Broncos doing fine...for now

Cory Casciato
casciato@mscd.edu

The Broncos are just days away from starting the second half of their season. Apart from the cover-your-eyes awful game that opened the season, the team has looked as good as any time in recent years. Deprived of Broncos football this past weekend, I spent the time like any good Broncomaniac: evaluating the season so far and arguing about the Broncos' playoff prospects.

Several eyebrow-raising moves from the off-season have turned out pretty well. The Cleveland Browns' defensive line has performed well, allowing the Broncos to get consistent pressure from their front four. Drafting three cornerbacks looked like overkill, until Champ Bailey got hurt and Lenny Walls turned out to be useless. Now, those rookies are playing well and the move looks pretty smart. Letting go of Reuben Droughns after his breakout season caused some head shaking among fans, until the two-headed beast, Anderson Bell, started shredding defenses and put the team on pace to break several long-standing NFL records.

Plenty of fans were ready to see the Plummer era end after his wildly inconsistent play last year. Now he's settled down and he's been mentioned as a possible MVP candidate, triggering only minimal giggles. The acquisition of an aging, overweight punter involved in a steroid scandal seemed odd, but his booming punts are helping the defense to dominate.

Don't start celebrating yet. With eight tough games to go, winning the division is by no means guaranteed. Kansas City and San Diego are both on a roll and even Oakland has shown some signs of life. Despite all those promising signs, there are plenty of concerns, too.

Apart from the ever-reliable Rod Smith, Denver's receivers need to step up. Ashley Lelie was great last season, but he's returned to his old, inconsistent ways this year. He has only one touchdown pass and he isn't playing with anywhere near the focus and intensity he displayed last season. Last year's promising rookie Darius Watts has dropped so low on the depth chart he's in danger of being cut, and no one has appeared to fill the void. Even worse is Jason Elam's drop off in performance. He's missed six field goals so far, one more than he missed all of last year. On top of all that, the team is only converting about 31 percent of its third downs and can't seem to put teams away.

Getting to the halfway point with a 6-2 record triggered a lot of press about "getting over the hump" that's found them at 5-3 and slumping at this point over the last two years. It's worth looking back to 2002 before drawing conclusions. That year, the 6-2 Broncos seemed playoff-bound until a loss to the 4-4 Raiders, who went on to the Superbowl while Denver missed the playoffs. As luck would have it, 6-2 Denver's next game is against the 3-5 Raiders. Beating the Raiders and finishing the season as strong as they started would be a great way to get over the real hump: winning the division, getting a home-field playoff game and maybe, just maybe, winning a game in the postseason.