Did we let up or...

[DBroncos4life]

Did they force us to slow down? I don't mean to pick on the win...its not something I do often BUT we almost has a very complete domination of the world champs. Some people might remember but I've been bitching about teams letting up while the other team still is fighting for the win. Then the next thing you know the game goes down to the wire. Sorry if this has been talked about already, but it burns me to see this happen over and over again.

[Bronx33]

Seemed like we quit pass rushing giving brady time to operate......

[DBroncos4life]

Seemed like we quit pass rushing giving brady time to operate......


No that was just the Oline tackling our passrushers.

[Bronx33]

No that was just the Oline tackling our passrushers.

Ohhhhh i forgot the princess rule was in affect today.

[SoCalBronco]

Its a combination of things.
Champ was not there in the 2nd half and naturally NE started going after the youngsters. Additionally, the Pats had a whole half to monitor what we were trying to do on defense so they prolly made some adjustments as well. Coyer may or may not have started calling softer defenses but I do think a key factor was NE's adjustments in their offense based on what they were seeing from us.

Khan mentioned this earlier and I think there is some good merit here, Shanny really respects Belichick and I think once it got up to 28-3, he didnt want to show him up further so he shut down prematurely in terms of playcalling, he felt pretty damn secure at 28-3 anyway.

[sirhcyennek81]

28 points was enough, obviously. No point scoring 50 when 28 wins it for you.

[DBroncos4life]

Its a combination of things.
Champ was not there in the 2nd half and naturally NE started going after the youngsters. Additionally, the Pats had a whole half to monitor what we were trying to do on defense so they prolly made some adjustments as well. Coyer may or may not have started calling softer defenses but I do think a key factor was NE's adjustments in their offense based on what they were seeing from us.

Khan mentioned this earlier and I think there is some good merit here, Shanny really respects Belichick and I think once it got up to 28-3, he didnt want to show him up further so he shut down prematurely in terms of playcalling, he felt pretty damn secure at 28-3 anyway.



I agree on the respect thing but we damn near took ourselves out of the game. The last drive showed they really couldn't stop us when they needed to. It just seems crazy to put us in a spot like that. They are the defending champs for a reason, they don't quit ever. I'm not asking us to blow them out or anything but don't dumb the O down so much that we aren't scoring points or picking up first downs.

[ludo21]

Its a combination of things.
Champ was not there in the 2nd half and naturally NE started going after the youngsters. Additionally, the Pats had a whole half to monitor what we were trying to do on defense so they prolly made some adjustments as well. Coyer may or may not have started calling softer defenses but I do think a key factor was NE's adjustments in their offense based on what they were seeing from us.

Khan mentioned this earlier and I think there is some good merit here, Shanny really respects Belichick and I think once it got up to 28-3, he didnt want to show him up further so he shut down prematurely in terms of playcalling, he felt pretty damn secure at 28-3 anyway.


I never thought of the respect factor. That very well could have been why the play calling got a bit conservative. The players also just didnt execute and you could tell they started playing at half speed while the Pats were still trying to gut out a win.

Much props btw to the Pats. That game right there is why they are world champions. They always think their in it, and dont give up. Many teams would have given in and let us run away with it.

[DBroncos4life]

28 points was enough, obviously. No point scoring 50 when 28 wins it for you.



you can't sit here and tell me that you never felt scared at all during the 4th quarter. I about pulled a :garcia:

[sirhcyennek81]

I was at work. Checked the score on my phone. 28-3...cool...blowout...28-6...still 22 point lead...28-13... uhh...28-20...WHAT THE ****? Then i saw final, 28-20, and was cool.

[GreatBronco16]

28 points was enough, obviously. No point scoring 50 when 28 wins it for you.


I think that is BS. The game is never over no matter how much you score. There has been way too many teams that have come back to win games that they were down by 20+ points. ie, Philly@KC this year. NE nearly came back. You should score as many points as you can in a game. If the other team gets mad thinking you are running up the score, then they should stop that team from doing it. You don't want a team scoring on you, then don't let them score. I don't care if it is Shannys son that he is coaching against. Don't stop putting up points just because you don't want to run up the score.

[DBroncos4life]

I was at work. Checked the score on my phone. 28-3...cool...blowout...28-6...still 22 point lead...28-13... uhh...28-20...WHAT THE ****? Then i saw final, 28-20, and was cool.


I'm not upset with the win trust me, I just wanted to get others views on the subject.

[sirhcyennek81]

My thinking is, if you put a team into a 25 point hole, you step on their neck and keep them down. This particular time, denver did enough in the 2nd half to cement the win. Today, obviously, 28 points was enough.

[DBroncos4life]

My thinking is, if you put a team into a 25 point hole, you step on their neck and keep them down. This particular time, denver did enough in the 2nd half to cement the win. Today, obviously, 28 points was enough.


I guess thats my point. Why do just "enough" to get the win when we are up 25 points? I'm not saying run up the score but when push came to shove the couldn't stop us. When they really, really, really needed a stop they couldn't do it. Why is it then we didn't do more of what we did on that last drive earlier so it didn't get to that point?

[sirhcyennek81]

i am only going by the score i got on my phone, i wish to God i had seen this game. This would have been fun to watch. Broncos need to stay aggressive for 60 minutes, not 55, not 45, 60. Otherwise, good win Denver.

[kappys]

Simple. In the first half we picked on a banged up secondary. We scored our touchdowns mostly off of big plays. But the thing that we didn't do was to control the clock, leaving our defense out on the field for a good portion of that half.

In the second half we came out and got the quick score. But the way you win games in that situation is to control the clock, something the broncos could not do. We had trouble running the ball and eating up small chunks of yardage, which is what killed us. The defense was running tired by the end of the 3rd, which is why the Pats suddenly started getting big pass plays, especially off of screens and so forth.

[cutman0122]

you can't sit here and tell me that you never felt scared at all during the 4th quarter. I about pulled a :garcia:

I feel ya, I never felt secure with our lead. Another Bronco score would have had the fat lady comfortably warming up for me.

[Arkie]

The Broncos came out and scored a TD and then our defense forced a three and out. Then our offense had a three and out and the Patriots scored on the next drive. Our offense went three and out again, and their offense scored a TD. They hold us to 17 yards, and thier offense scores another TD. It's 28-20. Did the offense let up, or the defense?

[Orange4Life]

I think we definatly eased up on the playcalling. I would of been more comfortable getting one more TD especially considering its NE we are playing. The play calling turned into a 3-5 yard pass and then two runs and punt. We should have picked up a couple more first downs but it was clear from the play calling we were no longer looking to go down the field.

[watermock]

I have never seen rally monkeys like these bastards.

Had them dead set put down.

Exactly what I said happened...you can't let them have a window...that team has some sort of magic wand for the last ten minutes...I said we better be up by more than 10.

How was I to know it would take 20?

We got it tho.

C. Brown got medevial on their asses...BOHYAH

ESPN hates Denver.

[RedskinBronco]

It was mostly the Broncos losing focus and letting up, but it was a little of Brady and the Pats being who they are. These guys have a lot of heart. They will never quit and the Broncos should have known that. They got scared when the Pats were making the comeback. It's alright...they got the win.

The Broncos showed flashes of dominance in this game. They will rarely lose if they play like they did in that 2nd quarter. They just have to play the full 60 minutes.

[wabbit]

It's ironic really. At 28-3, Shanahan seemed to back off aggressive play-calling, assuming...or, so I am thinking...that turn-overs might be the one thing that would allow the Patriots to keep a flicker of hope burning.

Coincidentally, Coyer also decided the defense needed to prevent the quick strike, opting instead for the slow, agonizing kind.

The irony is that the combination of a conservative offensive play-call & a prevent defensive scheme gave Brady & Co. the exact formula they used last week to eek out a comeback win against Atlanta.

This should've been obvious in the film/tape/DVD study.

Maybe the Broncos should eliminate the popcorn and intro cartoon...must be distracting.

[Rock Chalk]

Its a combination of things.
Champ was not there in the 2nd half and naturally NE started going after the youngsters. Additionally, the Pats had a whole half to monitor what we were trying to do on defense so they prolly made some adjustments as well. Coyer may or may not have started calling softer defenses but I do think a key factor was NE's adjustments in their offense based on what they were seeing from us.

Khan mentioned this earlier and I think there is some good merit here, Shanny really respects Belichick and I think once it got up to 28-3, he didnt want to show him up further so he shut down prematurely in terms of playcalling, he felt pretty damn secure at 28-3 anyway.
The problem with that logic is that Denver put itself in a position to go into OT. Respect is one thing, but you are not going to give the game away and Denver almost did.

I mentioned a few things in the chatroom I would like to point out. No team in recent memory has been able to make halftime adjustments as well as the Patriots can. Whether they are ahead at the half or behind, it doesn't matter. That team, Belichik and his coaching staff, are tremendously talented at making adjustments both at the half and during the game.

Now, there is also the "prevent" factor, which always rears its ugly head in nearly every game with a big lead. And it worked, sorta. Let's start with the first touchdown the pats scored. This was a long drive, it took a lot of time to develop because Denver was not giving anything big and the tackling was still good so the YAC were minimal. I think this drive ate up near 5 minutes of game time. The next TD came a little quicker, but still took 3 or 4 minutes. Tackling was a lot poorer here than it was in the first drive, resulting in a quicker score, but still, added up is 8 or 9 minutes of football. With only 7 minutes left (15 for the 4th quarter and about 5 for the rest of the third quarter -if memory serves correctly) Denver had plenty of time to kill the clock in between.

The problem was, 3 and outs. Not a good scenario and I dont think the play calling was any more conservative here, I just think the Patriots knew exactly what we were going to do. Sometimes, no matter how well you coach or execute, the other team just does a little better. These are the World Champs ya know. We fell out of our funk and this should come as no surprise to anyone. We have not seen one complete domination of a football game in a long time here in Denver, Id say since 98. There is almost always a lull in the action for our team and whether this has to do with lack of focus and concentration or the lack of cutthroat spirt by the Broncos organization, I do not know, but I know that I have come to expect some kinks in the machine. As long as they aren't serious enough to break the machine from working, I dont care.

We just keep winning. And this year, what gives me much more hope than years past, we are beating good teams. Not schmucks. SD, NE, KC, Jax and Washington all have/had winning records when we played them.Of those, only KC has no _efense and NE is kinda depleted but Jax, Washington and SD are all very solid defensively. I can sit here and nitpick everything. I can tell you Jake had a decent game but had some horrible throws in the game still. I can tell you that the rookies are not all that, just D Williams. Foxworth has had just as many or more bad plays as good ones. Paymah has had WAY more bad plays than good ones. Our pass rush disappears for good portions of the game and Coyer likes to play EVERYONE about 50 yards off the receivers for some reason. Al, Ian and DJ all over pursued at least four times in the game which left what's his name Pass or whatever some good runs.

But in the end, who cares. Denver won and the bandwagon is filling up.

[Odysseus]

Broncos might have the defense beat but something always seems to happens on third down. It's like they themselves don't believe the play worked.

The Defense over pursued trying to make up for chinks that Patriots found in our armor. The Broncos need to find an answer on defense to some really good strategies for slowing them up.

The referees are becoming more of a factor in the games. I don't care what people say about years ago. This year they really suck.

[Northman]

28 points was enough, obviously. No point scoring 50 when 28 wins it for you.


You might be thinking different if they had come back to beat us. against the champs 25 points is nothing.

[OrangeShadow]

They arent defending SB champs for nothing they're resilient

[-Slap-]

Its a combination of things.
Champ was not there in the 2nd half and naturally NE started going after the youngsters. Additionally, the Pats had a whole half to monitor what we were trying to do on defense so they prolly made some adjustments as well. Coyer may or may not have started calling softer defenses but I do think a key factor was NE's adjustments in their offense based on what they were seeing from us.

So, the other team is trying to win, too? What an interesting theory.

Can we put a sticky on SoCal's post and tack it at the top of the board?

The chatroom devolved into mass hysteria yesterday because we didn't keep thumping the three time World Champions as badly all game long as we did in that amazing second quarter.

[DBroncos4life]

I guess I sad that we let the defending champs off the mat. Not just in this game but for the season as well. They can't leave this game feeling that bad because they didn't quit and they almost cameback from pretty far down.

[BMF Bronco]

The problem with that logic is that Denver put itself in a position to go into OT. Respect is one thing, but you are not going to give the game away and Denver almost did.

I mentioned a few things in the chatroom I would like to point out. No team in recent memory has been able to make halftime adjustments as well as the Patriots can. Whether they are ahead at the half or behind, it doesn't matter. That team, Belichik and his coaching staff, are tremendously talented at making adjustments both at the half and during the game.

Now, there is also the "prevent" factor, which always rears its ugly head in nearly every game with a big lead. And it worked, sorta. Let's start with the first touchdown the pats scored. This was a long drive, it took a lot of time to develop because Denver was not giving anything big and the tackling was still good so the YAC were minimal. I think this drive ate up near 5 minutes of game time. The next TD came a little quicker, but still took 3 or 4 minutes. Tackling was a lot poorer here than it was in the first drive, resulting in a quicker score, but still, added up is 8 or 9 minutes of football. With only 7 minutes left (15 for the 4th quarter and about 5 for the rest of the third quarter -if memory serves correctly) Denver had plenty of time to kill the clock in between.

The problem was, 3 and outs. Not a good scenario and I dont think the play calling was any more conservative here, I just think the Patriots knew exactly what we were going to do. Sometimes, no matter how well you coach or execute, the other team just does a little better. These are the World Champs ya know. We fell out of our funk and this should come as no surprise to anyone. We have not seen one complete domination of a football game in a long time here in Denver, Id say since 98. There is almost always a lull in the action for our team and whether this has to do with lack of focus and concentration or the lack of cutthroat spirt by the Broncos organization, I do not know, but I know that I have come to expect some kinks in the machine. As long as they aren't serious enough to break the machine from working, I dont care.

We just keep winning. And this year, what gives me much more hope than years past, we are beating good teams. Not schmucks. SD, NE, KC, Jax and Washington all have/had winning records when we played them.Of those, only KC has no _efense and NE is kinda depleted but Jax, Washington and SD are all very solid defensively. I can sit here and nitpick everything. I can tell you Jake had a decent game but had some horrible throws in the game still. I can tell you that the rookies are not all that, just D Williams. Foxworth has had just as many or more bad plays as good ones. Paymah has had WAY more bad plays than good ones. Our pass rush disappears for good portions of the game and Coyer likes to play EVERYONE about 50 yards off the receivers for some reason. Al, Ian and DJ all over pursued at least four times in the game which left what's his name Pass or whatever some good runs.

But in the end, who cares. Denver won and the bandwagon is filling up.
Exactly!!!

Not to mention, unless the team on the other side of the field has either a Raider, arrowhead, or a bolt (and possibly a horseshoe) on the side of their helmets, Shanny will not run up the score on them. He is a classy coach when it comes to that subject, almost to a fault. We tied it on when we had to and the D stepped it up when we mostly needed it. Good game and 5-1 BABY!!!!!!!!

[Paladin]

28 points was enough, obviously. No point scoring 50 when 28 wins it for you.

Total BS. I think when you play the "Champs" and you have a chance to do so, I think you hang as much on them as you can. I think you go for the jugular. If the score had been 42 - 3, then I might agree to pulling the horses back a bit. Otherwise, it becomes a Gentlemen's Game, and that is what horse racing is for. This is football, and the stakes are high. If the Broncos play this team again later, what will the Pats remember about this game? They ease up and let the other team back in? That is a recipe for disaster. You think Indy cut the Broncos any slack last year?

Go for it!!!

:charge:

[bendog]

After Den came out to start the second half with the TD, I don't think there's any question the offensive players lost some edge, but I'm not sure the play calling differed that much, not until late in the 4th

Second poss of second half.

Denver Broncos at 5:53
1-10-DEN 20 (5:53) 16-J.Plummer pass to 82-S.Alexander to DEN 25 for 5 yards (50-M.Vrabel).
2-5-DEN 25 (5:17) 38-M.Anderson right guard to DEN 27 for 2 yards (75-V.Wilfork).
3-3-DEN 27 (4:37) 26-T.Bell left tackle to DEN 22 for -5 yards (50-M.Vrabel; 59-R.Colvin).
4-8-DEN 22 (3:56) 10-T.Sauerbrun punts 62 yards to NE 16, Center-83-M.Leach. 86-T.Dwight to NE 27 for 11 yards (40-C.Cox).

3rd poss.
Denver Broncos at 14:56
1-10-DEN 20 (14:56) 16-J.Plummer pass to 80-R.Smith to DEN 27 for 7 yards (25-A.Freeman).
2-3-DEN 27 (14:15) 26-T.Bell right tackle to DEN 29 for 2 yards (22-A.Samuel; 94-T.Warren).
3-1-DEN 29 (13:37) 39-K.Johnson up the middle to DEN 30 for 1 yard (52-M.Beisel; 90-D.Klecko). Play Challenged by NE and Upheld. (Timeout #1 by NE.) R17
1-10-DEN 30 (12:48) (Run formation) PENALTY on DEN-26-T.Bell, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at DEN 30 - No Play.
1-15-DEN 25 (12:48) 16-J.Plummer up the middle to DEN 28 for 3 yards (50-M.Vrabel).
2-12-DEN 28 (12:04) 16-J.Plummer pass to 80-R.Smith to DEN 37 for 9 yards (50-M.Vrabel).
Timeout #2 by DEN at 11:17.
3-3-DEN 37 (11:17) 16-J.Plummer pass incomplete to 26-T.Bell.
4-3-DEN 37 (11:12) 10-T.Sauerbrun punts 41 yards to NE 22, Center-83-M.Leach. 86-T.Dwight pushed ob at NE 29 for 7 yards (41-K.Paymah).


Those possessions look more like failure to execute than conservatism, imo.

Now the 3rd poss was just milking the clock, but hey, the crowd here would want to fire shanny for anything. Imagine if he'd passed 3 straight?

Denver Broncos at 8:01
1-10-DEN 20 (8:01) 38-M.Anderson up the middle to DEN 27 for 7 yards (50-M.Vrabel).
2-3-DEN 27 (7:27) 38-M.Anderson up the middle to DEN 32 for 5 yards (90-D.Klecko; 26-E.Wilson). R18
1-10-DEN 32 (6:45) 38-M.Anderson left guard to DEN 35 for 3 yards (55-W.McGinest).
2-7-DEN 35 (6:04) 26-T.Bell up the middle to DEN 39 for 4 yards (50-M.Vrabel).
3-3-DEN 39 (5:18) 16-J.Plummer pass incomplete (94-T.Warren).
4-3-DEN 39 (5:12) 10-T.Sauerbrun punts 46 yards to NE 15, Center-83-M.Leach. 86-T.Dwight to NE 35 for 20 yards (51-K.Burns).
--

Defensively, sure in the second half Coyer was more conservative. I guess with a three poss lead the posters here would want rookies one on one and all out blitzes against the world champs.

[watermock]

Luckily, we had the matresss padded or we would have about 2000 unhappy campers.

It's about time Shanahan takes a good looksie at himself...he almost pulled a Reeves.

When Reeves blew a gigantic lead on Monday night against Shanahan's Raiders, I totally blew a fuse, circut breaker, melted and a burned....I could not even see straight I was so pissed at Reeves. We were up something like 24-0 and Reeves turned into a turtle...Then, Shanahan knew the exact playcalls like Gruden did in the SuperBowl...He knew Reeves would call an Elway rollout and told the corner to jump on the out...

That's the game Elway flipped off Shanahan. Ha! I was beside myself driving home...I think my wife hid under the bed or something...God I was mad...mad at not throwing Reeves out...Mad for wasting a pick on Maddox when Elway was 31, mad because Reeves was a freaking moron. That game started the joust between Reeves and Elway, and we know how that wound up.

[watermock]

I don't think Coyer played it stupid, I think we played it fairly right, maybe a little close to the vest however.

I'm just glad we had a cushion, because the Tom Terrific is an ankle biter extraordinare...he's like that wolverine that keeps getting in my farm house...he will dig around the rocks...

Say what you want....Tom Terrific is a great QB....we got the win at home...Mock is happy...we are holding home court, which is what I said was absolutely crucial this season...now we play Road Warrior...

Meck will be representin'. That guy is unreal...He's going to pack up and drive that damn thing (well maybe Disco), all the way to New York. You couldn't get me to New York on a bet, altho I'm am really tempted, I just don't see the reason to go there. It's one of the only places I haven't seen, but I would like to see the Pacific NW more.

Even Lazy Eye Booya Boy is giving us some love!