In the off-season the Denver Broncos went out and made acquisitions that would lead most Broncos fans to believe that they were serious about making a run to the Super Bowl. Fully invested in second year quarterback Jay Cutler and his big targets Javon Walker, Brandon Marshall, and Tony Scheffler, the Broncos offense went out and answered any questions about the backfield by signing highly touted free-agent Travis Henry and got more help at tight end with Daniel Graham.

The result: Henry is second in the league in rushing with 498 yards on 102 carries, and the team is fifth in the league averaging 365.2 yards per game. The problem:  Denver isn't scoring, averaging only 15 points per game. That ranks 26th out of 32 teams in the NFL.

The defense made serious off-season improvements as well. Dre Bly was signed to be the conerback opposite fellow Pro-Bowler Champ Bailey.

The result:  Denver has the number one pass defense in the league allowing only 145.6 yards per game through the air.  The problem:  New defensive coordinator Jim Bates has not made any improvements on the Broncos defensive front. They allow a league worst 187.6 yards on the ground in each game and their opponents score 27.2 points per game, 25th out of 32 teams.

Why did the Broncos need to hire Bates? Over the last five years the Broncos have been ranked in the top ten four times and top five three times in rush defense allowing an average of 97 yards per game on the ground during that time. They also only allowed 18 points per game during that five year period from 2002-2006.

To make things worse for the Broncos, Henry is facing a one year suspension for a repeat violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy. Henry was already suspended for four games in 2005 for a repeat violation. Did the Broncos not see that this could be a problem when they signed Henry? Did they not take his past into account? Henry even asked for a pay advance from the Tennessee Titans to help pay for the child support he owes to the nine children he fathered under nine different women.

I am a life long Broncos fan and am just as frustrated as the next "Raider-Hater" to see what has happened to our team over the past three weeks. What is the problem? What does Mike Shanahan and company need to do in order to turn this season around and keep it from reaching the point of no return?