Man, don’t you just love football?

With every game but two in the books, 28 teams have gotten to see their teams out on the field for the first time this season to judge how they’re going to be. Some were disappointing (ahem New Orleans, Philadelphia). Some surprised a bit (Minnesota, Detroit), and others still have question marks before we can figure them out (Washington, Miami). Here are my power rankings, post week 1.

1. Indianapolis Colts | PREVIOUS: 1

Talk about a statement game. The Colts looked better than last year in their crushing of the Saints.

2. New England Patriots | PREVIOUS: 2

I didn’t think Randy Moss would have such a big and immediate impact. 180 yards later and I’m singing a different tune – this team will be hard to beat.

3. Baltimore Ravens | PREVIOUS: 4

These guys move up without playing, mainly because last week’s #3 moved down.

4. San Diego Chargers | PREVIOUS: 3

Is there a formula for beating this team? Defensively, the Bears did enough to give their offense the chance to win. But only putting 3 points on the board just isn’t enough, because even if Philip Rivers struggles, Ladainian Tomlinson will carry this team with both his legs AND his arm.

5. Denver Broncos | PREVIOUS: 7

This team is right where I want them when you consider all the new pieces in place – insanely efficient most of the time, with just the little details tripping us up at the end. Give us another few weeks to truly gel and some of these “cohesion mistakes” will fall by the wayside. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Reserve Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett suffered a horrible injury to start the second half of yesterday’s game against the Bills. And now, his ability to walk and overall quality of life have come into question.

The surgery has been called “lengthy” and “serious,” and right now Everett is reportedly in intensive care and on a respirator. Several bone chips were removed through the surgery, and the doctors are insistent that the Bills make no speculative announcements regarding Everett’s future in any way at this point.

Several Broncos mentioned concern for Everett, including Jason Elam, who began his press conference Q&A by voicing concern for the tight end.

Everyone at BroncoTalk wishes Everett the best – our prayers are with him and his family, and for the best possible news from his doctors.

If you have NFL Network, catch yesterday’s amazing game on NFL Replay tonight at 5:30 ET.

HT: TheSportsGuru over at MHR for this. The clip from last night’s final seconds has been posted on YouTube and is definitely worth a watch.

Jason Elam told fans that, while it may look crazy, this play has a name and has been practiced, and he was happy to see it executed so well.

“We had no timeouts and we call the play torro. Everyone was ready and we knew what we had to do. It looks like chaos, but there is a method to the madness. I got out there with about 5 seconds left and tried to get to my spot and the next thing I knew it was going through.”

By merlinofchaos, Contributing Editor

…try to rush your kicking team out on the field while the announcers are screeching that they don’t think there’s going to be time to kick the winning field goal…and your kicker, who has uncharacteristically missed two already this game manages to kick it right down the center of the goal posts.

We screamed so loud that our poor four month old child had to be consoled that no, nothing was wrong, we were actually quite happy! Poor thing could be in for some scary Sundays this season if the Broncos keep doing that to us!

A couple of days ago I wrote that I wasn’t with the rest of Bronco Nation in freaking out about our defense. I believe in DJ Williams. I remember his rookie year, and I accept that he’s making a tough transition, and that he’ll get it. And did he get it today. He was definitely doing a good job out there today.

The defense did a fine job. They gave up just the one touchdown and made a number of extremely impressive third down stops. Marshawn Lynch did fairly well, but he did not run all over us like the naysayers were predicting. As I thought, the defense was fine.

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Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler (6) passes to Broncos’ Travis Henry (not shown) during the first quarter of the NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (Photo Courtesy AP/David Duprey)

If you were looking for last minute drama in the NFL Week 1, you got it. The Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills off the last second field goal of Jason Elam seconds after quarterback Jay Cutler got them in field goal range.

The stats for the game don’t indicate the score behind it – the Broncos were behind every minute of the game after Buffalo’s Roscoe Parrish returned a punt for 74 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Statistically, though, the Broncos offense dominated the Bills in everything but scoring. Jay Cutler threw for 304 yards compared to Bills quarterback J.P. Losman‘s 97 yards passing.   While Bills rookie running back Marshawn Lynch looked impressive (19 carries for 90 yards and a 4.7 average), Travis Henry showed he was worth the money the Broncos paid him, carrying the ball 23 times for 139 yards and a 6.0 average.

But this game would be decided by Special Teams.

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The Bills haven’t looked impressive on offense, while the Broncos have. But the scoreboard reads 7-6 Buffalo at halftime thanks to the impressive 74-yard punt return by Roscoe Parrish in the first quarter.

STUDS – For the Broncos offense, Javon Walker and Travis Henry have been impressive, garnering 46 yards and 65 yards respectively. Also making a big splash in his first game as a Bronco is tight end Daniel Graham. Elam has been consistent with 2/2 field goals. Henry is Offensive MVP – Dre Bly is my defensive MVP off that impressive pass defense (clutch!).

DUDS – Special Teams looked horrible. Besides the return, even our own return game left something to be desired. The defensive line had a few big plays, but they looked tired during most of the first half.

Both teams were threatening late in the second quarter, but their young quarterbacks made dumb mistakes and threw interceptions. The Broncos hope they can fend off the Bills Special Teams for another half and get in the end zone rather than settling for three.

More after the game!

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Usually I’ll have this post a solid couple of hours before kickoff, but it couldn’t be helped to day. For all the readers out there, I have one simple question:

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

The game airs on CBS in much of the Western part of the country. Good news for me, being in Arizona. If you can’t get the game on your local TV, and you can’t afford/can’t get DirectTV NFL Sunday Ticket, I highly recommend Sirius Satellite Radio, where you can catch the home and away broadcasts of every NFL game. For subscribers, tune in to 143 for the Broncos gamecast. Or stop by NFL.com and they have a subscription package that will let you listen via the Internet.

Consider this an open thread for anyone who decides to drop by during game time. I’ll have a halftime report and several post-game thoughts today.

(It’s not even 10 AM where I live – nothing like Broncos and Cheerios baby!!!)

No more preseason games. No more training camp with red “don’t hit me” jerseys. No more season previews and predications. It’s real now. The Broncos are back for another great NFL season, with new faces leading the way. Week 1 hasn’t gone our way in several years – but this is a different team than what took the field the past few years.

Finally… FINALLY… football is back in a matter of minutes. Thanks for the great off season, for anyone reading, and get ready for an amazing 17 weeks. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

At halftime last night, I actually thought, “Hey I might be wrong about the Saints. They look like a legit team after all.”

31 points later and I wasn’t singing the same tune.

Every week, Jonathan and I will go through and select our weekly winners of each game. Since he’s on the road this weekend at the Toronto Film Festival, I get the benefit of picking weekly contests without the consequences (although if I ace this thing – unlikely – I’ll be including it in the running total).

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Travis Henry is “the man” in the Denver – something the Broncos really haven’t been able to say since Clinton Portis. Since then, it’s been all about the running back by committee philosophy in Denver, often in spite of fantasy football players everywhere. Go to a live draft, mention you’re a Broncos fan, and see what happens – chances are you’ll hear some variation of “God, I hate Mike Shanahan!”.

For any Mike Bell owners out there, they’re still shouting it.

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