The Denver Broncos, the 2009 NFL season's early Cinderella story, ran out of magic in a 30-7 Week 8 shellacking at Baltimore. Now, despite their 6-1 record and first-place standing in the AFC West, folks are wondering(again) if the Broncos' hot start was just a mirage.
The Chargers, fresh off a win over the Giants on Sunday, are finally making some noise in the division. Denver also made what could be seen as a desperation move this week, signing 35-year-old cornerback Ty Law after the Ravens' Joe Flacco had a field day against the Broncos' secondary.
Denver is even a home underdog Monday night as Pittsburgh comes in -- but the Steelers have issues of their own. Despite a four-game winning streak, the defending Super Bowl champs have plenty of question marks. They'll enter the Mile High City a game behind Cincinnati in the AFC North, and with a still clunky-at-times offense and banged-up defense.
SAN DIEGO -- Outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil set aside any doubts that the 2009 Broncos' astonishing turnaround isn't legitimate on Monday night when he leveled Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers a second time in the contest, helping punctuate a 34-23 division victory that gave undefeated Denver a stranglehold on the AFC West.
With that, Dumervil had his NFL-leading 10th sack, putting him on pace to surpass Michael Strahan's single-season record of 22 1/2.
"It's hard to get to 10 [sacks]," said Dumervil, who was surrounded in the crowded visitors' locker room at Qualcomm Stadium by teammates hooting and calling him the next Strahan. "Every sack guy knows it's hard to get to double digits.
"But this ... it's a new team, a new regime, and everything is new. We're just trying to innovate. We're trying to build a brand of football here, what we want to be as the Denver Broncos."
It didn't take a miracle this week, but the Broncos won all the same.
The Broncos moved to 2-0 with a 27-6 victory against the hapless Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon, and they did it behind a defense that continues to bear no resemblance to the ones that made Mile High Stadium a fairly innocuous place to visit over the last two seasons. Elvis Dumervil's four sacks of Brady Quinn led the effort, and his strip of Quinn on the first Browns drive of the second half helped a 10-6 game become a rout.
The Browns converted just 3 of 14 third downs, gained only 200 yards overall and, generally, looked like they had no answer to the newly-frisky Broncos 3-4 scheme.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
Give Josh McDaniels this much: He's willing to make an impression. Before he's even coached so much as one regular season game, he's assured that he will either be remembered as a bold, brilliant leader who won because he had the courage of his convictions, or as an abject failure whose hiring set the franchise back by years because he had the courage of his convictions. Some of that has to do with Jay Cutler's career trajectory, but McDaniels needs to win and he needs to win quickly.
Michael Vick is under the impression that he has "10 or 12 more years" left in his professional football career. At least that's what he told the judge at his bankruptcy hearing on Thursday. At 28, having spent nearly two years in the clink, and last taking an NFL snap in 2006, the notion that Vick could play another decade borders on the insane.
NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.
How far do the Denver Broncos have to go to return to the playoffs? Their team was ravaged by injuries en route to a 7-9 record this season. A healthy team could have easily won another couple of games and found itself battling for a wild card. A more pessimistic view might point out that they got old in several spots because they haven't built well through the draft. That would indicate there's a longer road back to success. Either way, the good news is that, in Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil, they've got building blocks for 2008 and beyond. Here's where they need the most immediate help.
1. Defensive Stability – Jim Bates was hired as defensive coordinator and immediately installed a scheme predicated on big defensive tackles. It was a total flop. Sam Adams and Amon Gordon couldn't occupy blockers, leaving the middle of the field open to all comers. They overhauled the line during the season, but found no better results and that led to Bates's firing. New coordinator Bob Slowik must establish a strategy and stick to it if the team is to improve defensively. Be they big DTs or athletic ones, the team can't afford to veer wildly in such a short amount of time.
If you didn't know any better, you would have thought the Broncos were the team with a shot at the playoffs and the Vikings were playing out the string of a bitter season. After all, it's usually teams that have already mentally quit on the season who make monumental blunders to cost their teams a game and that's just what Minnesota did in the first half of the 22-19 overtime loss in Denver this afternoon.
Their first drive was an excellent combination of Chester Taylor running and Tarvaris Jackson passing that got the ball inside the Bronco five-yard line. Taylor took the ball for an apparent touchdown but, after a review, he couldn't hold the ball long enough to break the plane and the Vikes got no points. Then, in the second quarter, Jackson found Troy Williamson with a perfect parabola only to see the ball bounce off his shoulder pads as if he were a six-year old playing catch for the first time. Williamson would have had a sure six but Taylor fumbled again two plays later.
The Vikings made other mistakes later and, for most of the game, looked like a team that didn't show up. That reflects badly on Brad Childress but, just when all hope seemed lost, there was at least one reason to smile through a playoff-less January.
There have been many culprits for the Broncos disappointing season but one of the chief reasons is their reliance on roster upheaval. They have developed very few players through the draft, changed coordinators and systems several times and have released 19 players since this season began. That doesn't cover the amount of free agents and trades that have backfired in the Mike Shanahan era, either. So, it was with a bit of surprise that I read Jeff Legwold's column in today's Rocky Mountain News. It seems that the Broncos are regarded as the front runners to land Jason Taylor in a trade if Bill Parcells decides to move his new team's best player.
Legwold argues that missing out on Patrick Kerney in free agency last season was part of the reason for the Bronco slide and acquiring Taylor would remedy that. Kerney would indeed look good on the Broncos, he'd look good on any defense, but that's not a good enough reason to pick up Taylor.
Quick fixes aren't the salve for Denver's wounds. As good as he is, Taylor will be 34 and the Broncos need to focus on developing the players they already have. He would also cost them high round draft picks, which the team needs to start taking more seriously.
Texans 31, Broncos 13 Chargers 51, Lions 14 When the Broncos have the ball: The Broncos still rank eighth in the league in rushing yards, a shocking figure given how iffy their production on the ground has been this season. Injuries to Travis Henry and Tom Nalen are the biggest reason their ground game has flagged and this doesn't appear to be the week to bet on a big comeback. Whether Henry or Selvin Young gets the bulk of the carries, the center of the Bronco line will have to find a way to deal with big Jamal Williams and that might be too tall an order. If they can't get the ground game working early, the Broncos will be leaving Jay Cutler with an awful lot to do. He throws well on the run, a good thing since the Chargers have resumed playing aggressive, blitzing defense, but he also forces too many throws. Against a team that's picked off 10 balls in the last three weeks that's suicidal.
So much for Keith Olbermann's prognostication skills. Hours after the NBC pundit shared his belief that the Steelers could run the table and finish 15-1, Jason Elam's 48-yard field goal made a fool of him. The Broncos kicker won a game on the final play for the third time this season and tonight's 31-28 win was the third of Denver's season. You can do the math there but Elam's a big reason why this Denver team is still able to think about the playoffs.
It looked like they weren't going to need his heroics for much of the evening's proceedings. Denver opened up a 21-7 halftime lead thanks to the generosity of Ben Roethlisberger. He was picked off twice and fumbled on a sack by Elvis Dumervil, one of two by the talented pass rusher, late in the second quarter. Tim Crowder scooped up the ball and scampered 50 yards to create the two touchdown margin as the teams returned to the locker rooms.
Playing without Champ Bailey, the Broncos had those three turnovers and sacked Roethlisberger four times overall. They also held Willie Parker to 93 yards, or about half as many as they'd given up on average in the first five games of the year. Dumervil and Jarvis Moss really looked good, using their speed to make things difficult for the larger Steeler lineman the whole first half and helping force Roethlisberger's mistakes.
The Denver Broncos, the 2009 NFL season's early Cinderella story, ran out of magic in a 30-7 Week 8 shellacking at Baltimore. Now, despite their 6-1 record and first-place standing in the AFC West, folks are wondering(again) if the Broncos' hot start was just a mirage.
SAN DIEGO -- Outside linebacker 
It didn't take a miracle this week, but the 
Training camps have wrapped up, the 
Michael Vick
NFL Offseason Roadmap
There have been many culprits for the Broncos disappointing season but one of the chief reasons is their 
To get you ready for Week 16, 
So much for 
