Week 1 Game Thread: Denver Broncos

Posted on September 9, 2012 by ryan

And so it begins. Feel free to comment on the early games while we wait for a Tebow-less return trip to Denver.

Related posts:

  1. Steelers vs. Broncos: Preseason Game 3 (and Daily Thread)
  2. Random Thoughts: Steelers-Broncos Preseason Game (It’s All Yours, Byron!)
  3. SL Discussion Thread for Week of March 7
  4. Analyzing the Steelers O-Line: Broncos, Preseason Week 3
  5. Chattin’ Thread for the Week of August 20
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  • Eric

    Foote looks skinnier than I remembered

  • http://www.facebook.com/randy.steele.583 Randy Steele

    So far, Denver has the better O-line.

  • Eric

    Woot

  • DJAmyReason

    Not digging this 7-to-2 run-pass

    • Eric

      Not liking the same old offensive line

  • calig23

    The offense looks pretty poor so far. Lots of ineffective runs resulting in 3rd and long.

  • djanyreason

    Not digging this 7-to-3 run-pass ratio at all

  • Intropy

    I think I’ve cracked the code. If down equals 3 then pass else run.

    • djanyreason

      Yeah, but the run might be a reverse!

  • djanyreason

    Cortez Allen is not impressing so far

  • Eric

    I’m surprised Brown is returning punts

  • djanyreason

    This crew doesn’t seem to know what a hold actually is…

    • Intropy

      Certainly not anything Wallace just did.

  • djanyreason

    Not yet seeing how this is better than Arians

    • Eric

      Maybe at least wait till the end of the game?

  • djanyreason

    Why is Legursky in for Foster?

    • David

      I was thinking that myself.

  • Eric

    Roethlisberger is doing a homage to manning tonight

  • Intropy

    They’re up. Why does it feel like they’re getting killed?

    • djanyreason

      Because with a fumble recovery, a big punt return, and two first and goals, they should be up by more than 3

  • Eric

    1 game in and already 2 offensive lineman down

  • djanyreason

    A productive drive to start the 3rd quarter… this is better than Arians

  • David

    Nice facemask on Ben.

  • David

    Carter is killing us.

  • djanyreason

    Well, when you get to the red zone and only get field goals…

  • Intropy

    Where was the d on that? Really poor pursuit.

  • Eric

    No backup lineman or receivers now

  • Eric

    More miller please

  • Intropy

    Dwyer looks good.

  • David

    Why are we goin to 2?!!!

    • Intropy

      To be tied in case of a TD.

  • calig23

    The defense has basically imploded on this drive. Poor coverage and poor tackling.

  • calig23

    Yeah, they’re going to lose that challenge.

  • calig23

    How is that a complete pass? What happened to maintaining possession all the way through the play?

  • David

    Last team with the ball wins.

  • calig23

    Huge defensive stop, holding them to a field goal here.

  • calig23

    And that’s ballgame.

  • Steve

    Well, that sucked.

  • Eric

    Doh

  • djanyreason

    Tracy Porter has had a hell of a game

  • calig23

    Sack, sack, sack. That seems about right.

    • djanyreason

      Eh, the third was a coverage sack, and the OL played good most of the game

  • djanyreason

    But for the pick 6 the big difference was the Broncos did more with their opportunities than we did -2 for 3 in the red zone instead of 2 for 4,6 points off turnover instead of 0. Still, I’d like to think were a better team than the Broncos.

  • David

    1. Ben didn’t see the field well
    2. The patchwork O-line, until the last series, wasn’t too bad
    3. Our D lost the game
    4. Carter didn’t cover his gaps & killed us
    5. I like how Heath is more involved
    6. I can’t remember a game winning drive by Ben in a lonnnnng time.
    7. I’ve developed more of a hatred for DEN now

    • DJAnyReason

      Disagree on 3. Our D didn’t play well, but it would’ve been enough to win if our O played a good game. Same with our O – didn’t play well, but could’ve been enough.

      Defense allowed 3TDs and a FG, and got a fumble. Offense got 2TDs and a 2 FGs and threw a pick. Can’t look at that and say either cost us the game.

      • countertorque

        I was going to pin it on the D too. But, looking at the box score, it’s a lot more even than I thought.

        Biggest delta is yards per pass. Broncos doubled up the Steelers 8.6 to 4.6. I thought the Steelers passed pretty well once they actually started to throw. Must be the sacks.

  • David

    And here’s my point on questioning going for two so early in the game.
    We kick it, its 20-14
    They score and its 20-21
    They kick a FG, its 20-24
    Pick six, its 20-31
    We’re “only” down a TD, 2 pt conversion, and FG

    But I understand the decision to go up 7. I was always under the belief that you don’t go for 2 unless you have to.

    • rgw

      Fwiw, the basic 2-point conversion chart says that you go for two with a 5-point lead at any point in the second half. It’s pushing it doing so early in the second half, but I had no problem with doing so early in the 4th quarter.
      http://www.footballcommentary.com/twoptchart.htm

  • Rob D

    Those were..back to back…the two worst games I’ve seen Dick Lebeau call since he’s been here. He was outfoxed by Manning all night long. Forgivable to some extent. Tebow? Another matter entirely.

  • http://www.facebook.com/randy.steele.583 Randy Steele

    The only good thing worth noting: At least we’re not a Cleveland Browns’ fans.
    And that said, this team was woefully unprepared, physically and mentally, to play this game. Everyone involved should get a swift kick in the pants this morning.
    This is the worst performance I’ve seen from a Steelers’ team since last season’s opener against Baltimore.

    • GlennWa

      In the Steelers’ fourth and fifth possessions of the game, they were flagged *six* times for illegal formation or a false start. Good god, we couldn’t even line up straight for a while there, and my head was about to explode. Surprisingly, those two possessions resulted in 10 points. But regardless, I agree, this team was not well prepared for the season opener, at least relative to the Broncos.

    • Cols714

      I don’t think this compares to last year’s debacle. The Steelers were in the game with the ball and a good chance to go down and score. The pick-6 makes the score look much worse than the close game that this really was.

      That being said, this was a very sloppy game by the Steelers and it reflect very badly on the coaches.

      I blame Bruce Arians.

      • DJAnyReason

        Technically, last year’s debacle was closer, since we took it to OT. It was worse, because Manning > Tebow (anything > Tebow), but still…

        • Cols714

          Oh, I meant the opener with Baltimore, not last years Broncos game.

  • Cols714

    Well that sucked.

  • Cols714

    I’m trying not to overreact to this loss, but it seemed really like the same sort of loss the Steelers have suffered to Manning before. He really does know how to dissect their defense for some reason.
    And Todd Haley seemed pretty clueless calling plays.

    • Eric

      Or Brady. But then again those are also the only two sure-fire hall of fame quarterbacks playing in the NFL today. So that probably has something to do with it.

  • Eric

    These Denver games have really caused me to re-evaluate Ryan Clark. I always viewed him as a steady but unspectacular veteran. One who wouldn’t necessarily be that hard to replace. However, his absence really effects the Steelers defense. As good as Polamalu is at a lot of things, his instinctive, gambling style can be really disastrous when he is being counted on to protect the back end. Clark seems to be able to complement him extremely well, certainly much better than Mundy.

    • Intropy

      As Mundy tried to duel with the blocker on the long YAC TD I was thinking the same thing. The pursuit on that was horrible, and the worst was Mundy. I think Clark makes that tackle, and if he doesn’t he at least forces some sort of cut giving the chasing players a chance to catch up.

      • Rob D

        We seem to have a lot of guys on the roster who can’t do the job when called. Mundy heads the list for me. Legs would be 2nd (seriously, great story , bad player) We are paper thin at many positions and the backups are either too young or “just another body” types

  • David

    Anyone else notice how Troy just waltzed off the field at game’s end without saying hi to anyone? Must have been pissed.

    • http://www.facebook.com/randy.steele.583 Randy Steele

      It may have been his injury. He hurt his right hamstring during the game.

  • David

    Silver lining:
    Peyton beat us in ’05 and ’08 and we won the SB those years.

  • Cols714

    Just waiting for the podcast. I think I’m over this loss. It’s Peyton Manning who is really good at a tough road stadium. And we definitely had a chance to win.

    So I guess we’ll see who this team is vs the Jets. We lose this one and it’s panic time, a win and we are good to go.

    BTW, I can’t wait until Mendenhall is back.

    • GlennWa

      Bingo on the Jets game. It’s easy getting over one road loss, but I had bad feelings going into this game that haven’t been remotely assauged. An old defense and (partially) an old O-line that are both already getting banged up. Hopefully we see something remarkably different in the Jets game, such that I can be talked off the ledge. In any case we’re going to need some major turns of fortune and outlook before even thinking about serious playoff contention, which have been known to happen in the NFL of course.

    • countertorque

      We were also short a few starters which should make the team better as we go. That’s assuming that we get starters back faster than we continue to lose them.

  • Cols714

    OK, one more comment. The offense as usual looked best when Ben was running around and then throwing the ball. It also looked best without the slowest FB ever in the backfield.

    • Eric

      “slowest FB ever”

      Will Johnson? Do you mean Redman?

      • Cols714

        Ha, I was thinking Johnson who looked really bad and really slow. But yeah Redman didn’t look too quick either. I wonder if he’s injured?

        • Eric

          Supposedly Redman’s ankle wasn’t 100%.

          I didn’t notice Johnson one way or the other. I’ll have to pay more attention.

  • David

    Gotta love those EB chats. Here’s one Q&A that cracks me up:

    Guest: In this day and age of tremendous technology, how can Ben not hear the play being called in no matter the crowd noise?

    Ed Bouchette:
    Plug in your Ipod, put on a tune and then walked into a place where
    there are 75,000 screaming people. Tell me what song you heard.

  • David

    Typical “Over-reaction Monday” crap:

    Some are already prognosticating a Raisins-Cryboys Super Bowl.

  • Cols714

    Uh guys, is there a podcast coming? If not, at least send Ted in here to rant on how the Steelers suck.

    • GlennWa

      I knew you guys would miss Ted when he (and everyone else) was gone.

    • Eric

      This might be my favorite comment on this site, ever.

  • Cols714

    I was just reading that the Broncos really went after Doug Legursky. It’s hard to fault the Steelers for that. They drafted DeCastro, he got injured, then backup Foster got injured leaving them with their 3rd choice at RG.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    I’m not gonna get too panicky about one game. It was week one on the road against a decent team. For the D, it was against one of the best QBs ever (who looked fairly healthy) without our former DPOY and without Clark (thereby diminishing our other DPOY’s effectiveness). For our O, it was Haley’s first game and we were on our second-string RT and third-string RG, with backup RBs and our #1 WR just rejoined the team. That’s a whole lot of stuff that should be different (and hopefully improved) in a few weeks. For example, I will be shocked if our medium-to-long range passing game and run defense aren’t vastly better soon.

    But obviously, there were problems that go beyond health. For now, I’ll just focus on Ben, although obviously he wasn’t the only issue. This game had both “great Ben” (on third downs), “ok-to-poor Ben” (on most other downs) and “WTF Ben” on several plays (not hitting a wide-open Heath in the end zone, the pick six, tucking the ball and taking a sack on a fourth down with the game over if you don’t throw it, and getting sacked out of field goal range). More great Ben and we can win the SB. More WTF Ben and Bill Simmons’ 6-10 prediction for us wouldn’t be the insanity that I hope it is.

    And Ben obviously not going to just throw effing the ball on his own, even when he really really should. And I don’t want anyone to rob him of his playmaking most of the time. So I think we should do something like have a few specific, designated plays where if Ben gets sacked with the ball still in his hands that someone gets to punch him in the face. Before those plays, show him a picture of Deebo or something. The rest of the time, do your thing Ben.

  • David

    Clash of the non-stars?

    Revis & Silverback out, Troy probably out.

  • Rob D

    Roll call! How many people are left monitoring this site.
    I see Cols, Eric, Glenn, INtropy, Djanyreason, David, the infamous Easy! :), countertorque, Randy Steel, calig23….I would hate to just watch this site die..its a fun place to be when it’s up and revving.

    Sound off if you are coming here but not posting…maybe we can jump start this thing ourselves. Who’s with me? It’s not over. Was it over when the German’s invaded Pearl Harbor? Hell, no. etc etc.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE

    • David

      Wow, have things gotten that bad here?