What I’m looking forward to vs Oakland

I have returned to the U. S. of A. after a full week of meetings and movie-watching up in Toronto. Unfortunately, I was so busy I didn’t even make it over to KMA’s suggested Irish Pub for a pint. And that means I also missed our season opener (in fact, I’ve still not seen the full game video). During the game, I was actually in a screening of RUN FAT BOY RUN. Which might be a fun little movie, but it is in no way an adequate replacement for seeing my favorite team on the planet playing football.

As I reviewed the reports and stats from the game, however, I couldn’t help but think that my general health was improved by not being able to see that game. I think my heart would have exploded from the stress during that ending! :)

We got away with a win in the end, and Kyle has kept things rolling last week with some great content so really there’s little left to do but give you my pregame list of things I’m looking forward to versus our division rivals — the Oakland Raiders.

1. Jay Cutler hitting his groove – Will Cutler lead a more stable attack this week?
Jay Cutler showed us his fire and passion last week with that last minute drive, but what I’m looking forward to this week is seeing Cutler (and the whole offense) calm down and get into a stable and productive rhythm.

Oakland’s Defense is not to be laughed at, so this week will be a good test of how our young gunslinger is relaxing into a rhythm with our new starters and the expanded playbook. I really want to see less yardage and more points this week.

2. Henry vs Bell– Say what?
Ok, that sounds odd but I’m looking forward to comparing Travis Henry‘s rushing numbers against Tatum Bell’s numbers versus Oakland last week.

Last year Tatum Bell had 15 attempts for 87 yards (5.8 average) and one TD. Travis Henry will now face that same Defense after averaging 6 yards per carry last week against the Bills. If Henry can keep his carries above 20, I think he has a good chance to come away with a better game than Bell did last year.

In the end, this comparison is utterly pointless, but I’d like to be able to say we have a better back in 2007 then we did in 2006 – and these two games offer us just that chance!

3. D-line – Developing & Growing
Well, by all accounts we did better last week than we did during the preseason. I’m glad, as these games count and we want a championship! :)

There’s still a learning curve and the players should be getting better by the week. That means we should get an even better performance tomorrow afternoon than the one against the Bills.

4. Getting better on Third Downs – Beating the odds.
Last week we ended up only converting 3 of 11 third downs (that’s 27%). I’d like to see that get better this week against Oakland.

I think part of the solution will be Mike Shanahan‘s evaluation of last week’s game footage. No, I’m not talking about footage on Oakland (although that will help). I’m talking about game footage on OUR team. Our head coach is a pretty smart cookie, and I think he took note of what worked and what didn’t last week when our team got it’s first full-speed regular season game out of the way. As Shanahan gets more game experience with Cutler and the new supporting cast around him this year, I think we’ll see better efficiency from the offense – and that should show up in our third down conversion percentage.

5. Special Teams – Here we go again!
Reason #2 that I’m glad I wasn’t able to see the game last week: I would have probably thrown the TV across the room when the a 1st quarter punt coverage got beat for 74 yards and a TD… 74 yards!? Then a kickoff return in the 2nd quarter for 48 yards, and one in the 3rd quarter of 27 yards. These are just like spotting the other team 7pts and nearly a one and a half football fields of yardage before their offense hits the field. It’s not like I’m mentioning this for the first time… I think everyone knows we need to do better on these punt/kickoff coverage plays.

Now, I completely understand that in the end our Special Team unit won us the Bills game. Jason Elam (although he missed two FG’s earlier) is still ‘The Man’ — and I have mad respect for our whole field goal team! I just would love to see us play much better this week against the Raiders. Let’s not give the Men in Black any assistance with starting field position.

OTHER THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
New Three Amigos? – Dude! If Javon Walker, Brandon Marshal and Brandon Stokley continue to play the way they did vs the Bills, I’ll be petitioning to revive the Three Amigos title for them!
Simeon Rice vs Elvis Dumervil – They both had good games last week, so what’s the playing time slip this week?
Rookie Watch? – How are our rookies going to do this weekend?
Daniel Graham vs the rest of the TE’s – Daniel Graham recorded the only three receptions out of our TE’s last week. Will that trend continue in week 2?
Where is Andre Hall? – Come on! Give my boy a chance!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: Find a way to win. This game is a division game – and a home game. Those are two big reason we NEED to come away with a win this week.

Go Broncos!

-Jonathan Douglas
–BroncoTalk.net