Notes: Broncos Collapse, Kickers Score & Other Stuff

From Invesco Field, Denver

It doesn’t matter how you start. It matters how you finish.

Just ask the 2009 Denver Broncos. They started the season 6-0. They finished the season winning just two of its last 10 games.

And like the Chiefs, they will be at home watching the playoffs this coming weekend.

“Obviously, something’s wrong and it’s got to get fixed,” said head coach Josh McDaniels after the game. “You can’t be afraid to change things, otherwise you’ll continue to have mediocrity.”

Last year, the Broncos were the first team in the history of the NFL that had a three-game lead with three games to play and blew it. This year, they became the first team to start 6-0 in the 16-game schedule and not finish that season with a winning record.

There was plenty of controversy surrounding the whole week for the Broncos when McDaniels benched his leading receiver Brandon Marshall and TE Tony Scheffler for the game. According to the Denver Post, the match that lit the fuse on this story came from within the Broncos locker room.

After the Broncos lost in Philadelphia last Sunday, a group of veteran players met with McDaniels the next day. S Brian Dawkins, LB D.J. Williams, TE Daniel Graham, CB Champ Bailey and QB Kyle Orton told the coach they felt a sense of urgency regarding their chance to make the playoffs. They urged McDaniels to stress accountability to the team, which he did early last week.

Then jump ahead to Friday, when Marshall was late for a treatment session on his hamstring injury. That’s when McDaniels benched him and he found support from within the team for the move.

“We had the guys that wanted to play in the huddle,” said Orton. “I appreciate Coach for his decision. We’re trying to win games and we’re trying to build something special. And sometimes you have to make tough decisions. And I stand behind him and I know the other guys do as well.”

There are some big decisions to be made in Denver in the off-season, which began on Sunday.

SPECIAL TEAMS STUFF

The most consistent part of the Chiefs game all season has been the work of their special teams. It wasn’t always perfect, but Steve Hoffman’s group was generally very reliable and productive.

That’s especially true thanks to punter Dustin Colquitt and rookie kicker Ryan Succop.

Colquitt finished the season with the best net punting average in franchise history, at 40.8 yards. It was just two years ago that a 40-yard net had not been achieved in decades by an NFL punter. Now, Colquitt joins a group headed by Oakland’s Shane Lechler that has topped that mark.

He also had 41 punts inside the 20-yard line and that’s just one off the league record of 42.

Succop hit three FGs against the Broncos to finish his rookie season making 25 of 29 field goals or 86.2 percent. That tied the best rookie FG percentage in the league over the last 25 years (Pittsburgh’s Kris Brown in 1999) and is the best rookie percentage since the completed merger of the league’s in 1970.

His 25 made FGs are the most by a rookie in franchise history. His 104 points this season was behind just the 108 points scored by Jan Stenerud in his rookie season back in 1967.

The Chiefs did a good job on coverage, but then the Broncos were without their homerun hitter in the kicking game, returner Eddie Royal. He missed the game because of a neck injury.

On their returns, the Chiefs produced very little with WR Quinten Lawrence handling kickoffs and Bobby Wade punts.

DRAFT PICKS & SCHEDULES

After everything was shaken out on Sunday night, it appears the Chiefs will be selecting fifth in the first-round of the NFL Draft.

The Chiefs and Redskins tied with 4-12 records. They are behind St. Louis (1-15), Detroit (2-12) and Tampa Bay (3-13).

As we wrote before, here’s the home and away opponents for the Chiefs in the 2010 season:

• HOME – Denver, San Diego, Oakland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Arizona, San Francisco and Buffalo.
• AWAY – Denver, San Diego, Oakland, Houston, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Seattle and Cleveland.

That’s four games against ’09 post-season teams for the Chiefs: two against San Diego, Indianapolis and Arizona.

Because of the schedule formula, all four AFC West teams play 14 of 16 games against the same opponents. The difference is the two AFC teams that matchup to where the teams finished in the West standings. The Chiefs got Buffalo and Cleveland. Denver got Baltimore and the Jets. Oakland has Miami and Pittsburgh, while San Diego has New England and Cincinnati.

ZEBRA REPORT

Scott Green and his crew did not factor into the game much, but they do like to get together and huddle up to discuss things way too much. They also spent a lot of time trying to decide whether pass coverage was lawful or pass interference.

They nailed both Brandon Carr and Brandon Flowers for interference. Carr’s penalty was big, because it came in the end zone and moved the ball 33 yards for the Broncos. They even got WR Chris Chambers twice for offensive pass interference, although one of those flags was declined by Denver.

Overall, the Chiefs saw five penalties walked off against them for 76 yards. The others were an illegal formation call against the offense and a holding call on LB David Herron in the punt return team.

PERSONNEL FILE

Game-day inactive players for the Chiefs are WR Lance Long, S Reshard Langford, G Andy Alleman, G Darryl Harris, DE Dion Gales, TE Sean Ryan and OLB Pierre Walters. The inactive third QB is Matt Gutierrez.

For the Broncos, the game-day inactive players are P Britton Colquitt, WR Brandon Marshall, WR Eddie Royal, CB Tony Carter, RB LaMont Jordan, DL Chris Baker and TE Tony Scheffler. The inactive third QB is Tom Brandstater.

The Broncos added WR Matthew Willis from their practice squad on Saturday, releasing former Chiefs OT Herb Taylor to make room for him. Willis was active for the game.

OTHER GOOD STUFF

S Mike Brown, CB Brandon Carr, OLB Tamba Hali and C Rudy Niswanger were the only players to start all 16 games in the ’09 season … DE Glenn Dorsey had his first sack of the season, while Hali had the second sack, giving him 8.5 on the year … the Chiefs 317 rushing yards was the fourth highest total in franchise history. The record was 398 yards gained by the Texans against the Houston Oilers in 1961 … the Chiefs 44 points were the most at Denver since they scored 45 points I n 1972 and the 20-point difference was the biggest margin of victory at Denver since a 37-16 victory in 1982.