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Published on 11/18/2011 at Fri Nov 18 17:07.
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Broncos 17 – Jets 13: Game Balls

Posted Fri Nov 18th by

The BroncoTalk Staff gathers following each Broncos win to each hand out game balls. Here are the deserved Denverites following the Broncos’ 17-13 win against the Jets Thursday night.

Von Miller

Von Miller

Once again, I have to give my game ball to Von Miller. Now, there are some who say that Miller is going under the radar. This is totally not true. Tonight, he had 9.5 tackles and 1.5 sacks, a pass deflected and a fumble forced. That is the best stat-line he’s had all year, and he’s been having a pretty good season as it is. He is a beast. He is absolutely deserving of the spot he was drafted at and the massive paycheck he is going to be due because of it. I said it last week and I’ll say it again: Miller is the frontrunner for Defensive Rookie of the Year, and after tonight’s performance I think he should be starting to run away with that award. Tebow may have willed the Broncos to win tonight, but Miller’s performance (alongside a Dumervil who has, in the last three games, started returning to his 2009 form) is a big part of what made that happen. – E. Halsey Miles*

*The piece above was written by Earl, but Josh suggested we all go in on this game ball to VM. I couldn’t agree more. One game ball wasn’t enough to emphasize the impact Miller has had this season, let alone in last night’s game. We’ve been doing game balls on BT for years, but I’m pretty sure this is a BT Game Ball first: kudos and thanks, rook, from all of us, a Game Ball each. – The BT Staff

Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow

I’m having a lot of trouble getting my mind around what happened last night. I think a lot of rational, unbiased media members are; I think a lot of fans from other NFL teams don’t know what to make of it; I think even a good portion of Broncos fans that don’t fall into Tebow-lovers or Tebow-haters are having a similar dilemma… and maybe some of the “Tebow-haters” too.

A lot of commenters have been asking me to update my status on my “Bench Tebow” campaign following the Detroit Lions game. I’m not insane. Of course I don’t want to see Tebow benched anymore. That argument always came with a “If Tebow is struggling and the Broncos are losing…” as a preface.

Every argument I’ve ever made on this website has been influenced by trying to balance my desires for the Broncos to win now and win in the long-term… during the season, that means a lot more “win now” influence. I didn’t think Tim Tebow could win in the NFL. I was wrong.

I still don’t think Tebow can operate a traditional NFL offense and win in the NFL. Not yet. But I’m definitely willing to invest the time as a fan to see if he can grow into it. I’m on board, Pat Bowlen. At least this season. Let’s see where this kid takes us the rest of 2011.

Even if it’s three quarters of filth followed by a quarter of magnificence, game after game, as has been the pattern, at least Tebow will be learning. He’ll be gaining experience with every double-bounced incompletion and overthrown bomb. Plus, the Broncos will be competitive, and it’ll be fun to watch. We can take the pulse of the quarterback position and talk about the future of the franchise in the offseason.

Here’s a Game Ball for Tebow for his amazing 95-yard drive, and for confirming my beliefs that, this year, the Broncos can be a competitive team. And maybe next year, too. – Monty

Andre Goodman

Andre Goodman

Last night Schottenheimer, Sanchez, and Burress started picking on the Denver corner in the 3rd quarter, and it seemed to be working. I even asked the question: “Why isn’t Champ covering Burress?” Then Andre turned it around, locked down his side and waited. A good pass rush, an errant throw turned into the ultimate momentum swing play in football, the pick six. For a guy who gets beat up by Bronco fans a lot Goodman had a nice game. – Josh Temple

Dennis Allen

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen

The defensive game play was the best we have seen out of the Broncos all year. It is no small feat what Dennis Allen has done to reshape this once abysmal defense. I don’t want to jynx it, but Denver looks like they’ve finally found some stability at a position that has seen a different coach for the past seven years. – Mr. East

Eddie Royal

Eddie Royal

One catch 10 yards, his entire stat line. That one play saved the end of the game from disaster and became the spark plug for the winning drive. Sometimes football isn’t about putting up huge numbers, it’s about playing you role well enough to win. Eddie had a nice little Sammy Winder moment 24 years later.

Britton Colquitt

Special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers and punter Britton Colquitt

One of the areas that has played a huge role in the Broncos success the past few weeks and has gone partly unnoticed is the team’s fabulous special teams play. The Broncos have been winning field position battles and the credit for that should go to Rodgers and Colquitt.

If Colquitt does not make the Pro Bowl this season I will be flabbergasted. In the AFC, Colquitt ranks first in net average (42.6) and in the top five in every notable punting statistic. He’s landed 14 punts inside opponents 20-yard line and has a long of 66 yards this season.

Receiver Matt Willis also busted his butt to try and pin New York deep and was successful on one attempt, forcing the Jets to go three-and-out while Cassius Vaughn had a huge kick return (I don’t know why it hasn’t been Vaughn/Royal on kickoff/punt returns all season). The whole special teams unit gets a game ball this week. – Jon Heath

Brodrick Bunkley

Brodrick Bunkley

He might be the most unheralded player on the team deserving of herald… if that’s a word. The rest of the defensive line and pass rush gets in on this too. Bunkley, Elvis Dumervil, Marcus Thomas, and Miller had a field day against the New York Jets offensive line, but Bunkley’s efforts have really stood out of late. – Monty

As always we welcome your thoughts. Who gets your Game Ball, Broncos fans?

Who gets your Week 11 Broncos-Jets Game Ball?

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  • Fan From Spain
  • Anonymous

    Von Miller gets it for me. He is probably the single biggest reason this team has gone 4 – 1 the last 5 games. Tebow is a close second. I don’t know what it is about him but he really does raise the level of play of everyone around him.

  • Anonymous

    I respect Monty for saying he was wrong about his desires to bench Tebow.  It shows his intestinal fortitude. Great piece guys

  • Tom9798

    “I’m having a lot of trouble getting my mind around what happened last night.”
     
    Let me help you.
     
    We were 1-4.  Now we’re 5-5. There is no person on this post or the free world that thought we’d be 5-5. A team needs a leader.  Ask the Colts. We have a leader. 
     
    What we need are true fans.  Not the milk-toast, fair-weather, I’m-sure-I know-it-all fans.
     
    There is a bus waiting for those; maybe it’s going to Oakland; we tacked 38 points on them.
     
    Maybe folks in Oakland can explain all of our QB’s problems.

  • Anonymous

    Ah…the ol’ “you don’t worship at the altar of tebow, so you’re not a real fan” garbage.

    Classic.

  • virginiabronco

    You made a great case for all of them!  Game balls for everyone!  This game  defined a “team win”.

  • Tom9798

    The bus is waiting for you J-O . . . . .

  • virginiabronco

    Give Pat a game ball too while you are at it. 

  • Anonymous

    All I can say about Tom9798’s comment is that regardless of what you think about Tebow, he has brought excitement back to Mile High. I was at the game last night and I have not seen it that juiced up in a long time. Mile High should have received a BT game ball because it was a rocking all night.  Would the crowd have been that pumped up if Orton was under center?  I don’t think so.  If the players feed off that excitement, shouldn’t we be excited for their sakes?  So until we have a better option for QB, maybe the fans that are skeptics and critics of Tebow should put down the hateraid, buy the ticket, and enjoy the ride for the benefit of the team .

  • Anonymous

    Dennis Allen has done a remarkable job with the defense and I’m sure Fox deserves a lot of credit too.

    The good news is the D seems to be getting better with each passing week when this is the time of the year they usually start to go south.

    They have a couple of tough tests coming with Chicago and New England.  Hoping we still feel the same way after those games. 

    Thinking there has to be someone out there, maybe an Unrban Meyer, that could come in as a consultant to work with Tebow on his passing.  I think it’s purely a confidence thing as he was not this bad of a passer in college.  I’m not saying he’s Brady or Rogers, but I believe he is and can be far better than what he’s shown.  Somehow this staff needs to figure out how to crack that code.  They have figured out a lot of stuff, but man, it’s ugly at times.

  • crazykid

    So… what happened to Robert Ayers?

  • http://thingsatrexdoes.tumblr.com Mike Birtwistle

    We need to get Bunkley on a long term contract soon, he’s the most promissing defensive tackle to wear a Broncos Uniform in years..

  • http://thingsatrexdoes.tumblr.com Mike Birtwistle

    “I think a lot of fans from other NFL teams don’t know what to make of
    it; I think even a good portion of Broncos fans that don’t fall into
    Tebow-lovers or Tebow-haters are having a similar dilemma”

    Yep that’s me in a nutshell

  • 5280

    Theres something still erking me about what analysts keep saying about tim tebow. How they dont know what happens in the fourth quarter but he just comes alive out of no where. he doesnt do anything all game long and suddenly he gets a wild hair up his rear end and marches down the field. It’s a miracle.

    No. thats simply not true. you’d think that these “experts” would understand that it has to do with play calling. now understand I’m not saying that John Fox and Mike McCoy aren’t doing a fabulous job. They’ve restructured the playbook, they’ve completely revamped the running game, they’ve really out done themselves. so what I’m about to point out is what you would call growing pains of a team that has just figured out how to use what they have. I think through the last couple of weeks, we’ve all learned exactly what tebow is best at and what he isnt so good at, little by little, and this week i think we’ve learned that they’ve got to just let him do what he does.

    Through the whole game it was pointed out by Mike Mayock many times that the stratagy the jets were using is to pull all of there lighter, quiker DT’s and replace them with Bigger more sturdy ones to stop the run up the gut. This is why nothing worked for the first 3 quarter. Denver kept trying to pound the middle and it wouldnt work because of the meat up front for the jets. but if you notice, through those same three quarters, everytime denver ran the triple option around the edges, more often then not it equalled 5 yrds to a 1st down. the edges were mushy. Denver should have been hitting both edges constantly and taking what the D would give them. that in turn would have tired the DT’s because they’d be running sideline to sideline trying to keep up, therefore making the middle a little mushy at certain times as well.

    This is what turned the game around with 5 minutes to go in the 4th. Fox and McCoy suddenly decided to open up the play book and let tebow hit the edges.  By putting him back in shotgun five wide with an empty backfield it made the defence spread out to account for everyone, making it impossible for them to get to tebow in time to keep him from running 5 to 9 yards on them. it also kept the D from loading the box with 8 men. by putting five wide out there, the defence also had to account for the recievers so they couldnt out rightly go all out blitz on tebow. by giving Tebow free range to run around in the pocket it kept the D off balance. this is something they didnt do the whole game. Could you imagine what’ll happen when tebow becomes more accurate with the football? defences wont know what to do. It wasnt just a miracle. there was method to the maddness, you just have to look for it. i suspect that fox picked up on this and now this will be the next tweek to the playbook: more five wide empty backfield sets and more attacking the edge with the tripple option. especially when the middle is full of meat.

  • Kellyleephipps

    We may lose one more game, but Tebow is going to get better and better with each game…and lead us to the promised land of the playoffs with a record of 10-6 (we may lose one more)…when we reach the playoffs, it better all be clicking, or we might have a quick run…

  • Bry

    Von Monster got my game ball but I would have easily given it to the whole team. A great team win for sure.

    I would have liked to see more production out of the offense however.

    A 3 game win streak..hmm..longest such streak since the first 6 games of the McDaniels Disaster???

  • flbronc

    yea herc, that john elway guy was just the training wheels to get ready for tebow.

  • flbronc

    +1

  • flbronc

    good observation on the dl subs by nyj.  didnt catch that, although i have only watched the game onece. 

    while it looks maddening to continue to hand off to the dive man up the middle, its fully necessary in an option offense.  i watch option teams whenever i can in college (gt, navy, wvu etc..), heck i go to every one of our local hs home games and we run the triple option. 

    think of that dive up the middle as the set up play for everything!  just like a hand off out of the i formation sets up play action.  the fact that you run up the middle holds the lb’s for just a second when you later fake it to him giving the outside guys a step advantage.  every once in a while you break off a decent run up the middle too when teams cheat too much to the edge. 

    while we will seldom get good yardage up the gut, you’ll keep seeing it a lot.

  • guest

    im impressed by that harris kid, hes a really good defensive back, great open field tackling ability. his coverage is good too.

  • Anonymous

    Lets all hold hands and sing songs!

    9 thumbs up!

    Game balls for everyone!

  • Anonymous

    Ha!

  • Anonymous

    Stupid is genetic.

  • Anonymous

    He has been quietly solid at DE.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    If only the coaching staff would start supporting Tebow instead of hating.

  • King

    Lol.  From the looks of Ryan, he needs to do less attacking.  Especially at the dinner table. 

  • virginiabronco

    They are doing better JDK but I want to see how it plays out.  I have been pleasantly surprised since the Detroit game.  I am glad to see they at least gave him a chance.  Now the rest is up to Tebow.  He obviously needs to make progress.  HAve you jumped on the TEbow Train yet?  I see Monty has. 

  • Darwin

    Marcus Thomas played great!  He is made for this defense.  He is quick and a good tackler.  Some love for Marcus everyone.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t see Tebow as the QB of anything but right now.  Now matter how well he does I will not be at all surprised if he got Dilfer’ed.  The Broncos aren’t the classless Sh!tbirds of Baltimore but the NFL is a business.
    I have been and always will be on the Floyd Little train.  Not even being best buds with Uncle Joe Biden will change that.

  • Anonymous

    Add getting healthy and having time to work with a new staff to the defense getting better.  That really helps come draft day because there will be fewer urgent holes to fill.

    Tebow, for whatever reason, has regressed from last season.  He is not adjusting well to the NFL passing game.  He could get away with many things at the college level that he cannot at the NFL level.  I said this before that the difference in talent level between LSU (#1) and FSU (#25) is huge compared to the difference in talent level between the Packers and the Colts.  Tebow doesn’t get any easy games on the schedule any longer.

  • Anonymous

    “Average points scored in 1-4 start: 21.0; points scored in 4-1 rebound: 20.0.”
    Read more:Broncos’ priority No. 1 looks to be solved – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_19370030?obref=obnetwork#ixzz1eFvEWsy1Average points allowed in 1-4 start: 28.0; points allowed in 4-1 rebound: 21.4

  • virginiabronco

    JD I am worried about your health.  Just relax a little and enjoy the wins.  It may all come to an end soon and you can tell us all you told us to but in the mean time enjoy the moment.  We are one game out of first so have a little hope.  Herc seems to be getting through this without a nervous breakdown so I am confident you can too.

  • Rutgersrule

    to all you tebow doubters!!
    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/951114-denver-broncos-tim-tebow-unlike-anything-weve-ever-seen

    ^^all about why tim tebow should be QB because all he does is WIN..great easy quick read for any broncos fan