Raiders v. Broncos: Analysis of Last Week's Game

(Sigh)

Not Too Late

The Broncos have only won the AFC West once since winning Super Bowl XXIII. They've had some good teams, but there has always been a better team.

This isn’t the worst Broncos team of my lifetime, and it certainly isn’t the best. But it might be the strangest. The season was looking pretty hopeless a mere two weeks ago, with the Broncos sitting at 4-4 after losing twice at home and getting blown out on Monday Night Football. The two best players on what was already an unimpressive Bronco defense, D.J. Williams and Champ Bailey, were out with injuries. Offensively, the Broncos were down to their fourth-string tailback. And three of their next four games were on the road. It took some effort for one to remind oneself that the Broncos were still in first place in the stanky AFC West division.

In the first half of their Thursday night game with the Cleveland Browns, it appeared that the Broncos were going to continue to sink to the depths of the NFL. And then they scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to prevail, 34-30, although Brandon Marshall almost ruined it with an Obama tribute after scoring the winning touchdown. The aforementioned fourth-string tailback, Ryan Torain, the much-hyped late-round draft choice who some had pegged as the second coming of Terrell Davis, was lost for the season in this game. Starting middle linebacker Nate Webster was also injured.

So for the much hyped rematch with former kicker Jason Elam this past Sunday, the Broncos trotted out rookies such as Spencer Larsen, Wesley Woodyard, and Peyton Hillis to carry them on to a 24-20 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. P.J. Pope, who I had never heard of, came up from the practice squad to make his debut in the Broncos backfield. Tatum Bell, who had been selling cell phones at the Aurora Mall and working out at Smoky Hill High School since being cut by the worst team in the NFL last summer, was resigned by the Broncos a year and a half after being traded away. For some reason, a lot of people thought this was a huge upset as the Falcons are apparently destined to become the greatest team since the 1966 Green Bay Packers. Whatever.

Anyways, the Broncos are still maintaining a two-game lead in the AFC West over the San Diego Chargers. Two of their next three games are home games against Oakland and Kansas City – which should be sure wins – although you never know with this year’s edition of the Broncos. If the Broncos get to 10 wins, they win the division. I’m thinking that it’s going to come down to that last game – Broncos v. Chargers in San Diego – to determine the AFC West champ and a playoff spot. The Broncos will be 9-6, the Chargers will be 8-7 but would have the tiebreaker if they win the last game (due to the Broncos losing that game to the Chiefs). And the winner would host a playoff game versus the Dolphins, Patriots, Ravens, or Colts.

Time Travel: If It Were Possible. . .

You have to turn up the volume on your computer to hear the music and get in the proper mood to read this.

Where would you go? Or rather, when would you go?

The rules are the same as in Back to the Future and The Time Machine. That is, you can only change time, not location. No going to 15th century Spain or Jerusalem 1 B.C.

My choice is made. If I could go back in time at any point in the history of Aurora, Colorado or whatever was here before, I would choose 1977.

Strange, I know.

The main reason I started thinking about this has to do with our current house and the townhome where we previously lived. Today, in 2008, they've both seen better days. Both were built circa 1975 - I would love to see both neighborhoods when they were new and swanky. We learned when buying our current house that the neighborhood has covenants! Needless to say, they are not enforced any longer. And our old townhome community has a guard gate, tennis courts, swimming pools, that certainly looked much better in 1977 than they do today.

Also, 1977 is the year the Denver Broncos made their first run to the Super Bowl. It would have been great to experience that firsthand. See my archived review of Terry Frei's book '77 on this blog for details.

Star Wars was released in 1977. That would have been awesome to see it brand new in the theater. I love the subtle 70's influence on Star Wars fashion, by the way.

Also, I would like to go back in my current profession of public accounting. I'd trade in my laptop and start rockin' the ten-key. I'd do depreciation by hand on 14-column ledger paper. I'd foot a ream's worth of accounts payable detail printed on green bar. It would be awesome!

The 70's just seem like they would have been a fun time. Technically, I was born in the 70's, but I was not yet self-aware.

And yes, I would do the fashions as seen above.

Bye

Well, it finally happened. The Rockies traded away 2007 MVP runner-up Matt Holliday to the Oakland A’s.

The general reaction in Denver was one of outrage and disappointment that the Rockies didn’t pony up the big bucks to keep their star player. I think that the fans and media should have had such feelings out of their system by now, because this day had been coming for well over a year, long before the Rockies made their fantastic run to the World Series. The chances of Matt Holliday staying in Colorado past the 2009 season were roughly 2.163%.

Matt Holliday wants the absolute most money he can get. It’s his career – he’s only going to be a professional baseball player once.

The Brothers Monfort apparently want to be a “small market” club like Minnesota or Oakland, developing young talent and then shipping it out the door when payday comes. I wondered if their philosophy of running the Rockies on the cheap might change with the World Series appearance. Looks like no. Hey, it’s their money. They can spend it how they choose.

Personally, I think the Rockies made the right call. He’s a good player, but I don’t think he’s worth $150 million. Paying Todd Helton top dollar a few years ago didn’t work out so well.

Of course, the Rox won’t be going to the World Series in 2009 without him. . . but I think they’re okay with that. The fans won’t stop coming despite what they might say.

More Bailouts

So we're bailing out Wall Street. And now we're going to also bailout Detroit automakers since the unions have pretty much sucked the life out of them. I started in on a post about this a few weeks ago, but didn't finish, because who cares? It's out of my hands.

My question is this - who is going to bail out the big-box retailers?

Who is going to bailout Linens n' Things? They're liquidating all their assets and no one is lifting a finger to help them out. Where will Americans go to buy overpriced crap for their homes? I suppose they'll go to Bed, Bath & Beyond although I can't imagine how long that will last since it's not even as good of a store as Linens n' Things. I guess Americans will have to settle for buying moderately priced crap at Wal-Mart and Target.

And what about Circuit City? They have to close a bunch of stores and I don't see Congress doing anything to help them out. If we don't bailout Circuit City, Americans will have to resort to Best Buy for electronic crap. And Best Buy already charges three times what stuff is worth so I can't imagine that's a good thing for middle-class Americans.

We better start getting something in the pipeline for these guys because after what is sure to be a dismal December for these guys, they are going to need some help. I'm a little worried about JC Penney myself. Every week they send out a flyer advertising the Sale of the Ages. Let's get going on this before it gets out of hand.

Fantasy Football: It Messes With Your Head

I'll keep this brief, because I realize that there is possibly nothing more boring than reading about someone's fantasy football exploits. I'm not into FF very deep this season - I'm only playing in one league. And I doubt I've spent more than 30 minutes a week on it this year, which is probably too much. Like the Denver Broncos, I started out hot, winning my first three. But I've been in a bit of a slide since then and currently stand at 5-5.

I lost this last week by some ridiculously small margin - 2.8 points or something. And I should have won - if I had not thought about it too hard. You see, part of my strategy this year was to go heavy on receivers - I picked Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, and Brandon Marshall with three of my first four picks. And then I added Calvin Johnson later on. You play three receivers in my league - so having four recievers works out good if one of them has a bye - but otherwise I'm always worried about sitting the wrong guy on the bench.

Brandon Marshall started out the year strong but has slowed down a bit since. So with three other receivers playing well, I decided to sit him on the bench this past week. So he goes out and has a big game, outscoring the two Johnsons for the week. If I would have played him, I would have won! So frustrating.

But more frustrating was my own reaction when watching the Broncos-Browns game on Thursday night. Marshall caught the winning TD pass to complete a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback for the Broncos. And I remember being a little ticked off that it was Marshall who was the recipient of the TD pass. He made my decision to sit him on the bench look bad! How dare he! Wait a minute. . . the Broncos are my team - why am I not way more excited that they just took the lead with a minute to go?

Similarly, the Broncos fell behind in this game 17-7. I should have been really mad that the Broncos were playing poorly yet again. Yet this bad news was softened a bit by the fact that both Cleveland touchdowns had been scored by Kellen Winslow. You guessed it - Winslow is the TE on my fantasy team.

In conclusion, don't play this game - it really screws up your rooting interests.

I'll probably keep playing, though, because everyone is doing it.

The Street Lawyer

A few weeks ago, I did a post about how I hadn't read any John Grisham titles for several years. So I checked one out of the library.

If I had to describe "The Street Lawyer" in one word, the word I would choose is propaganda.

It tells the tale of a yuppie lawyer named Michael Brock who reorders his priorities in life after he's held hostage by a homeless man for an afternoon. He quits his high-paying job even though he's only a couple of years from making partner - and goes to work for a free legal clinic that helps the homeless. He thinks his old firm was partially responsible for the deaths of a homeless family, so he commits a crime on the way out the door that will help him figure it out. And so the rest of the book is him trying to get his old firm before they get him.

It wasn't really a thrill ride. I think Grisham just wanted to write a book about homeless people.

****SPOILER ALERT!****

The resolution of the conflict is that they settle out of court. Wow! What a climax!

****END SPOILER ALERT****

There was a subplot where Michael's marriage to his yuppie wife is coming to an end. She keeps popping up in the story here and there and I was half expecting them to maybe reconcile but it just gets to the point where she isn't mentioned anymore. Kind of a letdown. Instead he likes this other homeless crusader who has about one line in the whole book.

I didn't like the main character at all. He was a major league dumb-bunny. I didn't like him when he was a rich lawyer and I didn't like him when he was a poor lawyer.

The book was just okay. It didn't really fall into the Grisham "legal thriller" genre. Nothing thrilling ever happened - it was kind of like "The Chamber" in that respect. At the end, I was just sort of like, "I spent how many hours reading for that?"

In conclusion, we should take care of the homeless. Otherwise, they will turn on us. I think that was the point he was trying to get across in this book.

Great Ideas

Do you ever come up with a great idea and wonder if anyone else has thought of the same thing?

I sure have. And with the internet, it is fairly easy to answer your question.

Here is my most recent such incident.

I would do my own, but I do not possess the necessary photoshop skills.

Return of the Nuggets

I haven't cared much about the Denver Nuggets for some time now. But I was happy to hear the news on Monday that the Nugs traded Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess.

First of all, it was good to see them admit that the AI & Melo experiment was not going to work out. They could have kept the duo around for the sake of selling tickets, but instead opted to try to make the team better. Or maybe they just did it to save a buck. I don't know enough to comment on the salary ramifications, and I don't care enough to research.

Chauncey, of course, is the only notable NBA player ever produced by the great state of Colorado. The Denver native went to CU and played for the Nuggets for less than a season in the late 90's. And now he's back after a successful stint with the Detroit Pistons. The problem, of course, is that he's 32 years old and probably on the downside of his career. The Nuggets should have kept him around the first time and things would have worked out. Of course, when they traded him to Minnesota in February of 2000, the deal netted them the legendary Tariq Abdul-Wahad. And when considering all that the legendary Abdul-Wahad did for professional basketball in Denver, I guess we can forgive the Nuggets for letting go of Chauncey.

The most exciting part of the deal was the fact that the Nuggets picked up Antonio McDyess, who has enjoyed two previous stints in the Mile High City. I was disappointed to hear that they may try to buy him out of his contract, which would prevent a third McDyess tour. I hope he ends up staying.

Who else can we bring back? Is Dan Issel still available to coach? What about Dikembe Mutombo? He was still playing somewhere as of last season, even though he's about 48 years old. Let's bring him back too.

Gem of the Day

From time to time I like to post bizarre quotes that I read in the newspaper. Here's one for today. It comes courtesy of Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, commenting on his team releasing teammate DeAngelo Hall, who was paid an $8 million signing bonus to play in 8 games for the 2-6 Raiders.

"I don't think he's the one scapegoat," Asomugha said. ". . . He was kind of singled out in regards of let's cut someone."

Uh. . . no, that's not a tree. That's something growing out of the ground that has leaves and branches.

Life

We don't watch a ton of TV or anything, but it is nice to have a show or two that you like and can look forward to. It kind of gets you through the week - "only two more days until X show is on!"

American Idol was like that for about one season. And then they ran out of talented people to be on it the year after Carrie Underwood won.

We had a run of a couple of years with The Amazing Race as well. But I kinda hate the host of that show and so we stopped that as well.

Survivor has been a longtime favorite - but we're kind of off and on with that one even though every season is pretty much the same. However, making fun of Jeff Probst never gets old. It's been tough to watch consistently since we moved back to the Mountain Time Zone. Settling in to watch a show at 7:00 is really tough.

We became fans of Veronica Mars - a great show that used to be on the WB. But it was canceled after the third season. As if the WB or CW or whatever has higher-quality programming. We do own seasons 1 & 2 on DVD and are on our second time through.

So it kind of dwindled down to the point where The Office was our only show. And as anyone who follows that show will probably admit, it's been on a slow decline for the past two seasons. The last couple of episodes have been kind of lame.

But it's okay, because we have discovered a new show: Life, which airs at random times throughout the week on NBC. Seriously, it's on its third time slot in the past month! It started out on Mondays, then moved to Fridays, and now it is moving to Wednesdays. Next it will move off the air entirely!

Which will be disappointing because it's a good show. It's the one about Charlie Crews, the cop who gets sent to prison for life for a crime he didn't commit. After twelve years of incarceration, he is freed by DNA evidence and gets a huge settlement. Part of the settlement is that he gets is old job back as a homicide detective. He's pretty low on the totem pole, and so he gets paired with another bottom of the barrel detective, recovering addict Dani Reese. And so they solve a crime every episode - but there's also the continuing story arc of Charlie digging around trying to figure out who the real killer was and who set him up.

The characters are interesting and likeable, and there is plenty of humor. Charlie is kind of a quirky guy. I think towards the end of Season 1, with the pending writer's strike, they got a little sloppy and strayed a little bit from some of the storylines that were introduced early on, but it's still an enjoyable show.

We saw one episode of it last year before the strike and liked it. And so we decided to try watching again this year and still liked it, but we were a little lost as to exactly what the story was. Nothing that Netflix can't fix! We reactivated our Netflix membership and caught up on Season 1. So now we have a new show to watch - one that will almost certainly be cancelled by NBC in a few weeks!