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Credit Philip Rivers for his second half collapse causing the Broncos to win, that's fair. But the defense was lousy the whole second half. Despite eight blitzes, Manning was sacked zero times and only in danger two other times. The secondary couldn't cover, and the standard four man rush did little to pressure the QB. In fact, the second half grading was so lousy I don't know how the Broncos only put up 21 points on offense. Take a look.
| 1st Half | 51 | 52 | 54 | 56 | 58 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 98 |
| Run Average | .50 | na | na | .50 | na | .60 | .50 | 0.0 | na | .75 | .75 | .63 | na |
| Pass Average | 0.0 | na | .17 | .50 | na | 0.0 | .17 | .29 | .25 | .07 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .50 |
| 2nd Half | 51 | 52 | 54 | 56 | 58 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 98 |
| Run Average | .50 | 0.0 | .25 | .17 | .67 | .50 | .13 | 0.0 | .33 | .33 | 0.0 | .50 | na |
| Pass Average | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .25 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .12 | 0.0 | .17 | .07 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .50 |
Moving Pictures
Figure 1-This is a good run defense at work. Franklin and Liuget are a deadly combo. Why teams don't know this and run at Martin I'll never know.
Figure 2- This was a horrible attempt at a line stunt and pass rush. Phillips does nothing, Liuget does his job taking two blockers, but Martin gets stuffed, and Ingram finishes him off.
Figure 3-Jarrett Johnson plays the run better than any other OLB on the team. Ingram barely plays on run downs so who knows how good he really is.
The Good
Run defense was solid most of the game. Eric Weddle. Jammer got his first career pick six. The Bye week.
The Bad
Where do we start? Pass rush was terrible. Manning on only really pressured about 4 times. There were 14 blitzes called and only one of those resulted in anything worthwhile (the pick 6). This team did it's best with a 4 man rush. Ingram barely played, as did Barnes. I'd really like to see Ingram play more. Reyes too. Vaughn Martin continues to earn the title of Sir Suckage, and should really only play as a sub in. Let Thomas take his place, and Reyes rotate. Please. It's aggravating to see Martin fail so frequently. I honestly don't have much else to say that hasn't been said 5 times this year. We all know by now who's good and who's not. What we don't know is when the good players will take snaps away from the not so good ones...