NFL teams
Neil Hornsby, NFL 10y

Broncos not better than last year

NFL

There is no question that Sunday's Denver Broncos-Seattle Seahawks tilt was an entertaining game and a great way for John Elway to assess how far his team has progressed following the Super Bowl debacle. The key areas in which the Broncos struggled in the Super Bowl (although their issues looked pretty all-encompassing) were running the football, pass protection and pass defense (in terms of both pass rush and coverage). The problem for them was, until they were tested in that crucible, much of those problems had been masked by the excellence of Peyton Manning and a powder-puff schedule that had led to them running up the score on a host of terrible teams.

Just as a reminder, in the Super Bowl against the Seahawks, the Broncos ran for only 27 yards, allowed more than twice as many QB sacks, hits or hurries (17) as they averaged before then (eight), and generated a meager six quarterback disruptions of their own while allowing Russell Wilson to achieve an adjusted accuracy rate of 80 percent.

So after the Broncos took Seattle to overtime Sunday, producing 332 yards including a game-tying 80-yard TD drive by Manning at the end of regulation (before losing in OT 26-20), should we believe that they are better than last season's team that was blown out in the Super Bowl?

The answer is no, at least not yet. But there are signs indicating that this team is capable of getting to that point. Let's take a look at each area and whether the Broncos have improved or gotten worse since last season.

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