Wednesday’s practice was filled with the typical assortment of big plays, but there were also some “dings” in practice that Head Coach John Fox addressed after the session.
ROLL CALL
Ryan Clady (knee irritation), Brian Dawkins (ankle irritation) and Brandon Lloyd (knee irritation) did not finish practice, though Fox said that was just precautionary. “Nothing serious,” he said.
In addition, Ty Warren, Marcus Thomas, Demaryius Thomas, Richard Quinn, Stanley Daniels and Ronnell Brown (ankle sprain) did not participate in practice.
WHAT’S THE SCENARIO
In the final team drills of practice, the players worked through two end-of-game scenarios. In the first, the offense was down, 25-20, with 1:40 left on the clock and the ball at its own 40-yard line.
Kyle Orton and the first-team offense stepped up first, and the quarterback got right to work. He immediately found Knowshon Moreno on a screen pass that gained 19 yards, though the clock continued to run. So Orton ran back to the line and quickly took the snap, looking to his left to fool the defensive backs before firing a pass to Britt Davis on the right sideline all the way to the 13-yard line.
From there, Orton found Eric Decker with a sharp pass at the 5-yard line. Moreno took a carry down to the 3-yard line, and the offense called its only timeout. On the next play, Chris Kuper quickly shouted instructions to Orlando Franklin on who he was supposed to block, and Orton took the snap. Franklin proceeded to keep Von Miller out of the backfield as Orton fired a pass to Matt Willis in the end zone to put the offense up a point.
The offense stayed on the field to go for two — and Moreno made it worth their while, finding paydirt on a carry for the conversion.
Next up was Brady Quinn. He started by finding D’Andre Goodwin for a quick 10-yard first down, then hooked up with the receiver for a 4-yard gain on the next play. But the defense picked up on second down, as Mario Haggan sniffed out a screen pass to Brandon Minor, taking the running back down in the backfield. That set up third-and-11, but Quinn calmly found Virgil Green in the middle of the field for a first down at the defense’s 31-yard line.
The next two plays belonged to David Bruton. Quinn tried to find Green again, but Bruton was there to break up the pass with 45 seconds left on the clock. On the very next play, he jumped in front of what looked to be a screen pass — or a short floater — for an interception before taking a knee to seal the win for the defense.
TWO-MINUTE, TAKE TWO
The second scenario had the offense down 25-23 with 23 seconds left on the clock, facing a third-and-10 at the defense’s 40-yard line.
Orton took his rep first, and immediately found Eric Decker for a first down at the 25-yard line. The offense jogged back to the line and Orton spiked the ball with 1.3 seconds remaining, allowing Steven Hauschka to line up for a field goal — which he knocked through the uprights as time expired to give the offense the win.
Next up was Tim Tebow. The quarterback’s third-down attempt fell incomplete, so Matt Prater jogged onto the field on fourth down for a 57-yard field goal attempt to win the game for the offense. He split the uprights by a long shot.
PLAYMAKERS
QUICK HITS
DAILY JUKEBOX
The final open practice of training camp is tomorrow morning from 8:50 to 11:30 a.m., so if you haven’t made it to Dove Valley yet, come on out!
More photos from this afternoon’s session below.
-Gray Caldwell
Tags: Training Camp
sounds like our O and D are learning each other well
now to use that knowledge on Game Days!!!
Glad to see Bruton step up today. I’ve been a big fan of his.
Interesting that Quinn got the reps when the team was down 5 and Tebow got the reps in the 2 point situation. That backup QB spot seems to be more and more competitive with each practice.
McCarthy continues to play well. I still have my doubts about him but certainly welcome his continued improvement to prove me wrong. Looks like he worked hard this offseason.
Nice seeing Fells getting involved in the passing game a little more today. He’s a big target that Orton needs to locate in the red zone.
Lastly, so relieved that Clady’s injury is not considered serious. I saw earlier today that he had been pulled from practice and immediately expected the worst. Huge relief.
57 yard field goal is also great to see. Atta boy Prater
It seems like each day Miller is getting a sack in practice!!! I really hope he notches his first NFL sack on Saturday. I hope he actually gets 2-3 sacks and shows Dareus just why we picked Miller over him!! I hope he gets at least 1 since the 1′s should be getting more playing time this Saturday!! Dang, I just can’t believe it’s still 3 days away!!! This is taking soooo long!!
Can anyone explain to me why one player has a torn pec, the other a turn tri, yet their timetable for a return seems to be far apart.
I love the intensity Dennis Allen is bringing to the D! Each player has to do 20 up and downs before their first practice! This D will slowly but surely get back to the Orange Crush days!!
AceII, one is a *strained* pec, so it is not as serious as Doom’s was last year
Franklin kept Miller outta the backfield so the Offense could get a TD…good news maybe he will be a good pass blocker after all!!!!
Not much talk about Tebow in practice,not good news!
Glad to see the ‘Brute’ stepping it up,if we have to cut a Safety,I’d rather cut McBath and keep the Brute,Moore,Carter,and McCarthy!!!..Dawk will be gone next year,imo.
Orton spun around and found Fells on a screen pass!
or Orton spun around and fell…..LMAO!
Prater nailed a 57 yarder,way to go Prater!!!!
Irving looks good in that #56 jersey,do Al proud Irving!!!!!
I was just about to say how great that #56 looks on Irving lol I love it. Yea the safety cuts will be very interesting, no obvious choice at this point. I’d prefer McBath but the way McCarthy is playing I can’t deny supporting him. Good problem to have because I guaranttee any of the safeties we cut will get picked up on waivers immediately
Prater is angry with himself I bet and taking it out on the football, HOTDOG, 57 yards. YAH!!
I want more tebow news lol. Is it just me or does almost all quinn drives end in INTs? Lol. I hope McBath stays. Unlike mccarthy who I am proud of by the way, McBath has actually done well in real season game. With the chance of this being Dawks last year don’t think we should cut any safety so after dawk is gone we still have 5 mcbath moore bruton mccarthy and carter. Its been a while since too much safeties was a issue for the broncos. Plus we already lost barrett don’t wanna lose another one. They can contribute on special teams. I cannot wait for this sat. Wish the game was on thurs like last week. Later day TRB out
TRB
This is what Jeff Legwold at DP had to say about the QQ:
Quarterback watch
Kyle Orton — A good day overall, including moving the team to a touchdown in two-minute work. A scoring pass to a leaping tight end Daniel Fells in red-zone drills may have been his best throw of the afternoon.
Tim Tebow — Split reps with the second-team offense. Was intercepted by safety Kyle McCarthy in team drills when he underthrew Matt Willis.
Brady Quinn — Opened two-minute work with the second-team offense. Was intercepted by David Bruton to end his two-minute drive.
Adam Weber — Threw a scoring pass to tight end Dante Rosario in red-zone
work.
Let’s see what happens on Saturday evening. TT should rise to the ocassion on Saturday in front of the home crowd!
I hear ya TRB,I like McBath too,but I thought somebody said we were gonna cut a Safety,so I assumed since McBath was injured a few times it would be him,but hey I hope we keep all the Safeties too,when healthy,McBath had some flashes last year!
Moore,McBath,Carter,Bruton,McCarty,and Dawk..don’t know if we keep 6 Safeties or not,if I had to cut one it would be……….sorry Dawk!
But I know we are not gonna cut him,so we will see what happens!
Sounds like a very productive practice session! No major injuries reported, which was nice for once. The Deck back out there. Nicer! I have to admit the injuries are become an “irritation” of sorts.
So is tomorrow the last day of training camp? Or just the last public practice?
Next year I will definitely make one!
And I’m in full agreement TRB. Keep all the safties!
I love all our safeties. I say keep Dawkins, Moore, McBath, Carter, and bruton and put McCarthy on practice squad. I still believe in McBath and Bruton is to valuable at special teams to cut.
All those “irritations” irritate me.
So glad to see my choice for backup qb rising up and being competitive…GO BRADY QUINN….just saying. I don’t understnd the Tebow hype machine. People don’t seem to realize that this is not a BAD team. We had HORRIBLE leadership the last few years, and that has turned around. We have the talent to be competitive and actually win now. The Chargers are not dominate, nor are the Chiefs or Raiders. So why “give up” on this year. Ride the Orton train…get behind him and push this team over the top, is what I say. I am not an Orton “fan” but what I am is a student of the game and I think that Orton givs the team a better chance to win…heck a lot of the PLAYERS believe that as well. I am glad everyone will get their Tebow fix during the preseson because I hope to all that I hope to that we don’t get to see him when the games matter…..
Hey Carnage, Orton was part of that crappy leadership. No enthusiasm and a wimp when it counted to score…Go Tebow!
Like I said before, Orton is doing well in practice, but he has no pressure. I want to see what he does when the game is on the line with 2:00 are left in the game & we need a TD to win the game. Now thats pressure. Last year in the same situations he didn’t do very well.
Orton will start the season playing pretty good because that is what he always does, but what we will have to wait and see is if the new gameplan with more of an emphasis on running the ball and stopping the run helps KO’s arm sustain the entire season. That hopefully combined with a proper amount of Tebow packages and we might actually have a winning formula
WE HAVE TO WIN THE DIVISION THIS YEAR
Who thinks that we have too much talent at WR and S to choose from? Cause I do. I do know that Carter, Dawk, and Moore will make it, but It’s a toss up between Bruton, McBath, and McCarthy. Bruton is a ST type of guy, and I haven’t seen enough of the other two to know how good they’ll do. I dunno. And then WR is loaded, with Lloyd, Decker, Royal, Willis, and Anderson. Then there’s Thomas who is dealing with the Achilles thing. And did we keep Dell?
It sucks that the game is on Sat night I have to work and miss the game even though I purchased the pre season ticket on my pc, so now I have to wait till Sun at 1pm EST to watch the game on the NFL network. Oh well. :~(