I gotta tell you guys, when I saw the schedule the other day it made me cringe. I'm a fairly optimistic guy to the point of being a card carrying member of La-La Land, but only a sadist would wish this schedule on their favorite team. I figured I'd let my jets cool a day and then review it for my family here at MHR.

Disclaimer: This is the off season...we haven't even been in TC so this is all just my "in general" opinion. It is not some be-all end-all opinion that should be taken with the utmost seriousness. It is just my talking points and where I think we are headed. This is more meant for discussion than anything.

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Dear Petyon,

Welcome to Broncos Country! We're so excited to have you join us. This is a winning tradition you are joining as I'm sure you are well aware. I think it is a great fit for you and for our team. I look forward to cheering my lungs out for you come Sundays this fall.

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I can't say this wasn't unexpected in the least. Between health reports last season, his looming HUGE bonus, and the Colt's terrible play the writing was on the wall. That doesn't change the God-honest tears that well up in me watching Manning say goodbye to the Colts and their fans.

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WOW! The first playoff victory in over 5 years. 5 FRIGGIN YEARS! On Friday I was at work rockin my colors and a Steeler fan stopped by for some light trash-talk. I replied that I wasn't worried in the least about Pittsburgh...we match up well against them on both sides of the ball especially with an immobile gimpy QB on their side. We weren't even supposed to be in the playoffs this year so everything from here on out is gravy.

Oh how I love me some gravy!

I was really wanting to win this game to validate our season to everyone else. To me it was already a great season. Now I really don't care...NE can beat us by 40 and I'll be happy because our young rebuilding team has some playoff experience and some seriously strong reserves to fall back on for motivation during tough games. I said it after we lost to them earlier though...I want NE again. I don't think for a second that they are that much better than our team. We play like we played in this game and there is no reason why we can't win in Foxborough.

To all the Denver fans out there watching at home or at the game...you all deserve this! Keep cheering for your Orange and Blue!

...and just for the record, I was jumping around yelling and screaming during the TD run by Thomas...knocked over a stool and broke a plate. Good thing I didn't have the good china out!

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I wanted to say thank you for the great cross-blogging this week. You guys are a lot classier than many of the Pittsburgh fans I've met in person. Your team played supremely gutty all day long.

Hopefully we get to do some more damage next week and knock off New England. Feel free to join us at MHR if you want to cheer us on in the coming weeks (though honestly, I almost always cheer against the teams that knock my team out just out of spite).

Backing into the playoffs is no way to make noise, but hey...we are in our first playoff game since 2005 with a rebuilding team! That's some crazy stuff. Who knows if we'll have success, but I'm sure happy to have the AFC West title and to be able to host a game.

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I had forgotten how much a loss stings. I was pretty upset with our team at the end of the game to be honest. We did everything we could to lose the game. It wasn't a matter of New England being vastly superior or anything like that. It was stupid turnovers, dumb penalties, and a defense that my grandma could have thrown on. Hopefully our team learns a lot from this loss though...there are lots of teaching opportunities for every facet of the game to look at.

I know we really didn't lose much ground with this loss...but in my opinion we NEED to beat Buffalo next week. We should honestly. They aren't good. I don't want to go to KC with our playoff lives on the line. I'm not scared of them in the least, it is just that they don't deserve the chance to knock us out by any stretch of the imagination.

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Dead to rights...that's what we were. My sincere condolences to the Chicago Bears and their fans. You guys lost in a bad way. Barber should have fallen to a knee in the 4th Q instead of pushing towards the sidelines trying to get yards. He also should have held onto the ball with two arms on that 3rd down run in the 4th quarter. Your coaches were just plain stupid for going to a prevent defense with 5min or so to go in the game. I mean really...why would you NOT trust that defense to stay in their base and stop us?

This team believes. That is the bottom line. And belief is a powerful thing. You fight until the game is over and good things can happen. These last minute comebacks are getting rather old though...can we win by 10 comfortably one of these days please?

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...We're not done.

Very meaningful words from one Mario Haggan. There isn't a member of Broncos Country out there that I can't imagine isn't all in at this point. We have a football TEAM here people. Put 32 on us...our offense will put up 35. We only score 16? Sokay...defense only allows 13. We are winning ball games and we are doing it in different phases as needed. This is a great time to be getting into a groove...the playoffs are coming and if we go in hot, I like this team's chances to do some damage...and yes I'm talking playoffs. I'll be both surprised and very disappointed if we somehow fail to make it to the playoffs at this point.

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Allright allright....I've seen enough already with the come-from-behind types of victories.  Seriously.  It is Monday and I still feel completely spent after yesterday's game.  Just spent.  It is in a good way though.  I had a smile on my face this morning when I realized I could say something that I haven't been able to say in what seems like years:  My Broncos have a winning record.

For all the ups and downs, coaching controversies, QB petulance, primadonna drama, and everything else we've been through the past few years...you deserve this Bronco Country.  THIS is a Denver Broncos team.  THIS is how we do it...we believe in each other and we fight together in all three phases of the game.  I for one am old enough to remember our Superbowl appearances through the 80s and 90s.  The difference between the loses and the wins was clear as night and day.  When we won, we had a complete team that believed in each other...as simple as that.  It wasn't TD, it wasn't Elway, it wasn't Sharpe...it was our TEAM.  Cheers Broncos Fans!  Now off of my motivational speech soapbox and onto the review.

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MILE HIGH MAGIC!

I love seeing our fans and our team come alive and send a message to the NFL:  "You may not enjoy the way we play the game.  But this is OUR house and you better bring your A+ game if you want to beat us here."

Seriously...I know the crowd got quiet in the 3rd and early 4th when our offense was out there and deservedly so, but they came alive and cheered our team to victory.  Our fans were all in with our team to get a W.  I dig it.  

Somebody on our schedule better hand this team a few loses or the sleeping giant is going to wake up and make some noise.  Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying we're Superbowl bound...I'm saying this young team is finding their identity and they are BELIEVING.  That is a very VERY dangerous thing in this game.  Confidence...momentum...faith in your coaches, teammates, etc.  This all is how you go from being a bad team or a mediocre team to being a winning team.  

Let's get to the review and talk about what we are doing well and what we can do better.

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Wow...a win streak!  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over?  Dude...last time we had a win streak of at least 2 games was weeks 12 - 13 of 2009.  Think about that for a second...2009.  I'm so thankful to see some daylight from our team.  We have some very talented youth on our team that will be our core for years.  Our O-line is really starting to get solid and is working well together.  We have a surprisingly solid D-Line.  It is good to be a Broncos fan right now.

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Congratulations, Broncos Country!  We beat the raiders in their house...just beating them is a huge deal to me.  We could tank out the rest of the season and I'll be happy for this one game to be completely honest.  

Let's talk some pounding the rock (rock = football for the Charlie Sheens out there reading this), review how you don't throw on Champ, and how a team elevates their game to get a win.

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This week is such a hard review for me for a couple reasons:

1)  I watched most of the game on fast forward.  Many of the readers on the site can't stomach close losses in the least...I'm the opposite.  I can't stand not being in a game at all.  If I didn't have a DVR, I would have walked away from the game for an hour or so towards the end of the 2nd Quarter.  This obviously makes it hard for me to review a game.  I'm still going to give my best even if it isn't up to snuff...so I guess I'm really embracing my team this week.

2)  Truly I have a lot of negativity towards our team this week...not just Tebow, so while I'll give him his fair due I am just bent at our team from top to bottom.  That makes my reviews pretty hard...I always like to find the good stuff to talk about and there was very little in this game. 

So I'll jump in anyway and hope there is some good that comes of it. I'm starting with the defense this week as they deserve the first servings of this pile of dung we have to talk about.  :)

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Hmm...loved the last 10% of the game.  Was very frustrated with the rest of it.  That will show in my review.  I still like being in a game at the end though.  I like the team never giving up.  We would have lost in a shut-out last year because of poor defense, lack of want on the offense, etc.

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Brandon, let me start by saying that it has been a true pleasure to see you flourish over the last two seasons with us.  I was truly surprised by your performance last year and was very very VERY happy to call you a Denver Bronco.  I appreciate your attitude, game play, and willingness to get up on camera last season loss after loss on the "Broncos Live" show to represent our team.  Talk about guts!

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How excited is Broncos Country after this loss?  I for one feel quite a bit apprehensive, concerned, and yet on the edge of my seat waiting for our next game in a couple of weeks.  Barring an injury to Tim (knock on wood), we are done with the Orton Age.  Thank heavens!  Let's get to the game review and see what bull we can cut through:

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Game reviews are a lot easier to do when we don't get absolutely destroyed on the football field in all phases of the game.  I decided yesterday to wait until today to type this up.  It won't be as detailed and probably won't have as much useful notes from me because honestly I stopped taking notes at half time.  This isn't a surprise to me.  I knew without both Bailey and Doom playing we would be seriously in a hole against Green Bay and I wasn't wrong in the least.  I came into this game very suspect of our our secondary...they didn't prove me wrong.

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I'm pretty disappointed with this loss. As good as we looked last week coming together as a team, I can't help but feel like we just let this one slip away. There are some good things that were done in this game. For a team rebuilding, I'm seeing some things that are encouraging. For instance, we were much more disciplined this week with penalties. Tenn looked like the 2nd coming of the jokeland faders out there with penalties...too bad we couldn't capitalize on it. I'm also seeing the things down the line that we HAVE to improve because we will be wallowing in mediocrity if we don't. Hopefully there are some lessons learned about our team that are worth discussing...follow me after the jump.

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First off, let me start with a prediction:  This week's "No Bull Review" will not be nearly as contentious as last weeks.  Winning cures all ails I hope.  

Take a minute and think about this:  at one point in the 3rd quarter about 50% of our team's money was out of the game injured.  Our biggest and best for the most part did not play.  As you'll see in the review below, I for one thing their impact is pretty meaningful.  We saw a second-rate Bronco team pull out a gutsy win.  It is okay for Bronco Country to be very happy about this win.  Don't listen to the nay-sayer's who keep wanting to trash us.  This win right here is a real building block for our young new Broncos.  I hope it is the start of a winning habit for our young guys.

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Loss number 1 in the books for the 2011 season.  I can tolerate this loss this year.  Because last year, we lose by 40 in a game like this.  Everyone back up from the ledge.  Your 2011 Denver Broncos are REBUILDING.  The level of immaturity of some of our fanbase is just sickening to me.  Well, this is the no bull review, and I will as always call it like I see it.  

People calling for Tebow after one game = pathetic.  

People saying this loss was worse than the home drubbing we got from Oakland last year = insane.  

I for one will always appreciate a hard fought loss over a complete clusterfunk of a game every day of the week.  Our team tried hard to win for us.  We'll get into reasons why, but we got beat.  I can take that...I can not take getting blown out of our own house to a division rival.  To me, this game was a step forward and very telling about where we are today and where we are going.

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Watching this game gave me quite a shudder...it was last year all over again.  I kept having to remind myself that these were the back-ups.  Our starters were resting.  This is not indicative of what we'll see from our Broncos.  It does show us one thing for sure though:  This team doesn't have quality depth at some positions...and our young guys were really hurt by the lock-out.  My break down will be a little different...offense will be reviewed by halves and the defense is just all lumped together as there were mainly the same group of guys on the field for them most of the game.

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Nothin like reliving a little history with a good match-up with our old whipping boys the seachickens!  Let’s start by a small analysis of Seattle’s team:  They are not terribly good overall. They do have quite an impressive defensive front 7 that are mostly intact from last year. Offensively, not a scary team at all.  So the big thing I was looking for this week was our team being able to put away a “weak” team.  This is something we haven’t had consistency on for years honestly.  We let bad teams walk all over us (last year we let any size, type, or kind of team walk all over us...or at least it felt that way).  I’m happy to say this week even though it was preseason we took care of business.

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Welcome back Bronco football!  Man it was great getting to see our guys on the field finally.  Unlike some, I quite enjoy the preseason.  The insight it gives me as a fan into who is joining or leaving the team is invaluable.  Jump with me and we'll take a peek at my review of the game and as always minus the BS.

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