Now, right away, you might be worrying about the red-zone offense, whereas the “you” in other NFL cities is worrying about the any-zone offense.
But three arrivals by the Broncos in the red zone during resulted in nary a touchdown. Fortunately, kicker Connor “Party On Wayne, Party On” Barth can’t miss. He’s now 11-for-11 on field goals, even though some look like a pitch from (the grizzled veteran infamously lathered the baseball with Crisco, Bardol and Vagisil).
I think what irks most about Denver’s dread-zone performance is the play-calling — the guys got a little cute, and it backfired.
Entering Denver’s first red-zone appearance, in the first quarter, running back C.J. Anderson had notched runs of 5, 6 and 5 yards on the drive. Then, first-and-goal from the 9-yard line, he runs for 9. So what did Denver do from the 1-yard line? Incomplete pass on second down. And incomplete on third — that was the weird one, when Peyton Manning rolled right like he was Archie Manning.
Denver settled for a field goal.
Early in the second quarter, the red zone plays went run, pass, pass, field goal again.
Late in the second quarter, you probably recall, was the series when Peyton blocked San Diego’s Donald Butler on an apparent C.J. touchdown run, later reversed (also, imagine Butler in the next week, having to face teammates after getting hurt and knocked out of the game on hit from Peyton Manning). Denver settled for a field goal here, too.
Hey, at least they were getting in the red zone in the first half — they didn’t get there in the second.
OK, so should you worry? No, Denver is sixth in the NFL by scoring touchdowns on 63.4 percent of its .
Yes, in the past three games, that number is 30.7 percent, but they were 3-for-3 against Buffalo (woohoo!) but 1-for-7 at Kansas City (boohoo!).
But sixth is pretty good and … it’s even better than New England (Denver’s sixth, while the Pats are just eighth, so take that, Tom!).
One thing to point out, though — Denver scored red-zone touchdowns 82.7 percent of the time at home, but just 39.1 percent on the road.
Something to consider on a cold New England January day.
Chew on this
• The Jets defeated the Titans 16-11 on Sunday. It’s the first 16-11 final score in NFL history (via ).
• Kobe Bryant could pass Michael Jordan on every list ever, but only one list matters, and Michael will always lead Kobe by one (and we all wonder if that his six would be higher if Jordan didn’t leave to play baseball).
• Fellow columnist Mark Kiszla and I had a fun debate — which trophy is cooler,
• And happy 44th birthday to cool-last-name-NBAer
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman
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