McDaniels era in Denver on shaky ground and other NFL thoughts

(1) The folks in Denver have to be wondering if Josh McDaniels’ days are numbered in the Mile High City after the 59-14 beat down the Broncos suffered at the hands of division rival Oakland. In his second season at the helm, the Broncos are 2-5 and they are 4-13 since starting McDaniels’ first season undefeated in their first six games. New coaches have to be given a little time to implement their systems, but owner Pat Bowlen has to be thinking that McDaniels is not living up to the reputation he developed in New England, especially after the debacle that occurred on Sunday. In historical terms, McDaniels might want to have a bag packed just in case because the two previous head coaches in Denver were fired after disastrous games against the Raiders. Wade Phillips was fired in 1994 after a 48-16 whipping and Mike Shanahan was fired in 2008 following a 38-10 defeat to Oakland. At the very least, McDaniels needs a stern talking to by Bowlen because the Broncos looked completely unprepared for the game and didn’t put up much of a fight once the Raiders’ snowball started rolling. Oakland scored touchdowns eight seconds apart in the first quarter to kick off the rout, which staggered the Broncos. The Raiders continued their early flurry with 38 points in the game’s first 22 minutes to eliminate any doubt about the outcome of the game, which ended with Oakland scoring a franchise-record 59 points. The offensive explosion allowed Oakland to win for the third consecutive time at Invesco Field and left Denver searching for answers. The Broncos had talked all week about a quick start being the key, but it was the Raiders who jumped out quickly and never let up. The Broncos not only didn’t start fast, but they compounded their early missteps with turnovers and execution issues throughout the rest of the game. Kyle Orton was ineffective for the second consecutive week and Denver fumbled the football five times losing two of them. Overall, they turned the ball over three times and never were able to find any rhythm against the Oakland defense. Even after scoring touchdowns on consecutive possessions in the second half, the Broncos went silently down the stretch with their last five possessions ending in four punts and one turnover on downs.


On the other hand, the Raiders were outstanding. They racked up over 500 yards of total offense with 328 yards coming on the ground. They were led by Darren McFadden, who ran for 165 yards on the ground and joined three other players as the only Raiders to score four touchdowns in a single game (Harvey Williams – 1997, Marcus Allen – 1984 and Art Powell – 1967). It was the third best rushing output in franchise history and it effectively took away the fight from the Broncos one rushing play at a time. In addition to the ground game, Oakland also got a solid performance from Jason Campbell, who was not 100% healthy, but played admirably against a Denver defense that had no answers. He hit Zach Miller with a 43-yard touchdown to set the tone and also connected with McFadden to keep the rout going. The Raiders completely embarrassed the Broncos on their home field and Denver fans have to start asking the hard questions about where their beloved team is heading. First of all, do they have the right guy coaching the team? At the time he was hired, I was not impressed at all with McDaniels and he hasn’t done anything since that time to change my opinion. He ran off a franchise quarterback and wide receiver and the offense that he replaced them with has not been consistent enough to validate the wisdom of that decision. His draft record is checkered, which has meant that he has not found the playmakers on either side of the ball that is needed to be successful in the NFL. He has not established an identity on either side of the football, which means that the team has no foundation to hang their hat on from week to week. He is looking more and more like another Bill Belichick disciple that couldn’t hack it once they were removed from the warm cocoon of Foxboro. I’m not advocating for him to get fired right now, but if he doesn’t show improvement over the last nine weeks of the season then his seat should get too hot for him to survive another year.

(2) The San Diego Chargers are inventing new ways to blow football games. They once again dominated the statistics battle only to lose another game due to their cavalcade of mistakes. This week they outgained New England 363 to 179, but turned the ball over four times allowing the Patriots to steal a victory that they had no business earning. The Chargers have now lost 16 fumbles this season. Two of Sunday’s fumbles were complete head-scratchers. The first one occurred when rookie Richard Goodman made a nice 25-yard catch and then simply left the ball on the ground thinking that he was down by contact when no one had actually touched him. A little later, Jacob Hester let a backfield pass from Philip Rivers bounce thinking the play was dead. New England recovered the football and advanced it deep into Chargers’ territory. In addition to the offensive mistakes, the Chargers continued to stumble all over themselves on special teams. This week, they failed to convert an onside kick and they allowed a long punt return, which set-up the offensively-challenged Patriots with another short field. Despite all of the mistakes, San Diego battled back with 17 fourth quarter points to give them a chance to win the game at the end. After stopping New England on a fourth and one from the 49-yard line, the Chargers gained enough yards to set-up a 45-yard field goal to send the game to overtime. Unfortunately, San Diego made yet another mistake, a 5-yard false start penalty, which pushed the field goal attempt to 50 yards for newly signed kicker Kris Brown. Brown did his best Nate Kaeding impression by subsequently clanging the field goal attempt off the right upright and sending the Patriots home with a huge victory.

As a result, the Chargers find themselves in a predicament that few would have forecasted before the season started. They are tied for last place in the AFC West despite the fact that they entered Sunday’s game with the number one offense and defense in the NFL. With two tough games coming up before their bye week, the Chargers should not fool themselves into thinking that their season is on the verge of turning around just because the last few years have gone that way. Even if the Chargers win two-thirds of their remaining games, they would finish the season 8-8, which doesn’t seem sufficient to win the division. With Kansas City sitting at 4-2, which includes a win over San Diego, it looks like the Chargers’ string of four straight AFC West titles is in serious jeopardy.

(3) The Cleveland Browns might not have sniffed the playoffs for quite awhile, but they sure know how to beat a championship team after defeating the defending Super Bowl champion for the third consecutive year. The victory over the New Orleans Saints was probably more the result of the struggles of the Saints rather than the improvement of the Browns, but, in the NFL, a win is a win. In the end, the Browns should be commended for pulling out all of the stops to win a big road game in a hostile environment. An environment so hostile that it actually turned on the home team after Cleveland built a 20-3 halftime lead behind a solid defensive effort and some trick special teams plays. The first big play came when Josh Cribbs threw the ball across the field on his punt return to Eric Wright, who bolted up the sideline for 62 yards setting up a 23-yard field goal by Phil Dawson. Later in the half, punter Reggie Hodges shocked the Saints by running through a gigantic hole on a fake punt for 68 yards, which was soon followed by another short field goal from Dawson. Hodges jaunt through the Saints punt return team was the longest rush by a punter since 1970. The Browns closed their virtuoso half with a 30-yard interception return by David Bowens, which brought out the boo birds as the Saints trotted to the locker room. In reality, the fan frustration was justified due to the fact that the Browns had done nothing on offense the entire first half. They couldn’t take advantage of the short fields provided by their special teams and their only offensive touchdown came after a pass interception penalty on Malcolm Jenkins put the ball deep in New Orleans territory. The Browns were outgained by nearly 200 yards, but they played the game smartly and allowed the Saints to make all of the mistakes. Overall, Cleveland intercepted four passes thrown by Drew Brees including a second pick-six by Bowens that closed out the scoring for Cleveland. Brees has now thrown nearly the same amount of interceptions as last season following only the second four interception game of his career.

Meanwhile, the Browns did not have any turnovers and gladly accepted all of the gifts given by the Saints. In the end, it was a game that should give the Browns some confidence heading into the bye week followed by a home game against the New England Patriots. First of all, Colt McCoy, despite his pedestrian stat line against New Orleans, should feel more capable of leading the Browns to victory. He didn’t do anything special, but he also didn’t commit any game-changing mistakes, which cannot be said for Drew Brees. McCoy’s next step, as he develops into a capable quarterback, is to make a play or two that helps Cleveland win a game. Secondly, the Cleveland defense has to feel that they can stop anybody after limiting the explosive Saints to three points for most of the game. They frustrated Brees with the interceptions and three sacks, which should be a good starting point for the game plan they will develop for the next Hall of Fame worthy quarterback they face, Tom Brady. The bottom line is that the Browns have had these moments before, including last season’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, where the Browns defense stymied Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense at every turn. In order for this team to start heading in the right direction, they have to put together back-to-back solid performances. Fortunately, the Browns have two weeks to assimilate the positive things they did against the Saints and get Colt McCoy more comfortable as the starter before they have to play the Patriots.