McCarron gets a taste of Play-Off action BEFORE play-offs

[Bengalzona]

Monday's game is a huge opportunity for this team to exorcise a bunch of demons, as the OP stated:

- prime time game
- night time game
- playing Denver at Denver
- winning a playoff bye
- locking up the AFCN early

etc.

It is a huge opportunity for the team to shed a bunch of monkeys off of their back all at once in front of the whole football world and roll into the playoffs on a big emotional high.

But Denver won't go lightly. They have a good defense and will come after McCarron with everything and the kitchen sink. This is how it is done in the NFL: pressure the young QB. And McCarron is susceptible to pressure. He tends to get happy feet when the blitz comes. That isn't going to change in one game. Our game plan needs to keep that in mind. Hopefully, we can get an early lead and protect it with good D and ball-control O (i.e. conservative play). I don't have faith that we can win this one if McCarron is put into a position of having to gunsling it downfield to get us back in the game. That opens him up to exactly the kind of pressure from their D that he is not ready for yet.