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Week 6 — Titans @ Broncos: THIS is the Denver D we were expecting!

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Yowza! Kareem Jackson! Chris Harris Jr.! Derek Wolfe! AJ Johnson!

That was some sexy defense on display, boys.

The offense? Eerrrrrrrrrr...not so much.



Watching Lindsay break out into the open and run it for 30 yards was, as always, thrilling, and his twisty-shovey TD awesome, but...what's goin' on, guys? No big open like the last couple games, but a trio of field goals capped by #30's push into the end zone, all those 3-and-outs, not one TD pass...it was frustrating, worrying, sometimes cringe-worthy.

Will they fare better or worse on a short week? Either worse because they have to plan for success and won't have as much time or better because they plan too much and going more on instinct will pay off. I have no idea which it will be, if either. Maybe they'll be the same: middling, and in this case, enough to pull it off.

But next week, we have the Chiefs. I know they've lost their last two games, but this is not a failing team. This is a scary monster we have to slay on our home turf to keep the momentum going. Hill rejoined their roster just in time to torment the Broncos secondary, but the secondary has been shining.

Having no idea what formations I'm looking at, I can still see those guys communicating furiously with each other, adjusting positions for offensive plays. They kicked ass against TN, though there were some catches the Titans made that the Broncos should have denied them, allowing way too much cushion for some of their best receivers, giving them room to run and move the chains. STOP IT.

We need to have a discussion about this punting situation. It sucks. I'm sorry, Wadman, I can only imagine the shit you dealt with growing up with such a name (I got a lot of name-teasing, too), but you set up the Titans IN OUR OWN TERRITORY! No, no, no, no no no no NO. Are punters that hard to come by? This has been a problem since the season began (and before), and it's only getting worse. BTW, can someone explain to me why teams need kickers AND punters? Are kickers terrible punters? Are the skills and muscle groups involved that different? I don't understand.

I do understand that the Broncos need a punter who can help OUR team win, not set up the other team for points.

Or would-be points, if the defense hadn't been so SPEC-FUCKING-TACULAR.

This is the defense we thought we were going to get with Miller, Fangio, Jackson, Chubb, Harris Jr. Harris (not Jr.), Wolfe, et al. My guess is that Fangio's is a very complex system that has taken this long to get down so it just happens without all the guys having to think about it. I'm guessing it requires a lot of communication to adjust properly and it took these guys time to get their chemistry and signals in sync. If anything, I think this defense is going to get BETTER. They may struggle against very good offensive lines and wily receivers, but they are going to learn, grow, and improve the more they play together, strip the ball, pick off balls, and pose in the end zone.

That was damn impressive.

So, of course, when the NFL network discussed the game this morning, they said something along the lines of, "The Broncos shut out the Titans, and now let's spend 5 minutes talking about the Titans." Do you know how many teams got a shutout this week?

One.

The Denver Broncos.

I guess that's no big fuckin' deal.

But it was a helluvalotta fun to watch.

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