DEN vs DAL: Post Game Notes

It has been suggested that our little fan blog is a bit too optimistic about the Broncos… no kidding?

Well, we are a FAN blog for goodness sake. :)

As most of you know, for the last two preseason games I’ve been making (mostly humorous) predictions. One ‘fan’ actually accused me last week of being very unrealistic when making my predictions. In fact, it was suggested that most of my predictions were wishful thinking and a product of overestimating our 2008 team. However, even though I’m far from perfect, this week I got pretty close to nailing these predictions.

Luckily I’m not above ‘rubbing it in’, so let’s take a look…

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O-line Prediction: I think we see improvement from both Ryans, but not perfection. There are going to mistakes but I think we’ll see fewer penalties from Harris and more confidence from Clady. The middle of the line did well last week and I think we’ll see some running lanes tomorrow for Young and our stable of backs as well as decent pass protection. That said… I think Cutler gets sacked for the first time tomorrow – the Dallas defense is pretty good folks.

REALITY: I’ll leave the offical O-line breakdown to Kyle, but from my perspective both Ryan’s did do better this week. We had no penalties from Harris (the only one’s from the O-line were from Kuper and Scheffler). We did have running lanes (some really HUGE ones in fact), but I was wrong on Cutler’s first sack. I guess I was a little pesimistic, myself.

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WR Prediction: Marshall burns Adam ‘no-longer-Pacman’ Jones all night long. Look for Royal to make some fantastic move which enables him to gain big yardage and a nice highlight reel moment. Later in the game, I hope to see Glenn make some good catches and I’d love to see Stokley grab one for a critical 3rd down conversion.

REALITY: I was pretty close here… Marshall didn’t get to burn Jone’s directly, but ended up making great plays and a TD catch, Royal had a couple good grabs and snatched that pass in coverage for your highlight moment, Glenn took a big shoot after the catch later in the game (but held onto the ball) and Stokley snagged a nice 3rd down ball wth was inches from a conversion (we converted on 4th down and a play later got a TD).

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RB Prediction: This is Hall’s best, last chance to prove he should be the starting RB. It would take an unbelievable game for Hall to jump past Young, but it’s possible. In unbiased fairness, I think Young is positioned to have great game tomorrow. I think he’ll be locking up that starting job tomorrow evening.

REALITY: I was wrong on this one, folks. I know Young racked up more yards, but in my opinion Hall had a much better evening. I’d be interested on what you all thought about this, but I think Hall out-played Young on Saturday. Starting with his 32 yard kickoff return and then finishing off that short yardage goal-line TD, it just seemed to me like Hall was on FIRE. As much as I ‘wished’ Hall would light it up this weekend, I assumed our O-line would be running smooth enough for Young to easily lock that position down. That wasn’t the case as Hall did his best to keep the door (and the competition) open for another week.

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DB Prediction: I’ll give our defensive backs at least one INT on the night. I would also give the Dallas receivers a TD or two, but that’s hardly a surprising prediction.

REALITY: In the breakdown I said that our DB’s would be tested. With Champ out, Foxy ended up being the one targeted on Saturday (he got beat twice by Miles Austin – once for a TD). And while it wasn’t one of our starters, Jack Williams did come up with an INT for the game. So, that would be one INT for our guys and one receiver TD for Dallas… I’m not doing too bad at this predicting gig. :)

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LB Prediction: I expect Niko to have a more visible performance this time out; however, I have to suggest that Webster remains more dominate in the Middle even on the second team defense. I’m also looking forward to see Wesley Woodyard again. That guy has made my preseason game 4th quarters actually entertaining!

REALITY: Yes, Niko started and according to (former MIKE LB) D.J. Williams he did well leading the first team defense.

“He was great today. He’s a natural leader, so having him in the huddle helps me out a lot.” — DJ Williams about Niko 8/16/08

That said, Niko only came up with one tackle on the night. Likewise Webster also ended the evening with a very muted game and one tackle. I think the one thing that I remember about Webster’s game was his missed tackle of Felix Jones (Webster doesn’t usually miss those so it stood out). I think we’ll see more of both guys taking first team reps as the competition for MIKE is not over yet. Luckly, no matter who wins the starting job, we’ll have two good players on the roster providing us some needed depth in the middle. Jamie Winborn had a good outing again on Saturday as he and Wesley Woodyard both had 4 tackles (coming in second and third in number of tackles behind Foxy).

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D-line Prediction: Elvis Dumervil gets his first sack of the preseason. And, what the heck, Nic Clemons gets one too!

REALITY: Doom got his first sack right on cue, but Nic Clemon’s didn’t end up getting one – my bad.

In general our line did well against the run and provided some moments of great pass pressure (even when rushing three). Barber was held to 22 yards versus the first team D-line which definitely is a good sign.

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Back-up QB Prediction: I honestly think both guys [Johnson & Ramsey] will have average games and that will just prolong the media and fan driven discussions about both backups.

REALITY: The battle of the backups wasn’t entirely fair really. Brad Johnson played with his team’s first unit O-line to begin with so his numbers might be better than Patrick Ramsey‘s for that reason. However, either way you cut it Brad looked a bit sharper on the field. He completed 9 of 12 for 114 yards and one TD. Ramsey had 67 yards total and was 8 of 13. Neither were picked off, which means the fan/media driven saga about these two backups will continue.

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Speical Team Prediction: Prater nails 100% of his field goal attempts under 45 yards. If he attempts one near 50 yards out he misses it to right or left but has plenty of distance. Eddie Royal, Glenn Martinez and Marquay McDaniel all do well… no TD return though. :(

REALITY: uh… Could I have gotten any better on these predictions even if I had a crystal ball?! Prater was perfect under 45 yards with kicks good at 29, 19 and 43 yards. He also missed one (at 49 yards) with plenty of distance, however it was wide left. The returners all did well, but no TD’s on the returns.

For your fortune or to find out what your lucky numbers are, please contact me anytime. :)

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All kidding aside, Denver did well this game. We have things to work on but we showed improvement in almost every area of the game and Cutler (as Kyle has pointed out) was AWESOME! I think we can play the ‘prediction game’ all off-season, but until these guys come out and get it done we won’t become recognized as a top tier team in the league (by ESPN and even some fans). In the end, we have to be better than simply a great young team on paper. We need to be a great young team on Sundays.

I personally think we have the tools and the talent to make that happen. I have said for over a year now, that we will be a playoff team in Cutler’s second (full) year. I have also stated that we will go to the Super Bowl in Cutler’s third (full) year.

I guess I can only hope those predictions stand up as well as the ones from this game did!

Photos by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images (1, 2), AP/David Zalubowski