Washington Post: The Other Broncos Who Are Playing Great

I almost gave up on the Thursday night game, but I hung around because Tim Tebow can orchestrate a scoring drive when the Broncos need it, and he did it again against the Jets. I'm no fan of his. He stinks for the entire game, but manages to lead them on a late scoring drive to become the hero. Before the game winning, 95 yard drive against the Jets, the Broncos had punted on their previous eight possessions. Seldom used Packer P Tim Masthay has only punted 28 times this season. Since I expected the national focus would be on Tebow, I decided to look at how the Broncos have managed to win 4 of their last 5 games.

In my latest at the Washington Post.com, I wrote about the guys like Andre Goodman, Champ Bailey, and Von Miller who have played key roles as they keep winning. From The League:

And then on Thursday night against the Jets, Denver’s defense stepped up once again. Before Tebow led them on a game winning 95-yard touchdown drive, their offense only had 135 yards of total offense and had punted on their previous eight possessions. But the defense forced the Jets to punt six times, and cornerback Andre Goodman’s 26-yard interception return for a touchdown tied the score at 10 late in the third quarter. Linebacker Von Miller (who is already up to 9.5 sacks in his rookie season) had a huge sack with less than one minute to go that effectively forced the Jets to burn their final two timeouts.

As a team, the Broncos have been playing very well, mostly on defense. Part of the reason for their success is that they've been playing a schedule filled with offensively challenged teams (Dolphins, Chiefs, Jets). When their defense had some problems against the Raiders, the offensive line picked it up with a dominant ground game.