The way ahead

Well lets take a look at what we need to improve on first:

1. Red zone offense- To me our most glaring weakness. The o line got little or no movement for the most part all year even before the Ryan Harris injury. When we scored on a run play it was usually due to great effort by Moreno. Penalties all year long in the red zone made for bad down and distance. The passing game was to conservative and willing to settle for three. Sure we don't want turnovers but Orton's low INT rate was partly due to ultra conservative offense most notably in the red zone.

2. Pass rush- Take away Elvis and we really had none. I expected more from the other LB's this year. It didn't take long (6 weeks) for the rest of the NFL to have us pegged.

3. Tackling- as the season went on the tackling got worse this has been the case for the past few years.

4. Punting- what happened if we make a mid season change it should be for the better. Although Berger had a good game today.

What did we do right must be some thing to go 8-8.

1. Improved D- During the first six weeks we had top notch D. Our strong point was our coverage in the secondary. With league rules the way they are favoring the WR and our lack of pressure our DB's did well all year long.

2. Turnovers- Another reason we did so well in the first six weeks. Fewer turnovers on offense and more turnovers created by the D.

How do we get better?

1. System familiarity- Orton should be better next year with a year in McD's system (like it or not who else will be under center). The D will be better as well with another year of Nolan.

2. More talent- get players more suited to the 3-4 in the front seven. Beefier O-line based on new philosophy. I hope we don't take a step back in the talent department on offense players like Hillis, Royal, Stokely, the O-line all had better seasons last year.

3. Coaching- Lets face it our HC made some rookie mistakes and needs to get better at managing the ego's that exist on all teams in the NFL even in New England look at the support Randy Moss got after the Carolina game.


I will always be a Bronco fan first and fore most but clearly we have some improving to do to get back to the Super Bowl or maybe we should concentrate on getting to the playoffs first.