Mile High Magic?

Magic is missing at Mile High
By Bill Williamson The Denver Post

Exactly 91 weeks ago today, the Broncos awakened masters of the universe. A glorious, cold Sunday morning shined on Denver's house of invincibility.
All that was keeping the Broncos from playing in their seventh Super Bowl and first in seven years was a home victory. Three hours from glory. Book it.
The Pittsburgh Steelers humbly stumbled into Invesco Field at Mile High, hoping for the best. How else could the visitors feel? This was the Broncos' house. Long one of the premier home teams in the NFL, the Broncos were as nasty as they'd ever been at the old Mile High Stadium. They were a perfect 9-0 at home, peaking with the electric playoff victory over the once playoff-perfect New England Patriots the week before.
Denver Broncos
Then the game began and the Mile High magic was gone. It disappeared, and it hasn't come back since. There's an all-points bulletin throughout Colorado trying to find it. What happened to the altitude advantage? What happened to the noise? What happened to the tradition?
"I don't have any answers," Denver safety John Lynch said. "I have no idea. But what I do know is that we need to find that magic again very quickly if we are going to turn this thing around and get where we want to be. That's what I do know."
Tonight, the Steelers and their fans will not be tip-toeing into Invesco. They'll barge in.
Not only did the Broncos lose a chance for another Super Bowl as the Steelers threw lefts and rights from the opening bell and manhandled the Broncos 34-17. Not only was the 2005 season lost, but so was the 2006 season, and now the early portion of 2007.
The Broncos were 4-4 last year at home and have stumbled to a 1-2 record there this year. The last home game was the worst of all. The San Diego Chargers beat the Broncos 41-3, and by the time the fourth quarter, started fewer than 10,000 of a packed house remained.
The next day, Denver coach Mike Shanahan wasn't angry about the Blue and Orange exodus.
"I would have left, too," he said.
The loss was the worst home defeat for Denver since 1966. Including the loss to the Steelers, the Broncos are 5-7 at home in their past 12 games at Invesco.
"No one is scared of going into Denver anymore," television commentator Joe Theismann said.
A disturbing trend
Since the beginning of last season, Denver is 5-6 at Invesco and one of 18 NFL teams with a losing record at home. Defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis has the best home mark (11-0) and Oakland the worst (3-7).
In the past eight home games the Broncos are 2-6. The last time Denver lost six home games in a season was 1967. In the past eight-game stretch, Denver beat Cincinnati on Christmas Eve and Oakland, on Sept. 16, but by a total of four points.
Denver lost three straight home games last season, and if it loses to the Steelers, a rare road favorite in Denver, it will match that streak. This is a critical time as the Broncos try to stay above water in the AFC. A home game against the Green Bay Packers follows before the Broncos start a stretch in which they play six of eight on the road.
"Every team in the National Football League knows the importance of its home games," Shanahan said. "To have success, you have to win those
games. We have to get back to that. We just haven't been very good lately."
A telling tale of Denver's recent woes was the final game last season. On Dec. 31, the San Francisco 49ers staggered in with a 6-9 record and were playing out the season with nothing but pride to play for. All Denver had to do was beat the 49ers to advance to a wild-card date at New England. It seemed a formality.
Against all odds
How could the Broncos lose at home with so much on the line against a losing team with nothing to play for?
The Las Vegas oddsmakers bought into that logic, making Denver a prohibitive double-digit favorite. But the sloppy Broncos squandered a 10-point halftime lead and lost in overtime, 26-23, ending their season. It was widely considered the team's worst home defeat since the 1996 playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"That was shocking," former Denver offensive lineman and current ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth said. "There's always been such a decided advantage at Mile High with all those things going on. It was a foregone conclusion that the Denver Broncos would win a majority of their home games. I hate to go back to the day, but our approach was that we would win all of our home games, split our road games and go 12-4. But that doesn't seem to be the case there right now."
The Broncos' perfect home record in 2005 was their fifth perfect record at home. The zenith was when Denver went 8-0 in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
"It was great here," said Broncos running back Mike Bell, who grew up in Denver. "We have to get there again. It's all there for us. Nothing's changed. We go out every home game thinking we're going to win. We just have to do it like the old days."
While some have complained about various aspects of Invesco, which opened in 2001, the home dominance remained until recently. Until midseason last year, the Broncos were 34-9 at Invesco.
"It's not the new stadium," Theismann said. "There's still the great fans, the altitude. All the extras are there. Denver is one of the toughest places to play in the league. It just is."
Another school of thought is that the talent just isn't there.
"The fans can scream as loud as they want, but is it going to mean anything if a linebacker is not lining up in the right place?" ESPN's Merril Hoge said. "Denver just isn't as talented as it was, especially on defense. That has hurt them both at home and on the road."
Schlereth agrees.
"The Broncos are struggling in the red zone, on defense and on special teams, that's why they are losing," he said. "There is a great environment, but it doesn't translate always to winning. You have to have a good football team and a good environment. The Broncos are still trying to be a good team again, whether it's at home or on the road."