Was this game our one good game, or are we legit?

[CanadaPhinsFan]

I can't believe a performance like that could just be a fluke. This team was better prepared, put in better positions by their caoches and flat out played better than the Broncos. Those things do not happen by chance.

The team may not be quite as good as they looked yesterday, but they're clearly not half as bad as the so-called experts predicted.

 

[LarryFinFan]

After that astonishing victory, I'm left thinking wether I'm getting my hopes too high and that this was an aberration, or wether this team is for real. Two years ago after the Thanksgiving game were we dominated a good Dallas Cowboys team I was sure that our fortune was changing, same with Denver Broncos game of three years ago... last year after the Rams win alot of us were talking 8-8 records... but after all those wins we quickly fell back to earth... so what has changed from those teams to this team? Is the mental toughness that Saban has preached about found root? Will this win be the beginning of the Saban era to rival the Shula era? I guess only time will tell, but as a fan my heart tells me that the AFC East hasn't seen anything yet! :evil:

I don't know if it was an aberration or not, but here's a few thoughts...

1) Gus played ok. Not great. He was throwing behind receivers most of the game. He had very little time as well. He cannot throw on the run, something that both AJ and Ears were very good at..(probably all the practice they had at it, running for their lives). When he did roll out, he overthrew almost every pass. He also put one out there that could have been a pick 6, but ended up being just an INT...

2) The OL played mediocre (that's below ok in my scale). They certainly didn't give Gus much time, and absolutely no holes for Brown (particularly in the middle of the line) until later in the game when the Broncs were exhausted. I'll admit also that Denver is a fairly stout run D, but if we're going to win many more games, Brown, Ricky, Morris, etc need some kind of holes in the middle of the line. Carey and Big Mac had decent games. Also, in defense of the line, Denver offense runs a similar OL blocking scheme and they practice against it all the time.

3) The stupid penalties have got to stop. That was a disgraceful performance across the board on the line and TEs...(I even think one of the RBs got in on it too)...Roth needs to check his after-the-play activities too. He got a stupid penalty as well...

4) Although the D played great thruout most of the game, particularly the pass D, they also wore down towards the end, something we saw too much of last year. Denver had in it's plan to run Anderson left, center, and right at us and perhaps, had he not gone out, might have had a little more success. They only dressed 2 RBs and Bell couldn't take the pounding in the middle that the game plan was set up for....shame on Shanny for a) only dressing 2 RBs and b) for not adjusting his run game when Anderson went out. Teams were successful by running straight at us last year. I can't tell how much this deficiency has been changed by this game, but it has been addressed. Saban's scheme is traditionally stout against the run.

All this said, I feel that at the very least, there won't be too many games that we won't be in. As I've said before, we can be better and still not have a great win-loss record...I'd be happy with that...

 

[finmann]

I don't know if it was an aberration or not, but here's a few thoughts...

1) Gus played ok. Not great. He was throwing behind receivers most of the game. He had very little time as well. He cannot throw on the run, something that both AJ and Ears were very good at..(probably all the practice they had at it, running for their lives). When he did roll out, he overthrew almost every pass. He also put one out there that could have been a pick 6, but ended up being just an INT...

2) The OL played mediocre (that's below ok in my scale). They certainly didn't give Gus much time, and absolutely no holes for Brown (particularly in the middle of the line) until later in the game when the Broncs were exhausted. I'll admit also that Denver is a fairly stout run D, but if we're going to win many more games, Brown, Ricky, Morris, etc need some kind of holes in the middle of the line. Carey and Big Mac had decent games. Also, in defense of the line, Denver offense runs a similar OL blocking scheme and they practice against it all the time.

3) The stupid penalties have got to stop. That was a disgraceful performance across the board on the line and TEs...(I even think one of the RBs got in on it too)...Roth needs to check his after-the-play activities too. He got a stupid penalty as well...

4) Although the D played great thruout most of the game, particularly the pass D, they also wore down towards the end, something we saw too much of last year. Denver had in it's plan to run Anderson left, center, and right at us and perhaps, had he not gone out, might have had a little more success. They only dressed 2 RBs and Bell couldn't take the pounding in the middle that the game plan was set up for....shame on Shanny for a) only dressing 2 RBs and b) for not adjusting his run game when Anderson went out. Teams were successful by running straight at us last year. I can't tell how much this deficiency has been changed by this game, but it has been addressed. Saban's scheme is traditionally stout against the run.

All this said, I feel that at the very least, there won't be too many games that we won't be in. As I've said before, we can be better and still not have a great win-loss record...I'd be happy with that...

well said, no argument from me.

 

[zonk4ever]

Our astonishment over the ease of victory was based on last year and the preseason, which is understandable. However most teams use preseason for player evaluation primarily. Additionally, since Jimmy and Wanny took over, what you saw during preseason was basically what you got during the regular season. So to assume that Saban would be different based on the preseason, was unrealistic. However, it's apparent that Saban and his staff do some serious game planning and this thing could turnaround faster than we all imagined. With the most difficult schedule in the NFL, it's still a stretch to believe we can a have a winning season. Despite his mediocre stats, i think Brown did OK. It's hard to make cuts when you have no traction. Like Shanahan said, our field is the worst in the NFL. The Broncos are a great running team but look what happened to them on our field. Good coaching staffs game plan for playing conditions. I would have like to see Ronnie run a few less and catch a few more. But his pounding led to the Morris TD run. The pass rush was not great on either side which also relates to field conditions. On our botched 4th down sneak the entire Bronco line was in the neutral zone. (Good catch by Dierdorf)

 

[DolfanNJ]

I was just one game, but what it did for me is to show me what total BS all this 4-12 record stff is. If nothing else, that was not a 4-12 team that played yesterday.