It’s fairly regular that so-called “experts” are flat-out wrong when it comes to their predictions for NFL football games. Just tune in to sports talk radio on a Friday and listen carefully when the yakkers give their “season totals.”
“Well, I was 3-6-1 last week – really got burned by the Raiders – which brings my season total to 10-24-5,” says Joe Blow radio guy.
Even the national TV experts have a hard time breaking the .500 mark. But you’d expect those inside the teams themselves to have a little closer handle on what they think the outcome of a game will be. After all, these are the folks that are with the team virtually around the clock from the start of training camp until (hopefully) the Super Bowl confetti flies.
One of those individuals with the Denver Broncos is Andrew Mason, who covers the team for denverbroncos.com and is widely considered to be one of the most knowledgeable observers when it comes to the orange and blue.
So don’t feel bad if you didn’t have the Broncos running roughshod over Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Neither did Mason.
He joined Notaro and Big Dee on Mile High Sports AM 1340 following Sunday’s big victory that saw Peyton Manning and the Broncos outgain the Packers by 360 yards in a 29-10 drubbing.
“I wasn’t surprised at the outcome,” Mason said. “I was surprised at the decisiveness.”
Mason told Renaud Notaro and Dee White that games with wide point and yardage differentials are usually reserved for high school and college games, not for NFL games pitting two 6-0 teams against one another. But even that wasn’t the most surprising thing to Mason.
He was most surprised at “how Green Bay capitulated at the end,” – effectively giving up on the game in the fourth quarter by punting in what is ordinarily a four-down situation.
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy was shellshocked after the game, saying at his postgame press conference, “I haven’t had my ass kicked like that in a long time.”
Based on Mason’s comments, it sounds like McCarthy wasn’t the only one who was caught off guard by the outcome. Even those inside the Broncos organization were surprised.
Listen to the full interview with Mason, including his explanation for what changed with C.J. Anderson, in the podcast below…
Catch Notaro and Big Dee every Monday-Thursday from 6p-8p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of what’s new and what’s next in Colorado sports.