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NFL Week 9 Recap: Denver Continues To Develop

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The Denver Broncos’ 31-23 win over the Cincinnati Bengals won’t fall in the category of dazzling, eye-catching wins. Not with the way the now 3-5 Bengals have been playing and for the fact that Denver seemed to take a while to get into gear. But the way the Broncos ended up winning has to be noted.

This wasn’t the Peyton Manning Show. To be sure, the veteran quarterback had a good game. But the Denver offensive line did a yeoman’s job in pass protection against a talented defensive front four. Denver’s own pass rush was outstanding, as Von Miller keyed a defense that recorded five sacks and six more QB hits. This win comes on top of last week’s victory over New Orleans, where the Broncos dominated on the ground. The Broncos of John Elway and Peyton Manning are suddenly looking like a very complete football team at the midway point of the season.

Denver is still at 5-3, and I suppose we have to acknowledge that San Diego, at 4-4, could catch them in the AFC West. But not only do the Broncos have a head-to-head win on the road over their division rival, but the schedules of both teams were weighted as such that it was the Chargers who needed to be out in front. Sunday’s road trip to Cincinnati was the kind of potential slip-up that Denver had to avoid and they not only did it, they showed continued overall improvement as a team. On this Election Morning, this is one race that’s decidedly not as close as current polling shows.

Here’s rundown on notable developments in the other seven divisions in NFL Week 9…

AFC EAST: Miami’s loss in Indianapolis was a blow to their playoff hopes and kept the Dolphins from moving into a tie with idle New England in the AFC East. Just as disappointing for Miami is that even with the Indy ground attack non-existent and Andrew Luck forced the air, the Dolphin pass rush only registered one sack.

AFC NORTH: We featured the Steelers last week and talked about how their running game is on the move. Pittsburgh could just as easily have been the lead this time around, as Isaac Redman ran for 147 yards in a clutch 24-20 road win over the New York Giants.  Pittsburgh overcame a bad call that gave the Giants a long fumble return for a touchdown on what clearly should have been ruled an incomplete pass by Ben Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh is at 5-3, while Baltimore barely survived Cleveland to get 6-2. The way both AFC North powers are playing right now, the Steelers have the feel of a first place team, even a game out.

AFC SOUTH: I’m going to dig into Houston a little more sometime in the next couple weeks, but I just don’t like the feel of this team right now. I picked them to win the AFC title at the start of the year and they’re 7-1, so I should be happy. But sluggish wins, like Sunday’s 21-9 victory over Buffalo are too frequent. I’m concerned that this is a team destined for a 13-3 season and #1 playoff seed, then a quick loss at the hands of a Denver, New England or Pittsburgh.

NFC EAST: We noted how this division was in the spotlight in the previews of Week 9, and they come up flat across the board. The Giants’ loss was mentioned above. Dallas lost on Sunday night in Atlanta because they couldn’t stop Michael Turner on the ground. Philadelphia got what they needed from LeSean McCoy last night in New Orleans, as they dominated the running game. But Michael Vick threw a 99-yard pick-six in the first quarter, a play that realistically ends playoff hopes for the 3-5 Eagles, and with it the Philadelphia tenures of Vick and Andy Reid are all over but the shouting. Washington lost an ugly penalty-ridden game at home to Carolina.

NFC NORTH: This was seen as perhaps the toughest division in football when the season began and after some early bumps, it might gain that status. Chicago blasted Tennessee 51-20 on the strength of defense and forcing five turnovers. Green Bay played a good overall game in beating Arizona and the bye week comes at the right time for the 6-3 Packers to get people healthy. Detroit might be playing their way back into contention, moving to 4-4 with a win over Jacksonville and at least giving themselves a chance against the better teams on their schedule coming up. Minnesota’s loss to Seattle drops them to 4-4, but the Vikes at least have a clear identity with Adrian Peterson running the ball and while they don’t like playoff-caliber, they don’t look on the verge of a meltdown either.

NFC SOUTH: Tampa Bay is either the best bad team or the worst good team in the league, depending our your perspective. Doug Martin had a huge day running the ball in Sunday’s win at Oakland and Josh Freeman looks like’s back to his 2010 form. But this team cannot rush the passer to save its life, as Carson Palmer nearly brought the Raiders back from a 28-10 deficit, closing to 35-32, before Tampa Bay tacked on a clinching touchdown. The Bucs are 4-4 and the standings tell us they have a shot at the NFC’s final wild-card spot. The offensive talent tells us they’ll be entertaining week-to-week. But the inability to get a pass rush in even the most obvious throwing situations tells us not to plan on seeing them play anytime beyond Week 17.

NFC WEST: San Francisco and St. Louis were both idle, and Arizona’s loss to Green Bay shows the Cards are still both struggling and wounded. As for Seattle—well, to borrow Dennis Green’s famous phrase, they are who we thought they were. Sunday’s 30-20 win over Minnesota came because they ran the ball, pressured the quarterback well on defense, played tough pass coverage and got efficient play from Russell Wilson. At home, the Seahawks continue to be a tough out. At 5-4, it’s about whether they can get enough road wins to make the playoffs.

AFC West: Are Oakland & Kansas City Already Dead?

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The AFC West looked like it might be the most balanced of the eight divisional races when the NFL regular season. Only two weeks in and it looks like the race is already being cut in half. This was alluded to yesterday in the recap notes on Week 2 and it’s worth delving into a little more. While no one wants to overreact too quickly, is there anything the Oakland Raiders or Kansas City Chiefs have done in their opening games that suggest they can keep pace? Let’s take a look at what both teams have been plagued by and what the immediate prospects are for recovery…

OAKLAND: The Raiders are getting next to nothing in rush offense, with 67 yards combined in their losses to San Diego & Miami. Given this team’s offensive line isn’t that bad, their wideouts aren’t that good and Darren McFadden is in the backfield, this is completely unacceptable. And presumably, it’s fixable. Oakland would have to be less optimistic about what they’ve seen from their pass rush—or more accurate, the fact they haven’t seen a pass rush at all. The front four, as noted in this team’s preseason preview, is a decent group of talent individually, but none really excel at rushing the passer. They have just one sack and only four hits on the opposing quarterbacks in these opening two games.

While the lack of pass rush was a predictable, albeit serious problem, it’s even more troubling that this front four was overrun at Miami. Reggie Bush ran wild, producing 172 yards on the ground, including a pair of touchdown runs in the third quarter that turned a 10-7 Raider lead into a 21-10 deficit and set the rout in motion. Richard Seymour and Tommie Kelly are too good of run defenders on the interior of the front four to allow this to happen.

Carson Palmer has thus been placed in an untenable situation. He’s been kept off the field by opposing ground games, put into a hole, not given any real talent at wideout and has no running game support. Maybe the fact he’s managed to complete nearly 60 percent of his passes, produce almost 700 yards of offense and only throw one interception should put him in the MVP discussion when you consider all that’s collapsing around him. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but you get the point. The usual NFL tendency to put everything on the quarterback would not only be misguided, but if you’re an Oakland fan it’s downright harmful to your team.

There are positives the Raiders can look at. They were able to defend the run against San Diego, even if the Chargers don’t exactly try and muscle anyone up. Even though McFadden didn’t produce on the ground, they got him the ball 13 times in the air. And had they not run into problems with their long-snapper they might have won the game, in which case, we’re only mildly concerned about them as opposed to sounding alarm bells. But the coming games are home against Pittsburgh and on the road at Denver before a bye week. If the Steelers, who have done nothing on the ground thus far, are able to establish this part of the offense, Oakland’s officially in trouble.

KANSAS CITY: The Chiefs have been lit up through the air. The Week 1 loss to Atlanta was understandable. The game was competitive into the second half, it was a potent Falcon attack and Kansas City was playing without outside linebacker Tamba Hali, the most important element in their pass rush. But what was the problem Sunday at Buffalo? Ryan Fitzpatrick was allowed to look like Jim Kelly and C.J. Spiller was made to appear as Thurman Thomas, and the result mimicked the 1993 AFC Championship Game, when the Chiefs lost badly in Buffalo. At least the weather was warmer this time. Hali was on the field, but there was no pass rush to be found.

And the ground game, which had done fairly well against Atlanta until the Falcons opened up the lead disappeared. Jamaal Charles only got six carries and produced three yards. Matt Cassell threw for 301 yards, but it was low percentage—he went 23/42, and a lot of the yardage got piled up in the fourth quarter when a 35-3 deficit turned into a 35-17 final. The pass protection, while not bad, hasn’t been all that great—certainly not what Kansas City was counting on when they invested in offensive tackle Eric Winston in free agency. And first-round draft pick Dontari Poe is already looking like a bust on the nose of the 3-4 defensive line. The Chiefs have been banged up in the secondary—corner Brandon Flowers has been limited with an ankle injury and free safety Kendrick Lewis missed the game in Buffalo. Both expect to be at full health going forward, which will get some improvement. But neither player is a budding Pro Bowler, so we can’t get carried away. Kansas City needs to pressure the quarterback more, and the good news in all this is that Chiefs’ fans can reasonably hope for Hali to start doing just that.

The schedule is going to test the pass defense immediately. A trip to desperate New Orleans is ahead for Sunday, and then its home games against Philip Rivers and San Diego, followed by Joe Flacco in Baltimore. Then Kansas City goes to Tampa Bay against resurgent Josh Freeman and talented wideouts Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams. Head coach Romeo Crennel has some fast work to do if he wants to get a split of these games, the minimum necessary to stay afloat going into his own bye week after the first six games.

It should be noted that I outlined some pretty minimal requirements for Oakland and Kansas City going into their byes—the Raiders to get to 1-3 and the Chiefs to reach 2-4. Even at that, both would have a long way to go and little margin for error. But they’d at least have signs of a pulse and right now that’s something each fan base could desperately use.