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LEGWOLD: Even climb to .500 won't be easy

By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 15, 2007 at 12:45 a.m.

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Denver's Hamza Abdullah tackles Houston's Ron Dayne.

Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez / Special to the Rocky

Denver's Hamza Abdullah tackles Houston's Ron Dayne.

Gates had 113 yards and a TD on Oct. 7 against Denver.

Gates had 113 yards and a TD on Oct. 7 against Denver.

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As the recorded voice of Sheryl Crow bounced around the rafters of Reliant Stadium on Thursday night, the differences between optimism and disappointment couldn't have been more stark.

The differences in one game couldn't have been more drastic.

But, yet, there it all was for the Broncos, floating in the wake of a 31-13 loss to the Texans.

On one side are the Texans, ecstatic about their state of affairs, sitting at 7-7 and on the outer fringes of the AFC playoff race, the latest in a season the franchise has been at least .500 since its inception.

A cause for celebration and T-shirt giveaways.

"We're happy in the position we're in right now . . . ," Texans tight end Owen Daniels said. "We're just going to keep working and try to do what no other Texans team has done."

And on the other side are the Broncos, lugging around their collective disappointment, sitting at 6-8, the prospects of a .500 season now contingent on two things:

* They have to defeat the division- leading Chargers, who wobbled the Broncos earlier this season with a 41-3 rout in Invesco Field at Mile High.

* They then must defeat the Minnesota Vikings, who currently sport the league's top-rated rushing attack. And run defense has certainly not been the backbone of the Broncos' defensive efforts this season. The loss to the Texans was the eighth time the Broncos have surrendered at least 130 yards rushing in a game in '07 - the Texans had 158 - and the sixth time they surrendered at least 150 yards rushing.

And doing those two things would merely get the Broncos back to .500, to be able to say they avoided a losing season when they won't have had a winning one, either.

"We're obviously disappointed with where we're at," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said in the aftermath. "We expect our team to go out and play much better than we did."

Shanahan tried to place as much blame as he could upon his own shoulders, which is what someone who has spent as much time thinking about what leaders in all walks of life do in times when things haven't gone according to plan.

And the veteran players, the ones with the most to lose as their career clocks take another hit with a playoff miss they didn't plan for, all did their part in stepping forward.

Daniel Graham, Champ Bailey and John Lynch were some of those who questioned some of their teammates' effort and preparation. Lynch's obvious frustration with the Broncos' inability to defend Texans quarterback Sage Rosenfels on the bootleg play, despite being told several times during the week by the coaching staff it was coming, was just a snapshot in the troubled big picture the Broncos have had this season.

"It's about being accountable to your job," Lynch said. "Being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there."

That is the Broncos' season as well. A season that will officially be put on the no-playoff list if the Chargers simply win one of their remaining three games or the Broncos lose one of their remaining two.

So, in the end, they simply did not get to where they said they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there.

Break it down

Plenty was made, and rightly so, of the Texans' offensive playbook being a close copy of the Broncos', especially since Houston head coach Gary Kubiak spent so much time on Shanahan's staff in Denver.

But Thursday night, as they have at other times this season, the Texans often dipped into offensive coordinator Mike Sherman's past to run the ball.

Sherman, a former Packers offensive coordinator and head coach, will leave the team at season's end to become head coach at Texas A&M.

But while he's on the job, he has left his power- run fingerprint on the Texans' zone-run scheme that Kubiak brought from the Broncos.

In the zone-run scheme, the linemen, for the most part, fire out in the same direction to try to wash the defenders out of the play and create cutback lanes for the back.

"But they have kind of melded the two together, between the zone scheme and some of what Sherman does," said Lynch, who faced Sherman's offenses plenty when the safety was with the Buccaneers. "They get in those two-tight-end looks, come right at you - that's what Sherman likes. (The Texans') tight ends are built for more downfield-type stuff, but they get in the heavy look and did a lot of play action out of it.

"But late in the game, when they needed to, they kind of ran it down our throats in that heavy look, and I've seen that look plenty before in Tampa when we played Green Bay twice a year."

The Texans pounded the ball at the Broncos late in the game. When the Broncos closed to 17-13 late in the third quarter, the Texans slammed the door with that run game.

They ran 12 times after the Broncos scored, 11 of those in the fourth quarter, for 76 yards, or almost half their rushing total for the game.

Get it done

Shanahan said he's watching Denver's last two games closely to see who is, and who isn't, interested in the outcomes.

And with the Broncos having so many unfulfilled expectations this season, it will be a test of the team's veteran core to get the Broncos to play with some passion in the final two games.

For starters, with the Chargers playing to get themselves ready for the postseason, the prospects are there for a rout if the Broncos don't arrive Christmas Eve with a little more zeal than they showed Thursday night.

"If you love football, you're going to come out and play," rookie running back Selvin Young said. "This is our job, this is what we do."

"Finish these last two games on a high note and carry it into next year," tight end Tony Scheffler said.

Hot spot

With Texans defensive end Mario Williams having just flip-flopped his way to 31/2 sacks Thursday night, the Broncos will have to protect their edges against a team that is one of the best at rushing from the outside.

And with outside linebackers Shaun Phillips and Shawne Merriman - they have 7.5 and 11.5 sacks, respectively - the Chargers can do more things from more places on the field.

In recording his sacks, Williams worked from both sides of the formation Thursday and beat Denver offensive linemen on both sides, as well as a tight end. He even leapt over fullback Cecil Sapp to make a sack.

The Chargers certainly will force the issue from the outside to see if they can force Jay Cutler to step up into the middle of the field, where nose tackle Jamal Williams and the Chargers' ends in a 3-4 look are usually making some headway up the field.

Match game

Chargers TE Antonio Gates vs. Broncos linebackers

Opposing tight ends, most recently Houston's Owen Daniels, have gotten free for big catches at big times plenty against the Broncos this season.

And Gates might be the most difficult of all to stop.

He has nine receiving touchdowns and four 100-yard games this season. To put that in perspective, all the Broncos' receivers and tight ends have combined for five 100-yard games this season.

Opposing offensive coordinators consistently have been able to isolate the tight end on a Broncos linebacker all season. The Chargers certainly will try as well, especially if the Broncos have to commit a safety toward the line of scrimmage to help in run defense against LaDainian Tomlinson.

Numbers game

* The Broncos have surrendered at least 30 points six times this season and allowed at least 122 yards rushing in all six.

Rush yards Date Opponent Result allowed

Sept. 30 Colts Lost 38-20 226

Oct. 7 Chargers Lost 41-3 214

Nov. 4 Lions Lost 44-7 130

Nov. 25 Bears Lost 37-34 122

Dec. 2 Raiders Lost 34-20 175

Dec. 13 Texans Lost 31-13 158

Comments

  • December 15, 2007

    9:25 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sickandtired writes:

    I've said it before about another Denver professional sports team, and I'll say it about the current Broncos team. THEY HAVE TOO MANY STUPID PLAYERS!! And too many that will never be part of a championship club, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ACCOUNTABLE! Good grief, you don't have to be that smart to play football. I'm really beginning to wonder if Shanahan has really lost it mentally. How hard can it be to find a few defensive players with even average skills, who are smart enough "to be where they are supposed to be"???

    There's plenty of talent on this team for them to be in the playoffs - period. Even defensively. My God, what does it matter what your physical "measureables" are, if you're too stupid to remember where you're supposed to go? Or too lazy to care?

    Anyone looked at the Patriots lately? Not the fastest on defense, or offense, or anywhere else, with the exception of Randy Moss. Not the most "WOW" as far as "athleticism", whatever the hell that means. But they're even money to have the greatest season a pro football team has ever had. THE GREATEST SEASON A PRO FOOTBALL TEAM HAS EVER HAD! Mmmm amazing, huh? It ain't an accident, boys. No accident at all.

    For Gods sake figure it out Shanahan - there are players available right now that won't LOSE you ballgames on a game-by-game basis, that have a little bit of brainpower. GET THEM!! And get rid of this WOW!! dead weight that all coaches seem to be so in love with these days.

    Resigning Brandon Stokely was at least a small step in the right direction. What a concept, what a novel idea ... a receiver WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING ... and actually, actually ... get this now!! catches the ball at the wide "receiver" position!!

    Have you been watching, Brandon Marshall! He of the WOW athleticism and the dropped passes Thursday?