Week 6: Broncos vs. Jets Preview

Week 6 is already upon us and it will be very interesting to see where the Denver Broncos will sit in standings after this game. This Jets game is the first of 2 more consecutive home game Denver has before it heads to London, England on October 31st to take on the 49ers. But for now, the Broncos have one too many things on their plate and it will take all they have to fight off a Jets defense that LOVES to blitz and will most definitely test the state of our offense, which believe it or not, is our strongest point right now.

Offense:

I start off with Kyle Orton vs. the USC product, Mark Sanchez. I don't want to bring up too many bad memories of last week's butt-kicking the Broncos took from Baltimore, and despite all that Orton has respectively kept his composure. With a tough Baltimore defense in his face, he held on and managed to bring back to Denver his fourth consecutive 300-yard game. I say if he can do that while facing the relentless attack of Baltimore, he most certainly can do the same against a similar Jets defense. Orton has proven to be a fearless quarterback and I love seeing that from him. He's been strong, I've never doubted him. The red zone attack of our offense needs big improvement and Orton should take a good heaping of responsibility for that but it takes a total TEAM effort to get that ball in the end zone, and that includes our coaches and their play-calling.

And while the Jets are as notorious for their blitzing defense as Denver has been for their passing attack as of recently this season, I'm still very, very confident in Orton and our offense to get the job done this weekend. They need to focus more on what THEY need to do instead of putting all the focus on what the Jets are going to do. Granted, it should be balanced out for obvious reasons but they seem to have put more focus on what their opponents are going to do. Putting some of that focus on executing plays and moving the ball would help their cause a little more. Basically, balance out the focus on the opponent and what our offense needs to do to get points and we'll be an offense with some fight in them.

On the other side, we have 2nd-year QB Mark Sanchez who's been having a good season so far, except for his 2 Monday night games, which were not his finest hour. 8 TD's, ZERO INTs, ZERO sacks, no fumbles,902 yards with a 91.7 rating and they've won 4 straight games after starting the season 0-1. So basically, his Oline has protected him very well and he's got an offense that will be hard to contain if our defense lets all the adversity take the reigns. With 5 critical key defenders out for Denver, the replacements in our secondary will need to be top-notch on Sunday stop these guys. And here's the biggest reason why, they are the #1 rushing offense in the NFL.... and who you ask is their starting RB?? None other than LaDainian Tomlinson. Denver will once again meet face to face with this running back who gave us such problems and headaches when he played for the Chargerettes back in the day. And the dude still has plenty left in him with 76 carries for 435 yards (averaging 5.7 yds a carry, which is more than I can say for our sorry run game) and he's got 3 TDs to add to it. Not to mention they lead the league in rushing yards per game (165.2). Makes you shake your head in confusion when you look at our run game. Unbelievable. Just look at it this way: our defense will be taking on the #1 rushing offense in the league while the blitzing Jets take on (or manhandle) the league's worst rushing offense.

When it comes to our receivers and passing game, it's a whole new ball game. Denver is second in the league when it comes to a passing offense with 333 yds whereas the Jets sit at 25th in the same area (172). And if the Jets don't have their star CB Darrelle Revis, it could be an interesting game. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'd love to run over these guys just because they are without one player but they've also got a tough defense. However, their weakest area is pass rush (allowing an avg. of 234.6 pass yds), 23rd in the league. All I can say is, if we don't get much of a running game going on Sunday, we have to do all we can to exploit their weak spots and if that means taking advantage of their weak pass rush, we gotta do it. If the Broncos want to win, which I believe they really do, they need to put up a strong fight. End of story. Do whatever it takes but leave out the stupid penalties and turnovers!!

Defense:

Still no word on whether the Jets' star CB will play against Denver on Sunday, it will be a different game if Darrelle Revis does indeed play or not. While he could make a big difference in how well Orton and the offense moves downfield and scores points, I remind all of Bronco Country that even without Revis, the Jets defense still harbors very good defenders. First off, they have a Dline that loves to blitz and they will be doing a lot of it to try to get to Orton. All I can say, is I hope our very young Oline is very prepared for these guys. They need to read them like a book and out-smart them. No room for big mistakes. So like I mentioned earlier, our offense needs to balance out their focus on things... put an equal amount of focus on picking up the Jets' Dline to protect Orton & give him time to throw (he'll be doing a lot of it) but also put just as much focus into what the offense needs to do to not fizzle out drives so often. And it takes a TEAM to do this. They have got to start working together to get the job done. It's that simple. These guys are pros, they need to start playing like pros.

As for Denver's banged up defense, it will be an even bigger challenge than what they faced in Baltimore mainly because we will be without 5 key defenders. It will interesting to see how both defenses do considering both secondaries for both teams are dealing with the injury bug. I don't know what it's going to take for our defense to get their act together, I would hope that in a time of adversity such as this, that our backups will look at it as a BIG opportunity to prove themselves. They've got to put pressure on Sanchez, give him hell!!! Don't give him all day to look for a guy to throw to... put pressure on him, make him make mistakes, force turnovers, read him like a book and pick him off (counting on you Champ). Our defense hasn't been the strongest this season but before the Baltimore game I thought they were handling things very well given the teams we were up against. Our biggest feat will be to stop the run. Oh dear Lord, STOP THE RUN!!!

LT still has plenty of gusto in him and if we let him, he'll run all over us... don't let continue to do so. We let him do it when we played against him twice a year. Stop this guy. Put pressure on him too. The Jets will be running the ball a lot; we got to be ready for anything when you have LT on the other side. He's having a good season so far... so give him a VERY bad day on Sunday. I think if we can manage to hold him under a 100 yards, it will do us a world of good. I would be very impressed by our D if they can do that. Not only will our Oline be a young & inexperienced one (but also very talented) our defense will be a group of young guns as well, with the exception of Champ. I look forward to seeing Champ in this game. If Denver's front office is holding off on his contract to see what he has left in him, this game would be a good start to show them that they'll want to keep #24 around for awhile.

Another interesting note for this game will be Champ vs. the Jets offense and Jets CB Antonio Cromartie (acquired in a trade with San Diego) vs. Denver's offense. Cromartie has played against Denver for the past 5 years now (Sunday will make it five) but this Denver offense is much different than last year's. Granted on the surface, we haven't had much of run game for years now but we weren't this bad at it last year. This season, Denver is chock full of receivers that go beyond just talent. It's very possible we could see Cromartie put on to cover Orton's favorite weapon, Brandon Lloyd, but Lloyd has shown to be too good of a receiver to let one guy get in his way. I honestly, can't wait to see that match-up (if it happens).

I guess this is the time to be thankful we don't have much of a running game because the Jets are 4th in the league at stopping the run. Our best chance at controlling this game is our pass attack and our solid receivers. After the week 5 loss to Baltimore, I've read a lot of comments saying that stats don't win games. And while that is pretty much true, we'll see how well that goes when "statistically" Denver's 2nd ranked pass offense takes on the Jets' 23rd ranked pass rush defense. To a lot of people those are just numbers, very true... but there's a reason for those stats. Stats alone don't win games... just like the talent on the Jets team can't win games alone. It takes more than talent and stats to win a game. And with hard work & a good fight, the Broncos will show the East Coast team how its done in the West. muwahahaha

Special Teams:

For the past two games, Denver had decided to put rookie Demaryius Thomas on kick return duties and in last week's game he got a big hit put on him causing him to miss the rest of the game. And with that, Eddie Royal is said to take over for him in the upcoming Jets game. We probably won't know if Thomas will see any action in Sunday's game till game time. McD is so weird & confidential about injuries, who knows what he'll do.

While both teams are pretty much even when it comes to punt returns, the Jets have yet another weapon when it comes to kick returns. Brad Smith has put up big numbers (no touchdowns) but his longest run was 86 yards... I don't care to see anything like that on Sunday, unless we're the ones running 86 yards or better. Smith also has 13 catches on returns for a total of 419 yards (an average of about 32.2 yards per carry). We need to play more defense with these guys put an end to their little game. I'd love to see Prater put a kick return somewhere around the 10 or 15 yard line and have it bounce back a bit further towards the goal line and our guys put on some magic and stop it before it goes into the end zone. Prater always either kicks it out of bounds for an automatic touchback at the 20 or lets the returner catch it and gain a few more yards. I want to see Sanchez and his offense struggle and our special teams can help out with that.


Injuries:

This list keeps getting longer and it ain't good.

Rookie Thomas went out with a possible concussion but he practiced on Friday. He will probably be a game time decision but he looks and sounds healthy, I'd love to see him on the field with the offense catching some passes. This kid is the new "beast". In other good offensive news, starting RB Knowshon Moreno practiced for the second day in a row and is very likely we could see him on the field Sunday. Kind of on the fence about that one considering the Jets pretty much have the run game on offense and stopping the run on defense covered. And I don't want Moreno in there if he's not close to 100%. We need a run attack and he's our best chance... we can't afford to have him out all season.

Not to sound like a broken record, but again, Denver will be without 5 key defenders (half of our complete injury report of 10 players). The five that have been ruled out for Sunday include: Brian Dawkins (knee), Andre Goodman (quadricep), Robert Ayers (foot), Darcel McBath (ankle) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring).

On the Jets, Darrelle Revis is questionable for the game. The other 5 injured Jets players include 3 defenders - LB Calvin Pace (foot), Safety Jim Leonhard (biceps) and LB Jamaal Westerman (ankle) - all of which are probable for the game.

With all that said, this game could go a few directions. I think either way it will end up being a close game in the end, maybe even go into overtime. Denver has got to fight for this win, no questions asked. The season is not half over yet but each loss adds up fast and we can't afford to win a bunch of games. They should take this season one game at a time but at least set a goal to do better than 8-8. Setting a goal like that would and should give them more momentum to do better and play better. Fight for it boys and play like a TEAM!!!

Broncos win it by a field goal, 24-21.

Broncos-Jets Preview

GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!