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Brandon Stokley‘s catch set a few records, both NFL and personal. (Watch it again.)

• It is the longest game-winning play in the last minute of a 4th quarter in NFL history.
• It is now the longest completion of Kyle Orton‘s career at 87 yards.
• It is also Stokley’s career long, quite remarkable considering the number of balls he caught from Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler through the years.

Stokley and Royal celebrate the Broncos' amazing last-minute win against the Bengals. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

Just a grip of post-game quotes from the coaches and all the big players from Sunday’s 12-7 victory. Josh McDaniels, Marvin Lewis, Brandon Stokley, Kyle Orton, and Wesley Woodyard, among others, talk about the big game.

JOSH McDANIELS

Have you ever been associated with a play that crazy?

“No. I’ve seen it happen one time to my father, but we were on the good side of that one too. You just have to play as long as they’ll let you, and we did. Our guys kept fighting, obviously. We made one more play than they did today.”

Does the defense get credit for the win today?

“The defense played well. Our plan was solid. We wanted to stop the running game with six or seven guys up there and take away the big plays, which we did for the most part. I know we missed some tackles and gave up some big plays after catches. But I thought we disrupted (Carson Palmer’s) rhythm, and didn’t let him get going. Offensively, we didn’t do enough with the ball. At the end of the game, they had the ball for 33-34 minutes. We wore down a bit on that last drive. And give credit to the Bengals. They moved the ball down the field well at the end.” Click here to read the rest of this entry »

The Immaculate Deflection: Brandon Stokley‘s 87-yard catch off a Leon Hall tipped ball leads to the Denver Broncos‘s 12-7 Week One victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Clip of the amazing play — perhaps the play of the season — below!

Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley (14) celebrates in the end zone after scoring an 87-yard pass reception in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009, in Cincinnati. Denver won the game 12-7. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

The game was over.

After being shut out for 54 minutes, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer led his team 91 yards down the field for a touchdown. After trailing the entire game, the Bengals were suddenly facing a sure-win, up one point with less than 40 seconds to go against a Denver Broncos offense that had stumbled all afternoon. No one on the Broncos offense had made a play.

Then, Brandon Stokley made a play.

In what will be remembered as perhaps the greatest opening day play in Broncos history, Bengals DB Leon Hall tipped an Orton throw intended for Brandon Marshall high into the air. Brandon Stokley, without a catch up to that point, just happened to be at the right place at the right time. The third-year Bronco took the tipped ball 87 yards untouched to the end zone, and the Broncos went on to win 12-7. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

@
Broncos (0-0) at Bengals (0-0)
Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009
Paul Brown Stadium
1:00 pm ET CBS
GameBlog starts at 12:30

Denver 12, Cincinnati 7 FINAL

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Anything less would be uncivilized. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

So here we stand Denver, backs against the walls, every critic in the world has predicted us to do absolutely nothing this year. As I often say to Kyle, “We’ve got them right where we want them,” because I don’t like expectations. I want three things in life: I want to be the best dressed, most charming and I want to be right. Well, I’ve been a huge success thus far and I’ve got a whole lot more life to live, miles away buddy.

So we lost a quarterback, we gained a team. Not a defense, but an offense, a defense and a special teams… Worth their weight in gold- no more cringing! Seriously…

“One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.” – Napoleon Bonaparte.

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How does a fan cope when his team heads in what he believes is the wrong direction?

Mike Shanahan: out.  Jay Cutler: out.  Seven defensive starters from 2008: out (OK, this one’s not so bad).

In: Josh McDaniels.  In: Kyle Orton.  In: Mike Nolan, Brian Dawkins, Ronald Fields and Andre Goodman.

And that really tells you everything about the Denver Broncos‘ 2009 offseason.  The times, and the team, they are a-changing. 50 years from its inception, the Broncos have never had an offseason with as much turnover as this one.

Whether the changes are for the better remains to be seen. But to answer the original question: there are many ways to cope. Anger. Resentment. Rationalization. Sadness. Blind faith.

All of them have their virtues and bring one to different conclusions. It’s taken me an entire offseason to come to mine: Hope for the best. Brace for the worst. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Injury Report for the Week 1 NFL game between the Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals. View Wednesday, Thursday injury reports.

Brian Dawkins makes his first appearance on the team’s injury report, having full participation all week and being listed as probable. Interesting that both QB’s are questionable, which technically means they have a 50/50 chance of playing. I’d say I’m most concerned about the availability of Chris Kuper – will our starting right guard tough it out, or will we be seeing Russ Hochstein on Sunday? Meanwhile, it looks like WR Chris Henry will bounce back after missing practice yesterday. Bengals injury report after the jump. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton, left, talks to coach Josh McDaniels during the team's third preseason game against the Chicago Bears. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski )

Can you smell it in the air? Football is HERE baby! Josh McDaniels talks about the regular season and preparations for the Cincanniti Bengals for the Denver Broncos‘ season opener. Thanks as always to the Broncos PR staff. Enjoy!

HEAD COACH JOSH McDANIELS

On seeing the results of preseason efforts

“(We are) very excited. I think we have a better idea, probably, than everybody outside of this building of what we think we are going to put out there, but there is always a little bit of uncertainty before you get out there opening day. You want to get out there and get the butterflies out of the way and start playing football and trying to execute the way you need to. I think our entire team and all of our staff are excited for Sunday, just looking forward to the opportunity of playing a real game.” Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Ugh… I though it was at 9 p.m. Nope it was at 8:15. However to my surprise I had the first overall pick so thank you autodraft for Adrian Peterson! However I am appalled by the Matt Cassell pick. I just hope good ole A-Pete carries the team… like in real life.

By the way I need a clever team name. Bang it out in the comments.

Round: 1
** (1) Team East – Adrian Peterson RB
(2) Open Dislocations – Maurice Jones-Drew RB
(3) Team Hoang – Michael Turner RB
(4) Miami Bronchitis – Drew Brees QB
(5) Team Vegas – Matt Forte RB
(6) The King – Steven Jackson RB
(7) Bucking Broncos – Larry Fitzgerald WR
(8) Born To Kill – DeAngelo Williams RB
(9) Under Cutler’s Shadow – LaDainian Tomlinson RB
(10) Tequila’s Revenge – Tom Brady QB
(11) BMarsh’s  Practice P.J.s – Andre Johnson WR
(12) DogHead Brewers – Brandon Jacobs RB Click here to read the rest of this entry »