Minutes after the Broncos pulled out a 24-22 win against the Cincinnati Bengals, Owner and CEO Pat Bowlen called up the team in the locker room.
Players took a knee as Bowlen awarded the game ball — kept after the team’s final kneel-down — to Head Coach John Fox for his first win.
You can check out the photo above — Fox holds the ball up, post-Gatorade shower.
Speaking of which, Brian Dawkins said the Gatorade dump almost didn’t happen.
“It almost slipped my mind for a split second, but I hustled over there to get him that,” he smiled. “He definitely deserved that. This was a tough, tough victory. A grind-it-out victory, and I’ll take it.”
Tags: Game Ball, Head Coach John Fox, Owner and CEO Pat Bowlen
Brian-
KC is definitely in deep trouble lol. I figured there would be a drop off from last season but not to this extent… WOW.
I love Eddie Royal but man, he never seems to be able to finish a full game anymore without tweaking this or tweaking that. And now this? Our once deep wide receiving core is now becoming a concern after 2 weeks of the year.
Bay…
Didn’t you predict us to lose as well?
Beggining the 2nd half on defense, did you all see how fresh and fired up they were? A 3 & out right off the git-go to begin the 2nd half. That’s what our defense can play like when they’re fresh. The D needs to find ways to make a stop on 3rd down but us going 3 & out after the opponents had a nice long drive on them doesn’t help them. That’s why it is so important to sustain drives and score. Not only does it help you control the tempo of the game it gives your defense a rest. We sure don’t need to rest our offense those drives by Cinci should have had our offense well rested.
I do have to say Dalton..didn’t look like a rookie and neither did A.J. Green. They made Goodman look like a rookie though.
The Chiefs have been outscored 89-10….89-10! Maybe its all topsy-turvy this season, Chiefs will be 4-12, Broncos 6-10, Raiders 8-8, Chargers 10-6?
The Chiefs are dropping big name players like flies to IR.
Well, great win by our boys……albeit too close for comfort against a team that should’ve been an easier win. But I’ll take but not get too excited over it as the task at hand next week will be much larger.
My thoughts on the game….it was extremely close as I predicted…..with just a few more points being scored.
First off, Seeing Cedric Benson’s butt displayed on national tv was hilarious. I was wondering how long it would take for him to put on new pants.
Our O was methodical on that opening drive and then things kinda just went by the way-side. It was kind’ve a momentum killer but in the end the O scored enough points to hold on to victory. And that being done without a lot of weapons was def a positve sign.
Nice to see the O-line opening up some holes and watching McGahee blast through them for some great yardage. I think No-Show prob realizes his starting days are numbered. GOOD RIDDANCE!
Decker was a beast. He didn’t let that fumble phaze him at all and got right back into the game. He was LARGE! What a weapon we have in the making with this kid. Love it!
The D were amazing at times, and down right horrible at times. Tackling still seems to be an issue for some guys. They gave up some big plays and horrible conversions……but you know what? When the game was on the line, they bent but didn’t break. And what more can you ask for when put in that situation.
And while I liked the fact that there were fewer penalties committed…there were still some really costly ones that should’ve been avoided. But of they can become more diciplined as the weeks go by, we’ll be alright.
The Charles injury is devestating. Their passing game has taken significant steps back as well.
A good game but one that showed it’s just baby steps, I mean this was the one game on the schedule we were supposed to have and we did but by the seat of our pants, so measured optimism is obviously a must for me after this one.
Committing to the running game is what made this one work, just like we all knew that’s what Fox does, he runs the ball, so hopefully the Raider game was just an aberration.
And frankly who really needs Moreno now other than on passing downs, it’s obvious that McGahee should be the back who carries most of the load with Moreno complimenting rather than the other way around. McGahee has earned that, Moreno hasn’t, simple as that. Congrats on the 100 yd game McGahee.
Decker flat out rocks.
Royal disappoints, again.
Moreno, Royal and Demaryius are all now falling into that dangerous category of taking up roster space, I know it sounds cruel but a plaeyr can only contribute if he is on the field the majority of the time every year, and that is obviously not the case with these guys, some serious moves will have to made in that regard next year for sure. Royal’s groing injury looked REAL bad, he couldn’t even walk off the field on his own power, he should be out a significant amount of time with that and probably will be bothered by it the rest of the year is my guess.
Thomas’ ankle looked nasty too, but better that than the knee, his shouldn’t be too bad from what I saw.
Woodyard played lights out with 13 tackles while Mays made good progress with 8 positioning him elf much better to make tackles this time around.
Goodman still can’t tackle worth a darn and Vaughn kind of held his own but it’s a good thing those two went up against a rookie QB, because a good veteran one would of eaten them alive, just saying.
Good to have Wilhite at the nickel, he even had a sack! So did Miller and we all know that guy is gonna be great barring injury.
All game long I was saying it’s so nice that with the running game I didn’t have to watch Orton freak out on the field, just 187 yards of passing and with the 131 on the ground never really forced into anything that would freak him out. That was reassuring to watch, basically ordinary Orton not given a chance to mess up the game, game manager all the way, that’s all he is capable of doing, so like he always says it’s just a job for him, so it was, and he clocked in clocked out of this one having done his job.
But that worked because the Bengals don’t have a killer O, if we needed more points to win this one Orton would of been stressed out all over again, but baby steps, need more yards on the ground still, need guys healthy again because coming up at Tennessee is going to be nothing like this one, the revenge factor, the fact that this team just beat Baltimore who decimated the Steelers the previous week and we are in for a doozie, it will take more than just a baby step to win that one.
Congrats Fox for your first win!
freak30, read the result sheet all the way though, your answer is in there a couple of times. Talking too much and not reading enough, haha.
Ok, got it now, I skipped your last paragraph when I read your post. I always read everyone’s post except when they’re exceptionally long like most of yours sometimes I will just do some skimming!
My first wall of shame. It’s okay goes to show you I am still new at this. I am glad that we won BUT I still don’t like Orton and Tebow is NOT a WR. I knew that everyone would be all for Orton again as soon as we won but its ok too cuz he is still Orton, nuff said.
I was actually on the game blogs defending Orton…must’ve had too many Bud Lights LOL!
I guess I wasn’t really defending him as just pointing out that Orton’s play wasn’t too surprising.
Tebow all the way!!
Bay, I don’t mean to be picky, but I picked 27-20 Denver for the game, which is the same as one of the people tied for 5th place. I’ll go back and find the post if you’d like, it seems that it may have been missed.
Prediction; Titans win 27-20.
I don’t know about you guys, but I think there hasn’t been that many smiles in that locker room for quite some time. Awesome to see that!
RabidOrange, you are picky, you picked 27-17, nice try though, LOL.
Happy campers, relief really.
Missed it by that much.
RabidOrange, don`t feel to bad. I missed it by one stinken point. HaHa!!
My mistake, I guess I’ll stop trying to find the post then. Probably a good thing, there’s a lot of blogs from last week…. Thanks Bay.
True strand just 6 points off with your 24-16, you even had our score right.
Better luck next time for me.
I think I will predict that we lose every week. When I predict we’ll lose we win, when I predict we win we lose. Reverse physcology!
Brian, hey, if it works. You can sacrifice your game predictions so we can win, you`ll still take it, I`d say, more wins for us. LOL
Lol @ Bay’s response to Rabid’s post. So happy at school man.. When broncos win they just make your week!
Well we are not going to get Luck in the draft, we are going to get the 4th or 5th pick, the colts and KC will fight for the first pick.
This weeks game will be tough. Even though the Ravens held Johnson to like 53 yards Hasselbech totally tore through the Ravens secondary. That’s scary because Dalton pretty much had his way with ours and with Brit and Washington basically both having 100 yard receiving games (Washington 99 yds) our CBs gotta be ready. However we also need to stop Johnson as well and that I think is #1 priorty. To be honest I think the Ravens D is far better than ours is at this point. Maybe Fox and Co. can pull a win out of a hat.
If we don`t get Luck, we`ll have to either go after a DT,RB,OL, or another LB. Thats just me though. I`d go after the RB from either Alabama or Oregon. It`s way to early though.
We need Champ and Doom back for this game to even have a chance.
I’m guessing that’s why Allen didn’t dial up the blitz too often yesterday. Even though with the exception of Miller’s sack, Cincy did pretty well at picking up our blitz and our attempt at a pass rush. Allen had to know that our secondary would be too exposed if he dialed up the blitz too often.
Vegas was great I’m so hung over right now lol.
I didnt end up betting on the broncos Lines were way to long but i did come back with my 500 bucks
Good thing since they didn’t cover, haha, 0-2 against the spread so far…
We definitely need champ and doom back in a major way. Cuz Kenny Britt has been going to town the last 2 weeks and I have no confidence that Goodman can cover him whatsoever … not to talk about vaughn (altho his amazing speed saved a TD once). Our only pass rush was MIller this game or Dalton would have been toast. Dalton had alot of time in that pocket and the rookie looked good … all it takes is a leap of faith (hear that denver, bunch of 2011 rookies looking good). We need Doom back to help pressure Hasslebeck. CJ has been getting shutdown, I hope his first break out game isnt on us
I was amazed to see the line block. Was great blocking and McGahee ran hard. I believe knowshon coulda run as well with the way this OL was blocking. Even Ball had seams. Bottom line is no matter the RB … you need blocks to get it done, and neither McGahee or Moreno had that last week, but McGahee sure had it this week and it made me happy. Even the pass block improved. I dunno what changed in a week. Maybe Bengals D front is week but then again Buffalo gouged the Raiders for like 100+ yards on the ground. I guess their run game and OL is better than ours or something.
I don’t think Moreno would’ve been as productive as McGahee. McGahee at times had to fight hard for yards and Moreno would’ve just gone down after first contact. While Moreno may be quicker I’d be alright with keeping McGahee as the starter, make Moreno earn back his starting job.
Arguing with TRB about Moreno has about as much a chance as arguing with him about Marshall. But you are abolutely right Brian, the kind of yards McGahee got were mostly the ones Moreno can’t, end of the story.
Who’s Marshall?
BTW, loved all the mile high salutes yesterday.
watever man, to each his own. TRB
I was just joking, I know who Marshall is.
I also like Moreno but him along with others haven’t shown that they can stay healthy long enough to make an impact.
KnowGo Moreno.
I know u were schneider. And I will never argue that he can never stay healthy long enough to make an impact. People have just been ragging on his running since his rookie year, when for the past how many years there has been NO run game in denver. I think its quite a simple philosophy, to run the ball, you need holes, and we haven’t had much if any of those in the past couple years. Never said Moreno coulda gotten tough yards, he is not a hard nosed runner, I just said he coulda run the ball too. But I feel many have long made up their minds on Moreno because Nobody wanted us to draft him (Myself included) and the past 2 years we haven’t run anywhere which I don’t think is his fault. Do I think he is the best, nope, just don’t think he is as crappy as people make him out to be. Thats just me tho. Just one opinion of the millions. TRB
I think we need a new left guard Beadles got man handled at times.
Beadles, drafted because he could play many positions but unfortunately plays none of them well.
Well in that case he would make an excellent back up.
I was glad to see a win yesterday. Still lotta work to be done.
Our running game made some strides, what with the O line blocking and a back that has the one cut north south mentality running.
The receivers were good.
Not an Orton fan at all, so I will always be critical. But he did okay. Though he was still holding the ball too long at times. Staying in the pocket too long. Every QB seems to have that clock when it’s time to move, but he doesn’t. Some sacks and a fumble that was Orton tyring to win one for Cincy it seemed.
Our D was exposed in the passing game but that just shows our depth is not there and the younglings, Vaughn needs some learning.
All in all glad for the win. Just wish we knew how to step on throats when we get a lead and not let up.
I have a hunch Dennis Allen has been waiting for this game to open the defense up!
Baylin mentioned the revenge factor, well, DA has a little of his own against Hasselbeck after last years playoff game.
At least thats what I have to hang my hat on this week! Lol. Until the injury report comes out a little later this week, Im gonna hold off on my prediction!!!
Its hard to believe either the seahawks or the chiefs were in the playoffs … oh how quickly the tides turn (even tho it coulda been argued that with a 7-9 record no team should make the playoffs) … but they won tho. TRB
I just realized. when looking at a picture on DP … this was the first time a number 15 lined up at WR for the broncos since like tha 09 season lol. TRB