It's not the end of the world - yet - but a second consecutive ugly loss has revealed one critical thing the Denver Broncos must do before their season becomes a total nightmare.

Obviously, this team has more than one problem. We could talk about the penalties, the lack of a running game, poor pass protection, turnovers, missed scoring opportunities, poor quarterback play, sloppy tackling, and bad play-calling.

We could also talk about how for the second week in a row, the Broncos waited until the fourth quarter to start playing. Maybe they should consider showing up to play in the first quarter of the game.

To be brutally honest, for the second straight week, the Broncos looked just awful, although I don't want to take anything away from San Diego.The Chargers had a great plan -- and the have the Atlanta Falcons to thank.

Here is what is happening, and it's so obvious it's almost frightening. And what's even more frightful is the fact that if the Broncos don't do something about it soon, their season will be down the tubes quicker than you can say defending Super Bowl champs.

Denver Broncos v San Diego Chargers
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Clearly, the strength of this team has been their fierce pass rush. Yes, the secondary is distinguished, but it all starts with pressure on the quarterback. That's the reason they won Super Bowl 50.

The Falcons and the Chargers both wisely decided it wasn't very smart to have their quarterback take a deep drop, survey the field, and give that mighty Orange Crush rush a chance to get to him. Instead, they opted for a quicker, shorter passing game. The result was just one quarterback sack - and lots of first downs.

For two weeks, the Broncos have effectively taken away the opposing wide receivers, but in the process have failed to account for the running backs and tight ends. The result has been a leaky defense that has not been able to get off the field on third down, and consequently has spent a lot of time on the field.

I can't say exactly how to correct this, because I'm not a football coach, but I can clearly see what's happening. I suspect Wade Phillips is aware of the problem-- that's why he gets the big bucks -- but through the last two games, it doesn't look like any adjustments have been made to counter what the opposing offenses are doing. We just keep doing the same ol' thing, and we keep getting burned.

Until the Broncos find a way to correct this situation, other teams are going to follow the exact same blueprint - and as a consequence, all of the other deficiencies are going to be magnified 10-fold and the losses are going to pile up.

This is the NFL. It's full of smart people, and eventually they figure out how to stop success. That means, in order to continue having success, you better be able to adjust, adapt, and modify what you are doing,

Here's to hoping the next several days are filled with adjusting, adapting, and modifying before the Broncos must-win  Monday night meeting with Mr. Osweiler and the Houston Texans.

 

 

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