Broncos @ Bengals Game Thread

[HoosierCat]

So, in the fun with numbers department, after two games, Dalton is on track for 672 passing attempts for 5,856 yards. Of course, he is unlikely to live through all 16 games since he's also on track to be sacked 64 times.

Jeremy Hill is on track for 160 carries and 424 yards. OTOH Green is staring at 112 catches for 1,744 yards.

Huber is on pace for a career record 96 punts. Likewise, Nuge is headed toward 56 field goal attempts, 18 more than his career best (hmmm, maybe I shoulda kept him on my fantasy team after all...)

The run D, currently ranked 32 out of 32 in the league, is looking at allowing an impressive 2,208 yards. This would be just 10 yards shy of the Marvin-era record, 2,218 coughed up in 2003. Should they get just a little worse and surpass that 2003 mark, the next stop is 1998's horrific 2,612.

So, memo to the team, what say we tighten things up just a bit this week?

[HoosierCat]

 

[membengal]

While everyone panics over the lack of the run game, the early schedule was front-loaded with insanely difficult Ds to run against. Just sayin'. It will look better as the schedule chills out.

[volcom69]

Where has Burkhead been? I always liked when he is in, he always seems to do something. Just wondering if we will see him this week. 

[skyline]

48 minutes ago, membengal said:

While everyone panics over the lack of the run game, the early schedule was front-loaded with insanely difficult Ds to run against. Just sayin'. It will look better as the schedule chills out.

Point taken, but I don't EVER want to see Dalton throwing the ball 50+ times in a game.  EVER.

Zampese has me nervous.

Either way, the Broncos game is very winnable.  Looking forward to it.  

And Tyler Eifert...please come back.  Please come back NOW.  And while we're at it, let's burn the Pro Bowl to the ground.

[HoosierCat]

21 minutes ago, volcom69 said:

Where has Burkhead been? I always liked when he is in, he always seems to do something. Just wondering if we will see him this week. 

I think he was returning kicks yesterday.

[AMPHAR]

It was a Loooooooong day for the Colts O-line vs. Denver D.    At one point they flashed a graphic up on 14 drop backs, Luck got sacked 1, hurried 7, and knocked down 3.   That just continued throughout the day.    Real gutty performance by Luck.

Denver on offense is kinda weird.  Looks like they run the ball very well but the overall production isn't there.  Colts D clamped down on them in the 2nd half.    Denver had 2 defensive scores. 

Denver is a very rhythmic passing team but still gave up pressure up the middle and off the right side.  

Colts would have had a pick 6 but the CB popped a hammy in the return and went down.   They got a FG out of it.

Very gutty performance by Colts D that supposedly sucks.   Apparently they had a ton of defensive back injuries.

Bengals better be able to run the ball or it will be a long day for Dalton.   Luck was battling all day and dodging bullets. 

[volcom69]

24 minutes ago, HoosierCat said:

I think he was returning kicks yesterday.

He was but I meant in the offense? He is so versatile that they can use him in the run game or even line him up wide, like they talked about before. 

I just sometimes have to wonder if they are using some of these guys the right way. I'm just hoping Ken changes the way he calls plays, guess time will tell.

[HoosierCat]

23 minutes ago, volcom69 said:

He was but I meant in the offense? He is so versatile that they can use him in the run game or even line him up wide, like they talked about before. 

I just sometimes have to wonder if they are using some of these guys the right way. I'm just hoping Ken changes the way he calls plays, guess time will tell.

I think they are trying very hard (with mixed success) to patch an offense together, and right now they are focused (and in some cases forced) on getting the noobs into some kind of sync with Dalton.

You have Boyd and LaFell who are new, and in LaFell's case he was hurt in camp so didn't get much time with Andy. Eifert and Kroft are both hurt so they're forced to go with Uzomah. Burkhead could get some snaps in there but do you take those away from LaFell or Boyd? That means it just takes longer for them to get in rhythm. If Burkhead were a game-changer, sure, but he's not.

I do think that if Hill doesn't improve Rex could see some touches.

The same argument can be used for Hewitt, whom I've missed, as well. Who do you take off the field to play the FB? Thing is, if they aren't going to use him, why did they just give him a $7 million extension?

Everything about the O just feels half-assed to me right now. Given all the changes I suppose that's to be expected. But it's frustrating nonetheless.

[HoosierCat]

Ware definitely out, is having surgery. RT Donald Stephenson probably out. TE Virgil Green is day-to-day.

http://bsndenver.com/gary-kubiak-updates-the-denver-broncos-injury-situation/

[cmc0605]

Hi all, Bronco fan here.

I don't know much about your own team this year, but I'll just say a few things about Denver. Some of it might be annoyingly on the "pro" side, but hey, we won the SB...

The commenter above who said, "Denver on offense is kinda weird" is right...we've been statistically productive, but have found a lot of silly reasons not to score a lot of points. C.J. Anderson is playing like a pro bowl back, we have really good skill position players on the outside, the o-line is "good," TEs overall are meh but Virgil is emerging.

Trevor Siemian is not a weakness, and is going to be a franchise QB (if not with us in the future, definitely with someone)...don't let his experience fool you, he is very poised, smart, doesn't go through the roller coaster ride of emotions, processes information well in the pocket, hits his correct checkdowns, doesn't run like a deer in headlights if the pressure is on, he spreads the ball around, etc. He'll run 2-3 per game, and so far has moved the chains a couple times with his legs. He's still learning the young QB things like going through progressions, and has missed some red zone opportunities on throws that are a lock between the 20s. Otherwise, he's quite accurate and has a spiral on every throw. Surprisingly, we haven't had to deal with other young QB moments (like delay of games, unawareness of the game situation, etc). He does have three ints, but two of them are sort of "flukey," coming on WR screen plays, with a DE/LB just stepping in and grabbing it out of the air. It's just a play he needs to clean up. But he's not making rookie decisions.

So we're moving the ball and not having 3 and outs, but our red zone execution has been terrible. That's why the Colts game was close, despite having outplayed them all game long.

Defensively, there's no mental gymnastics you can do to escape how good we are. This year and last may be the best D in our franchise history, and if kept up for another couple years will be known in a historic context. You just have to rely on those couple big plays or those couple drives that go right, hope to do some misdirection, etc. Scoring more than 20 points is very hard. Importantly, you have to be cautious, because the pass rush and secondary are ferocious. DWare injured might help, but our first round pick last year is a pass rusher and has come along good, and quite ready to take the next step. Ware has been on a snap count limit anyway, so it's not a huge dropoff. The biggest impact is on "big 3rd down" type situations.

Special teams is whatever. There's nothing that stands out as being very threatening, but they don't lose games.

Denver always keeps games close though, both against really good and really bad teams. That's been true this year so far and all of last year. People have all sorts of ideas about how that is linked to the QB being too old (last year) or too young (last year w Brock, or this year w Trevor). But, I don't think a goldilocks QB that is neither too old or too young will remedy that.  We're not "conservative" but we do run a lot, run a slow-paced huddle offense, don't take a lot of deep shots, and play the horizontal game to some extent. An emergent property of this style is that you'll get a lot of 3rd and 2 type situations. We haven't executed in the red zone well, so the scores are close. But all of our games are close and the D has always closed well.

 

[BengalszoneBilly]

34 minutes ago, cmc0605 said:

Hi all, Bronco fan here.

I don't know much about your own team this year, but I'll just say a few things about Denver. Some of it might be annoyingly on the "pro" side, but hey, we won the SB...

The commenter above who said, "Denver on offense is kinda weird" is right...we've been statistically productive, but have found a lot of silly reasons not to score a lot of points. C.J. Anderson is playing like a pro bowl back, we have really good skill position players on the outside, the o-line is "good," TEs overall are meh but Virgil is emerging.

Trevor Siemian is not a weakness, and is going to be a franchise QB (if not with us in the future, definitely with someone)...don't let his experience fool you, he is very poised, smart, doesn't go through the roller coaster ride of emotions, processes information well in the pocket, hits his correct checkdowns, doesn't run like a deer in headlights if the pressure is on, he spreads the ball around, etc. He'll run 2-3 per game, and so far has moved the chains a couple times with his legs. He's still learning the young QB things like going through progressions, and has missed some red zone opportunities on throws that are a lock between the 20s. Otherwise, he's quite accurate and has a spiral on every throw. Surprisingly, we haven't had to deal with other young QB moments (like delay of games, unawareness of the game situation, etc). He does have three ints, but two of them are sort of "flukey," coming on WR screen plays, with a DE/LB just stepping in and grabbing it out of the air. It's just a play he needs to clean up. But he's not making rookie decisions.

So we're moving the ball and not having 3 and outs, but our red zone execution has been terrible. That's why the Colts game was close, despite having outplayed them all game long.

Defensively, there's no mental gymnastics you can do to escape how good we are. This year and last may be the best D in our franchise history, and if kept up for another couple years will be known in a historic context. You just have to rely on those couple big plays or those couple drives that go right, hope to do some misdirection, etc. Scoring more than 20 points is very hard. Importantly, you have to be cautious, because the pass rush and secondary are ferocious. DWare injured might help, but our first round pick last year is a pass rusher and has come along good, and quite ready to take the next step. Ware has been on a snap count limit anyway, so it's not a huge dropoff. The biggest impact is on "big 3rd down" type situations.

Special teams is whatever. There's nothing that stands out as being very threatening, but they don't lose games.

Denver always keeps games close though, both against really good and really bad teams. That's been true this year so far and all of last year. People have all sorts of ideas about how that is linked to the QB being too old (last year) or too young (last year w Brock, or this year w Trevor). But, I don't think a goldilocks QB that is neither too old or too young will remedy that.  We're not "conservative" but we do run a lot, run a slow-paced huddle offense, don't take a lot of deep shots, and play the horizontal game to some extent. An emergent property of this style is that you'll get a lot of 3rd and 2 type situations. We haven't executed in the red zone well, so the scores are close. But all of our games are close and the D has always closed well.

 

Nice opening post cmc0605. It's the Denver defense that has me concerned the most. My buddy out here in Arizona is a life long Broncos fan, and we have a little money riding on this game.

[HoosierCat]

Great news everybody! The refs from last year's playoff game are back this week.

http://cin.247sports.com/Bolt/Refs-from-AFC-Wild-Card-game-assigned-to-Bengals-Broncos-47641769

[AMPHAR]

A trip down memory lane.     Dunlap had 3 sacks last year,  1 in a Playaction roll out and 2 going up against RT (Schofield).    Bengals controlled the game early and the tide turned on a Nugent miss and then a blown coverage by Nelson/Dre giving a halftime score 14-3 instead of 17-0.

Denver jumped on them early coming out of the half.   Then several stalemates then they take the lead with a Anderson 39 yard TD.    Bengals tied with a FG but just missed AJ Green twice down the field.   1 of which AJ gave up early in the route or it was a TD.   Anderson fumbled one way late nearing Bengals red zone.  Denver missed last second FG in regulation to win.  

Bengals protected well until 4th quarter when Denver turned up the heat.    Bengals ran a lot of traps and pulls (even with WR) as to trap their DEs and OLB that love to get up field.

Ced, Kroft, Uzomah got plenty of snaps in last year's game.    Norwood and Daniels were pains in our side.  Key catches time after time.

[HoosierCat]

Practice details rolling it. Uzomah not working today, but Eifert suited up. Whit out (vet rest). Green out (baby en route). Winston out (???). Also:

 

[HoosierCat]

 

[volcom69]

I'll be surprised if he does play some, but I won't hold my breathe on it.

[kingwilly]

I sincerely doubt Eifert plays. Even if 95%, would rather he wait till 100%.

 

[HoosierCat]

Injury report. I think we can officially dub Dennard as the new Mr. Glass.

 

[Dimster28]

On 9/19/2016 at 6:33 PM, BengalszoneBilly said:

Nice opening post cmc0605. It's the Denver defense that has me concerned the most. My buddy out here in Arizona is a life long Broncos fan, and we have a little money riding on this game.

good news for u and your buddy, the game is on tv here in Arizona for us

[BengalszoneBilly]

1 hour ago, Dimster28 said:

good news for u and your buddy, the game is on tv here in Arizona for us

Two weeks in a row dimster. Life is good for us, then the next Thursday night game is also on prime time. Of course I'll be at that game in person partner!

[Dimster28]

7 minutes ago, BengalszoneBilly said:

Two weeks in a row dimster. Life is good for us, then the next Thursday night game is also on prime time. Of course I'll be at that game in person partner!

sadly no thursday game for me as i dont have nfl network, NFL assholes seems forbid Bengals thursday game on CBS as this happen 3 years in row.

[BengalszoneBilly]

1 hour ago, Dimster28 said:

sadly no thursday game for me as i dont have nfl network, NFL assholes seems forbid Bengals thursday game on CBS as this happen 3 years in row.

That is messed up.

[Dimster28]

2 hours ago, BengalszoneBilly said:

That is messed up.

yeah as most of you know I support Dolphins as well due to my brother. look at this, http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2016/TNF   nice huh? both Bengals and Dolphins have 2 games each but yet all of those 3 games is nfl network only with plenty of games before or after them broadcast on cbs or nbc

[HoosierCat]