Despite my slightly hateful title, I do respect Tom Brady for his unnatural football abilities and (reluctantly admitted) good looks (I think a guy is allowed to make one small comment on that when you're doing a post about the Patriots), but that doesn't make VICTORY! at his expense any less sweet. Plus, I absolutely despise his whininess, which was on full display last night as he ruthelessly berated the officials after every call. In the end though, I guess it only made the VICTORY! better. On to the game itself...
During NBC's Sunday night pre-game coverage, John Madden had a few words for the nation about the Broncos, the same sentiments that had been voiced by the Patriots as they prepared for the game:
"I think the Broncos defense isn't as good as you think, and the offense isn't as bad as you think," said the veteran coach and commentator.Nearly 24 hours later, you wonder if he might be eating his words.
The story of the game for the Broncos is no doubt the defense. For three quarters, they refused to allow even one point to one of the league's elite offenses. You can certainly make a case that Brady still isn't comfortable with his new receivers, and that he personally had an off night - but the Broncos started the game by stopping the run. The Patriots managed just 50 total yards on the ground, and no single back could reach the 20 yard mark. After the win, Mike Shanahan said that it had been his strategy all along to stop the run early and force Tom Brady to beat the Broncos by himself, which at first glance sounds arrogant and a sure way to lose, given Brady's prowess. But now Shanahan's genius is clear.The Broncos have two above-average corners, including Champ Bailey, who teams just will not challenge. Facing a good secondary without Deion Branch and David Givens, Brady was forced to play dink-and-dunk with his tight ends, a strategy which the Broncos easily thwarted after the New England running game was safely out of the picture by the third quarter. Drive after Patriot drive stalled before entering field goal range, and for once in his career, Brady's hands were tied by a great defense and his own lack of trust in a new receiving corps.
"I think they did a pretty good job with our running game. We got down, we were one-dimensional. They looked pretty good in coverage. They have got some good tough guys out there," said Tom Brady after the game.In retrospect, the New England Patriots were at a disadvantage right out of the gate. They were out-coached by Mike Shanahan, whose defensive gameplan (or perhaps it was Larry Coyer's) was probably the best of his career. It was so brilliant and simple that even I could see it: Tom Brady's suffering out there with no receivers he trusts. Make him uncomfortable by stopping the run and forcing him to throw to those guys. But give some credit to the defense. Statistically, Ian Gold was the leader with 11 tackles Sunday night, but the entire defense deserves a commendation. They clearly played with passion. Every player gave it their all on every play, something that started to catch up with them at the end of the game as they dropped like flies with fatigue-related injuries. Kenard Lang went out in the third with a concussion, and was followed by Darrent Williams, who strained his neck on a tackle, and Patrick Chukwurah, who was caught physically throwing up on the field by the NBC camera crew. Forget the statistics: that's proof of an incredible amount of effort, and what it took to beat the New England Patriots.
It's easy to get caught up with defensive achievement when your defense forces Tom Brady to attempt 55 passes, but we also can't forget the offense. They weren't great, not yet, and there's still plenty of room but overall, they played very well. Some people will say that the big story was Tatum Bell or Javon Walker, but for me, it was the offensive line. During the first two weeks, the group was blasted with criticism for giving up four sacks and being weak against even the smallest pass rushes. This week, they were near perfect. They allowed no sacks, and Jake was able to pass effectively. We even got off our first successful bootleg of the season, thanks in no small part to the offensive line.
Speaking of the bootleg and what set it up, how about the performance of Tatum Bell? After Shanahan had refused to name a bonafide starting back for the first two weeks, he finally gave T. Bell a chance to prove that he could lead the team's ground game - and boy did Bell answer the call. He ran with power, shiftiness, and more importantly, he didn't tire out as the game went on. In a full game's worth of carries (27), he gained 123 yards, including 25 yards in the fourth quarter. For anyone who's counting, Tatum continued his yards per carry success, averaging a little over 4.5 yards on each touch. The only thing I disliked about his performance was that he still wasn't effective moving the pile in short yardage situations - but we'll talk about his new starting job later this week.
Moving on to my final glowing review of the day, let's talk about Jake Plummer. I think there are a couple of people who owe Jake an apology, including that Mark Kiszla guy (again, I'll address him specifically later in the week). Jake did not have a great game, and I want to emphasize that. He can play much better, and I am by no means saying that this performance is what we should expect out him for the rest of the year. But I do think that he played well enough to deserve a break from all of the talk about his job security. Like him or not, the dude stepped it up in a big game, and I'd like to hear anyone try to deny that. He finished the night 15 for 30 with 256 yards, two TDs, and most importantly, no interceptions. But more than his stats, I liked the way he looked. He was poised in the pocket, and for the first time this season, all of his passes were confident, sharp, and thrown hard. Very few of them were in any danger of being intercepted. He just seemed to have his touch and confidence back again, and with the defense behind him, he wasn't afraid to throw a few passes away.
Plus, Plummer finally connected, I mean really connected, with Javon Walker - twice. Now we know why we went out and got that guy, and that Plummer can and will utilize Walker's talents. Last year, Ashlee Lelie had one touchdown, total. Last night, Walker had two, and more importantly, he managed his second one with vision, not speed. Unlike Lelie, Walker is a real threat to go the distance on any ball after the catch is made, something which defenses ought to be scared silly of.
All in all, this week was exactly what the Broncos needed. The coaching was superb, the defense was excellent again, and now the offense is coming together. With the week off, the Broncos ought to take some time to rest up, and then build off of this nice run they've now got going before entering what may be the most difficult game of the year to date, against the surprisingly good and undefeated Baltimore Ravens. Happy Broncos win Monday, everyone! To loosely quote Sam, Monday's are so much better when we can say that.
