Week 10 AFC West Roundup
By Justin Smith
Denver Broncos
3rd Place in AFC West
Record: 6-3
Last Game: defeated Saints 25-23 in New Orleans
Next Game: Week 11 – BYE, Week 12 – home to Kansas City Chiefs (7-2), Sun, Nov 27 8:30 EST
Okay, come on. Will Parks stepped out of bounds. I don’t care if he played the black swan in his grade five ballet class, he didn’t tiptoe that line. He stepped out. White shoes or not, it was obvious to everyone except the three people who count.
Hence, the Saints lost a heartbreaker.
It was an amazing play by Denver’s rookie safety Justin Simmons, and great play by Parks to scoop the ball and take off. They practice that a lot, apparently. But Will, my man — ballet lessons or not — you didn’t stay in bounds.
Do you think Dean Blandino sees things like this and just wants to wall himself in a bunker and never speak to anyone again?
How many times can he give a BP-like disingenuous apology like “well we know it cost the team the game and there’s only sixteen and each count and now their chances of making the playoffs are demoed — sorry!”
Anyway, the Broncos won and that’s the bottom line. They shouldn’t have, but they did and that’s what counts. One thing is clear though — a week after the Raiders ran for over 200 yards against Denver, Drew Brees passed for over 300. Teams are not scared of this defense anymore, at least not without Aqib Talib, and good teams can run OR pass on them. That’s the takeaway here.
The Broncos need this bye week badly. Trevor Siemian isn’t 100% healthy, that’s obvious. It’s tough to stay healthy when he’s under pressure every time he drops back and smoked about half the time he throws.
The offensive line is a big problem. The Broncos haven’t averaged over 3 yards per rush in four weeks. Siemian is making a living closing his eyes and turning his back when he throws the ball.
With only the Jaguars left in their last seven games as a real true gimme game on paper — the Broncos play the Chiefs twice, the Raiders once and the Titans and Patriots in their other six — this team needs to right the ship quickly.
They look little like the bullies that started the season demolishing opponents and serving notice. They look more like a depleted team with little clue on offense. Their defense doesn’t seem quite good enough anymore to overcome those deficiencies.
The Chiefs and Raiders look very strong. The Broncos need a statement out of the bye or they risk being left behind in the division. Fortunately for them, they’re still one game up in the wild-card race.