NFL Power Rankings: Denver’s defense could carry Broncos all the way

The number was astonishing. Aaron Rodgers had 77 passing yards on Sunday night against the Denver Broncos.

“He had 50 yards passing,” Broncos cornerback Chris Harris corrected, and he was right in that the Packers as a team has 50 net passing yards once sacks were counted.

Opponents are thrilled if they hold the Packers to 50 net passing yards in a quarter, much less a full game. Since Rodgers took over as Green Bay’s starter in 2008 he had only two other games with less than 100 passing yards, and he left in the first half of each of those games with an injury.

“You don’t realize, it’s Aaron Rodgers we held to 50 yards,” Harris said. “You’ve got to know we’re the real deal in the secondary.”

History has been sprinkled with teams that can’t move the ball very well but the defense is just so good it doesn’t matter. Keep that in mind when you wonder if the Broncos are real Super Bowl contenders.

Denver has allowed 16 points per game. Nobody else is within 1.4 points per game. The Broncos are allowing 261.1 yards per game. Nobody else is within 23.8 yards.

The most impressive number might be the 4.1 yards per play allowed. Coming into Monday night’s game, Seattle and Carolina were tied for second best at 4.8 yards per play. Only three teams since 1990 — the 2008 Steelers, the 1991 Eagles and the 1999 Ravens — have allowed fewer than 4.1 yards per play. Only 35 teams since the 1970 merger have allowed fewer yards per play than the Broncos are allowing, according to Pro Football Reference, and today’s game is not designed to allow just 4.1 yards per play.

The Broncos defense is the best in the NFL because there’s no real weakness. Denver played a lot of man coverage against Green Bay, confident that cornerbacks Harris, Aqib Talib and Bradley Roby could hold up. And they did, as Rodgers moved around the pocket a few times like he usually does to buy time, but the Broncos’ coverage never broke. And Denver’s pass rush is great; its 29 sacks are three more than second place in the NFL. Denver’s front seven is fine against the run as well, allowing just 3.7 yards per attempt.

There’s nothing the Broncos defense can’t do at a high level.

“They’re really good over there,” Broncos running back C.J. Anderson said. “I’m glad we don’t have to game plan against them.”

Are we seeing another 2000 Ravens, 2002 Buccaneers or 2013 Seahawks, where the defense is so deep and dominant that the offense doesn’t even matter anymore? It’s possible. And Denver’s offense did put up 500 yards on Sunday night, so maybe that side is coming around too. But no matter how good the offense ends up being, we all know this defense will be showing up in the playoffs. Will it be good enough to get by the Bengals and Patriots and ultimately win a Super Bowl? If it plays like it did against Rodgers and the Packers on Sunday, why not?

Here are Shutdown Corner’s power rankings after Week 8:

32. Detroit Lions (1-7, Last week: 30)

Last offseason defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was a hot candidate for some head-coaching vacancies. This season, the Lions are 27th in total defense, dead last in points per game allowed, and 26th in yards per play allowed. Austin might have to start again in rebuilding his rep.

31. San Francisco 49ers (2-6, LW: 28)

In four of their last six games, the 49ers have scored 7 points or less. And now they think Blaine Gabbert is the answer. It won’t get much better with Gabbert and all the tailback injuries, including the news that Reggie Bush has a season-ending knee injury.

30. Tennessee Titans (1-6, LW: 27)

Bishop Sankey, a 2014 second-round pick, hasn’t touched the ball on offense in two weeks. He still managed to lose a fumble last week, doing so on a kickoff return. The Titans can’t afford to absolutely blow picks like that.

29. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-5, LW: 31)

The Jaguars play at the Jets on Sunday. Then they have five straight games against teams with losing records. I mean, I don’t think the Jaguars are going to turn into a factor in the AFC South. But it’s also not entirely crazy.

28. Chicago Bears (2-5, LW: 24)

Matt Forte will miss some time with a knee injury. It will be interesting to see if Jay Cutler can continue his run of solid play without the star running back.

27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4, LW: 32)

Jameis Winston so far: 7.8 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns, seven interceptions, 85.6 rating, no turnovers in three straight games. That rating is better than Teddy Bridgewater, Matthew Stafford, Joe Flacco, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning, among others. Not too bad.

26. Cleveland Browns (2-6, LW: 22)

The Browns average 3.4 yards per carry, second-worst in the NFL. Isaiah Crowell had 14 yards on 10 carries Sunday. Robert Turbin is averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Meanwhile exciting rookie Duke Johnson, who had 68 yards on two catches Sunday, got one carry. He has not gotten more than nine carries in any of the Browns last six games. The Browns spent a third-round pick on him this year. I mean, I can totally see why the coaching staff wouldn’t want to mess with what got the Browns to this 2-6 record, but I have to say — this is a telltale sign of a coaching staff that might be in over its head.

25. Houston Texans (3-5, LW: 26)

Alfred Blue averaged 2.8 yards per carry on Sunday and Chris Polk averaged 2.2. The Titans are actually pretty good on defense, but it’s still going to be quite a struggle for Houston without Arian Foster.

24. San Diego Chargers (2-6, LW: 21)

The Chargers had 12 players knocked out of Sunday’s game with injuries. They also had six injured players who were inactive. That’s crazy.

23. Baltimore Ravens (2-6, LW: 29)

Now that Steve Smith is out for the rest of the season, I’m not sure how the passing game will work. There are no weapons for Joe Flacco anymore.

22. Washington Redskins (3-4, LW: 23)

The Redskins play at the Patriots this Sunday. Not feeling too good about their chances there.

21. Dallas Cowboys (2-5, LW: 18)

Two more games before Tony Romo can come back: vs. Philadelphia and at Tampa Bay. Realistically, they probably need to win one, right? If Romo comes back to a 2-7 team, can he really rally them for seven wins in a row? Probably not.

20. Kansas City Chiefs (3-5, LW: 25)

Travis Kelce has 40 catches for 538 yards and three touchdowns in eight games. Double that up and you’ll see that Kelce is having a really good season.

19. Indianapolis Colts (3-5, LW: 17)

Injuries explain some of Andrew Luck’s struggles. But when you look at his first interception on Monday night, and the last one that ruined the Colts in overtime, he’s throwing passes late in the down that he had no business throwing.

18. Miami Dolphins (3-4, LW: 14)

Losing at New England wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. It seems like everyone will lose there this season. But losing defensive end Cam Wake, just as he started to get things going, might be a death blow.

17. New York Giants (4-4, LW: 12)

I’m going to have trouble taking you seriously when you score 49 points and lose. Just a rule I have.

16. Philadelphia Eagles (3-4, LW: 16)

At some point the Eagles have to return from the bye, consider how bad they’ve been, realize they’re still just a half-game out of first place and feel pretty fortunate.

15. New Orleans Saints (4-4, LW: 20)

I don’t know that they can win 52-49 games every week, but give the Saints credit for pushing back to being relevant after many of us wrote them off. And it’s great to see Drew Brees looking like himself after that early-season injury.

14. Buffalo Bills (3-4, LW: 15)

Tyrod Taylor’s return gives them a chance to get back in the race. But losing on Sunday against Miami would basically knock them out of the race until further notice.

13. New York Jets (4-3, LW: 10)

Geno Smith and Ryan Fitzpatrick are both injured. There’s a chance that rookie Bryce Petty will have to start this week. It seems like either Fitzpatrick or Smith or both will be able to play through the pain, but it’s still a situation that could really affect them.

12. Oakland Raiders (4-3, LW: 19)

Time to call it: Derek Carr is a future franchise quarterback. Heck, might be able to eliminate “future.” He’s good. The Raiders hit the draft jackpot.

11. Atlanta Falcons (6-2, LW: 7)

The last time they played well was Oct. 4 against the Texans. Which means they’ll go a full month without an impressive performance.

10. Seattle Seahawks (4-4, LW: 13)

They’re 4-4 now with three straight home games coming up after the bye. So don’t bury them yet.

9. Pittsburgh Steelers (4-4, LW: 6)

I don’t think Le’Veon Bell’s injury totally wrecks them, because DeAngelo Wiliams has been better than expected. But clearly you can’t just lose a player of Bell’s ability and not feel it. It’s on Ben Roethlisberger now to drag this team to the playoffs.

8. St. Louis Rams (4-3, LW: 11)

Todd Gurley has changed this team dramatically. His talent has covered up a lot of flaws on offense. Not many other backs can change a game instantly with a long run like he can.

7. Minnesota Vikings (5-2, LW: 9)

The metrics aren’t good, the schedule has been soft and they’ve won some games that were a bit closer than they should have been for a 5-2 team. But I still am willing to buck the trend and stand behind this Vikings team. I think they’re clearly on their way to the playoffs.

6. Arizona Cardinals (6-2, LW: 8)

It’ll be fun to see them get tested at Seattle and vs. Cincinnati after the bye. Win those two, then maybe they really are the team that can challenge the Packers for the NFC.

5. Green Bay Packers (6-1, LW: 2)

It’s not like a loss at Denver matters all that much. It was a non-conference game and it won’t dramatically affect their playoff seeding. The same doesn’t apply to next week’s game at Carolina.

4. Carolina Panthers (7-0, LW: 4)

We’d be talking about that Ted Ginn drop for a long, long time if the Colts didn’t flub overtime after Ginn tried to.

3. Denver Broncos (7-0, LW: 5)

I get the Vernon Davis trade. He had a good season as recently as 2013 and the Broncos paid very little to take a shot on him. But we really haven’t seen Davis play at a high level for two straight seasons. It’s hard to project him reverting to a Pro Bowl level again. But, no harm done if he’s as quiet in Denver as he has been the last two seasons.

2. Cincinnati Bengals (7-0, LW: 3)

The Broncos played very well on Sunday night. It was the best performance of any team in the NFL this season. But I’m not moving the Bengals down. They deserve to be No. 2 right now.

1. New England Patriots (7-0, LW: 1)

Watching them against the Broncos defense on Nov. 29 is going to be a highlight of this season.

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