Broncos @ Chargers Game Day Thread / Post Game Reaction (Week 6)

[ghost]

Donald Parham's two catches were for 53 yards. I think that due to an overabundance of caution, they took him out after that second catch as Parham landed flat on his forehead. He was dressed in street clothes during Gameballs, so I believe he's OK.

This weapon, along with Keenan will be returning to us for Seattle. Linsley at C as well. Drue needs to show Donald his neck collar, to be sure.

[ghost]

https://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky-conference/montana-state-university/ex-montana-state-linebacker-alex-singleton-nearly-sets-nfl-record/article_ae4f1b2a-4e9d-11ed-9883-e7538d9d2a5a.html

Anyone else see that Bronco LB Alex Singleton recorded 19 solo tackles and 2 assists on MNF? WTH?

[jamrock]

Whomever does the in game sound at SoFi was on point. They played Future records whenever the Broncos came out to play offense. IYKYK

[Guest]

was guilty of being a KJ Hill super fan, and.... starting to wonder 'bout Palmer.... how many degrees of separation between him & KJ ??

My bias is against guys that lack measurables, so I will occasionally miss a player evaluation when it comes to a guy who had college success and then has NFL success despite lacking measurables. When I am wrong, I tend to consider that player as a great "college player" whose skills do not translate to the NFL. So, I never would have considered K.J. Hill favorably, especially on a team with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, which was to my advantage regarding my evaluation of him. I also had the benefit of Tyron Johnson's 2020 season. Honestly, what else does a guy have to do to prove that he can succeed as an NFL WR? When given a chance, he absolutely dominated in a limited sample size.

I think Palmer is legitimate NFL backup WR, but he is a really poor fit with Allen and Williams as none have speed and only Allen has moves. Receivers like Guyton and Johnson are obvious examples of better complementary receivers. Whether or not either is a better WR than Palmer is debatable, but, in my view, that the speedier WRs are better complementary WRs to Allen and Williams is not debatable. And we are seeing that reality unfold right before our eyes without Guyton on the field as our WRs are getting no separation and defenses continue to creep up on us because every pass is short and we lack a speedy deep threat so defenses can just play us short and run with any receiver that tries to run long.

Part of the problem is that Lombardi refuses to use medium and deep passes. The other part of the problem is that because Lombardi does not want to use the medium and deep parts of the field, he undervalues the speedy WRs, so we end up having only one speedy WR on the roster at full health, misuse him when he is healthy, and have no speedy WRs at all when he is not healthy. So, when Guyton went down, we did not go after players like Fuller, Conley, or Tyron Johnson when the Raiders cut him. And we did not make the obvious move of trying to trade for Anderson when CAR had to eat his big contract.

But why would we trade for or sign a speedy WR? Our head idiots in charge do not even understand that there is a problem much less that it is a massive one.

[Guest]

Herbert didnt have time for long routes, he was getting pounded quickly … and sadly I agree with those who noted we don’t have a speed receiver

other than that … GO LONG! Yeah.

Lombardi does not absolutely have to send 4 and 5 receivers out on every pass play. There is this concept known as "maximum protection". And of course, the lack of speed at WR is a problem, a completely foreseeable one from the moment we cut Johnson.

[lightsout42]

Winning three in a row, two of those wins on the road three time zones away, having the 2nd best record in the conference, one behind the leader, tied for the division lead. I don't what universe says this is not a good team.

I can understand that. But I’ve seen this movie before and while I’m not pessimistic, I have seen enough to be skeptical until they can show consistency.

[lightsout42]

4 - 2 is good. Period.

I'm not too wrapped up in early season stats. For me it's how we finish.

To you. I’m happy to respectfully disagree and remain more cautiously optimistic.

[Guest]

Exactly. Even worse this game - Linsley took all the reps with the first team O before getting food poisoning on Saturday so Clapp had little practice. It is no coincidence that by far the two worst games our O played were the games Linsley missed. The play of the line, no Allen and Herberts ribs affected what we could do and yet somehow people are surprised by the dink and dunk approach. We had trouble protecting him on 5 yard passes, yet somehow we should have ignored that and had Herbert going deep all game long against when our #1 receiver, who isn't fast was out and our only legitimate speed guy on IR. It just makes no sense.

We threw deep all the time with the worst OL in the entire NFL in 2020. How was that possible? Obviously, protection schemes can be altered to allow for the deep passing game.

However, if you are saying that our coaches and GM are idiots because they have not bothered to have multiple speedy WRs on the active roster, then I am in complete agreement with you. This horrible state of the offense was entirely foreseeable from the moment we cut Tyron Johnson and decided in our infinite wisdom to keep only one speedy WR on the roster.

[ghost]

This is good, the Chargers holding the Broncos to minus nine passing yards at one point, is even better.

It should also be noted that this was the #1 most penalized game of the 2022 season, to date.

[Formula 21]

Winning three in a row, two of those wins on the road three time zones away, having the 2nd best record in the conference, one behind the leader, tied for the division lead. I don't what universe says this is not a good team.

All while missing 4-5 all pros. This is not a complete team right now. I suspect our OL would have blocked better last night with Linsley calling the blocking assignments. At times, the OL just looked lost IMO. Linsley would have probably fixed that.

[Guest]

The injury bug has taken our offense away. Last night our offense was pitiful. We couldn't run well or pass beyond five yards. I don't know how much of that was because Denver has a strong defense and how much was because we miss the injured players?

Those who keep crying about all the short passes need to pay attention to what's going on out there. The donkeys DL was giving our OL all they can stand. Meantime, we are trying to keep Herbert from further injury. So, the short quick stuff is the best way to get it done. On top of that, we don't have a lot of speed to scare the defense.

I wish the "throw it long crybabies" would see the truth so we could quit reading the same dribble over and over.

We threw long successfully all the time in 2020 with the worst OL in the entire NFL. Unfortunately, it appears that Lombardi has never heard of "maximum protection" as a blocking concept. Even banged up and injured, our current OL is better than the 2020 OL ever was. So, that is no excuse. It just highlights one of the many ways in which Lombardi sucks.

Also, we have had every chance to sign and retain any number of speedy receivers, but we refuse to do so. Our head morons are not getting any credit or having an excuse for the very problem they created. That those bozos could not foresee that if the team only keeps one speedy WR and that WR gets injured, we will have none and the result will be bad is beyond stupid on their part.

I am not a football GM or coach and I saw that problem last year from the time we cut Johnson before the 2021 season began. And even if our coaches and GM missed that concept before the season began, they had the benefit of getting it rubbed in their faces in last year's game against HOU when Guyton was out with Covid-19.

Last night on the NFL Network, Chase Daniel stated that he could not recall a game in which a team had faced 22 third down situations on offense. This underscores exactly what I have been saying about Lombardi's play calling and said again last night. Too many times we are forced to make third down conversions because every play is a short pass or run and we need all three downs to secure a first down. And because we barely are getting first downs without big plays, we end up needing a bunch of series of downs to score. From a purely mathematical standpoint, that is not a recipe for scoring success. The success we are having is because the offensive talent is able to overcome the play calling ineptitude to a degree and score anyway in spite of Lombardi's play calling.

Bigger plays reduce the number of first downs needed and make it easier to score. Bigger plays prevent defenses from squatting on us. The presence of speedier receivers and a willingness to throw long help in preventing defenses from squatting on us.

Less Staley points (points produced by going for it on 4th down) this year and we are 13th in scoring average. I have long since carefully explained this concept to those not wanting see Lombardi's problems even when Lombardi was admitting to some of those problems. Without Staley's hand on the scale, we always were only a top of the middle third scoring team despite having much better talent than that result, especially at the QB position. Lombardi's play calling is absolutely killing us.

[Xenos]

Would you prefer the Chargers to lose those games?

Just win during the season. No matter how ugly. With no injuries of course.