Things I’m looking forward to vs Jacksonville

Sorry, I haven’t been posting much this last week – things at work have been pretty crazy. We hosted a Variety Children’s Charity Event here in Knoxville this week. Jessica Alba and Dane Cook were on hand at a special Tuesday night fund raising screening of GOOD LUCK CHUCK and yours truly had to play red-carpet-lacky (local coverage). Not that opening limo doors for Jessica Alba is tough work! :)

Back to football! We’re hosting Jacksonville this weekend and I’m having a hard time figuring out the Jaguars this year. Kyle mentioned part of this in a comment earlier this week. Here is a team that has posted two very different games. In week one the Jaguars gave up 282 rushing yards, but in week two they limited the Falcons to 82 yards on the ground. In week one Jacksonville’s two-headed running machine (Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew) only gained 48 yards, but in week two they almost doubled that. In week one the Jags held Vince Young to 78 yards passing, but in week two Altanta’s Joey Harrington threw for 200. These widely varying stats throw virtually every 2007 season stat out the window as any of these two game averages don’t really give you an accurate picture of their game play.

So, I think I’ll stick mostly with things I want to see out of our team rather than try to do many match-ups. Let’s take a look…

1. More TDs less INTs – Let’s get Cutler’s ratio corrected this week!
Jay Cutler has 2 TDs and 3 INTs for 2007. I’d like to see that ratio swing back to our favor this week. I think he’s heading in the right direction if his completion numbers mean anything.

PRE WK1: 50%
PRE WK2: 53.8%
PRE WK3: 56.3%
PRE WK4: N/A
REG WK 1: 59%
REG WK 2: 69.7%

Each week he’s gotten better and better at completing passes. If he maintains this type of improvement, we should see his completion percentage around 73% this week (wouldn’t that be nice). Better yet, let’s see more TD’s and no INT’s on Sunday!

2. Big WR numbers– Moving toward three 1000 yard WRs!
Heck yeah! Through two games we’re doing pretty well. Here’s a look at our top three WR’s and their projected 2007 stats if they stay on pace…

Javon Walker: Javon’s been a beast, racking up 220 yards over two games. That put him on pace to pass 1700 yards for the season. 1700 yards! :)

Brandon Marshall: Marshall has also been a major boost to our passing game, providing 134 yards over two games. If he keeps that pace up we’re looking at our second 1000 yard receiver.

Brandon Stokley: Stokley has been the best clutch catcher on the team. He has played a much bigger role than his stat of 108 yards over two games tell. Even still, he would be over 850 yards by the end of the season if he can provide these numbers all season long.

This week, we face a Jacksonville team that has a great corner back in Rashean Mathis, who had 8 interceptions last year (and picked up another one last week vs Atlanta). Mathis will likely cover Walker, so we might get to see Marshall and Stokley (and even Graham and Schef) get a lot of balls from Cutler.

3. Run Stoppage – Must. Stop. Runner.
So, we’ve played a little better on Defense in each of our first two games (at least I think so). However, we’re ranked 27th in the league in rushing yards allowed. We need to do better than our current per game average of 156 yards allowed when we face Jacksonville tomorrow. I look for the defensive backs to really step it up vs the Jaguars and all three of our LB’s to kick butt.

On a side note: I’ve been impressed with Webster and Gold in addition to D.J. Williams. I think this group will get better and better as we get deeper into the season and they get comfortable playing with each other (and in the new Bate’s system).

4. Tim Crowder’s debut – a Crowd develops at DE!
Finally over his ankle strain and having completed his first full week of practice, Crowder will join Simeon Rice, Elvis Dumervil, Jarvis Moss and John Engelberger at Defensive End. It will be very interesting to see how all of these DE’s rotate into the lineup and how well each one does.

5. The Champ & Bly Show – let’s see some picks.
Well, each one of our starting CB’s come out of the game vs Oakland with a pick! Their goal of 20 picks between them, may be lofty, but I still believe it’s possible. I’d like to see a couple more picks this week vs Jacksonville… we’ll see.

OTHER THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
Travis Henry continues to carry the load – Henry has looked good in two contests. But we have three more games before our bye and we need him to stay healthy all season long.
Better on 3rd Downs – Last week I mentioned we had a 27% conversion rate for third downs vs the Bills and I wanted it higher vs Oakland. Well, we raised it to 37% vs the Raiders. And while that’s movement in the right direction, I still want to see that percentage rise higher.
Where did Daniel Graham go? – After recording 3 receptions in week one, Daniel Graham only had one grab for 9 yards vs Oakland. I guess we’ve been having such success with our WR, we haven’t had to look to our TE’s to pick up the slack. However, as soon as opponents begin overlooking our TE’s look for Shanahan to call their names for big gains.
Where’s the PASS in the Red Zone – Other than the Stokley recieption TD, it seems like Shanahan was calling a LOT of running plays inside the Red Zone last week. I don’t know if it’s because of Cutler’s INT’s or if there is some other reason, but I would like to see more passing plays called once we get close to scoring.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: Find a way to win. With some tough games coming up at Indie and against San Diego we need this win to keep us at the top of our division.

Go Broncos!

-Jonathan Douglas
–BroncoTalk.net