The good news is the Broncos are 2-0. Now for the bad news: There are no more Ohio teams on their schedule.
But then, maybe that’s being too cynical. Hey, it’s easy to do after watching the Bengals and Browns in back-to-back weeks.
Maybe the Broncos’ defense is this good. Maybe Mike Nolan, in the span of one offseason, has changed the culture of failure on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe the Broncos’ defense, after all those poundings and all those pink slips, is ready to stand up and be accountable.
All we know for sure is this: Two games into what most people assumed would be a lost season, the Denver defense has been nothing short of dominant. The offense? Um, did we mention how dominant the defense has been?
The Broncos didn’t need much offense Sunday, beating the Browns 27-6 in Josh McDaniels’ home debut. About that point total for Denver most of it came in the fourth quarter when the Cleveland players appeared to have one eye on the field and the other on the team bus.
The Broncos had 10 points at halftime. The boo birds were in perfect symphony and Kyle Orton had 11 completions in 27 attempts. But Denver led 10-6.
One quarter later, the Broncos were clinging to a 13-6 lead when the offense quit spinning its wheels. With the fourth quarter came a 49-yard pass to Jabar Gaffney and a 45-yard touchdown run by Correll Buckhalter.
But the story of the day was the D. Are you ready for some football statistics? The Broncos have seven sacks in two games, one more than they accounted for in the final eight games of 2008. Elvis Dumervil set a career high and matched the team record Sunday, sacking Brady Quinn four times.
The cynics in the crowd will want to see it again. Not against the likes of Cincinnati and Cleveland, but against the A listers on the Broncos’ schedule. After playing at Oakland on Sunday, the Broncos enter a nasty stretch of games that includes Dallas, New England, San Diego, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
How will their defense fare against those teams? Who knows? But at least they’re going to be worth watching. That’s a far cry from the past two seasons, when Denver had arguably the worst defense in the league.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
