And just like that, in a flip of a switch, Denver went from owning the bottom of the AFC West to now standing on top thanks to another exciting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat TEAM win & with the Raiders letting the Miami Dolphins kick their little butts, bahaha way too funny!Denver is tied with Oakland in win-losses at 7-5 but our 5 game win streak among other things shoved us to the top spot in the always unpredictable AFC West. Funny enough, San Diego now claims the bottom spot, which I find hysterical considering that they have done nothing but dominate our division and its nice to see them falter for once. So long Norv Turner....... :p
What can I say about this team that will do them justice?? Frankly, I don't know because they have been so wildly unpredictable in the 2nd half of their last 5 games but I am lovin' every second of it. The first half is nothing to remember and the way the offense plays there makes you wonder what's wrong with them.
But the 2nd half, its pure Mile High Magic coming to life.
The way all 3 aspects of the team comes together to get the win, its just unbelievable. The Broncos' playoff dreams & hopes have just gotten a little closer and I'm on the verge of getting ahead of myself with all the excitement of how this team is playing. I think my season prediction of 10-6 is very, very realistic at this point. I would love nothing more than to beat the Pats in our house, that would be HUGE for Denver. And right now, as crazy as it may sound, we have a real shot of pulling it off.
2-3 months ago, I would've said its a giv
en loss for us. Now there's a glimmer of hope. The way this team has come together, I'm almost in shock. Its such a relief to see Denver play like this once again. I haven't been this giddy about my team since Elway was here... that says a lot about our current players, young & seasoned.... they got the fire & passion in them to make it into the playoffs for the first time in 6 long agonizing years.So without further adieu, here is the breakdown of Denver 5th consecutive second-half team rally to win a game against the Minnesota Vikings....
Offense:
You guys make me smile... you make me nervous.
Very sloppy start to the game, which isn't unusual as of late in our recent games. It drives me crazy that we start off so sloppy, so unorganized, crappy playcalling (same play over & over & over... stop running it up the middle!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!)
But there's something about that 2nd half that lights a fire under them to actually play like a team with the will to win. I can't honestly say it doesn't matter how we get the job done, cause it does matter. We played a 2-9 team... we should have buried them all in their own turf with points. We should have run them into the ground.
For whatever the reason, bottom line is we fought like the crazy Bronco team we are the entire second half and walked away with another close one.Only 7 points scored in the first half vs. 28 in the second. That's nuts.
As for Tim Tebow, he played much better in the 2nd half... more like a quarterback should. He completed more than half of his attempted throws and when it came down to this offense keeping up with Minnesota who seemed to be controlling the 2nd half offensively, Tebow led the offense on 4 scoring drives to keep up and not let the game get out of hand.
Tebow made sure this offense stayed in check and they fought till they got the job done.
He completed 10 out of 15 attempts for 202 yards and 2 passing touchdowns. And of course he still managed to get himself on the rushing stats with 4 carries for 13 yards.
It's very clear though that he is becoming more comfortable in the pocket & making passes. It will be a slower journey for him to get there but fact is, he WILL get there. He will do whatever it takes to become a better, more accurate passer. His determination will server him well in doing so.
Willis McGahee continues to be the running back this team has so long needed, earning his 6th 100+ rushing yard game, taking 20 carries for 111 yards and 1 touchdown. Lance Ball also got some game time with 7 carries for 25 yards.Really nice to see this team with a solid RB like McGahee and not as many injuries in that area as we've had in the past. Amazing what you can do when your players stay healthy, hmmm.......
Well the ghost has come to life... welcome back to football Demaryius Thomas.... where in the world have you been boy???
The first-round pick, also known as Bay-Bay, finally got back into a game and with style I may add. Thomas had 4 receptions for 144 yards & 2 TDs. Was nice to see Tebow get him more involved and really nice to see him get not 1 but 2 amazing TDs out of it.
This offense is slowly but surely getting back on its feet.
Defense:
The men of Denver's defense continues to carry this team on their shoulders. Granted they allowed 32 points but in the end, they won this game. And a hard fought game it was for our defense.
In the first half they harassed rookie QB Christian Ponder, at one point I thought Ponder would leave the game with all the hard hits he was taking.
Even without the standout rookie, Von Miller, his replacement for the game in Mario Haggan was as good of a replacement could get. Haggan even led the team in tackles with 7 and 5 assists and an INT returned for a touchdown in the first quarter.I remember watching the game and they were showing Miller on the sidelines jumping & going crazy for his teammate. That's real sportsmanship right there, cheering them on instead of grumbling about how "that should've been me". Don't worry, it will be Miller Time again next week against Chicago. lol
Andre Goodman came in second on tackles with 5 and 2 assists along with the game-winning INT. Funny it worked out that way because I noticed that most of the game, Goodman was playing off so far from his receiver giving them plenty of room & yards to make a catch and do something with it. And then in the end he's the one who wins the ball back for Denver to avoid going into OT. Well done in making up for lack of good coverage.Next on the list is THE Weapon X with his 26th career sack and a forced fumble to go with it. The almost 40-year old safety still has a little something left in him.
Doom & Ryan McBean also got a piece of the rookie QB with a sack each, making a total of 3 sacks on Ponder.
Injury Update:
On a punt return, Eddie Royal was prepared to catch the ball but his own teammate Matthew Willis ran into him and took Royal out for the rest of the game. It is now confirmed he sustained a concussion on the play. To top this off, he's also battling an ankle & toe injuries as well.
Interesting notes:
While we did win this game, we also fell back into getting penalties that cost us some big yards & big plays, with the addition of 2 turnovers & 2 sacks. This is a very, very young Oline and I guess you could call all this "growing pains" for the offense but you got a very talented player with experience in Ryan Clady and he's been off his game all season long. I would hope he would be guiding these other guys but in the end its up to each individual to know what they are doing and to do it right.I must say the line has gotten much better at protecting Tebow, they give him all day to make a pass which is great. But 1 sack is 1 too many, granted though it is better than 7 in one game.
As for the penalties, that's on all sides of the ball. The holding calls that we've been getting are getting really old. I know its a fact of every football game, there's bound to be several holding calls but its so annoying!! We need to back off on the penalty craze, we can't afford it.
Videos:
Broncos-Vikings Highlights
Bay-Bay Talks About His QB
Tebow Talks About Win #5
Mario Haggan’s Pick-Six – 16 yard TD
Dawkins Sack & Forced Fumble for 24 yard loss & Denver’s Jason Hunter Recovers at the 50
Dumervil’s 4-yard sack
Ryan McBean gets 1-yard sack
Andre Goodman gets game-changing INT
Quan Cosby takes punt return for 63-yard ride
17-yard run by McGahee
Tebow to Thomas for 21-yard TD
Tebow to Thomas for 42-yard pass
Tebow to Thomas for 41-yard TD
Tebow to Thomas for 40-yard pass
24-yard TD run by McGahee
Tebow runs ball in for 2-point conversion to tie the game
Prater makes 46-yard FG
Prater’s game-winning 23-yard FG
Whew!! Lots of highlights but good stuff. The 41-yard TD by Thomas - man, I could watch that play over & over all day. No one can bring him down. Arguably my favorite play of the game. Enjoy!
Also, Denver is up again for the GMC Never Say Never Moment of the Week after overcoming another first-half slump vs. Minnesota and to come out fighting the entire 2nd half. Be sure to VOTE!!!!Next up for Denver are the Bears, too bad Cutler won't be playing. I would love nothing more than to see our Defense destroy him. I've been waiting all season for this game just to see the reaction of the fans and now he won't even play, grrrr. Will be a good game & exciting for sure.
Go get 'em boys! ;)
Nice Princess great write up.
ReplyDeleteWell I had decided to not spend all that $ on going to the game because I want an orange Miller jersey pretty bad. Besides it would be on the big screen TV at home. Well we had a snowstorm Sat night and I got up early to shovel so I could watch pre-game and everything. So as I'm watching pre-game I'm on the computer looking for jerseys because my wife said there are no orange Miller jerseys on any of the sites she went to (NFL.com, Broncos official site, ect.)and I find them, but I remember then that Nike is going to do the jerseys next year. So I'm thinking SOB, I didn't go to the game and now I should wait to buy a jersey 'til next year. Then the dish goes out. FML. I unplug it and all the other shit it says to do, nothing. I look up at the dish and see it's full of snow. My extension ladder doesn't reach that high to brush it off. The wife says throw a tennis ball at it. I didn't, LOL. Instead I watched the 1st half on the computer AGAIN. Hoping and checking the whole time if the dish miraculously came back on. It didn't. So I get dressed, go out, carefully climb on the low part of the roof, pack some snow so I can lean the ladder against the roof and climb up. Danger! My wife is cursing and praying at the same time :) I live, duh. Watch it on TV and am loving life this week even though it's colder the a witch's ___ here. I think we are going to get to watch our team in the playoffs once again. Gotta love that.
ReplyDeleteHaha nice story Digger, hopefully those Nike jerseys are sick because it would then be worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it down in one piece or your wife may have killed you haha. But I bet you were loving the second half.
ROFL... who's got the long-winded story now. lol Funny but I can see how frustrating that would've been. Believe me, that first half was nothing to miss. Big snore except for the Haggan INT-TD. Defense did well but the second half is what I'll remember.
ReplyDeleteThose Nike jerseys sound sweet! I bet they'll be worth the wait. Just the matter of having the patience to wait for them haha Might have to get me one when they come out, just don't know what player to pick... Orange Tebow jersey is a thought lol... all my jerseys are QBs, dare I venture out to get a Decker or Dumervil?? Too many choices
Long winded? I thought I condensed it pretty well. I'm not a great typer so yeah. Maybe it seemed long winded because I condense things. Sometimes I piss people off on the blogs because they misinterpret what I mean because of doing that.
ReplyDeleteG, she said that. Actually, what she said was, "If you die I'm gonna kill you." Haha.
I saw the 1st half on the computer. I only missed the first couple of minutes of the 2nd half.
I've seen some guesses of what the Nike jerseys will look like. Jerseys are cool. The helmets are ugly.
Haha Digger I didn't think it was long winded, just lacked some of the epicness of a post by princess :P
ReplyDeleteAr women ain't they lovely, always have our best interests in mind.....
I hope our gear next year is cool, I am interested in what they bring out for us.
And Digger people are really silly on the inter webs, I know what you mean about starting fights. You read them all the time, I just take everything with a grain of salt. No point getting pissed off at someone you never meet. So yer I am laid back but that is probably because I am an Aussie. Plus I wouldn't get pissed off at you guys, your all pretty cool.
Yer perty cool yourself.
ReplyDeleteAwww thanks Digger.
ReplyDeleteA few comments on your article Princess. I would have done it earlier but bit hard to write a long article on the phone :)
ReplyDeleteYou had a question about why the Broncos don't start off well in the first half but come alive in the second. Well I can't remember who said it, it was either Fox or McCoy but they said that in the first half they don't really know what is going on as they don't know how defenses are going to come out and play them.
So the first series is usually scripted and that is where they try to get their first points. After that they take what they can get as they try to work out the defense. So generally a lot of runs and things of that nature.
At half time they reassess the game play and what the defense has shown. They make changes and attack these weakness. A good example of this is the last game. The run wasn't doing much and the Vikings were double covering Decker. So they threw in some play-action and went to Thomas which left him so open. With the passes working they then started to mix back in the run. It was a good adjustment. Plus I don't want to blow my own horn but I said "I expect to see a lot more of D-Thomas." in the pre-game post.
Thus not a very proactive approach. I would prefer if they tried to do some things and dictate the game to the opposing defenses but what they have been doing is working so far.
Other notes.
Goodman did get picked on and bet a lot in this game which was pretty terrible. He needs to do better, one play doesn't make all the bad go away. The big day of passing good be put down to the pass rush. Was it very good? Or did we need to send an extra guy, a safety or LB? If so this probably freed up some room in the coverage.
On the penalties it sounds like the refs called a pretty bad game. One of which was called on Clady.
I have a theory on Clady too, back when he was awesome he played on a sub-par or average line. Now I think the overall play has been improved on the line and some of his weaknesses have been exposed.
That is it I think :P
Wow they have some new mobile app for blogger, is very different from the usual layout.
ReplyDeleteEven though only 3 of us come on here all the time, everyone who helped jump start this site are pretty cool dudes ;)
ReplyDeleteI miss everyone... I think #80 got busted by his big bro LOL
Is that all Aussie?? lol I knew all that, it just still bugs me about our play in the first half. First half or not, I've just about had it with all the "run up the middle" stuff... we never gain any yards and yet they keep doing it. Drives me nuts!!
Goodman got picked on A LOT and even when he wasn't, he played so far off his receiver it left the guy wide open enough to make a catch just like D. Thomas was open nearly all game long.
The penalties I remember were, unfortunately, accurate. I don't think all 8 of them were fair calls but a few were. I don't remember every single one of them but I guess you could say with a new more talented line, Clady's weaknesses have been brought to light and it has caused him problems all season.
lol, after you said that about the new app, I got on the site on my phone and its all weird. I just get on the internet and go to the site, and instead of seeing this layout its all different. As long as I can still get on the site to check on stuff & read the funny comments, works for me. haha
ReplyDeleteOh and @Digger, I didn't think your story was that long-winded just teasin you. No one on here hardly ever writes long comments other than me so when I see one of you go on and on, I have to laugh. Its all good....
hahahaha just saw what Aussie said... the epicness of a post by me... WAY too funny! Now I'm epic... oh boy, thanks for the ego boost ROFL jk jk
I think a few others read, I know Jazzy does. Not sure about the others. I see Doc every now and again and TRB is on DB.com all the time.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what happened to 80#, maybe school? It is unfortunate that they don't comment as much. But our page views have gone up through the roof. We ain't the only ones that visit the site.
Yeah the app is weird, that happened today as it wasn't up yesterday but at the bottom of the app is a link to the normal site, so can just click that.
Haha and princess you are too funny, ego boost...classic.