More bad sports news
Posted by Richard on October 30, 2007
The Broncos failed to turn the corner tonight. That's a pun, sort of. I remember when the Broncos signed Dré Bly, people were talking about how awesome the Broncos' pass defense would be. Bly and Champ Bailey are widely acknowledged to be the two best cornerbacks in the NFL, and among the best corners ever to play the game. Some fans salivated over how many INTs the two of them would collect, while others speculated that opponents wouldn't even try to throw deep against them.
Bret Favre burned each of the super corners for a long TD. The second, against Bly, went for 82 yards and ended the shortest overtime in NFL history — one play, 15 seconds, Packers win.
But really, the Broncos blew this game in regulation. As time was winding down, they failed to punch it into the end zone for the umpteenth time this season. Trailing by 3 with the ball on the five, 3rd and 2 with 20-some seconds to play and no time outs, Cutler ran for the first down — one of the stupidest plays ever.
Fortunately, the kicking team was able to pull off another miracle and line up in record time, and Elam tied the game with no time on the clock. But why, oh why, not try another pass into the end zone? The one on 2nd down to Marshall just barely failed. Assuming you don't screw up and throw an interception, at worst an incomplete pass stops the clock and makes the field goal a little less iffy. At best, you win the game.
And if they'd won in regulation and avoided the overtime, they'd have avoided the embarrassment of having the whole Broncos organization convinced that Green Bay would run on first down when Mike McCarthy and Bret Favre had other plans.
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