Broncos, fans making excuses?

[iknowftbll]

This is why I love playing rivals in the playoffs, even though it's surprisingly rare for the Broncos!

San Diego Union Tribune sports writer Kevin Acee was on NFL Network tonight, and he indicated that the Chargers players think that Woodyard's comments about their performance in the Dec 12 game equates to the Broncos making excuses. Acee made no such indication in his column, linked below, but he did make a reference to Woodyard's quote.

Broncos bring fresh energy this time? | UTSanDiego.com

Then we have this amateur:

What Will The Broncos Excuse Be For Losing On Sunday? - Bolt Beat - A San Diego Chargers Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.

Of course we know "Fansided" hosted sites are all "semi-pro" and it is fairly obvious in both analysis and editing (sadly sometimes Predominantly Orange is just as guilty as all the others). But what I really like about this is the comments at the bottom of this sophomoric piece. This really takes me back to my days living in San Diego during the Chargers brief ride as the dominant team in the AFC West. Chargers fans as a group tend to be some of the most rude and ignorant you'll meet around the league. The ironic thing about that is most of them are actually band wagoners. So the fans commenting on this article quite possibly stopped following the team once they fell out of contention last year and probably only turned their attention back to the team once the Chargers long shot chances started looking more and more possible.

So what say the Broncos fans? Was Woodyard making excuses? Are these writers and commenters in for a rude awakening Sunday?

 

[iknowftbll]

PS:

Here are my thoughts on the matter. The Broncos know they got beat, straight up. If they think otherwise they are in denial and will get beat again. At the same time, any Chargers fans who does not think the Broncos were flat in that game is in complete denial. The Broncos were flat. The Chargers played a good game and exploited the Broncos lack of life, and they did come in with a fantastic game plan. But they did catch the Broncos on a night where they simply did not show up. Every team has a game or two every season where they just don't play their best ball. Sometimes they live to tell about it. But other times teams have those game against a team getting hot with the playoffs on the line.

It's the NFL. It happens. Let's see what happens in the playoffs now.

 

[TDs3nOut]

The first piece linked in the OP is pretty reasonable. Acee seems to have no problem agreeing with Woodyard's comment that the Broncos didn't play their best in the Thursday night loss a few weeks ago. While there is a lot of evidence to support that comment, I can see how some SD fans might interpret that as a swipe aimed at undermining how well their team played. Acee is smart enough to realize that that is not the case.

The second piece linked in the OP, written by someone named Padaon, is quite funny. I'm not sure which is worse, the writing or the logic behind what is written. Unlike Acee, Padaon is not smart enough to realize that Woodyard saying Denver didn't play its best ball in no way aims to undermine what a good game SD played that night.

It seems pretty clear to me that we lost the Thursday night game both because we played poorly and because SD played well. I expect both teams to play well this Sunday. In other words, I expect our team to win, but I also know that SD is capable of winning. In any event, since this is the last meeting of the "three game series" and the stakes are much higher this time, I personally vow to admit that the team that wins is simply the better team. Any further talk about which team played closest to its potential becomes absolutely trivial; even more trivial than it is now.

 

[iknowftbll]

I agree about Acee, his column is legit. I linked it because he was on NFL Network last night and indicated in his interview that Chargers players are the ones who alleged the Broncos were making excuses. As for that other clown, it's the difference between a professional sports writer and a wanna-be.

 

[LucklessPadresFan]

I don't see what Woodyard said as being an excuse for the Broncos loss. Hell, that happens all the time in sports. It's the fact that team sports are far more mental than we know, especially at this level. The San Diego fan sit article is typical fan site bullshit; it's meant to appeal to the Charger fan base. As a life long Charger fan, I've had more downs than ups, but that's the nature of the beast in San Diego. Our city has been cursed in regard to sports for decades. We've had shitty owners and GMs. The Padres were stuck with Kroc and C.A. Smith, the San Diego Clippers were saddled with Donald Sterling and the Chargers have been stuck with the Spanos family for too long (how they ever thought that AJ Smith was a good GM, is beyond me). But as far as Sunday's game goes, I'm hoping for a close game. The only way we can win is if we do three things: One, put pressure on Manning, Two, run the ball effectively to keep the Broncos off the field. Three, play lights out in the secondary. It will be interesting.

 

[TDs3nOut]

I don't see what Woodyard said as being an excuse for the Broncos loss. Hell, that happens all the time in sports. It's the fact that team sports are far more mental than we know, especially at this level. The San Diego fan sit article is typical fan site bullshit; it's meant to appeal to the Charger fan base. As a life long Charger fan, I've had more downs than ups, but that's the nature of the beast in San Diego. Our city has been cursed in regard to sports for decades. We've had shitty owners and GMs. The Padres were stuck with Kroc and C.A. Smith, the San Diego Clippers were saddled with Donald Sterling and the Chargers have been stuck with the Spanos family for too long (how they ever thought that AJ Smith was a good GM, is beyond me). But as far as Sunday's game goes, I'm hoping for a close game. The only way we can win is if we do three things: One, put pressure on Manning, Two, run the ball effectively to keep the Broncos off the field. Three, play lights out in the secondary. It will be interesting.

I agree with all of that, except perhaps your remark about AJ. I don't follow your team nearly as closely as you do you do, so I'm not informed about all of SD's personnel moves (e.g., letting players like Sproles and V. Jackson get away), but it seems to me that they have had a pretty good run under AJ. Just made me kind of curious why you think AJ isn't a good GM.

 

[boltfan72]

I agree with all of that, except perhaps your remark about AJ. I don't follow your team nearly as closely as you do you do, so I'm not informed about all of SD's personnel moves (e.g., letting players like Sproles and V. Jackson get away), but it seems to me that they have had a pretty good run under AJ. Just made me kind of curious why you think AJ isn't a good GM.

AJ was a damn good talent evaluator and had some great drafts - a couple of bad ones too. The reason he worked himself out of a job was his holier than thou attitude. It pissed off players and agents and prevented him from keeping the talent that he drafted. Sproles, VJax, Michael Turner, etc... would've been nice pieces to have after they left.

As for the premise of Acee's article, I don't think anyone will debate it. Denver was obviously a little flat that day, but SD didn't exactly play a perfect game either, squandering multiple trips in the red zone. However that is no guarantee that Denver will play a great game Sunday either. I don't think any team in NFL history has ever played a perfect game.