Stud No. 1 – Gary Kubiak
Despite all the griping an moaning from fans about Gary Kubiak’s stubbornness over the first few weeks of the season, the old backup QB has shown himself to be wildly flexible and resilient over the past several games and none more so than on Sunday night against Green Bay.
In the battle of undefeated teams coming off a bye, Kubiak just plain outsmarted Mike McCarthy on both sides of the ball.
Denver diversified the passing game – a sign Kubiak has finally found a way for his vision of the offense to coexist with Peyton Manning – as eight different Broncos caught passes on the night. Most impressive was the fact that they reintroduced the tight ends to the game plan, something that’s been missing since Julius Thomas went down with injury last year against St. Louis.
What’s more, the zone blocking scheme seems to be coming together well (see Stud(s) No. 2), which opened up passing lanes in the middle of the field for Manning. While other defenses have stacked the box, Green Bay let Denver stretch the running lanes and Kubiak exploited it all night.
On the other side of the ball, Kubiak let his wise old owl Wade Phillips throw McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers a solid diet of offspeed pitches all night. The Broncos’ usually blitz-happy defense let Rodgers stay in the pocket all night while the cornerbacks (see Stud(s) No. 3) turned Sports Authority into a “no fly zone.” Unable to scramble and create chaos, Rodgers had his worst night as a professional.
The game plan was a thing of beauty and Kubiak had his team primed to execute it. Where was that when the Broncos took on Indy in the playoffs last year? Oh yeah, it was in Baltimore. Meanwhile, John Fox was already checking Zillow for houses in Chicago.
Kubiak earns our highest honor by a landslide, with a tip of the cap to Phillips.
