There is the sentiment around Denver that nobody can possibly criticize the Broncos because they are 10-2, atop the AFC West and on track to take home the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff race; it is the idea that anybody who brings up Peyton Manning, Brock Osweiler or any of that quarterback drama is a Broncos hater, nothing more.
Well, that’s absurd.
The truth is that unless you have a Lombardi Trophy in your hand, you are not good enough; nobody should understand that more than the Denver Broncos, who hold the painful record of most Super Bowl losses in NFL history.
We, the franchise and the fans, have been here before. We’ve competed for, played in and lost Super Bowls — five, to be exact. And at this point, we cannot accept anything less than a championship.
So when I hear callers come on our radio waves or I see commenters on our message boards say “Stop complaining!” or “You’re not a real fan!” or “@#$# you and @#$@#$@#$#@!!” (People can be mean), I respond with: What do you want? Do you, as a fan, want to see the best possible team take the field in January, or do you want to cover your eyes and ears, blocking out any negativity until you inevitably start calling for someone’s head when the Broncos fall painfully short for the fourth year in a row?
I’m going with option A.
And if we’re being honest with ourselves, there are some real flaws with this Denver Broncos team. Yes, the Broncos are 10-2, but they’re not in the same class as Arizona, Cincinnati, Carolina or New England (when healthy).
In fact, despite being tied for the league’s second best record, the Broncos only have the eighth best point differential in the NFL; unlike the Cardinals who are winning games by an average of 12.5 points per game, the Broncos are only coming out on top by 4.9. For a team with 10 wins, that’s pretty difficult to do.
And you can say that the Broncos are just a defensive-minded team, winning games the hard way and “gritting” their way towards victory, but the success they are having isn’t sustainable under this format. Even other famous defense-first champions like the ’85 Bears, the ’00 Ravens and the ’02 Buccaneers all had point differentials of over nine. In fact, only three teams — ’80 Raiders, ’06 Colts, ’88 49ers — won the Super Bowl with a lower point differential than the Broncos’ 4.9.
Simply put, if the Broncos don’t improve their offense, the odds of winning the Super Bowl are heavily stacked against their favor. And this isn’t a Peyton Manning issue or a Brock Oswieler issue; it is a Denver Broncos issue.
We’ve spent all season worrying about which quarterback is best for the Broncos offense — the Gary Kubiak offense — and right now, with all defensive and special team scores taken out of the equation, both quarterbacks are averaging 19 points per game (the KC game was not included since both played significant time); it doesn’t matter.
So what now?
Yeah, it would be nice if Osweiler or Manning suddenly became a spark plug for the offense, but they aren’t the problem. The problem is that the offensive line is allowing way too many sacks, that Demaryius Thomas had his hands transplanted for bricks over the offseason, that the play calling often veers away from the run way too early and that the second C.J. Anderson starts playing well, he gets injured for the umpteenth time.
And we all know this is an issue. But we need to start looking at it for what it really is: A flaw; a roadblock; a season-ender.
The Broncos aren’t going to play the Baltimore Ravens or Detroit Lions in the postseason. They’re not going to play the Cleveland Browns or San Diego Chargers, either. They’re going to be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals and a healthy New England Patriots; that’s a tough task for any team, let alone one that can hardly score 20 points a game.
Now, we’re not talking about a fatal flaw, but we are talking about an important one. The Broncos have time to fix their offense — plenty of time — but they absolutely have to make sure they do.