Go ahead. Get your rocks, bricks, insults or whatever your preferred item to be thrown ready.
I’m bracing for them.
Because I’m not yet ready to call the Denver Broncos a playoff team. Or the Colorado Rockies, for that matter.
Following Denver’s 42-17 dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys, Broncos Country seemed already ready to book up a block of rooms at the Hyatt Place Minneapolis and snatch up every seat on Southwest flight 100.
In a Mile High Sports Twitter poll after Sunday’s win, 70 percent of voters say they now expect the Broncos to contend for the AFC West title or better. A full 17 percent say it’s “Super Bowl or bust.”
In fairness, the beatdown the Broncos handed reigning offensive rookies of the year Dak Prescott (AP) and Ezekiel Elliott (PFWA) on Sunday turned heads in the Mile High City and beyond. The ‘No Fly Zone’ picked off Prescott twice (including a franchise record-setting 103-yard pick-six by Aqib Talib), and the dominant D-line (nickname pending) stuffed Elliott for a career low in yards (8) and yards per carry (0.89) in a performance reminiscent of the 2015 Super Bowl squad. Last year’s No. 1 seed in the NFC left Sports Authority Field at Mile High with their heads hung and their spirits broken.
Denver was so dominant that a Hall of Famer went so far as to say that Elliott quit on the Cowboys as the Broncos exerted their will on the All-Pro and what is widely regarded as the best offensive line in football.
The complete control of the Cowboys didn’t end there. Denver’s offense looked as efficient as well-rounded as it has since Peyton Manning was in his prime. C.J. Anderson bowled his way through the Dallas D (the NFL’s best run defense in 2016) to the tune of 118 yards and a touchdown. Anderson was also on the receiving end of one of Trevor Siemian’s career-high four touchdown passes. Riley Dixon, whose 98 punts in 2016 were fifth-most in the NFL, didn’t even see the field until the fourth quarter (except to hold on five Brandon McManus extra point attempts and two field goal tries through the game’s first 45 minutes). It was sheer domination in all three phases.
So why must we pump the brakes on saying the Broncos are playoff bound after Week 2?
Because it’s Week 2. And we’ve been here before.
As Head Coach Vance Joseph wisely told his team in his first regular-season victory speech as an NFL head coach following a dramatic win over the Los Angeles Chargers, “Success is not final.”
It’s a mantra he repeated in his victory speech Sunday after his team executed a flawless game plan to defeat a team virtually everyone outside his locker room had picked to defeat them.
As quickly as a team can jump out to a perfect start, they can see it crumble before their eyes.
Every player in the locker room Sunday who was there for Gary Kubiak’s victory speeches in the first four weeks last season can attest.
After jumping out to a 4-0 start in 2016 – defeating the reigning NFC champs and a pair of AFC playoff teams from the year prior along the way – ESPN and NFL.com both perched the Broncos atop their Week 5 power rankings.
Then, Denver was handed consecutive losses in a span of five days. Despite running out to an 8-4 record through Week 13, Denver dropped three straight and missed the playoffs for the first time this decade.
Week-to-week success is not final in the NFL, or in any sport for that matter.
Through the first 11 weeks of the MLB season, the Colorado Rockies were the best team in the National League. Bud Black and his squad went to bed on June 20 having rattled off six consecutive wins, leading the NL West with a 47-26 record. In the 12 weeks that have followed, they have gone 35-42 and enter Tuesday’s series in San Francisco with a mere 2.0-game lead for the final Wild Card spot with 12 games remaining.
A promising six-game road winning streak against the NL West-leading Dodgers (their first four-game sweep in L.A. since 1993) and Wild Card-leading Diamondbacks (who entered Monday with a 5.0-game cushion on Colorado) was snapped back to reality with a pair of losses to Arizona.
A 16-0 shellacking of the Padres at home (on the 10-year anniversary of the start of the 2007 ‘Rocktober’ run, no less) this past Saturday to set up a potential sweep was followed by a 4-3 loss on a botched squeeze play Sunday.
Black may say, “that’s baseball,” but Joseph’s words ring just as true.
Success is not final. Not until that ticket is officially punched.
The Broncos and Rockies both have the means and the ways to participate (and win) in the postseason this year. But they both have plenty to do before that’s a reality.
So, call me a pessimist, a hater or a doubter. Throw those rocks, bricks and insults. But I’m keeping the champagne on ice until it’s been earned.