http://twitter.com/#!/pedrogomezESPN/status/200629708428292097/photo/1
I can still smell his hair! In other news, I honestly haven’t seen a Carmex container in a long time.
The above link and picture come from Pedro Gomez, ESPN’s resident reporter and Dennis Farina lookalike. This picture, I guess, could be used to show how popular Tim Tebow is; so much that Pedro Gomez felt the need to take a picture of his “second NFL locker” for the world to see.
But I see it differently. Continue reading
Editor’s note: Joe’s Charger piece is being held up due to an unfortunate photoshop greasefire incident. We will post it as soon we can. In its stead, I present today’s planned piece on the Broncos.
“Awwww, the Denver Broncos?”
Simpsons fans remember this ending to one of the better episodes, “You Only Move Twice.” It’s a fun episode filled with jokes, but the only one that matters to us is when Homer is awarded an NFL team – not the Dallas Cowboys that he wanted, but the Denver Broncos. When he expresses his disappointment (as quoted above, complete with extra w’s), Marge tells him that owning any team is good. To which Homer famously replies:
"You just don't understand football, Marge."
Well, yeah, the point of this intro is that Peyton Manning came to town and made Homer look silly.
Of course, we don’t know that; there are still a ton of questions. No one knows if Peyton Manning can still play as well as he did before the 62 neck surgeries performed last year. We also don’t know if the Denver defense is going to be dominant, as they were for stretches of the season, or dormant, as they were when they faced any decent offense. We don’t know if the Chargers will be stronger this year, if the Raiders will actually live up to their potential, or if the Chiefs are going to get better.
But we do know that the Denver Broncos are going to be an exciting story again this year, and this time it might actually be because they’re talented enough to win a championship! But you can’t move forward without acknowledging the past. This is the Denver Broncos retrospective.
Rumor has it the most recent Broncos logo was designed to reflect Elway's mammoth neck. I wonder if they'll create a new, abnormally sized head logo for Manning.
Team Highlight: The Broncos had gotten a playoff berth, which had in some way validated Tim Tebow’s play at quarterback all season long. If they had lost to the Steelers, as was widely predicted, no one would have been too harsh on them (except for all of the Tebow haters who would have probably drunk a lot and had wonton abortions in celebration). But that’s not what happened. What happened was Tim Tebow actually played like an NFL quarterback, and they beat the Steelers on the first play in overtime. Tebow threw for over 300 yards and two scores, and the Tebow supporters made the Tebow haters eat crow. This lasted a week, of course, until the Patriots sodomized the Broncos. But enough with lowlight spoilers!
Team Lowlight: There were more than a few lowlights for the Broncos season, but I am picking their playoff loss because it poked holes in a lot of people’s theories about the Denver Broncos. Everyone with a microphone shouted to the heavens about how the Broncos were winning with their great defense. But then Tom Brady descended from the heavens to lead an offensive outburst all over the Broncos. They gave up 45 points and 509 totals yards to the Patriots offense, and the Broncos only put up 252 in response. And for anyone wanting to do quarterback comparisons, Tom Brady threw for 363 yards and 6 touchdowns, while Tebow was 9 for 26 with 136 yards passing and no scores. But at least Tebow had one less interception than Brady. ADVANTAGE TEBOW!
Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Team MVP: Ugh. I really don’t want to say Tebow. But here’s the problem. McGahee had a great running output, but only got the in endzone 6 times, and fumbled 4 times. Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil were great defensively, but I don’t see either of them being the deciding factor on whether this team wins games. But we saw it with Tebow. They were 1-4 with Orton. And whatever the circumstances around it, Tebow came in and led them to the playoffs. There’s a good chance they wouldn’t have gotten there without him. So you have to make him the MVP. And then you have to cry yourself to sleep afterwards.
Needs: Well, they sure filled that hole at quarterback! But there are a lot of other needs too. The interior defensive line, for starters; after losing Broderick Bunkley to the Saints in free agency, they need someone who can plug the middle and allow Miller and Dumervil to do their work. On the offensive side of the ball, they could stand for an upgrade at center. Also, people make a big deal about Peyton Manning making his teammates better, and that’s probably true, but if you can grab some weapons at receiver or tight end in the draft, you better do it. Fun fact: the leading receiver for the Broncos last year was Eric Decker, with a whopping FORTY-FOUR receptions. Obviously a different guy was under center last year, but come on. That’s usually what Manning’s fullbacks catch in a season.
What a Broncos Fan is Drinking: Well last year it was Shirley Temples, but this year we can pile on the alcohol! Peyton Manning is your quarterback, Denver: it’s time to celebrate! And nothing says celebrations like margaritas! But orange ones because it’s the Broncos.
The big orange represents DJ Williams. The salt probably represents cocaine.
Jango Scale of Scandal Likelihood:
Unless John Fox is running some sort of underground prostitution ring, I think the Broncos are going to be a scandal free team, unless Manning has a few bad games and all the “WE WANT HANIE” chants start.
Entirely Too Early Prediction for 2012: I think they’re going to be good this year, assuming Manning can get it together. Manning has always been good at hiding problems with a team. The Broncos have some problems, but no more than the Colts did, and they won double digit games for over a decade. So that trend will continue, and I’m going with 11-5.
——-
Next week we take on the NFC West. And then we’re done with the retrospectives! DONE!
Filed under Articles, Retrospectives
It's just...weird
If you have been talking about football this last week, there’s a good chance you’ve been talking about Peyton Manning.
TV Analysts and bloggers alike have been giving their two cents about the best possible landing spots for #18, and it all sounded like a bunch of noise to me. With the exception of ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, who made it a point to only open his mouth when something was actually happening, I never really cared where most people thought he was going to go. “Most people” were only talking about it because they had a microphone stuffed in their face for the simple reason that it was all anyone wanted to hear about. The Gregg Williams bounty scandal has more or less been wiped from the headlines, and this was one of the only stories that could do it. Brandon Marshall would have to actually murder someone in a bar instead of merely punching them.
Now we’re going to start the conversation all over again about Tim Tebow, as if it is remotely the same thing. Mr. Tebow is not a free agent, and the places that he wants to go are only relevant if the Broncos decide they are. The irony is the teams that want Tim’s services the most, and might be willing to give up slightly more, are probably not the teams that are looking for a starter. But I’m not looking to get into all that. When I started writing this piece I wanted to find something about this whole story that people AREN’T talking about to the point of nausea, and I think I found it.
The over-saturation of this story is such a startling reminder how much more popular professional football is in this country than any other sport. We are in the middle of the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament, the cusp of a new baseball season, and the NBA playoff chase is heating up yet all anyone wants to talk about is an NFL free agent signing. The only free agent signing in any other sport in recent memory to get a comparable amount of publicity is Lebron’s “Decision” but that wasn’t the NBA’s popularity, that was Lebron milking the absolute hell out of it and ESPN giving him a primetime TV special. Albert Pujols, who will go down as one of the greatest hitters in the history of major league baseball, switched teams this offseason and the media was done talking about it almost immediately after it happened. It would take a UFO blowing up the Garden during a Rangers game to get this kind of coverage for the NHL.
There have been some doomsday predictions for the NFL this offseason, that one day lawsuits from concussed players and a variety of other factors could one day bring the league to its knees. But after all this fuss about one player six months before the next season even starts, I’m having a hard time picturing it.
picture courtesy of @SportsNation
This means so many different things. It means San Francisco better call Alex Smith and apologize like a cheating husband. It means AJ Smith wonders why he didn’t fire Norv Turner when he had the chance. It means that, with one free agent acquisition, the Broncos are a favorite to go to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
But most of all, it means HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! “TIM TEBOW IS OUR QUARTERBACK OF THE FUTURE.” YEAH RIGHT JOHN ELWAY!
Anybody looking for a tight end who can kind of throw the ball?
So remember last week, when Lester Zook listed the reasons the Denver Broncos would win the Super Bowl. I know he said might, and it would be mean to rub it in his face. After all, where’s my Saints win over the Niners? It only exists in my head (and what a wonderful world that is).
So instead of berating Lester for his wrong prediction, we’ll let him defend himself. Take it away, Lester!
—-
I decided to google image "waaaaahhhh tebow." This was the first image that came up!
Looks like I was wrong, eh?
The Patriots/Broncos game – if you can call it that – has been over for about thirty minutes and I’ve received: four text messages, three instant messages, and two Facebook messages about the game. I honestly expected more, because, after all, I have gone on record to “defend” Tim Tebow. I think ole #15 is a great guy, and I share a lot of the same views he does. I have the utmost respect for what Tebow does for people who are suffering, who are in pain, and for his fans. In his postgame press conference, after getting destroyed by the Patriots, he discussed how blessed he was to have the ability to help change people’s lives. When asked about his performance, Tebow provided his standard, “Everyone played hard, I’m proud of the effort we showed…” blah, blah, blah. Everyone knows that Tebow isn’t going to throw his team under the bus, and it’s been widely established that Tebow will say he needs to improve for his team to play better.
That’s the great thing about Tim Tebow, he won’t throw YOU under the bus. Are you done rolling your eyes yet? Come on, it was just a shameless attempt at trying to apply a guilt trip. Didn’t work? Alright, fine. First, I want to make something perfectly clear. I am not a Tim Tebow apologist. I support Tim Tebow as a person, but I do think he can develop into an “average” quarterback. I didn’t say he’s the second coming of Peyton or Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, or Tom Brady. I don’t think Tim Tebow will be on the same level as “Big” Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Schaub, Matt Stafford, Tony Romo or Mike Vick. If everything goes right, I can see Tim Tebow being on the same level as someone like Joe Flacco, Tavaris Jackson, Matt Moore, or Alex Smith. Maybe a little better then Matt Sanchez, and a hell of a lot better than Rex Grossman.
With that out of the way, I’m not blaming Tim Tebow for the severe ass beating the Broncos received up in Foxborough. The New England Patriots out coached and out played the Denver Broncos. Here’s Tim Tebow’s stat line from the game…
|
Denver Broncos |
Comp |
Attempts |
Yards |
Comp % |
Y/A |
TD |
INT |
Rating |
|
Tim Tebow |
9 |
26 |
136 |
34.6 |
5.2 |
0 |
0 |
52.7 |
Just looking at the numbers, yeah, that’s a really crappy game. The only time any of the “Top 5” (P. Manning, Brady, Rodgers, E. Manning and Brees) has a game like that is on a video game, specifically, in the hands of a five year old who has no idea what’s going on. “JUST LIKE TEBOW!” I’m sure one of you thought, and no, not just like Tebow. There’s a big difference between “knowing” what’s going on and “understanding” what’s going on. It’s my goal to help everyone understand why ole Timmy Tebow looked like a chump against the crappy Pats defense.
At the beginning of the game I broke out the clip board and started to track Tebow’s throws. Just in case you were ever wondering what backup QBs did with those clipboards on the sidelines, well, now you know. The backup QB tracks the completions, drops, deflections, play calling on specific downs and situations…a variety of small statistical information that helps the head coach and offensive coordinator do their job properly. It’s different for every team, and sometimes the coaching staff has a guy up in the booth doing this while the backup QBs are sending in plays.
Some interesting numbers popped up at me…specifically the amount of drops in the game. Now, a drop can be the QB’s fault just as easily as the WRs. If the QB delivers a duck into coverage and the WR drops it because he is getting blown up…personally, I don’t count that as a drop. I count that as a bad throw that the WR tried to haul in. To me, a drop is when a WR does not bring in a catchable ball. Doesn’t matter if you’re going to get hit or not, if you’ve played football before, you know you’re going to get hit. I counted four drops in the game (1 in the 1st Q, 2 in the 2nd Q, and 1 in the 3rd Q) two of those drops were on third down. Obviously converting on 3rd down is a big part of football, and when you are driving and need to make up a ton of points then you need to convert on every third down possible. One of those drops wouldn’t have gained any yards as it fell at the feet of Willis McGahee in the flats with a lot of heat bearing down on him. Two of the drops were by Demaryius Thomas, on third down nonetheless, and the last was a drop by Eddie Royal on the sideline. There was some heat coming down on him, but he got two hands on the ball with no contact.
For argument’s sake, let’s add those 4 drops into the completions side, and give Tebow the average yardage (5.2 yards) just to see how he would have looked.
|
Denver Broncos |
Comp |
Attempts |
Yards |
Comp % |
Y/A |
TD |
INT |
Rating |
|
Tim Tebow |
13 |
26 |
151 |
50.0 |
5.2 |
0 |
0 |
67.9 |
Still not a very sexy line, but it does go to show how a few errors by other players can directly affect the performance of an entire offense. Were those drops going to change the outcome of the game? No chance. Tom Brady was carving up the Denver defense with ease. Would have Denver put some more points up on the board? It’s possible, but we’ll never know.
Taking a deeper look into the stats, I think it’s safe to say that Denver’s offensive philosophy was based around this philosophy. Pick up some yards on 1st down, then depending on the yards to the next first down, and the defensive look, we’ll either run or pass. If it’s less than six yards, we’re running the ball, if it’s over then we’re throwing. Now if you’re the defensive coordinator on the other team, and you pick up on this trend, it makes your job a hell of a lot easier. Here’s the break down for Tebow throwing on 1st through 4th down…
|
Completions |
Attempts |
Yards |
Touchdowns |
Interceptions |
|
|
1st Down |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2nd Down |
3 |
8 |
24 |
0 |
0 |
|
3rd Down |
4 |
11 |
56 |
0 |
0 |
|
4th Down |
2 |
3 |
56 |
0 |
0 |
I’m not too sure why the Broncos didn’t throw the ball more, especially when they’re down by 21+ points in the second quarter, but hey, I don’t get paid millions to coach football. Hell, I don’t even get paid to write! Maybe John Fox and company thought it was possible to break off some big runs, force some turnovers, and get back into the game. Personally, I think the game plan was far too conservative. Even if you don’t trust your QB to throw the ball, what’s the difference between losing by 30 and 40? An ass beating is an ass beating no matter what.
The way I see it, I cannot judge Tim Tebow just yet. Sure, he’s had some really, really, really, crappy throws and has looked totally lost on the field at times. Then he follows it up with some very impressive throws and game winning drives. There is some potential, but the only way we’re going to see the “best” Tim Tebow has to offer as a quarterback is if a few things happen in either of these scenarios.
John Elway knows that John Fox couldn’t develop a passing attack to save his life, so if “Option 2” takes place then I would expect to see John Fox hitting the road. Then again there is always Option 3…
Lots of options and only time will tell what the “right” move is. Some of my peers have already determined that Tebow is not an NFL QB, while others are taking a wait and see approach. People were quick to judge Alex Smith after his rookie year and he’s turned out to be a serviceable quarterback.
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