At 6-0, the Denver Broncos enter their bye week with plenty of confidence in their defense, but lingering questions about the offense. A 26-23 overtime win in Cleveland didn’t do much to reassure Broncos fans who expected to see their team steamroll one of the weakest defenses in football.
The Denver-Cleveland matchup was supposed to offer Peyton Manning a chance to get his offense back in sync. That didn’t happen as expected, as the Broncos scored just one touchdown – their first in eight quarters – and needed a pick-six and two other turnovers from the defense to make up for a pick-six and two other interceptions thrown by Manning.
But despite another week of sub-standard play (at least according to what we’ve come to expect over three years), Manning managed to avoid our “duds” list for the first time in three weeks. His 53.3 passer rating was the worst on the year, but even that wasn’t enough to land him in hot water heading into the bye week.
And, as we’ve become so accustomed to through the first six weeks, the defense again dominated the “studs” list. Though they didn’t escape without some reason for criticism…
