I think it is reflective of one primary issue and several secondary issues. The primary issue that I see is that our O-Line is not quite ready for prime time and they can't consistently buy the time needed for those longer plays to develop. As they solidify over the course of the season, I bet that we will see more and more of the long plays being called and less and less of needing last minute heroics from our elite QB. I may be one of the few who think our O-line play is very promising. Each week they look better and better. Barring injury, I can see them being a dominate force going into the latter 3rd of our schedule, once they have gelled as a unit and worked out a few kinks.
Nothing wrong with protecting the O-line early in the season by scheming to emphasize the run and keep the passes close in, especially when we have the players like Harvin and Lynch to pull it off successfully. There will be times in these early games where we need to pull the longer plays out of the playbook, but by using them sparingly we minimize the risk and we benefit from not showing our weak long-game hand too many times to opposing defenses.
I honestly believe that the ability of Denver to get back in the game stemmed from three things, two of which we can expect to get significantly better as the season progresses. O-Line not quite mature as a unit, key defensive players not quite in game shape, and a stupid mistake or two.
- bsd