the    sides

The defense giveth (Kansas City last week)…

And the defense taketh away (Tampa Bay).

Good news: Broncos are 4-1 and if you had said to us at the beginning of the year that would be the case, we’d been giddy. The Chargers choking against the Dolphins helped a bit.

Bad News: We are about to play a series of games where the defenses are similar to the one we just faced in Tampa. Tampa has a great defense. They force teams to be patient, make their short throws. They are opportunistic looking for the strip or pick. And Denver struggled against it early.

When you watched Cutler coming off the field after the first quarter, there was just enough frustration to wonder if the kid would implode in the second half like he did against Kansas City.

He didn’t. He hung in there.

Can the defense play like that the rest of the season? Who knows. And with Eddie Royal and Tony Scheffler out for a bit - the Broncos will need them to step up and play like they did Sunday.