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Published on 12/11/2012 at Tue Dec 11 12:42.
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Week 14 Game Balls: Broncos 26, Raiders 13

Posted Tue Dec 11th by

Broncos 26, Raiders 13 — you know what a victory means, fellas. Big Pete provides this week’s BT Game Balls below!

Von Miller: The stat line reads 3 tackles, 1 assisted tackle, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, but what the stat sheet doesn’t list, and why after last night’s Texans’ showing indicates is that Von Miller is the most dominant defensive player in the NFL. Miller had a handful of offensive holding penalties called because he is so unstoppable. Why do I mention that? Because without those holding calls, Miller has 5+ sacks by the start of the 4th quarter, and the game is even more one sided. Miller plays his best when the moment is the biggest. That is why he gets a game ball.

Knowshon Moreno: What can I say? Moreno really impressed me with his outing in Oakland on a short week. He had 119 total yards and a TD. He was excellent catching the ball, and he ran reasonably well. While he is still lacking a short yardage game, he is showing that in all other situations, he is up for the task, and unlike McGahee, Knowshon can actually come up with a critical 4th down catch! Knowshon Moreno, you sir, get a game ball.

Matt Prater: Prater was 4/4 on his field goal attempts, but more impressive than that was that he was 1/1 in the 40 yard range, and hit a borderline 40 yard FG when he connected on his 38 yard attempt. Why does this warrant a game ball you say? Because prior to this game, he was a mere 56% on the season in the 40-49 yard range. In order for the Broncos to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders, Prater needs to be consistent in the long 30-49 yard range. With Prater hopefully screwing his head on straight, he also gets a game ball.

Trindon Holliday: How in the world can a player with only 1 kickoff return, and 1 punt return that he fumbled get a game ball? Simple! It’s because this guy is electric! He had 1 chance to return a kick, and he had a 33 yard gain which he was ridiculously close to breaking for a TD. His 1 punt “return” that he fumbled wasn’t even his fault. He was getting tackled BEFORE the ball even got to him. Have the refs ever heard of the cushion that returners are suppose to get in order to catch the ball? Holliday was wrapped up and halfway to the ground by the time the ball was “catchable”. How the refs allowed that atrocity of a non-call is beyond me.

After that, he fair caught a punt that he very well should have returned, but I think that was more on the coaches telling him to fair catch it than him wanting to fair catch it. Because of that, and because opponents are seemingly game planning around him as much as they do Devin Hester, Holliday gets the final game ball.

Honorable Mentions go out to Peyton Manning, Champ Bailey, Tony Carter, and the “Dream”.

  • Gary_in_SD

    Agreed about Miller forcing all those holding calls. It almost seems it should be a stat of some sort. It’s kind of the NFL equivalent of when in basketball, a point guard doesn’t get an assist when he makes a play because the recipient gets fouled and goes to the free throw line instead.

  • Pete Baron

    It’s funny, cause I said that for the defensive player of the year award, someone who speaks for candidates should dig up how many holding calls their player forced. While I haven’t seen every play of the Texans or 49ers, I’m 99% positive that Miller has forced far more holding penalties than Watt and Smith have, which makes his actual stat line all the more impressive!

  • http://www.facebook.com/carlo.scuri.10 Carlo Scuri

    Von Miller is clearly out of contest, we have to give him the game ball any given sunday. This sunday to me it’s Knowshon’s ball. Over a hundred yards and good catches out of the backfield. Honestly i was the last one to believe in this guy, i hope his cut at the beginning of the season. Once again John Elway and John Fox were right and i was wrong.

  • AZDynamics

    Can’t argue with the awards. And I’m glad there are those who agree with me about Holliday’s muff.

    I’m not sure Moreno is all that ineffective in the short game. He might not be another McGahee in that respect, but he was running with power. And there was nothing wrong with that 2-yard TD run . . .

  • Pete Baron

    Yeah. I did like the 2 yard run, but the “every down back” is practically extinct these days. Adrian Peterson is one, Ray Rice is one, Arian Foster is another, as is Doug Martin. My point being that most teams have their base runners, their short yardage runners, and their stretch the field/home run hitting runners.

    Knowshon is playing like a really good base offense runner. Sure, he can on occasion pick up the tough yardage, but with exception to only a handful of teams, most need a specialty “short yardage” back. We are not one of the exceptions, and I’m ok with that (for now).

  • Doom92

    I agree that he is an “OK” base runner in the last two games against sub-par D’s (which is a big deal for me to admit) but I wouldn’t call him “really” good at any one thing. He is still sporadic at best and I say again take a way a hand full or so “really” good gains and he is super average. Not dogging just saying what it really is. Am I ever going to like him? Probably not, but it is still what it is.

    I also agree that I’m “OK” “So-So” with where we are with it right now (can’t change it right now anyway) and hope we can and will change that going into next season. Going into next year with the same backfield would be terribly disappointing.

  • Doom92

    As a given by my “nick” I’m an Elvis fan but I have to admit that our absolute beast is Von and he will be for many years to come. I bet he’d trade a ring for player of the year any day…

  • Pete Baron

    How cool would it be for the trade deadline to go till the season ended?

    I know people say it wouldn’t work, cause teams would unload players, or a playoff team would try to steal away talent, but that’s why they should implement a sliding value scale. (example. Say after week 8, the “trade” value of any said player goes up and up until mid week after week 17. At that time, if a RB would normally fetch a 4th round pick, because of the sliding scale, to get that RB, you might have to give up a 1st. If it’s a 2nd or 1st round talent, then you might have to give up two 1st round picks, etc…) This way, teams wouldn’t just dump players, and teams couldn’t just stockpile talent and try to “buy/trade” their way to a super bowl.

    The reason I say this is because it sure would be nice to upgrade our RB position for the playoffs, especially seeing we’ll be picking relatively low in the 1st round.

  • Doom92

    I like it…lol.

  • Pete Baron

    I bet you’re right! I also think having Doom on the line frees up Miller to be a beast even more! Quite the Duo they are!

  • Doom92

    The Dynamic Duo for sure… There is no question that if teams give Von “all” of the attention Doom will smoke their asses. Von is just that inth quicker or faster than Doom. So many times when Von get his sack Doom is just an inch away. I’m sure there are times he has to think “damn I was right there, whats a guy have to do?” Simple, be faster than Von…lol.