Something stinks. If the Denver defense is a rock, then its offense must be the slimy underside.
Smell trouble? If the Broncos are going to get more than a whiff of the Super Bowl, coach Mike Shanahan cannot continue to mask the problem with a can of Glade.
Something was rank at your local football stadium on Sunday night. And we’re not talking about those stale, old Oakland Raiders, a nuisance that Denver kept messing with until the Broncos won 13-3.
Haven’t we seen this game too many times already? This has got to stop before déjà vu dooms the championship dreams of the Broncos. Whoever installed the humidor at Invesco Field, please dismantle it. Touchdowns are down. Concern is up by anyone with eyes wide open.
“You don’t care if you keep winning ugly. But …” Broncos fullback Kyle Johnson said, letting doubt linger in the air.
But what?
“I haven’t seen anything where I would say we’re on the verge,” Johnson said. “Right now, we’re doing enough to win. If you play it that close all the time, you are going to lose some games you would have won if you had an explosive offense.”
Here’s a shocking statistic: Mike Shanahan, undeniably an offensive mastermind, has coached 194 regular-season and playoff games for Denver. Never during his tenure had the Broncos gone five straight games without scoring 20 points.
Until now.
Go back to the 34-17 loss against Pittsburgh in last season’s AFC championship game and the Broncos have failed to score 20 points in six consecutive games.
Something stinks. If you’re thinking with a 4-1 record the high and mighty Broncos are bound for the Bowl, then defensive end Kenard Lang wants to drop some country wisdom on your front porch.
“Like my dad always said, ‘When you start smelling your own underwear, that’s when you have a problem,”‘ Lang declared in the locker room.
Say what?
“If you start smelling your own drawers, that means you start thinking you’re better than you really are. And you’re not,” Lang said.
The Denver defense never rests. And that’s precisely the problem. As mean, nasty and dominating as the Broncos are when the defense is on the field, Denver cannot win the Super Bowl this way.
The Broncos have scored five touchdowns in five games. They are asking Champ Bailey to do far too much heavy lifting of this dead-weight offense. He won’t intercept a pass at the goal line every game. Oh, I can hear the screaming of the ignorant now.
Folks who view the NFL through orange-tinted glasses will shout the specious argument that Baltimore won a championship in 2000 with a surly defense, while Tampa Bay tore apart the league with the same gruff formula in 2002. But here’s a news flash for you.
Those teams of the Ravens and Bucs were offensive juggernauts compared to these Broncos.
Baltimore averaged 20.8 points per game in 2000. Tampa Bay produced 21.6 points per game in 2002. That’s nearly 100 percent better than the numbers quarterback Jake Plummer is putting on the scoreboard for the Broncos.
“Fair or not, we were expected to be productive tonight (against the Raiders),” Johnson said. “It’s got to be soon.”
Denver has yet to score 20 points against anybody this season. Are the Broncos, averaging a paltry 12.4 points per game, being hamstrung by game plans that could not be more conservative if Rush Limbaugh were calling plays?
“I’ll answer that question,” Johnson said. “We haven’t gotten at all more conservative with the plays we put in during practice.”
Pffft. Hear the air being let out of the football? Long ago, this strategy worked for the New York Giants, who won it all when big, fat Bill Parcells sat on every lead. But a comparison that hits closer to home to these Broncos might be the Blake Street Bombers. Back in the day, seems to me they won a lot of games 13-3, too.
The way Shanahan is trying to win now, Dante Bichette could play quarterback.
“What we tell ourself is: If the other team don’t score, they don’t win,” said Lang, generously refusing to point a finger of blame at the Denver offense. “We don’t run the ball, we don’t throw it, we don’t catch it. We just worry about our defense.”
This Denver defense has the right stuff to win a championship. The most inept attack in the Shanahan era could get the Broncos beat on any given Sunday. No offense, but …
“What are we waiting for?” Johnson said.
