Things I’m looking forward to vs Green Bay

I feel I need to explain why ya’ll have seen very little of me lately on the Blog….

As some of you are aware, my wife and I are involved with the State of Tennessee’s Department of Children Services as Resource Parents (that’s the new term for Foster Parents). We have had a beautiful 5-year-old little girl staying with us since May and last week we added to our family her 2-year-old brother who came into care about two weeks ago. I can’t go into any details (as facts and photos of active cases are not allowed to be shared), but I will say that going from zero kids to two children in so many months has been a bit challenging!

And while both my wife and I believe we’re just doing our part to help out the local community, we differ on what that means. You see she thinks that means giving these kids a safe and happy home to live in and I firmly believe it means converting these kids into life-long Bronco fans! :)

So, now that I’ve given you my excuses for not posting much recently, here are some things I’m looking forward to seeing tonight…

1. The Old vs The New – Veteran QB faces newbie QB!
Really, this trumps every other point on the list! Ever since Jay Cutler took the starting job and Brett Favre decided not to retire, I have been looking forward to this game.

Brett Favre is like the grizzled old gunslinger who is heading into a classic old west shootout with the fast-handed new hotshot, Cutler. This is the stuff of a CLASSIC WESTERN SHOWDOWN! Favre’s arm is not what it used to be, but he has year’s of hard-earned experience. Cutler has the arm Farve once had, but lacks the wisdom of 17 seasons in the NFL. This game will likely come down to which of these two Quarterbacks has a better game… which one makes less mistakes… which one makes the right gambles…

We can only hope the fates favor the young tonight!

2. Running Back Rotation – who’s running now?
Who knows if Henry will start. And that means we might get to see spectacular rookie Selvin Young rip it up tonight! But what percentage of Cecil Sapp and Andre Hall will be thown into the mix?

You all know my preference to see Hall get a chance at RB, but Cecil may well be called on to make those tough short yards as he’s most like the human bowling ball that is Travis Henry. That might make Cecil a great fantasy pick up if we get into short yardage goal-line situations, but I would look for Young to rack up BIG yardage if our O-line continues to play as well as they have.

And speaking of our O-line… Bronco fans HAVE to be impressed with patched up line (especially the Chris’s). Great job guys! :)

3. Risky Business – Make Farve take risks!
Everyone said we couldn’t bring the pressure versus the Steelers and we did. Now we need to do the same thing to our cheese-head friend Brett. We need our D-line to step it up again and bring the heat! We need our rookie linemen to finish off those sacks this week. And, most importantly, we need our linebackers to keep tackling the way they did in the first half versus the Steelers!

If we can bring the pressure to Favre, he will definitely take the bait and force some throws… at that point we need Bly and Foxy (as Champ will likely be out on Monday night) to take some risks of their own, jump the ball and get some turn overs!

4. Big things from deep on the roster! – WR, TE and O-line backups will need to step up again.
I’m looking for big game again from backups Glen Martinez, Brandon Stokley and Tony Scheffler. These guys have all been 3rd and 4th stringer at some point this year, but have all come into important playing time against some heavily favored opponents. This will be another BIG game for them and I’m looking forward to seeing how they do!

What I really liked last week was how Jay Cutler spread the ball around even though his top targets were out of the game. I would expect to see the same thing tonight.

5. Creating something SPECIAL– More big plays on special teams please!

“Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription… is more cowbell!”

— Christopher Walken as the Bruce Dickinson on SNL 4/8/00

My Special Team hero is now LB Jamie Winborn.

Who, you ask, is Jamie Winborn?

He’s a linebacker who was drafted by San Francisco in 2001, played for Jacksonville in 2005 and the Bucs last year. If you looked up his name in wikipedia, you’d see “Career Highlights and Awards: No notable achievements”

Well, that may have been true until last Sunday when Winborn delivered an incredible blow to Pittsburgh’s kickoff returner in the opening quarter of the Steelers game. I haven’t seen the video on youtube yet, but it should be… That was a HUGE hit!

It also signaled a change in our special teams play that game. After a terrible kickoff by Todd Sauerbrun, Winborn’s hit shifted the attitude of our ST unit and they played very well after that.

I’m not saying that Jamie should get his name in the Ring of Fame or anything, but I definitely want to see more of our special teams players performing with Jamie’s level of intensity.

In short, I believe our special team has a fever, and the only prescription… is more Winborn!

AND AS ALWAYS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO A WIN: We can catchup to the leaders of the AFC West with a win tonight! :)

Go Broncos!

-Jonathan Douglas
–BroncoTalk.net