The Broncos are a deeply flawed team full of mystery, despair, and perhaps even promise. Their victory against the Browns, another highly talented yet strangely underperforming team, merely raises the spectre of their deep flaws and their mysterious talents. Very simply, the Broncos are not good enough to soundly beat any team in the NFL. This fact should not overly haunt the loyal fans though. Very few teams this year have what I like to call the "trouncing ability." The Patriots dominated the regular season last year with the trouncing ability, yet they were dismantled in the Super Bowl by another profoundly inconsistent team, the New York Giants. The fact that no NFL team has the trouncing ability this year, and I include the unbeaten Tennessee Titans in this bold statement, merely points to the possibility that the Broncos will indeed win the division and make the playoffs despite their obvious inability to run the offense on a consistent basis and stop opposing teams from scoring at will.

The loss of Ryan Torain for the year symbolizes the deep dilemmas that confront this team during this toss-up year. He was young, full of promise, and started the game with a promising if not overly impressive performance. He scored when called upon, and ran effectively when the holes were open. Much like the franchise in this calendar year, Torain looked solid but not necessarily overpowering. He promised good things and the possibility of something great in the not-to-distant future, much like the Broncos during the first few games of the year when they went undefeated yet seemed quite plebian. But during the course of a rather uninspiring game, he was injured on a rather nondescript play. Out for the season claimed the papers and the websites on the following day. What started out so new and so fun became a cause for lament as the team scrambled on the bench to find a suitable replacement. And so Peyton Hillis took over the job and survived the night while playing admirably in a new position. He was not inspiring or even brilliant as perhaps he had been the week before against Miami when he racked up yards in the triple figures, but he got the job done. And in accomplishing that small effort, he just might remake the Broncos in his lonely rookie image - 'the little team that could' might become the mantra for our oft-injured franchise as we ponder the moutainous task of winning 5 of our last 7 games.

The offense found something to build upon as Eddie Royal stretched the field for a long touchdown and Daniel Graham bulldozed his way in for another. Fortunate, perhaps even a little implausible, the second-half comeback has the potential to propel this offensive unit to new heights just at the moment when they seemed most downtrodden and ineffectual. Vernand Morency or maybe Ron Dayne will join the team in what political pundits will no doubt describe as an advisory role; the job: run up the field, don't get hurt, don't fumble, keep us competitive until someone named Young or Pittman gets healthy enough to take your job. Or maybe the coach will just tell Peyton Hillis to jump in and do the best he can, which was good enough on a fourth and one to keep the Broncos alive last Thursday. In either case, cautious optimism seems to be the word of the week as the Broncos hope for fast healing and/or a spare running back or fullback to replenish the corps.

The defense of course is another matter entirely. Inept doesn't seem to accurately describe what is more or less the tragic flaw in our heroic franchise. No matter what we do, the other team scores on us. Opponents usually take a long jaunt against our speedy yet tackle-phobic defensive players. And the red-zone is a happy place for most opponents only because they visit so often and get so comfortable there. This doesn't bode well next week as the long-winded, speedy, and powerful Atlanta Falcons will challenge the Broncos with a tremendous backfield of Michael Turner - fast, strong, and TD friendly - and Jerious Norwood - mostly just fast. Their rookie QB looks good too. He throws well down the field which will create problems for our battered and mostly ineffectual secondary. We stand a chance in a shootout, but a defensive battle will surely end in defeat with Elam and Foxworth doing happy little jigs against their former team.

Yet despite our flaws, we are a team of promise. We lead the division with a winnable schedule down the stretch. We have tremendous players on offense, visionaries who need only consistency and maturity (and perhaps a double-digit lead if they plan on a much-needed and long-missed symbolic display of politics and society - maybe this is your week Brandon). Our defense needs many things, but if they could learn to tackle during this long break it would surely help. I sit and ponder with the cautious optimism of the offensive backfield of how things will be in the next four years. . . I mean rather in the next four weeks as the Broncos look forward to wonderful things to come.