BRONCOS - JETS: 31-17

Broncos Record: 4-1

What a tremendous gritty win! When Peyton Manning keeps telling everyone: "There is no such thing as an easy win in the NFL" time after time, maybe we all should start listening to the man. He knows one or two things more than all of us about how to win in this crazy league. Of course this win was not what the inner fan in all of us wants to see: a 50 point trashing of every opponent so we can rest assure that we are invisible but seriously our inner fans live and dream in an imaginary world. Reality is very different as it is very evident each and every week.

Reading all the comments and posts so far, it seems like unfortunately a big portion of our fan base thinks this was an "ugly" win! As Malik Jackson put it very elegantly: "There's no such thing as an ugly win! It might be ugly to someone sitting at home, eating potato chips. Every win is a beautiful thing". I get the feeling that a lot of us are expecting the "less talented" teams to completely lay down and play dead and our Broncos to steam roll them but do not forget that for a lot of these teams the Broncos game is their Super Bowl.

I am going to put my thoughts on certain elements of the game in this review and I would love it for all of you passionate Bronco Maniacs to comment in good spirit. But before I get to that, let's take a step back and examine something that seems to really rub a lot of Broncos fans the wrong way this season and this is the:

OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN AND PLAY CALLING!

When the Super Bowl ended last year, most of us barricaded ourselves in our basements and did not come out until this horrible Super Bowl feeling of defeat became a little more bearable. Elway, Fox, Gase and Del Rio did not have this luxury. They went home and immediately started the process of figuring out how to get back there and produce better results. It was painfully evident that two key ingredients had to be improved in the Bronco formula of success: We had to get more balanced in our offensive attack and we had to get a nastier, more aggressive, turnover generating defense. Our team regardless of the phenomenal success in demolishing offensive records was not balanced enough to win the ultimate heavyweight fight.

Historically speaking it is proven that changing the mentality, personnel and playbook, both defensively and offensively, is not an easy thing. For the average fan, a game is just a win or a loss. For our coaches it is a process step that gets the team ready to arrive prepared to the big stage and win the ultimate fight! They have 16 regular season steps and two playoff steps to mold the final product. I am going to focus more on the offense because I think it is easier for us to see the progress our defense is making in being able to punch back and stay in every fight!

The big question regarding our offensive philosophy and play calling seems to be:

WHY ARE WE #$%^&* RUNNING THE BALL EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT WORKING AS WELL AS OUR PASSING?

The answer is very simple: Because if we want to win the Super Bowl in Arizona we absolutely have to be able to run the ball effectively. Do you remember Pete Carol telling his defense in the SB: "Don't worry about them running the ball! They will not commit in doing it because it is not how they think they will win and because simply they just can't"!

Change is so difficult when you are trying to alter something that has been very successful! Trying to change an offense that demolished most scoring NFL records to slow down its pace and be more balanced is like asking a Ferrari to re-tool, change its body and frame and become the Bat Mobile to win in the battlefield! If Adam Gase can pull this rabbit out of his hat and the result is a 3rd Lombardi trophy in our case, then he deserves the all-time NFL Oscar!

We have to be patient my friends! Most of all, we have to be able to understand that changing the way the offensive line operates will take a while. Slowly with every game that goes by, they are getting better at it and running lanes are starting to appear. In the first 3 games there was absolutely nowhere to run. Running holes started appearing in the 3rd quarter of the Arizona game and the appearances are getting more frequent as the offensive line adjusts. Hillman maybe has a more explosive first step but I think we are extremely unfair to Montee Ball if we are judging him based on the results of the first 3 games. The goal for our entire offense is when all the rehearsing steps are over and we take the stage in Arizona for the final battle we will be ready and our balanced run-pass punch will be devastating! So Keep Calm and instead of looking at every running play as a wasted opportunity because we did not pass, visualize it as a learning stepping stone in our preparation to be the Last Gladiator standing in Phoenix this year lifting the ultimate trophy and enjoying the ultimate win.

Here are some of my thoughts on today's game:

Peyton Manning: I read in another post earlier that "Something had to have been wrong with Peyton Manning. I'm not sure what's wrong with him, but he needs to get it right. We are beginning to see the decline of Peyton. His time as a super-elite QB is dwindling".

What? Can you please stop! End this non sense now!

I really urge you to keep calm my Bronco friends. Peyton is fine. He has to adjust to the new philosophy as well and believe me he understands why. Elway did and we won 2 Lombardi's. Peyton had a solid game as usual and after a 237 yard, 3 TD no INT game against a very good defense with some great pass rush and arguably the best front 7 in the NFL, with our Broncos having a 4-1 record with 1 overtime loss, saying that something is wrong with PFM is seriously the epitome of overreaction!

"It's just ridiculous how good he is," Jets coach Rex Ryan said. I agree with you Rex! 3 more TD to go Peyton for the record. Let's do it next Sunday!

Demaryius Thomas: Is DT the best receiver in the league right now or what? Another stellar performance after being double teamed most of the day: 10 receptions, 124 yards and a TD. Welker is back, he does not have to play the slot and it shows in the results. Optimus Prime strikes again.

Julius Thomas: Julius I agree with you: It's so f...... easy. 2 more touchdown catches today. Biggest mismatch weapon in the NFL. You have more touchdowns in NFL history in first 5 games of any season than any other TE. I love you man! I think we should keep you around and not trade you for a water boy like some of us suggested last week! You really deserve to catch #509

Andre Caldwell: Great job recovering the Hillman fumble but please do yourself a favor and do what Isaiah does: Catch the ball, hand it to Peyton and go to the sidelines. It is simple. We don't need you to run the kickoffs out of the end zone please! There is a huge difference between starting at the 20 vs. the 10 or inside the 5!

Defense: Great performance all around. Talib had a tremendous game with a great Pick 6, Ward hits like Atwater, Ware had one sack and he was all over the place wreaking havoc, Miller had two sacks and he is coming around back in shape in a great fashion and I love the passion and play improvement of Bradley Roby. Great 1st NFL sack young man!

Special teams Penalties: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! (I will leave it at that).

Lamin Barrow: it is simple dude: DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!

Dan Fouts: You know the refs stunk it up, when Fouts of all people criticizes them and takes the Broncos side! Some of these guys are too old to see well. They missed obvious holds, face masks and the spot on Demarius catch when we were trying to close out the game was brutal.

Closing Thoughts: Again, we truly are in good shape Bronco Country. There is no need for any negativity to spoil our plans and journey right now! The glass is more than 3/4 full and is getting fuller. Please remember to enjoy the journey and most of all try to take a step back, relax and humbly understand that the reasons the coaches take the roads they take in their effort to get to the big stage and win the ultimate prize, even though might be frustrating now, come February will produce a much different grand result! Enjoy and celebrate every win because believe Peyton when he says: "Every win in the NFL is difficult"! 5 steps down, many lessons to learn, mistakes to fix, adjustments to make, things to be proud and build on and records to be broken!

Bring on the 49ers!

Prediction for the year: 17-2

KEEP CALM AND GO BRONCOS!