FanHouse Denver Broncos

In a move that came a bit out of the blue, the Broncos waived 24-year-old cornerback Jack Williams and signed 14-year vet Ty Law.

Denver rookie head coach Josh McDaniels didn't mess around after Baltimore shredded Denver 30-7 last week -- the Broncos' first loss of the year. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco went 20 of 25 through the air in that game, and as Jeff Legwold of the Denver Post points out, 12 of 15 against Denver's nickel defense.

McDaniels said Saturday that he hopes Law can play Monday night when Denver hosts Pittsburgh.

As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.

If you're a reasonably diligent football fan, it's pretty easy to follow which running backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers are living up to their reputations -- you just check the stats. It's not as easy, but you can also get a pretty good sense of which pass rushers are having big years, by checking out the sacks.

But when it comes to evaluating offensive linemen, it's a lot tougher to know which blockers are starring and which ones are living off reputation.

After logging 401 sacks this season, it's time to start diving into the numbers to try to get a better sense of who has stood out this year.

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."

Zebra Report is FanHouse's analysis of actual NFL rules and how they are to be applied ... because most fans think they could do a better job than the NFL officials, yet definitely could not. Click here for an introduction as to how we do things.

I'll agree with the defenders of Dante Wesley on one front, but just one: he hasn't made a career out of being a dirty player. Sunday, though, he was. What Wesley did, whether intentional or not, was one of the most egregious things I've ever seen done on a football field. Honestly, I didn't even think I'd have to cover it for Zebra Report, but I've seen so many absolutely appalling arguments in defense of Wesley on comment boards across the internet, that I feel I have to. It's simply mind-boggling (and, as a football fan, a bit embarrassing) that some people seriously think his hit was, or should have been, legal.

SAN DIEGO -- Monday night featured perhaps the NFL's best quarterback battle this season, the duel between Philip Rivers and Kyle Orton, and it all but determined the balance of power in the AFC West, despite the fact that it's only mid-October.

Seriously -- who would have thought that Orton, once mistake-prone and reviled and probably still being burned in effigy by Bears fans, would now sit among the league's elite passers while guiding a 6-0 Denver Broncos team?

Make that the utterly dominant, AFC West-leading Broncos, who rode the franchise record-setting momentum of Eddie Royal returning both a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the first half to preserve a 34-23 victory over the foundering San Diego Chargers (2-3).

Before the season started, the San Diego Chargers were a sexy pick to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, while the Denver Broncos were a sexy pick to have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. The two teams meet on Monday night in San Diego, and the Broncos are 5-0 -- shocking everyone, except for Rod Smith -- while the Chargers are toiling along at a 2-2 pace.

Join us at 8:30 PM ET for our weekly Monday night football live chat as we discuss all of the action.

The battle of unbeatens in New Orleans will certainly get a lot of attention heading into Sunday's games.

Since the Giants and Saints don't look like they're going to fade away, there's a really good chance that they'll play a more important game in January, but this is a pretty big one.

It's not the only game being played Sunday. The NFL's two other unbeatens who are playing Sunday face real tests. Read the chat recap after the jump.

Conventional wisdom.

I've tried to avoid it in my 26 years of reporting on the NFL. Yet I find myself following the herd when I search for the NFL's most pleasant 2009 surprise. How can I not say it's Denver at 5-0 after the offseason chaos following Josh McDaniels' arrival?

Look at Brandon Marshall hugging McDaniels, who suspended him for the final two weeks of the preseason after Brandon acted like a child; Kyle Orton, the quarterback the Broncos got when Jay Cutler demanded to be traded, has a passer rating eight points higher than Cutler; and a defense that allowed 28 points per game in 2008, third worst in the league, is allowing just 8.6 in 2009.

So like everyone else, I have to go with the Broncos as the most pleasant surprise.

As for the rest ...

DENVER -- Eddie Royal epitomizes the transition the surprising 5-0 Denver Broncos have made from what they were to what they have, thus far, become.

With the arrival of new head coach Josh McDaniels this season, plenty of Broncos players had to expect adjusted roles this season. But for the few facing a drastic, unexpected change -- a change that may have been hard to buy into initially -- they faced a choice: Sulk and be left behind.

Or accept it. Like McDaniels likes to say -- well, actually demand -- "Do your job."

So, Royal has.

DENVER -- After both teams had rerouted receivers enough, inserted personnel groupings aplenty, forced an underneath, long-haul offensive game and pushed the matchups gimmicks to the edge, only one team had one extra play in it. One extra kick.

And that was the Broncos.

It was a 20-17 overtime victory for Denver here against the mighty New England Patriots that legitimized the Broncos' now 5-0 season. After all, the Patriots were favored to dump the Broncos in their own yard at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.