With Denver Broncos WR Eddie Royal‘s 59-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, the rookie second-round pick out of Virginia Tech set a Broncos single-season rookie record with his fifth touchdown reception. He finished the game with five catches for 84 yards (16.8 avg.) with one touchdown. He also moved into first place in receiving yards (757) by a Denver rookie and also has more receptions (63) than any rookie in club annals.

Royal, who entered the game seventh in the NFL in combined yardage, now has a 50+yard play in four of his last five games.

Doing the division-winning math so you don’t have to…

The Denver Broncos can clinch the AFC West title with a win and San Diego Chargers loss in Week 14. They’ll know if they have a potential division clincher by Thursday night – the Chargers host the Oakland Raiders on Thursday. The Broncos play the Kansas City Chiefs at home on Sunday.

Other ways to win: The Broncos will clinch the division by winning two of their final four games. If the Chargers lose two of their final four games, the Broncos will also clinch. Finally, if all else fails, the Broncos will win the division if they beat the Chargers in Week 17.

Denver Broncos rookie RB Peyton Hillis finished with a career-high 129 yards rushing. (AP Photo)

Peyton Hillis earned his first 100-yard game on the ground, the defense stopped Brett Favre and company on three 4th downs, and the Denver Broncos (7-5) bounced back in a big way to defeat the red-hot New York Jets (8-4) on the road Sunday, 34-17.

The surprising rout started when safety Vernon Fox recovered a first quarter fumble by Thomas Jones 23 yards for a touchdown on a Jets’ trick play. The players switched roles on the next offensive play, when Jones took a 59-yard run past Fox for a touchdown, tying the score 7-7.

From there, it was all Broncos. Jay Cutler was efficient and at times spectacular, the running game took control, and the special teams made enough plays in field position to seal the convincing win.

Combined with the San Diego Chargers‘ loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the Broncos now have a three-game lead in the AFC West heading into Week 14. The Broncos will host the Kansas City Chiefs, while the Chargers host the Oakland Raiders.

vs.
17 – 34
FINAL

BREAKING NEWS: WR Eddie Royal will play. He’s been hindered with a toe injury all week and was listed as Questionable. Broncos CB Champ Bailey and LBs D.J. Williams and Nate Webster are inactive. Josh Bell, Spencer Larsen, and Wesley Woodyard will start for each player, respectively. Full inactives list after the jump. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Week 13, I remember over the summer while Favre-Gate was in full swing, I was living in Tampa, praying that he would end up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All signs pointed to the fact that he would, then he signed with the New York Jets– so I wouldn’t get to see him play all season in person. I moved to New York weeks later coincidentally, after living here for about two-weeks I was asked if I was interested in being a judge for the Miss New York competition (my company is one of the sponsors). Of course I said yes, then I saw the dates- the Friday, Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving… Then the NFL moved the Denver/New York game back, right to the exact time of the competition.

It was too late to cancel and I will miss my first Broncos game since the late ’90’s. What does this all have to do with the scouting report? It means that I won’t get to see if what I’m talking about actually happens until long after it’s actually happened. That makes me a bit reserved for some reason, that’s right- the man that predicted the Broncos would make the playoffs (and go 13-3 in the meantime, but hey, I picked them to lose to the Raiders once) is playing it a bit reserved. I will hit on every point that Denver will need to focus on in order to beat the Jets though.

Let me start with this, if you’re in New York you would see that the press is already predicting a New York/New York Super Bowl. One paper has already drawn up position-by-position match-ups. With the win over the Tennessee Titans the New York (East Coast) Press has taken the Cinderella Jets, led by Brett Favre and anointed them King of the AFC- normally I take a shot at the Denver media, but today I’m going to hit closer to home…

Dear East Coast Media Bias,

Your golden children have lost to the: New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. Oh and they barely squeaked by the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs.

Sincerely,
Reality

What makes New York a better team than Denver? Denver has beat two of the teams the Jets have lost to. The Jets are 1-2 against the AFC West, the Broncos are 0-2 against the AFC East. To me, really, the most striking difference in quality of wins is that Denver pulled the NFC South (Tampa, New Orleans, Atlanta and Carolina) and New York pulled the weak NFC West (Arizona, Seattle, St. Louis and San Francisco). Let me point out specifically Tampa, as that is the best defense either team combined has faced. Tampa is fourth as a team in defense, Tennessee is seventh.

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Injury Report for the Denver Broncos vs. New York Jets NFL game for Sunday, November 30, 2008.

The BroncoTalk staff would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Despite the holiday, the Broncos still practiced on Thursday, and, as usual, there’s good and bad news to report. Here’s the not so good news… Eddie Royal is listed as Limited during practice.

The remaining question – will the Broncos get their defensive playmakers back? Champ Bailey, D.J. Williams, and Nate Webster have all been limited in practice this week. These Broncos have missed nine man-games combined.

Every week, we’ll keep you updated on the latest playoff movement from within the division and around the AFC.

First Round Bye
1. Tennessee Titans (10-1, 7-1)
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3, 7-1)

Other division winners
3. New York Jets (8-3, 6-3)
4. Denver Broncos (6-5, 3-5)

Wild Card
5. Indianapolis Colts (7-4, 6-2)
6. Baltimore Ravens (7-4, 6-3)

On the cusp:
Miami Dolphins (6-5, 5-3)
New England Patriots (7-4, 5-4)
Buffalo Bills (6-5, 4-4)
San Diego Chargers (4-7, 4-5)

Notes:
There were no changes in the seeding. Imagine that!

AFC West — While the rest of the AFC West is winless against the NFC South, the Broncos are 3-0 against teams in the tough division. The problem – those games mean next to nothing in AFC and division tiebreaker scenarios. The Chargers are still knocking at the door – one game makes the difference between a meaningless Week 17 and an all-or-nothing game.

Broncos at Jets — Neither team did what they were “supposed to” this weekend. With a Jets loss and a Broncos win, this game would have gone a long ways to deciding the conference’s third seed. Now it doesn’t quite have that luster – maybe that’s because the Jets were probably the best football team last week, and the Broncos were among the worst. Denver can still do good for itself by beating the Jets – but they’d still need the Jets to lose a game more than the Broncos.

It’s been a whirlwind month for safety Roderick Rogers. A practice squad team member for the Broncos through the first nine weeks of this season, Rogers was signed to the active roster on November 4th. A few weeks later, Rogers was making his first career start against the Oakland Raiders.

That one start was all Rogers got – the Denver Broncos announced that they released the second-year player on Tuesday.

Quite simply, Mike Shanahan said he was looking for someone to step up at the safety position, and gave Rogers that shot. Rogers didn’t take advantage. “We are looking for a difference maker at the safety position. Someone who can run, support the run and also cover the pass. Those guys are hard to find, but we will keep on giving people opportunities until we find someone who steps up and takes advantage of it.”

It’s the cruel, cold business side of the NFL. Do I like it? Not one bit. Let’s stop fumbling in the dark looking for answers and just stick to our guns – leave Marlon McCree (once healthy) or Calvin Lowry in there and leave them in there. Enough is enough. Maybe they’ll, I don’t know, IMPROVE, just a bit, as time goes on. Better than signing and releasing players left and right.

Press release, in all its three-sentence glory, after the jump. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Another week, another… Bronco column. I was back to Beckett’s for the third week in a row, I’ve met several Broncos fans (shout out to Waylon and that gorgeous waitress)- we’ve formed a bit of a monopoly in the corner of the upstairs area. So if you’re in New York City, come join us. There are fans from everywhere, Harvard graduates, London footballers, men and women.

The loss to the Oakland Raiders brings me to something that I was going to write about a couple weeks ago- how am I going to justify to my girlfriend that she should spend her Sunday watching the Broncos with me? The women in our ragtag group of Colorado/Wyoming ex-patriots are dripping in sarcasm. For example, when Jay Cuter’s full-screen “Mr. 4^th Quarter,” graphic popped up, it showed that Cutler has thrown eight touchdowns and two interceptions in the fourth quarter this season.

“So he throws an interception twenty percent of the time?” said the young lady sitting next to me- surprisingly, this wasn’t the Harvard grad, but this does pretty much summarize why I love women.

Here are some facts, I’m going to give them to you straight:

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