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
The injury thing was the center of the Mile High Sports daily email, entitled Broncos Conditioning is Laughable By James Merilatt and here’s what it said:
Was it pretty? Nope. Did it answer every question? Absolutely not. But the Broncos 24-22 victory over the Bengals at Gart Bros. Stadium on Sunday was certainly one thing: Gutty.
Entering the game, Denver was already the walking wounded – starting the game without four key starters. And in the first half, things got even worse as more players fell to injury. In fact, it got so bad that quarterback Tim Tebow had to line up at wide receiver on a few plays (adding a new, ridiculous twist to the ongoing saga).
But somehow, John Fox’s team found a way to get the victory. They made just enough plays, in all three phases, to hold off a valiant Cincinnati rally.
While the Broncos deserve credit for overcoming injuries, they certainly don’t deserve any sympathy. That’s not because I’m mean-spirited. And it’s not because I believe every team has to overcome their own share of bumps and bruises. It’s because they have no one to blame for their predicament but themselves.
Denver wasn’t short-handed on Sunday because of bad luck; they were the walking wounded because they don’t know how to keep their players healthy.
Injuries are going to happen in football; it’s a violent game that features fierce collisions on every play. So any team should expect their fair share of broken limbs, concussions, torn ligaments and other unavoidable nicks.
But those aren’t the kind of ailments that have many of the best Broncos on the shelf at the moment. Instead, Denver is once again plagued by something that should be inexcusable to the organization – non-contact injuries.
The list of Broncos players who have gotten hurt when no one touched them is alarming:
Elvis Dumervil, coming off of a torn pectoral muscle that cost him the entire 2010 season, tweaked his shoulder in practice leading up to the season opener. Despite incurring the injury on Friday, the Broncos still thought it was a good idea for their high-priced defensive end to work out on Saturday and Sunday. Not shockingly, that made matters worse; Dumervil wound up seeing limited action last Monday night against the Raiders and wasn’t able to play at all yesterday versus the Bengals.
His absence wasn’t partially filled by Marcus Thomas. He was supposed to be back in the lineup by this point, having sufficiently recovered from a strained pectoral muscle (sound familiar?) suffered two weeks ago. But just as the defensive tackle was ready to get back on the field, he suffered a strained groin during a conditioning test. In a controlled environment – when getting loose and warm shouldn’t have been a problem, and conditions were perfect – a player the Broncos very much need along the interior of their defensive line suffered another injury that would cause him to miss playing time.
Champ Bailey, the best player on a rebuilding Broncos defense, came up lame during Monday night’s loss to the Raiders. Trying to chase down Darren McFadden, the cornerback tweaked a hamstring. And with only six days to recover before the Broncos faced the Bengals, there was no chance that the future Hall of Famer was going to be in the lineup yesterday for Denver. After all, he missed seven games in 2008 due to a similar ailment.
The exact same diagnosis could be applied to Knowshon Moreno. Thirteen months after popping a hammy on the opening day of training camp last August, the much-maligned running back was once again on the sidelines nursing a pulled muscle. Considering that Moreno was on the shelf for seven of the Broncos first nine games (including all four preseason) a year ago, Denver was in no mood to risk creating another chronic hamstring problem for their third-year back.
Brandon Lloyd, arguably the Broncos most-explosive offensive player, pulled his groin during the opener against Oakland. He had an MRI on Tuesday and returned to practice, albeit on a limited basis, on Friday. But despite reports that the wide receiver would give it a go on Sunday against Cincinnati, Lloyd was a last-minute scratch when he was unable get loose during pregame warm-ups.
The void wasn’t filled by Eddie Royal, who was being counted on heavily yesterday since the Broncos only had three healthy wide receivers on the active roster (a disastrous decision that is another debate for a whole other day). He was unable to finish yesterday’s game after popping a groin while running a fly pattern. Sprinting up the sideline in pursuit of his third catch of the day, Royal was snared by the proverbial sniper and fell to the turf in a heap when he had to clutch his injured leg.
That’s six key players unable to go in an early “must-win” game because of non-contact injuries. It begs one very important question: What is Rich Tuten doing at Dove Valley? Obviously, the Broncos strength and conditioning coach for the past 17 years isn’t getting the job done.
But this isn’t a new development. It’s more than a run of recent misfortune. It’s been a recurring theme in Denver for years.
Remember when Tony Scheffler couldn’t stay healthy during his first three seasons with the Broncos? The promising tight end would pop a groin running an out pattern or pull a hamstring running up the seam. Time after time, he’d tweak a muscle and be lost for a game or two.
Finally fed up with the recurring pattern, and the criticism it generated, Scheffler finally decided to take matters into his own hands. Against the wishes of the organization, the tight end spent the months leading up to the 2009 season not working out with Tuten, but instead getting ready under the watchful eye of the Nuggets strength and conditioning coach – Steve Hess.
What was the result? Scheffler had an injury-free season, playing the first 15 games before being suspended for the season finale by Josh McDaniels. The pattern has held for Scheffler. Since being shipped to Detroit, the “oft-injured” tight end has played in 17 of 18 games for the Lions.
And these are just some examples. This list of Broncos sidelined by something other than being hit goes on and on and on. Heck, even Matt Prater was lost last season to a non-contact injury, landing on the team’s injured reserve list with a pulled groin.
Admittedly, there is a chance that all of these things are a coincidence. Perhaps, the rash of non-contact injuries suffered by the Broncos in recent years is just one of those freak things. But that seems highly unlikely. Many former players have voiced their displeasure about Tuten’s tactics. And Scheffler’s decision to avoid the Broncos offseason conditioning program speaks volumes.
In a sport where the type of injuries that sidelined D.J. Williams (dislocated elbow) are unavoidable, a team can’t afford to have players missing time because they aren’t getting prepped properly to play.
At some point, the Broncos have to address the problem. And when they do, it’ll be hard not to point the finger at Tuten. If they don’t, they’ll have to continue doing what they did on Sunday – playing with one hand tied behind their back.
Yeah, EFX has to completely reassess themselves about the glass figurines next off season, those are stupid odds to live with, hoping that glass will all of a sudden turn to bronze, just doesn’t happen very often, a losing strategy, take tough guys who can take the beating and only keep tough guys who can take the beating, anything else is a waste of roster spots.
Sorry for the long post but it was a good read I had to share.
Looks like the finger pointing is back to the conditioning staff. And I would say that’s a good place to point. I’ve never seen this many leg injuries of the muscle variety (groin and hammy). Seems to me the strength training and stretching needs to have some focus too.
We used to argue about Tuten here to no end THREE YEARS AGO, when all the RBs came and went with groin pulls and hammies in Shanny’s last year, so it’s absolutely zero news, Houston we have a problem and have had a problem for years.
But regardless of the conditionning regimen there are still players who can’t take the rigors of the NFL though….
Tuten has been here a very long time … like greek, he will probably retired here. Apparently Tuten is highly thought of even outside the broncos because i believe it was him they called to monitor the combine workouts and he is always giving speeches and stuff at places. But I also think we need a change in that department but if guys are just injury prone not much he can do. Also groin and hammy are the most common injuries. Champ has had either a groin or hammy injury just about every year since he has been here. We are just unlucky i guess. Same way last monday night we were the only ones slipping and falling and fumbling once the rain started. TRB
I wholeheartedly agree with you Bay. NoShow, Demaryius and to a certain extent Royal( I give him a partial pass because he has at least played more than the other two and his stature), need to work on conditioning to handle this level or go. #27 and #88 were McDs curse to us as well, and who did they essentially replace, Hills and Marshall.
I’d rather deal with Marshall’s off field issues since he actually plays.
The rain debacle, fumbling and slipping is a direct result of where the teams are from, Denver in arid Colorado where it never rains and Oakland in the Bay area where it always rains.
Remember McD making them practice in the rain for that one game, that didn’t work out too good, LOL.
I think it was for the London game.
The game that eventually got him fired, LOL.
Royal won’t be expected bak until the October 23rd game at Miami after our bye, that’s a chunk of missing time right there!!!
And better not be called Thomas anything on the Bronco roster, ALL THREE THOMASES ARE NOW OUT.
First I would like to say, if it does not make anyone mad, that I am glad we got the W for a change. It was nice. Maybe, like I said when entering my prediction, I would gladly put myself on the wall of shame if we won, so I am holding to my word and joining the others that bay announced were on the wall of shame. If it takes me going against them every week for a win to come about, hey, I’ll gladly do that for our team to win.
Now some comments about the game. Putting Tebow in was classic. There again, goes to show somebody at Dove Valley is paying close attention to these blogs and the comments made. Just last week we all talked about it coming out that there were no plays that involved or even had Tebow on the field, so at least they have taken the first step and got him on the field. Now just get him involved in some plays. Mays, I think it was, came through the line one time and literally tried his best to take the runners head off with a clothesline. Beautiful! I even enjoyed the two replays of that one. I would also like to know why they have Miller fading off to the right or left, depending on where the ball is going to make tackles on receivers. I thought he was more suited to pressing the qb. Need to do more of that and less fading I think. These are just some things that I saw that I have not read about in this blog today. I am not going anywhere else about it because you guys, and gals, have covered everything really well.
I am going to wait a bit on predicting next week. Interested in what the injury report looks like.
Broncos; just don`t sign anyone by the name of Thomas. LOL
Read another blog by Bay about DJ that I agree with. I’ve told my two sons for about 3 yrs. that DJ was over rated. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one that sees he is always out of position. It sounds to me the Broncos need a better trainer. I can’t figure out why they haven’t noticed what is going on with their trainers. We as fans have noticed for years. Maybe the fans do know more than the whole upper management.
Yeah, but for us standing out looking in it’s easy to point to what’s not kosher but them being inside, they are tied down by all kinds of things, like to Tuten, by loyalty over the years, and politics come in to play too, it’s much easier for us to say what needs to be done to correct some wrongs than actually being in there and having to do so, but that’s what good teams do, they do what they have to do, like Belicheck, they make the hard decisions and don’t care what anyone thinks about it or whose feelings will get hurt, they do it with only one thing in mind, winning and I honestly don’t think EFX has gotten anywhere close to that point yet, they are kind of feeling their way around this thing as the QQ demonstrates, lots of stuff holding them back. Elway won’t be able to always be Mr Nice guy, we know Fox will be, but someone will have to step in and make the hard decisions and that’s Elway’s job.
Got myself 3 kickers points this week!! Yeahhhhhhhh! Now about the game….. Mays reminds me of Sam Mills and will only get better. I wasn’t impressed with our lack of pressure for most of the game. Miller will have to find some new moves besides always trying to duck under the linemen. I think that will eventually cause him to miss out on sacks as the QB try’s to escape the pocket via Miller’s side. He’s young and will get better.
Vaughn Vaughn, TURN AROUND AND LOOK FOR THE BALL, Vaughn!! Buff said about him. Mile High Salute to Mcghaee and Ball with the tough running. Double Mile High Salute to the new Eddy Mac… Eric Decker!
just heard on 102.3 the Broncos are going to take a look at Darren Sharper tomorrow. He’s 35 and coming off microfracture knee surgery. Didn’t think we needed depth at safety, unless they plan on nickel situation? but the statement was just that they are going to take a look doesn’t sound like they’ll sign him.
Even better rumor……….. Todd Haley could be out in KC sooner rather than later….. that being said, Paoli the GM of KC and former of NE may hire Josh McDaniels as the KC Head Coach…………
LOL!!! That would be awesome!
Two new blogs, I’m lonely over there, LOL.
HardHitting27, thank you so much for finding and reposting something that I have been thinking a lot about lately. I think Tuten is held up as some sort of guru over there, but clearly he is missing something very important in his approach to conditioning. It’ll be interesting to see how the Loren Landow camp guys do this year – if they hold up better. There has been so much increase in information about how to keep bodies healthy, but Rich is old school. I can’t wait for him to retire/get fired.
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