a day when there were so many players who could have been the scapegoat. There was right tackle Michael Schofield, who had such trouble blocking Mack. And there was tight end Vernon Davis, who was wide open when he dropped a fourth-down pass late in the fourth quarter. Or it could have been running back Ronnie Hillman, who averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. And there was Osweiler, who missed tight end Virgil Green in the end zone late in the first half and fumbled the ball in his own end zone for a safety.
But pointing fingers is dangerous, said veteran defensive end Antonio Smith, who insisted that the team is unified. If it didn’t split in September, when the offense first started to falter, it won’t now with such important games over the next two weeks.
“That boat has sailed. We already passed that obstacle. That was a test early in the season, and we don't do that,” Smith said. “You can't do it, and I just think, the way the chemistry of this team is, that seed never could grow.”
Instead, Smith said, the lesson from Sunday’s loss to Oakland for the entire team, not just the offense, needs to be about “capitalizing,” he said, as the Broncos head into back to back games against the Steelers and Bengals, games that could determine their postseason fate after the Broncos blew a chance on Sunday to move into first place in the AFC. Instead, while they remain in contention for a first-round bye, nothing feels secure – not even the AFC West, with the Chiefs now just two games back.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/broncos/2015/12/13/peyton-manning-brock-osweiler-denver/77265980/
DENVER – Since Owen Daniels followed Gary Kubiak to Denver this spring, the veteran tight end has served as a translator for nearly everything about Kubiak’s offense. He knows how the running game should work, and how the play-action passing game is designed to function, and what plays work best in the red zone.
But now that the Broncos have been shut out of the end zone for seven consecutive quarters, including all of Sunday’s 15-12 loss to the Oakland Raiders, even Daniels is out of simple answers. Yet he knows this: The issues with Denver’s offense are far bigger than just the quarterback.
“We want Peyton to get back healthy. He's one of our guys. But Peyton or Brock, you know, I think with either situation, we have got to play way better around those guys,” Daniels told USA TODAY Sports. “We have to hold up our end of the bargain on that.”
But the Brock Osweiler or Peyton Manning question that has hovered over the Broncos through the past month, even as Kubiak so deftly managed to avoid it while Manning rehabbed his injured left foot, will soon come to a head whenever Manning is cleared to make his return to practice, even on a limited basis. And with the Broncos’ recent offensive struggles, including in a win at San Diego last week, the answer is becoming increasingly less clear.
Two weeks ago, after a home win against the New England Patriots, the only thing difficult about a decision to stick with Osweiler would be concern for Manning’s feelings. But now? The Broncos offense does not look ready to match up next week with the surging Pittsburgh Steelers, let alone ready to make a serious postseason run.
The offense the Broncos showed on Sunday, when it settled for four first-half field goals and then were shut out in the second half, was hardly better than it was when Manning was running the huddle in the first two months of the season. Many of the problems that plagued the Broncos early in the year, like a stagnant running game and a porous offensive line, remain. The Broncos, who were playing without No. 2 tailback C.J. Anderson, rushed for just 34 yards, while Osweiler was sacked five times, all in the second half, and all by Raiders outside linebacker Khalil Mack.
“We lost the line of scrimmage,” Kubiak said. “There is no doubt we got pushed around.”
This is not a new script for the Broncos.
This is a team that has been carried by defense for all but a handful of games, and Sunday was no exception. The Broncos’ shorthanded defense, playing without three of its top four safeties and without starting inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, dominated the Raiders in the first half in holding the Raiders to negative-12 yards. Yet the scoreboard read just 12-0 at halftime. Four times the Broncos drove inside the Raiders’ 25-yard line, and twice they had a first-and-goal only to be kept out of the end zone.
“I’m hot. We were not supposed to lose that game,” cornerback Chris Harris said. “Defensive-wise, we played great. I don’t know how many yards they had, we shut them down.”
That sounds like this could be a locker room headed for a split, especially after a day when there were so many players who could have been the scapegoat. There was right tackle Michael Schofield, who had such trouble blocking Mack. And there was tight end Vernon Davis, who was wide open when he dropped a fourth-down pass late in the fourth quarter. Or it could have been running back Ronnie Hillman, who averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. And there was Osweiler, who missed tight end Virgil Green in the end zone late in the first half and fumbled the ball in his own end zone for a safety.
But pointing fingers is dangerous, said veteran defensive end Antonio Smith, who insisted that the team is unified. If it didn’t split in September, when the offense first started to falter, it won’t now with such important games over the next two weeks.
“That boat has sailed. We already passed that obstacle. That was a test early in the season, and we don't do that,” Smith said. “You can't do it, and I just think, the way the chemistry of this team is, that seed never could grow.”
Instead, Smith said, the lesson from Sunday’s loss to Oakland for the entire team, not just the offense, needs to be about “capitalizing,” he said, as the Broncos head into back to back games against the Steelers and Bengals, games that could determine their postseason fate after the Broncos blew a chance on Sunday to move into first place in the AFC. Instead, while they remain in contention for a first-round bye, nothing feels secure – not even the AFC West, with the Chiefs now just two games back.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/broncos/2015/12/13/peyton-manning-brock-osweiler-denver/77265980/