Week 3 is already upon us in the NFL and the drama has yet to cease for the Broncos.
Monday, September 20, 2010, Broncos Country lost another brother to a terrible tragedy. 2009 NFL Draft pick Kenny McKinley died earlier this week of an apparent suicide. Before his untimely passing, the Broncos were high off a stellar win over the Seattle Seahawks. Now, this week in preparation for an AFC Conference rival, the Broncos have their hands full more than they already did.
In past games, the Colts have pretty much dominated over the Broncos. Last year's game was close with Denver intercepting 3 of Peyton Manning's passes, yet Manning & Co., went on to outdo our efforts with 4 touchdowns. In addition to the loss of one of our players, we are still facing the inevitable injury bug. Oh, how this thing "bugs" me.First off is the injury that could be most hurtful to us, Champ Bailey. After Denver's big home opening win, Bailey walked off the field with the aid of crutches due to a "heel injury". The Broncos said he will be a "game-time decision", which would leave our young guns to take on the powerful Manning offense, however Bailey will most likely play in Sunday's game. Andre Goodman was also injured but like Bailey, he is expected to be ready by Sunday... 2 game-time decisions. Also, it was announced today that starting RB Knowshon Moreno will be out this game with a hamstring injury leaving our only three options left at RB to play on Sunday - Buckhalter, Andre Brown & Laurence Maroney. Welcome to the "pass-happy" Denver Broncos! ahaha... ok, onto the preview.
Offense:
We start off with the match-up of Kyle Orton & Peyton Manning. Almost two complete opposites at quarterback. Like a lion & chipmunk or peanut butter & roast beef... LOL don't ask, I was just going with the flow. Orton has established himself within the Denver organization, but the NFL hasn't exactly welcomed him as a starting QB in the football world, therefore we are left with very interesting match-up with Orton and a Super Bowl MVP. With last week's win over Seattle, Orton's overall rating went up to 109.3 with Manning at a usual steady 121 rating. For both QBs, week 2 proved to be a big week but Orton's stats are quickly overshadowed by what Manning can do on the field. While Orton had a good game with 3 TDs & 602 yards... Manning on the other hand had 6 TDs and 688 yards.
To most people this is a very obvious contest, with Manning at the helm everyone will be taking the Colts side. We actually have a very capable chance of winning this game. If our Oline can hold its own like they did last week and protect Orton in the pocket (he'll be there quite a bit with pretty much no running game), we got a fighting chance at this game. As for our very sad running game & now Moreno out this week, we got a bigger problem. Three RBs and none of which I'm very confident in but when they do get on the field I hope they can at least hold onto the ball & not cause us more problems with fumbles. There is no room for those mistakes in this game. The Colts do however have a running game, with long-time trusted RB Joseph Addai and Donald Brown. Both of win can find ways to break free with the help of their strong Oline.Next up is our passing game, which we have plenty of weapons to account for. Rookie WR Demaryius Thomas had an awesome first NFL game with 97 yards & a touchdown. He will be a huge help to our offense. The other WRs we have in stock include Eddie Royal, Brandon Lloyd (who seems to be Orton's favorite weapon at the moment), Jabar Gaffney, Matthew Willis and rookie Eric Decker who has yet to see any worthy playing time with the offense (he's been stuck with our special teams). Not to be left out are the weapons Manning constantly throws to... Reggie Wayne & Austin Collie. Both of whom with give our secondary a serious fight. The entire Indy offense is not to be underestimated at any time. Our offense will need to put together long drives in order to keep our defense off the field to keep from wearing down so fast. The defense will be given a real challenge on Sunday.
Defense:Believe it or not, Denver & Indy are pretty close when it comes to defensive stats. Both defenses will give the opposing offense a tough time, especially at the first of the game. As mentioned before, Bailey & Goodman are dealing with small injuries but in Denver that's nothing to take lightly. Its almost a sure bet they'll both be ready to play. There's been some talk about Dawkins, and how he's still one of the biggest secondary threats in the NFL. Another big playmaker that will make a difference for Denver in this game, who is will also be making in his 201st career start. Impressive. One match-up that will be interesting to watch is LT Ryan Clady for Denver facing off with Indy's top DE Dwight Freeney. Both Pro-Bowlers are big playmakers for their respective teams.
At the end of the day, this is being called an easy win for Indy while Denver is the usual suspect for being underdogs. For sure this will be a close game at the start, but depending on penalties and turnovers, one team is going to start a dominating effect and that will be the team to go on and win. We have home field advantage this time we play the Colts, so at least we'll have the home crowd in our corner.
Special Teams:
Denver's ST upped their game from week 1 but will need to keep a handle on the ball on kick/punt returns and we need to get better at placing the ball between the 10 & endzone to give Indy a bad start.
Will be a quiet start in the 1st quarter, as the game goes on they'll figure each other out... enter: smart football. The second half is where the game will really start to pick up and I think it will go one of 2 ways. It will stay close throughout the game or one team will start to really dominate and take it home from there. We'll see who the winner is come Sunday afternoon. Even with Denver as the obvious underdogs, but right or wrong I will always pick them to win. Broncos win it, 34-31.
Keep the faith Broncos Country...
GO BRONCOS in 2010!!!!
For fun since there was a piece on Dawkins, I decided to put a video with highlights on him since he's been in Denver with 2 other preview vids.
Love the prediction, Broncos by 3.
ReplyDeleteBummer that Moreno is out, and Harris is out. But I think Champ and Goodman will be right to go I hope.
28 20 BRONCOS WIN IN A UPSET......
ReplyDeleteYeah magic, I hope the Broncos can upset them.
ReplyDeleteI like your poll question, and voted Ryan Harris. Did you see what Mathis and Freeney did to Eli last week? We need our best possible OL out there or I see Orton having a hard time getting the time he needs to make plays. With Champ possibly playing, hopefully, and Goodman not ruled out, I think Harris being out for sure is a rough hit. I wish Knowshon could be out there, but at least we have Maroney. He is a hard runner, but we just have to hope he can hold on to the ball. If you wanna win a game against a team this good, you absolutely have to win the turnover battle and play perfect ball. GO BRONCOS!!!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the site MileHighMagic... the more the merrier!
ReplyDeletelol, yeah I like my prediction too. Its ambitious and bold but hey, I think they can give the Colts a big upset. This would be a HUGE win for us. Broncos all the way baby!!!
We need a HUGE win, we lost to the fricken jaguars again. At least we handed the seahawks a nice package of BOOM!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah it will be a huge win if we can beat the colts as we have some hard games ahead.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jazzy why you using Jesse?
Big game today, can't wait, I get it to free to air tv which is awesome, no using the internet.
ReplyDeletethxs bp7.. been on before here and there to post but just signed on follow list last nite to make it aff..
ReplyDeletenice 1 gould1. i'll be at game wish you all could be there with..........GO BRONCOS
ReplyDeleteHey MHM
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here. Couldn't get the blinking defense avatar to work here? We really need some of your Mile High Magic today so bring all your good luck you can muster to the game with you. We're all counting on you.
A win today would be HUGE. Next two weeks are back to the east coast.
ReplyDeleteooops, didnt realize that I am signed into google on my computer with my non football email address. Better? And crap, we are losing the dang turnover battle already. We need to get one of our own.
ReplyDeleteAt least our D is holding them to FG's instead of TD's like last year. But ouch, this is bad.
ReplyDeleteDang it, spoke too soon.
ReplyDeleteI hate losing. Felt we looked better on D today though. To many points left on the field today. The win was there to be had for us. Didn't get it done. Many will be calling for McD's head after this one.
ReplyDeleteno way, his head isnt on the line for losing to the colts. At least the chargers lost two divisional games, and the raiders still suck. now we just have to catch the chefs
ReplyDeleteyou are right about the points left on the field though
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying I'm calling for it Jazzy. I'm saying some will.
ReplyDeleteSuper tough loss to swallow, although I hate to say I'm not that surprised... but very irritated. We didn't play that bad but when you add in the turnovers, it made us look horrible. Crazy how those things just kill a game. Bugs me we couldn't put pressure on Manning... dude had ALL DAY LONG to throw that ball. Frustrating loss and with 2 East Coast games next on the board, this team better get their act together. This loss was somewhat understandable but no loss with me is acceptable. We should've won but seems like the effort wasn't there. A lot of frustrated people will be calling out McD but they must consider who we were up against.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is, I cannot wait for the year we beat those guys. Getting on my last nerve... every year we play them and every year its like a guaranteed loss. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Funny about San Diego though... I saw the last minutes of that game and it seemed like somehow Rivers would pull off a miracle but the very team we crushed last week, passed that on to them. Pretty funny. Even funnier... Oakland always has & always will suck. Long live old Al!!!
ReplyDeleteLong live Al, Ashley.
ReplyDeleteHaha what up guys, I thought it was good game, I really thought we were on top for most of the game. Our D played well, we managed to get some hits on Manning in the first but struggled a bit in the second half. Our run D was great, Cox I believe had a good game, got beat but he made a number of good plays.
ReplyDeleteI think the redzone trips for no points killed us. We could have scored another 3 tds if we could just get the ball in, but we turned it over on downs.
I didn't mind the call to go for it on 4th with 9 mins to go. Because if you kick the FG then Manning may just come back and score a TD, which he did.
I think if we can fix the redzone stuff we will be a strong team. Any injury updates?
G!
ReplyDeleteSaw BayBay go off injured and Dawkins. Don't know the severity.
Good things from game. Cox is just as good if not better than Goodman. Bailey pretty much shut down Wayne. STs looked alright except the fumble and penalties. D looked better. Stuffed a lot of runs and got pressure. Orton took off with speed for the 1st down once. Maroney did alright. OL will keep getting better each week. Really strong future for Walton, Beadles and even Daniels. BayBay is everything Marshall was and also isn't everything Marshall was.LOL
ReplyDeleteYeah I liked what I saw out of BayBay, but that arm injury I hope is just a stringer, but he did land on it.
ReplyDeleteI will have a post up later this evening.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't impressed with maroney at all, but was with orton and all of his #1 receivers! I think for sure that knowshon would have gotten it in the endzone when we were down there.
ReplyDeletemaroney averaged 2 yards per carry!
ReplyDeleteI thought Maroney hit the hole hard. But the Colts D did play well at stopping the run, but we needed to run more, 57 passing attempts??
ReplyDelete