Thin Air

On paper, this should have been a Denver Broncos win today. But as we all know, matchups don’t always play out like they do on paper.

And while we are aware of what have been the weaknesses with the Broncos offense — and they were evident against the Colts — that really wasn’t what cost the Broncos the game today.

If we are honest with ourselves, it was the Broncos defense that didn’t come through like it has in the past seven games. The defense isn’t the sole reason for the loss, but the defense was nowhere near as sharp as it had been.
Continue reading What Was Denver’s Strength Was Not Good Vs. The Colts

Talk about today’s Broncos matchup here. Players who will not suit up today:

* Broncos: Shane Ray, Jordan Norwood.
* Colts: Phillip Dorsett, Nate Irving.

And Ian Rapoport shared this news about Colts WR T.Y. Hilton.

#Colts WR TY Hilton (sprained foot) will be a game-time decision, he wants to test his foot. But he’s considered a longshot to actually play

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 8, 2015

Talk about any NFL games other than the Broncos-Colts here. Notable matchups today:

* Carolina at Green Bay
* Oakland at Pittsburgh
* Miami at Buffalo
* St. Louis at Minnesota
* Philadelphia at Dallas

The biggest name on the Colts’ injury report remains TY Hilton, who is officially questionable (foot) and has not practiced all week.  If Hilton can’t go Sunday, he’ll join fellow receiver Phillip Dorsett (ankle) on the bench.  Old friend Nate Irving (knee) will also miss the chance of playing against his former team.

Meanwhile, there should probably be a separate report for all of the dissension going on behind the scenes in Indianapolis.  The latest news to emerge, via Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star, is that a players-only meeting was conducted in an effort to drown out the conflicts between the coaches and the front office.

Continue reading Colts Injury And Drama Report

As a companion piece to what I shared about the Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot for 2016, here is a list of questions I came up with a few years back about what to consider when judging players.

The questions are based off those posed by Bill James, who debated the merits of certain baseball players argued as worthy of the HOF. He came up with a series of questions to consider. I took his questions and modified them to fit football.

Here are the 15 questions I believe everyone should consider when debating a player’s HOF candidacy.
Continue reading Pro Football HOF: Questions To Consider About Nominess

Something that hasn’t been discussed here has been the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame list of nominees.

Here is the full list, which includes mentions of the two senior committee nominees and the one contributor nominee. Those three immediately go to the final round and are considered separately. Meanwhile, the rest of the nominees will be reduced to 25 semifinalists.

I am going to present who I believe should be the 25 semifinalists from the above list, in order of position as they are listed.
Continue reading 2016 Pro Football HOF: My Semifinalist Picks

MAJOR changes in Detroit: Lions have fired GM Martin Mayhew and president Tom Lewand, league sources told ESPN.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 5, 2015

Continue reading The Times They Are A Changin’ In Detroit

Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson does a great job breaking down how well the Denver Broncos defense played against the Packers.

Read how he breaks down the play on which Rodgers had more than seven seconds to find an open receiver, but nobody got open and he couldn’t escape the pocket, so he had to throw it at the feet of a receiver.

Makes you wonder what this defense can do against other top offenses, doesn’t it?

So it’s time for another showdown between Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. Unlike the last two times, though, we have a vast gap between the two teams, even though they both happen to be division leaders and are probably going to have little trouble winning the division. And that’s why Ryan Grigson is on his way to another Executive of the Year award, amirite?

Of course, we know the real story is that the Denver Broncos lead a division that has a good team (Oakland), an average team that could challenge them in the rematch (Kansas City) and a bad team (San Diego), while the Indianapolis Colts are leading the weakest division in the NFL, and possibly the weakest division ever since the switch to four divisions in each conference. The Colts and the Texans are below average, with the arrow kind of pointing upward for Houston because they got rid of Ryan Mallett, but it might not be enough to overtake the Colts, who still have enough talent to sweep the division.

And to think I was the guy who thought Andrew Luck might set new records on offense this season.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Colts May Not Be Good But They Aren’t Pushovers