SB Nation User Blog: PosterNutbag

Orton's Perfect Game!

PosterNutbag — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:11:02 -0000

Did Orton have a perfect game?

Okay...probably not. However, I decided to watch Sunday's game again and count the number of dropped balls by each receiver. Essentially for me to count it as a drop it had to hit the intended receiver in the hands (or in Marshall's case 'should have' hit him in the hands) and would have been reasonable for an NFL-caliber receiver to make the catch. That certainly doesn't mean that they all would have been 'easy' catches.

First, here is the breakdown by receiver:

BMarsh had 3 drops.

Stokley had 2 drops.

Royal had 2 drops.

Scheff had 1 drop.

Hillis had 1 drop.

For a grand total of 9 drops.

Orton finished the game 17 for 28. Add in the 9 drops and Orton finishes 26 for 28. Orton also had two balls batted by the Bengals' defensive line. Add those in and Orton was 28 for 28. For those of you that are mathematically challenged, that's a 100% completion rate. In other words, he had the 'perfect game'. ;-)

Back to reality, some of the plays that the receiver dropped the ball didn't count (for example, on one of BMarsh's drops the Bengals were offsides). So Orton did have at least a couple of legit incompletions. Nevertheless, Orton's day could have looked much better with a little help from his friends. Not to mention that all of those drops are serious momentum killers. Many of them would have been 3rd down conversions.

The good news is that I don't think the Broncos receivers will repeat their pitiful performance. At least some drops are to be expected, but 9 in 28 pass attempts is an anomaly (32%). I think the drops were due to first game jitters and several players missing significant preseason time. Hopefully we'll also be able to get rid of some of the penalties that called back some big plays.

Ironically, one of the only 'bad throws' that Orton had all day turned into an 87 yard TD and the Broncos only trip to the endzone.

NFLN Broncos Update

PosterNutbag — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:05:52 -0000

NFLN Broncos Update

Not a whole lot of new info here, but some practice footage and upbeat updates on KO, KnoMo, and Big Baby.

Sunday Night Football Game Thread

PosterNutbag — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:04:22 -0000

Good evening folks. The football season is finally upon us...sort of. Anyway, I figured I can't be the only one sitting in front of computer and watching tonight's Buffalo v Tennessee Hall of Fame Game so I thought I'd start a thread. Tonight begins the Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth era now that John Madden has retired.

On an semi-related note, I just got back from today's Broncos practice. Obviously it was the first practice that included rookie RB Knowshon Moreno. He didn't get a ton of reps, but he looked good on the few he did get. He made a very nice juke to elude a defender in one on one tackling drills. Also, I'm pleased to report that Kyle Orton was AWESOME!!! ;-) Alright, that might be a bit of a stretch, but he did have a very good practice. He threw some nice deep passes for completions (unfortunately one of which wore the number 24) and had great timing and a crisp delivery on numerous routes.

Anyway, Happy (almost) Football Season everyone!!!

Thank You Nate Timmons!!!

PosterNutbag — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:14:30 -0000

I just wanted to take a few minutes to thank Nate and recognize the excellent job that he's done running this site since he's taken over. Pickaxe and Roll has gone from a relatively obscure Nuggets blog to one of the best on the internet in a matter of months. His predecesor Jeremy also did a wonderful job, and you can find him at roundballminingcompany.com. However, after Jeremy left, Pickaxe and Roll layed dormant until Nate got the ball rolling again (or should I say 'bouncing again'?).

Since then the game summaries and previews are consistently excellent, incorporating great in-depth insight and information with humor and great writing. After Nate started the game threads they grew to a level of participation and quality input that rivaled some of the bigger blogs for the NBA on SB Nation. Pickaxe and Roll reminds me of when I first started going to Mile High Report when it was still relatively small and supported by the effort of a few dedicated and quality writers. I hope that it continues to grow into next season and can become one of the truly great NBA sites on the intertubes.

Thanks again for all your hard work Nate!

-PosterNutbag

Are the Mavs playing politics?

PosterNutbag — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:45:26 -0000

After Denver’s win Sunday afternoon at the Pepsi Center, several members of the Mavs management team, particularly Rick Carlisle, publicly complained about the officiating, the Nuggets physical style of play, and the 29-19 foul discrepancy. However, after George Karl offered to send in the game tapes for review, Carlisle quickly changed his tune and suggested that the refs were not to blame for the loss. Or as the Denver Post explained, “One day after Carlisle griped about the officiating, he backpedaled a lot better than his team did in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 109-95 loss.”

So what gives? Was the officiating unfair or not?

I think a quote from Dirk after the game is very telling. Dirk was quoted as saying,

"I don't think we can play as physical as them…We don't have the personality for it. If you look at some of our games this year, especially when Josh (Howard) was hurt, to win the games a lot of times we had J.J. (Jose Juan Barea), Jason Kidd and Jet (Jason Terry) out there, basically three point guards…We have to play as hard as the game gets called."

So are the Mavs simply trying to lobby the refs to get the game called in a manner that would be more favorable to their style of play? Are they accusing the Nugs of playing dirty simply because they can’t “play as physical as them”?

Cuban has appealed to the league in the past and I think he has worn out his influence. Cuban has called ‘wolf’ one too many times. As a result, he has to rely on his cronies to make public appeals for him. But is the strategy effective? Was Kmart’s foul on Dirk upgraded to a flagrant and fined partly because of Carlisle’s complaints? Will we see a much more active officiating crew on Tuesday night? Let’s hope not.

My take is that the Mavs are complaining that the Nuggets play a ‘bullying’ style of Basketball in an attempt to bully the league into officiating the game in a manner that will allow them to be more competitive.

I think it is imperative that the NBA shows that they can’t be intimidated by GMs and Coaches into changing how they officiate a series.

Go Nuggets!

(quotes source: http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_12292855)

Poll

Do you think that the Mavs' complaints about the officiating in game 1 are legitimate?

Yes.

22 votes

No.

69 votes

Maybe.

1 votes

92 votes | Poll has closed

Why we shouldn't draft a RB in the 1st round.

PosterNutbag — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:17:44 -0000

I feel like there is a common misconception among Broncos Nation that the Broncos were not particularly successful at running the football this past season. As the result of a Bears fan at Windy City Gridiron commenting that Cutler would benefit from a 'more reliable running game', I did some research comparing the Broncos' running game to the Bears' and discovered that the Broncos really did much better than many people give them credit for.

According to nfl.com the Broncos were 12th in the league in total rushing yards at 1,862 yards on the season. That in itself is not bad; however, in terms of average yards per carry (ypc) the Broncos were tied with the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs for second highest in the league at 4.8 ypc. Furthermore, they were only 0.2 ypc behind the Giants who had the highest average ypc at 5.0. For comparison purposes, the Bears were 24th in the NFL in total rushing yards and 26th in ypc. Despite running the ball 47 more times than the Broncos (averaging just shy of 3 more times per game) they had 189 less total rushing yards.

The Broncos did not run nearly as often as most NFL teams. Only four teams had less total rushing attempts than the Broncos. Those teams finished 16th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd in total rushing yards and 2nd, 28th, 31st, and 32nd in average ypc.

I think that the Broncos unprecedented number of injuries is what causes people to think that we struggled running the football. We had seven running backs placed on IR in 2008. I think this was partly due to Shanahan’s preference for giving backs with an injury history a second chance because he could sign them for a great value. Nevertheless, I think the number of injured backs was an anomaly.

I also think that our success running the ball despite the injuries is a tremendous complement to Rick Dennison (offensive line coach) and Bobby Turner (running back coach) who are two of the few holdovers from Shanahan’s offensive staff.

I know many of you have advocated that the Broncos use one of there 1st round draft picks on Moreno. However, with our defensive deficiencies and relative success runnng the ball I would suggest that those picks are much better spent improving the defensive line and linebacking core. I think it is very unlikely that we will experience the same number of injuries at the running back position again (although you never know).

This is the other reason that I don't think we need to draft a RB:

via broncotalk.net

Why do we need Knowshon when we've got the Rumblin' Redneck?

(You can see the 2008 rushing stats from nfl.com here.)

Poll

Do you think that the Broncos should draft a RB in the early rounds?

Yes!

18 votes

No!

125 votes

Maybe.

46 votes

189 votes | Poll has closed

Interesting stats on Cutler

PosterNutbag — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:44:57 -0000

The Denver Post ran an article called Getting to know the 'real' Jay Cutler. There was a poster over there who goes by vamjl, or Mike, who made some very insightful posts that I thought I'd share with you guys. I can't vouch for the accuracy of his stats; however, if they are true then they provide some tremendous optimism for Jay's potential playing for a complete Broncos squad.

And Mike, if you read this, thanks for the great research and I hope you don't mind me passing it on.

As a QB, we won't know the "real" Jay Cutler until the Broncos start playing "real" defense.

Jay Cutler is 14-7 (.667) when the Broncos give up less than 30 points. He is 3-13 (.188) when they give up 30 or more points, including 3-6 (.333) this year. That is 16 of 37 games Cutler has played in, where the Broncos gave up 30 or more.

What's my point? No QB can win consistently when they have to score 30+ points a game.

Even though I believe John Elway is the greatest QB ever, he was 7-41 (.146) when the Broncos gave up 30 or more.

Jake Plummer was 40-18 as a Broncos starter, but NEVER won a game when they gave up 30 or more points (0-10). He was 4-37 (.098) for his career when his team gave up 30+.

Brian Griese was a surprising 4-7 (.363) when the Broncos gave up 30 or more points.

Here are the career records, followed by their records in the Jay Cutler era, of some of the top NFL QBs when their teams give up 30+ points:

Tom Brady 5-8 (.384), 1-1 from 2006 - 2008;
Peyton Manning 9-25 (.265), 2-3 from 2006 - 2008;
Kurt Warner 6-22 (.214), 1-8 from 2006 - 2008;
Ben Roethlisberger 2-10 (.167), 1-7 from 2006 - 2008;
Brett Favre 8-42 (.160), 2-9 from 2006 - 2008;
Donovan McNabb 3-16 (.158), 0-8 from 2006 - 2008;
Phyllis Rivers 1-8 (.111), benchwarmer in 2004 & 2005;
Eli Manning 1-16 (.059), 1-10 from 2006 - 2008;
Matt Cassel 0-4;

None of these QBs ever had a single season when their team gave up 30 or more 9 times, as the Broncos did this year. The Colts in 2001 went 6-10, giving up 30+ 7 times. Peyton was 0-7 in those games.

The AZ Cardinals under Jake Plummer had 3 seasons where they gave up 30+ points 7 times. Jake's record those years was: 1998 1-6, 2000 1-6 and 2002 0-7. No other QB on my list had a season where thier team gave up 30+ points more than 5 times.

I obviously didn't look at all QBs through the history of the NFL. I don't have access to Stats, Inc like the DP sportswriters do and I had to do this research myself.

As a follow up post he added:

Thanks , Ryan and John D. Here's one last update to my list:

Tom Brady 5-8 (.384);
Jim Kelly 10-20 (.333);
Peyton Manning 9-25 (.265);
Joe Montana 6-17 (.261);
Kurt Warner 6-22 (.214);
Jay Cutler 3-13 (.188);
Steve Young 4-19 (.174);
Ben Roethlisberger 2-10 (.167);
Brett Favre 8-42 (.160);
Terry Bradshaw 4-20-1 (.160);
Donovan McNabb 3-16 (.158);
John Elway 7-41 (.146);
Dan Marino 7-52 (.119);
Phyllis Rivers 1-8 (.111);
Jake Plummer 4-37 (.098), 0-10 w/the Broncos;
Troy Aikman 2-20 (.091);
Ron Jaworski 1-14 (.067);
Eli Manning 1-16 (.059);
Jeff George 1-40 (.024); (for those of you comparing him to Jay Cutler - I'll take Cutler)
Matt Cassel 0-4;
and the winner, the man who somehow managed to complete 22 of 25 passes in the Superbowl, but who never won a game when the other team scored 30+ points,
Phil Simms 0-20 (.000).

Brandon Marshall is innocent?

PosterNutbag — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:19:00 -0000

ESPN is reporting this morning that the charges against Brandon Marshall have been dropped.

On SportCenter they stated,

"The charges were dropped and the case was dismissed. Apparently there is no evidence that he was involved in any wrong doing and he is out of court. I guess it's a lesson here about rushing to judgements...I don't see (a suspension) with no charges at all"

Maybe the Broncos luck is starting to turn. Hallelujah!

Vick to KC?

PosterNutbag — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:21:21 -0000

What's up AP?

I am a Broncos fan from Mile High Report and saw an interesting report on the NFL Network's coverage of the combine that I wanted to ask you guys about.

Jamie Dukes, Adam Schefter, and Steve Wyche were discussing if Michael Vick would be able to return for the 2009 season. The consensus seemed to be that he would play for someone in 2009 and Jamie Dukes indicated that Kansas City was a likely place for Vick to end up. He was listing teams that might be interested in Vick and after Dukes mentioned KC he said “wink, wink”. Not sure exactly what that means but I thought it was interesting.

You guys know what he might have been "wink,wink"ing about?

What do you guys think about that possibility?

Poll

Should KC pursue Michael Vick?

Yes! He's payed his dues and could really help the Chiefs to be a better team.

17 votes

No way! He wasn't that great in Atlanta, he's getting old, and he's been out of the game too long.

68 votes

Maybe? Can he still play?

51 votes

136 votes | Poll has closed