Predicting the Future: Broncos vs. Jaguars

I’ve been known to be pretty good at predicting a thing or two when it comes to the Denver Broncos and football (the trade for John Elway; Super Bowls: XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXXII, XXXIII; the Mike Shanahan Era; Rod Smith; Champ Bailey and Janet Jackson Gate). What I’ve recently become terrible at predicting is the Broncos overall record since 2009 (13-3), I’ve been terrible at it (2010, 12-4). Last year I looked like a genius, up until the loss to the Washington Redskins.

So, I won’t be doing that this season (11-5); instead I will be predicting week-to-week. You may see contributions for the other posters on this blog, you may not. Either way, we look forward to your predictions in the comments and whoever predicts the most games correctly will have a song composed by BroncoTalk’s own Kyle Montgomery produced by Josh Temple dedicated in your honor (tentatively titled ‘You Don’t Know Me (KnoMo)’).

Ian’s Prediction:

Maurice Jones-Drew says that he’s not hurt, well I am. Matter of fact, I’ve come back hurt four of the seven times that Denver has played Jacksonville in the regular season. I came back really hurt at the end of the 1996 season (Mike Shanahan’s first season as coach) and the Broncos looked to have a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl yet lost to the Jaguars in the divisional round. Hurt or not Jones-Drew may be better off than 80% of the Broncos offense; the team won’t be playing hurt, they’re playing crippled. Kyle Orton, Brandon Lloyd, Eddie Royal and two rookie offensive linemen- J.D. Walton and Zane Beadles are the only members of the offense that have missed no or minimal time due to injury on the Broncos’ offenses starting roster.

The Ryan Clady/Aaron Kampman match-up has been covered and though I see it as an important battle, I think the most important match-up this game will be that which the Broncos’ defensive front seven will face. David Garrard isn’t the best quarterback in the AFC, but he is good and the type of quarterback which gave the Denver defense fits all preseason. Garrard can run and pass and Jacksonville has re-uped their offense this off-season. The Broncos will see and know exactly where the brand new outside linebacking duo of Robert Ayers and Jason Hunter stand.

My prediction, Denver fans haven’t seen anything yet; Ayers and Hunter will reign down on the outside with brutal force and the trio of Jamal Williams, Ryan McBean and Justin Bannan will show fans something they haven’t seen in a long time– a Broncos defensive line. On the opposite end Knowshon Moreno should make his debut and Denver fans will get to see what everyone was talking about in regards to Moreno throughout organized team activities. Moreno and Correl Buckhalter should be even better than they were in 2009; put that together with the fact what Orton demonstrated in the preseason (touchdowns on 7 of 14 possessions), I think the Broncos may be just a bit better than experts may be predicting.

Broncos win 28-10