Bill Simmons astute thoughts on the Broncos after week 3

[errand]

The mane....gotta love it!

Broncos fans worried about what some Patriots shill says....who cares what he thinks? Seriously...it's just one man's opinion.

Broncos fans debating over who our best defensive player is, I mean does it really matter who the best defensive player is on the team? I just thank God they're both on the my favorite team

Broncos fans worrying about older players even though there is visual evidence they are still playing at a high level at their advanced age.

Broncos fans wondering if money spent on Manning was well spent. Yes it was.....mainly because Manning plays for us and the guy he replaced isn't making us look like idiots for dumping him.

[RhymesayersDU]

Originally Posted by errand

The mane....gotta love it!

Broncos fans worried about what some Patriots shill says....who cares what he thinks? Seriously...it's just one man's opinion.

Broncos fans debating over who our best defensive player is, I mean does it really matter who the best defensive player is on the team? I just thank God they're both on the my favorite team

Broncos fans worrying about older players even though there is visual evidence they are still playing at a high level at their advanced age.

Broncos fans wondering if money spent on Manning was well spent. Yes it was.....mainly because Manning plays for us and the guy he replaced isn't making us look like idiots for dumping him.

So then what should we be talking about on a Broncos-related message board, since all these topics seem to bore you?

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Agreed here. Champ is still the man, but Von will easily take the reigns in another year or two. If nothing else, he is the #2 guy as it stands now.

I'd probably rank him as a wash with Elvis at the moment (maybe still a slight nod towards Elvis). Von's the superior pass rusher and athlete but still makes young player errors whereas Elvis is pretty solid at not biting on things like misdirection and can diagnose plays better.

[fwf]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Agreed here. Champ is still the man, but Von will easily take the reigns in another year or two. If nothing else, he is the #2 guy as it stands now.

Its a shame we cant tout the 2nd highest payed guy in the league this year as our top Defender. Doom needs to start earning his check

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/highest...4929--nfl.html

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

So then what should we be talking about on a Broncos-related message board, since all these topics seem to bore you?

Careful, he'll say his brother is a Broncos-related message board and get you banned.

[RhymesayersDU]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

Careful, he'll say his brother is a Broncos-related message board and get you banned.

Whoa! You said "brother" in a post! Enjoy your vacation!

[TonyR]

at this thread. Gotta love it. Perhaps the best, most popular sports-entertainment writer in the country makes some negative comments about the Broncos and the mob lights the torches and gets out the pitchforks. Yes, of course, he "sucks" and he's an east coast biased "hack" (all while living in L.A.).

Come on, fellas, show a little fortitude. Peyton and the Broncos can either prove Simmons right today, or they can prove him wrong. But right now we're standing at 1-2 and the team hasn't looked very good the last 2 weeks. And neither has PM. So until Simmons doesn't have a point, he does. Let's hope the Broncos turn it around today.

[TheReverend]

Loling so hard at Bill Simmons right now

[Gutless Drunk]

Originally Posted by TonyR

at this thread. Gotta love it. Perhaps the best, most popular sports-entertainment writer in the country makes some negative comments about the Broncos and the mob lights the torches and gets out the pitchforks. Yes, of course, he "sucks" and he's an east coast biased "hack" (all while living in L.A.).

Come on, fellas, show a little fortitude. Peyton and the Broncos can either prove Simmons right today, or they can prove him wrong. But right now we're standing at 1-2 and the team hasn't looked very good the last 2 weeks. And neither has PM. So until Simmons doesn't have a point, he does. Let's hope the Broncos turn it around today.

It appears it is the latter

[Rulon Velvet Jones]

The "old" guys played pretty well today.

[Jetmeck]

Might of been the two teams we were playing who just happen to be 4-0 right now................doh

[fwf]

Originally Posted by Pseudofool

The great thing about Bill Simmons is that you can read the articles in Bill Simmon's voice, making it easy to dismiss his take altogether--his shtick is as obvious as a kid brother's bookworm pretension. The guy suffers from narcissism, only other narcissists take him seriously.

Best post from this thread.

**** Bill Simmons and **** the raiders!

[ZONA]

Bill just owned today.

[Kid A]

Guarantee this week the goalposts move to "well, the Raiders are bad. Let's a wait until he plays the Pats." Which, fair enough, will be a big test. Will need to score 30 again in all likelihood.

[SoCalBronco]

Originally Posted by TonyR

at this thread. Gotta love it. Perhaps the best, most popular sports-entertainment writer in the country makes some negative comments about the Broncos and the mob lights the torches and gets out the pitchforks. Yes, of course, he "sucks" and he's an east coast biased "hack" (all while living in L.A.).

Come on, fellas, show a little fortitude. Peyton and the Broncos can either prove Simmons right today, or they can prove him wrong. But right now we're standing at 1-2 and the team hasn't looked very good the last 2 weeks. And neither has PM. So until Simmons doesn't have a point, he does. Let's hope the Broncos turn it around today.

......Tony's boy got beat down. Of course I don't blame Tony for being a Bill Simmons fan....his location is Mid-Atlantic after all.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

......Tony's boy got beat down. Of course I don't blame Tony for being a Bill Simmons fan....his location is Mid-Atlantic after all.

And I love it! PM shuts up the doubters for a week at least.

[maven]

Bill Simmons? He's a basketball guy. Who happened to fall into luck with the Patriots/Red Sox the past 12 years.

[TonyR]

Some positive stuff on PM from Simmons' colleague Bill Barnwell.

Are we really getting down on Manning after games against the Steelers, Falcons, and Texans? Atlanta and Houston are arguably the two best teams in the league, and the Steelers aren't exactly chopped french fries and pastrami. The moment Manning got a respite from his tough schedule and got to play a terrible pass defense, he was phenomenal and made the game look easy. Peyton will face one of the league's toughest schedules this season, but he's going to look worse against the tough teams than he does against the awful ones, as always. When Manning comes back from his bye and has a seven-game stretch that includes games against the Saints, Bengals, Panthers, Chiefs, Bucs, and Raiders, he's going to look great.

In truth, the reality is that the Broncos have already adapted the Manning offense from Indianapolis to take some of the strain and stress off of what Manning needs to do. Against the Raiders, virtually every one of his passes in the first half was within 5–7 yards of the line of scrimmage. Unless they have to throw downfield to catch up, the Denver offense mostly consists of screens, swing passes, and pick plays that produce short crossing patterns. You could count the number of times Manning threw more than 10 yards downfield in the air against the Raiders on Sunday on one hand, and it wasn't because he wasn't able to; it was because the Raiders played super-conservative behind their pass rush and gave Manning a free checkdown on virtually every play.

Peyton Manning isn't the same guy he used to be, but the idea that he can't throw the ball is absurd. Expect the new Peyton Manning to be more inconsistent than the old model going forward, but he's certainly good enough to keep the Broncos competitive in 2012.

Read the whole article here: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...o-quarterbacks

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

......Tony's boy got beat down. Of course I don't blame Tony for being a Bill Simmons fan....his location is Mid-Atlantic after all.

I'm from the mid atlantic and I still think Simmons is a tool. Complete Boston douchenozzle who apparently lives in LA. Not sure how that matters, but it seems to be a recurring theme in this thread.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

I'm from the mid atlantic and I still think Simmons is a tool.

The fact that I live in the mid-Atlantic (though I'm not from the area), which is nowhere near Boston, has absolutely nothing to do with me liking Bill Simmons.

[Stagger Lee]

Thats kind of what I was saying. But do you seriously like him? I find him nothing short of unreadable. He's such an unlikeable whiny little tool. Plus Colin Cowherd likes him, so that tells me a lot right there.

[Stagger Lee]

I also should add that I'm a diehard Orioles fan, and find pretty much all that is Boston quite obnoxious.

Edit: Except Beantown Bronco. He is an excellent poster.

[Beantown Bronco]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

I also should add that I'm a diehard Orioles fan, and find pretty much all that is Boston quite obnoxious.

The Sox certainly aren't doing you guys any favors these days.

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by Beantown Bronco

The Sox certainly aren't doing you guys any favors these days.

Damn, you got in before my edit, but you're right. Bobby V has mailed it in I believe. Rooting for them tonight all the same.

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Some positive stuff on PM from Simmons' colleague Bill Barnwell.



Read the whole article here: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...o-quarterbacks

Yeah, it was a good read:

Manning was capable of making the most difficult throws of the day, but he was inconsistent in a way that I don't think the old Peyton Manning used to be. He can throw spirals and put zip on his passes, even on the run, but he has to battle with himself to avoid trying to challenge tight windows, and he has throws come out wobbly way more frequently than history would suggest.

One unlucky break for Manning was that several of his more impressive throws against the Texans were wiped off by things that didn't have anything to do with the quality of his pass. One tight spiral to Eric Decker in the third quarter produced a gain of 36 yards, but it was taken off the books by a holding penalty on the Broncos. Obviously, it's not like the hold made Manning throw the ball more effectively.

This is what I felt was the truth the last few weeks; his arm isn't "gone." Arm strength may be down for him a little, but his biggest issue in the losses were periods of inaccuracy.

I guarantee it was completion percentage, not strength, that Peyton focused on this week, flipping a 26-52 effort against Houston into a 30-38 against Oakland. I might even go further than Barnwell and say that, yes, his game may be permanently changed to a degree, but if anything we should expect improving arm strength and consistency as the year progresses. The guy is still rehabbing during the week, after all.