Denver Broncos blog, news and rumors


FB

[hype it up!]
[Share with Yardbarker]

Published on 08/16/2008 at Sat Aug 16 23:17.
Tagged: ,,,,,,,.



Cutler Electrifies in Broncos 23-13 win over Cowboys

Posted Sat Aug 16th by

Marshall and Cutler vs. Cowboys

Jay Cutler completed 12 straight passes to start the game, the defense held the Cowboys starters scoreless, and rookie WR Eddie Royal caught two passes for 67 yards en route to a Denver Broncos 23-13 trouncing of the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night in preseason action.

Cutler was undeniably the star of the show, finishing with 16 of 20 for 178 yards and one touchdown. He finished with an impressive 120.4 passer rating.

Cutler led the Broncos on an opening 65-yard drive that finished on an Andre Hall touchdown run, putting the Broncos up 7-0. Early in the 2nd quarter, Cutler delivered a 3 yard pass over Adam Jones to Brandon Marshall for a 14-0 lead.

The number of scoring drives would have been three had Broncos kicker Matt Prater connected on a 49-yard field goal attempt. His performance mirrored that of week one, missing his first field goal attempt but nailing his subsequent three. The missed FG signaled the end of the second half after Cutler orchestrated a beautiful two-minute drive that led the Broncos 47 yards down field in 1:37.

Tony Romo vs. Broncos

The Cowboys, on the other hand, struggled offensively, committing three penalties for 25 yards on an early drive. In a vanilla offensive game plan, Dallas QB Tony Romo finished 6 of 9 for 33 yards and 0 TDs. WR Terrell Owens, who was the subject of comparisons with Marshall throughout practices during the week, caught 3 passes for 20 yards in his first preseason action.

With Romo, Owens, and starting RB Marion Barber done for the night, the rest of the Dallas starters rallied around backup QB Brad Johnson in the 2nd quarter, who targeted Broncos CB Domonique Foxworth and found success. A 37 yard bomb to WR Miles Austin over Foxworth set up another connection of 5 yards moments later, resulting in Dallas’ lone touchdown of the night.

The Cowboys rushing game found mixed success, with rookie RB Felix Jones carrying three times for 17 yards (5.7 ypc) against the first team defense. The Broncos allowed 3 runs of 11 yards, but overall, Cowboys rushers ran 20 times for only 70 yards, being held to 3.5 yards per carry.

We’ll have so much more in the next day or two, stay tuned for more detailed analysis after the NFL Network replay at 2PM MT Sunday. Leave your thoughts on the game here. GO BRONCOS!

Photo credit – AP/David Zalubowski

  • kerry

    i know its only preseason, but damn we looked good. Cutler and the run D was excellent. did Demarcus Ware even play? oh thats right he did, but Ryan Clady was so DOMINANT that it seemed like Ware didnt play at all. Royal was great. but the run D really stood out to me. Jones and Barber had a combined 39 yards rushing. i dont care what the second and third team did agaist the run. but our first team D was dominant. Koutouvides looked much better in this game then the last.

  • http://www.broncomadness.com Garret Barnes

    Loved this game! I think that if we play this season like we did with our first team than we could be big Playoff threats.

  • Trent

    I’m so excited for the season… Everything look really good. A few kinks here or there but for the most part I really liked what i saw.

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    If we can come out and play like this against the Chargers in week 2, I’m going to have a happy season. That’s the thing.

    Preseason isn’t quite as meaningless as they say (if you suck in preseason, chances are you suck in the season) and how your starters perform in preseason is a lot more important than the score at the end of the game. And in the two categories that do matter, we’re succeeding.

    Game 3 is going to be important, and we can ignore game 4 entirely.

  • http://denverbroncosnewsbyjon.blogspot.com Jon Krause

    Jay Cutler video
    Broncos_Cowboys video

  • http://Broncotalk Mike

    I’ts early, but…

  • jsub

    yeah howdy…not so much against the Texans though, huh!

  • http://81trucolors.livejournal.com/ Truman

    Very happy with last night’s game. Cutler looked great and Royal! That guy looks like the real deal. Concerned about Selvin Young. THat guy cannot be the “every down” back he wants to be.

  • ryan k

    I honestly think this is the same Cutler as last season, its just that in the two preseason games so far the pockets has not instantly collapsed. Cutler is going to be a great QB but the real story here is the the offensive line is giving him time. Lets give them credit.

  • Richard

    Its good to see us execute base offensive plays as well as we did last night. It gives me hope that we will be able to run the playbook well when the games get real.

    The 1st string line did very well, and I was pleased with the Ryans, especially Harris; he picked it up from last week.

    Andre Hall was looking good, surprisingly in short yardage and the goal line. Looks like Selvin will have some competition for the starting job.

    EDDIE ROYAL. WOW! Hard not to get too excited about him. I intellectually know he’s a rookie and will have his “welcome to the NFL moments”, but I’m confident that he will give as good as he gets. Emotionally, I have a hard time not fantasizing about him and B Marsh ripping up defenses. His development alone could make it worth watching the Broncs this season, regardless of record.

    Defense played well also. The Cowpies were unable to run up the middle with any substantial success. Barber had a few good gains running to the outside, even though the ‘boys got away with a hold on one play. They finished with a 3.6 yds per carry and that alone is a vast improvement from last year’s game.

    Niko looked alright at the middle. Regardless of who starts there, we’ll be ok. I’m an agnostic on whether we start K2 or Webster. At least Niko keeps his helmet on.

    Assuming we can clean up some of the mistakes and get the Bailey boys back on the field , I firmly believe we have a 10th to 15th ranked defense. That encourages me. Robertson and Thomas will be good together. Kenny Peterson seems to be adequate at backup. Nic Clemmons will probably make the team(WHO?). My only concern is that Moss and Crowder have disappeared, I’m not sure if that is a function of our vanilla defense, or more ominously, a big regression on their part.

    Overall, I think we are looking at a 5th to 10th rated Offense this season, and as I stated above a 10th to 15th rated Defense. that makes us competitive and that is all we can hope for any season. Should be fun.

  • kerry

    i tink the lack of moss and crowder making plays is a dialed down defensive scheme. Dumervil did get a sack last night but i think Bob Slowik is waiting to unleash he whole defensive scheme thus allowing Crowder and Moss to be more effective. once we start running the gap and zone blitz schemes like we did in 05 then moss and crowder will have more penetration in the backfield. and if our run D can be this good all year then that will make the opponents one dimensional. and we have the speed in the secondary to take away the pass.

  • TJ

    Cutler = Pro Bowl & Comeback Player of the Year.

  • ryan k

    TJ its hard to be a candidate for comeback player of the year when you were a top 15 QB the year before. Comeback player of the year is usually a guy who everyone thought was done or had suffered a serious injury.

  • inrodwetrust

    Fun game to watch, though I thought our glaring lack of kickoff and punt return blocking to be the most needed area of improvement, and it looked worse. I haven’t given up on Scott O’Brian yet, since we have been plagued by that for many years, but I think we need some serious focus in that area. All the Eddie Royals in the world wont get it done without better on blocking on ST’s.

  • Dario

    Pass protection was the #1 item in that game. If Cutler gets that kind of pass protection then he will kill any defense.

    This is probably unpopular to say but Moss doesn’t look like he’s anywhere near a 1st round talent. He could still be serviceable at this point but he’s very disappointing to me. That’s probably another item to lay at the feet of Bates. What a disaster that short year turned out to be.

    Still not thrilled with the defensive pressure on the QB. They will certainly have to implement a blitz system to get pressure at this point.

  • ryan k

    Yeah I was hoping that Moss would be like Marcus Thomas; once he improved his conditioning and acclimated to the NFL schedule he would be ready to go, sadly that has not been the case.

    Maybe the coaches are bogging him down to much with technique or he is over thinking right now, but he just seems slow. I know he is faster than what he has shown and he needs to react instead of think so much. I sure hope the he can find that speed demon nasty player we saw a few years ago at Florida terrorizing Troy Smith.

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    Let’s be more patient with Moss. He has a very serious injury last year. We have no idea how good his conditioning stayed, and he is basically back to being a rookie. He may actually be worse than a rookie right now. If he disappears for the season, he might still turn it into a learning experience and reappear next season.