The Broncos continue to impress. And here's what's impressive: no points allowed in the second half for the fourth straight game. Mike Shanahan's biggest failure as a coach (and this applies to his teams that were wildly successful as well as to the mediocre ones) was his inability to make adjustments during the game. Even when he was winning Super Bowls, his teams tended to look stagnant and predictable in the second half of games. Those teams often scored 20 or 30 points in the first half, but they tended to play with the prevent mentality the rest of the way. This proved true in the second half of games as well as in the second half of the season.

The new Broncos look to have solved the dilemma of second half stagnation. (The second half of the season remains unresolved at this point for obvious reasons.) Not only does the defense make the necessary adjustments, but so does the offense. In fact, the offense tends to be rather unimpressive for the first 30 minutes of games. They come alive, though, in the second half, putting together long drives and figuring out ways to put points on the scoreboard. Sunday's game against New England was the epitome of the "second half strong" mentality that Josh McDaniels and his coaching staff have instilled in the players. For the second week in a row, the Broncos stunk up it up offensively in the first half. They looked worse than pedestrian - they looked like Oakland. But if football is truly a chess-match between coaching staffs, then one might make the argument that Denver spends 30 minutes feeling out their opponents before employing the necessary tactics to win the game. So far, this seems to be a pretty effective method for winning football games.

And it's all based on having a strong defense. The Broncos defense repeatedly mauled the offensive players of New England (to be fair, this is exactly what New England was doing to Denver as well). They were trying to strip to the ball from every possession player and pounding them to the dirt when they couldn't. And the M.O. after halftime is quite simple: no points. Tom Brady has never looked quite as mediocre as he did Sunday, and Randy Moss's biggest play was on the defensive side of the ball. It took all game, but Denver finally got to Brady and that play may have been the game-changer. Strong defenses make for boring games. Kyle Orton's NFL reputation has been hampered by this maxim. He had a great defense in Chicago, and this Denver team has one of the best defenses in the league. Orton wins games because he has consistently played on teams that are defensively talented. I've been saying it for weeks now - Kyle Orton is the reincarnation of Trent Dilfer, and lest we forget: Dilfer has won as many Super Bowls as Brett Favre, and more than Dan Marino, Warren Moon, and Jim Kelly combined. Now, I'm not trying to be mean to Orton. The guy put up awesome numbers on Sunday and had the single best offensive possession in the NFL this year in the form of his 90+yard scoring drive. (Call me mean, but Cutler would have thrown an interception in the same circumstance.) A better Orton comparison might be to Brad Johnson - the QB for Tampa on their Super Bowl team earlier this decade. He put up better-than-average numbers on a team with a brilliant defense. That seems to be the path that Denver is walking down right now. And if it leads to a Super Bowl, I will be more than satisfied.