Having won five games in a row, and six of their last seven, the Denver Broncos have garnered increased attention from around the nation as they turned their 1-4 start into a 7-5 record.
But despite the additional intensity from outside sources, the team hasn’t let it become a distraction.
“For me, (I want) to consistently be motivated and come out here and work extremely hard and not worry about everything else on the outside — whatever good or bad is said,” quarterback Tim Tebow said. “Just let that be on the outside and focus on things I can control and come in here being a great teammate, work as hard as I can and try to get a little bit better.”
While Tebow himself has been the focus of much coverage, the team’s last-to-first turnaround has also been a big talking point. However, even tied atop the AFC West, the players are staying grounded.
“We still have the same mentality,” linebacker Von Miller said. “Still taking it one day, one play at a time. That’s the mentality we had six weeks ago and that’s the same feeling we have today.”
But while the wins in November helped propel the Broncos into the AFC West race, Head Coach John Fox has made it clear to the players that it’s what they do in December that counts.
“The way we’re playing right now, we got to keep it up,” defensive end Jason Hunter said. “We can’t afford to start patting ourselves on the back. We’ve got to continue to grind, grind, grind and at the end of this four-game stretch, we’ll see where we are.”
The Broncos have the advantage of playing three of their last four games at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Their recent success has come mostly on the road — where they’ve also won five straight games — and they are looking to their fans to help make the last quarter of the season memorable.
“We’ve been trying to display this road warrior thing. But it’s good to come back home,” defensive end Elvis Dumervil said. “Last time we played here it was really rocking. So we’re looking forward to the fans to make sure it’s really rocking.”
Below are some photos from Wednesday’s practice.
-Kenny Legan
Shoot – I killed another one –
I gotta go get dressed for the game anyhow! Out!
Strand you got me wanting to drive down the street for some in and out.
I thought at one point Tebow was dating a chick that was a complete knock out. I’m talking about a girl that makes your eyes bug out and your tongue hang down like an old school cartoon.
Anyway, I just read this http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7326446/rick-reilly-john-fox-leading-broncos and it made me think that the common thought that we initially had about Fox not wanting Tebow may have been insanely off base. In fact, its possible Fox came to Denver just for Tebow (and no one else was blowin up his phone lol)
, it really just shows that we really shouldn’t speculate so much when we are so far away from the necessary info needed to understand these kinds of things.
have you guys heard the legend of tim tebow song, lol
http://www.94rock.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?more_page=1&podcast=ifyoumissedthemorningshow&selected_podcast=Legend_of_Tebow_12-07-11_1323288425_1544.mp3
http://www.94rock.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?more_page=1&podcast=ifyoumissedthemorningshow&selected_podcast=Legend_of_Tebow_12-07-11_1323288425_1544.mp3
Broncos Win: 21 – 12
Tebow please throw for 200 yards to shut Steven A Smith
Ah – the Hippie Days … I remember them well … talking late ’60s … I was working for a defense contractor in SoCal, so all I could do was let my hair grow long, for which it wouldn’t cooperate very much … I took my family back to Iowa to visit my folks, who were working and living at a Boy Scout Camp … my Mom was horrified at my hair … I have a movie of her lamenting to the head lifeguard about it, and the irony is that his hair was twice as long as mine was … but mothers are that way …
Still can’t figure out what this week’s score will be … I just CAN’T see the Bears winning … but then, Jacksonville and Seattle beat the Ravens earlier this year, so who can really tell …
Later …
DaddyBronco – that’s TOO COLD to play softball … I’m worried because our game is at 9:00 am tomorrow … at least there’ll be sunshine …
Willis McGahee didn’t practice for the Broncos today, but he said this afternoon that he plans on playing Sunday against the Bears.
McGahee is listed as having a knee injury on the team’s injury report, an injury suffered late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 35-32 win at Minnesota.
McGahee limped off the field on the game-tying field goal drive, and was on the field in the final minute as the Broncos set up the game-winning field goal. Lance Ball took the carries on that final drive.
Three Broncos offensive starters were missing from the start of practice today as the team began preparing for Sunday’s game against Chicago.
Left tackle Ryan Clady, running back Willis McGahee and wide receiver Eddie Royal are all being held out of practice because of injuries suffered last week in Minnesota.
Clady appeared to suffer a knee injury on the team’s final offensive play in the 35-32 win against the Vikings. McGahee limped off the field late in that game as well.
Royal suffered a concussion in a collision with teammate Matt Willis on a punt return.
The good injury news for the Broncos is the return of Von Miller to practice eight days after undergoing surgery on his right thumb.
Miller was sporting a new cast on his hand. He practiced in a limited manner one time last week but was unable to play at Minnesota.
This is how screwed up some of those NFL ratings are (by Klis):
Take a long look at the NFL passing leaders and it’s impossible to tell whether Tim Tebow is a good, bad or indifferent quarterback.
That’s because he’s not there. And he will have to hurry if he’s going to make the official passer ratings by season’s end.
Based on a formula set years and years ago, back in the days of 3 yards and a cloud of dust, it takes an average of only 14 pass attempts per team’s game to qualify.
With every NFL team having played 12 games, it currently takes 168 pass attempts to qualify. Tebow, through 7 ½ games, has 158 pass attempts.
He will have to average 16.5 pass attempts in the Broncos’ final four games to qualify — not a given considering he has averaged 16.4 pass attempts while leading his team on its current five-game winning streak.
Tebow just loving the Bears D challenge, gotta love that attitude:
“It’s really exciting for me to get a chance to play against a defense like this,” Tebow said. “It feels like I’ve been watching them for years, that same defense, that same scheme. It will be exciting playing against Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman and Julius Peppers, some of the best guys for the last decade. And also get to play against one of my teammates (at Florida) in Major Wright. They’re a great defense, and they’ve got some of the best players at certain positions in the whole game; so it will be fun.”
OComedy Relief Factory up and running tonight….
Top photo #1…. Tebow in fine form rears back to make the pass while in the back ground you can see Orlando Franklin relieving himself from a front wedgie he received while trying to block Von Millers bad hand on a pass rush…..
#2… A photo of Tebow and Woodyard talking about The Good Word…
#3… Wilhite laying out for the tackle while something looking dirty and not very clean is flying out of his dreads…. eeew… They really should wash those things…
#4… Dennis Allen looking around at HIS Dominating Denver Defense and thinking to himself “I Am a Bad Ass!”… I agree…
#5…Von Miller participated in practice today and sacked Brady Quinn and Adam Webber three times each with one hand tied behind his back…
#6… Champion Baily!!! Supreme Bronco Super Hero stands in the ready to serve and protect the good citizens of Broncotropolis…… Also, he is not allowed to move his feet while other CB’s are practicing because they wouldn’t get a chance at the ball…
#7…. Decker looks to Tebow and says “you better pass to me for 144 yards or more Sunday or I won’t block for you down field and I won’t allow you to go Christmas caroling with me and my girlfriend!”….
#8…. Coach Fox in complete comical jubilation while admitting to the team that it was really him that was “nervous in the tunnel” before the Minnesota game…..
Hope laughs and chuckles can be had by all in this wonderful Football season of joy in Broncotropolis and the surrounding Country!!!
!!!!ILMSDB!!!!!
*****OC OFFICIAL PREDICTION*****
BRONCOS 35
BEARS 21
STONE COLD ORANGE CRUSH LOCK!!!!!!
!!!!!ILMSDB!!!!!
LMAO @ #8!
Prediction
Denver: 24
Bears: 10
First person to talk is always the culprit lol
I haven’t seen much of wilhite in recent games … especially on the victory runs. Im sure he is still there but earlier in the season he was making much more of an impact. Probably has to do with the emergence of Chris Harris.
Can’t wait for the game. Its airing in Maryland. Good stuff. Very excited to see this team winning again.
Make certain you don’t miss the article – RH709 posted the link to at 7:55pm tonight. 709 – that was great!
I’m wondering if Colquitt gets fined for confessing Fox flatulence.
Wiemans – once we got running we loosened up ok – It was a hitfest – 18-20 the badguys. The cold makes for some good hitting. I scored 4 times from 1st. It’s gonna take some recovery time. 5th at bat I stole second on a throw -in/ pitcher overthrew 2nd on my slide- the ball went all the way out in center field – (Cold air and not enough of it) I should have scored on the Over Throw – but I just sat there. Haha I scored on the next hit anyway. My son hit his first HR and the whole team signed the ball. Cool game!
I think this team did a great job replacing Perrish Cox and Syd’quan Thompson. Undrafted free agent Chris Harris and waiver aquisition Jonathan Wilhite are both very fast and provide quality depth with the loss of Cassius Vaughn.
omg i cant stop laughing about #8 orangecrusher thats comedy!!
miller – you killed this one. “blogkiller” LOL
Make certain you don’t miss the article – RH709 posted the link to at 7:55pm tonight. 709 – that was great!
That’s what I posted above – but it was at 7:33 pm. Sorry
Isn’t Willis the fastest guy on the Broncos?
I’m thinking that somehow they have to get Willis in position to eliminate the Hester run back. I don’t know if the right way to do that is to send him to play the ball like they have been doing? Or should Willis hang 5-8 yards in front of Hester and be the guy to beat? Or should Willis hang out behind the 50 just-in-case like a special teams ‘safety’?
I’m certain that Fox has some special focus drills for ST this week. One of the key successes I’m looking for his stopping Hester on KR and PR.
The other thing that I would like to see as improved Bronco football is to win the penalty-yards battle.
Confession. I am now a die hard Tebow fan.
I never watch College ball, and could care less about florida. But I have become such a huge fan that I now actually regret not being a huge Gators fan during their tebow years.
Why?
1. The winning touchdown run on a broken leg at nease HS.
2. The faith. Even though I think – (intentionally left blank) – about Tebow’s beliefs, I have huge respect for his faith in-and-of-itself, and I think it allows Tebow to be the mentally-resilient, clutch player that he is.
3. The man builds hospitals for the down trodden in his spare time. Enough said.
4. The eyes. There was a lot of hoopla about Tebow can’t read defenses. But watch his eyes. On the football field he has the eyes of a predator.
Did you see his eyes before the snap preceding the game winning touchdown run against the jets? Looked like the drooling maw of a hungry wolf. He saw the mistake from a mile away, and it made him hungry, and he ate.
In Conclusion and purely as a broncos fan. I am SOOOOOOO glad McD drafted this guy, and as far as I am concerned drafting Tebow excuses McD from all other mistakes.
I like Tebow so much right now, that I like McD for drafting him.
P.S. unless he starts to lose a bunch of games.
couldn’t care less*
There was so much commotion about how Tebow’s throwing motion took an extra .2 seconds (or whatever) nobody noticed how his playing style buys him an extra 3-4 seconds. Pretty sure his ability to juke and stiff arm and have extra defenders playing cautiously more than makes up for that fraction of a second in his throwing motion.
I don;t think anyone else has commented on this, but I saw something in that Chargers game. On a particular play, about four guys had a clear lane to rush Tebow from the outside when it looked like he was rearing back for a pass. Tebow did the rushing equivalent of a pump fake, and – like a wave – all four of the defenders stopped in their tracks and backed up to be able to keep contain.
There were no blockers, but none of the defenders were willing to take the risk of losing containment. The result was a first down pass.
The impressive thing was how it looked like a wave. Tebow basically stopped an entire side of the field in their tracks just by faking like he was gonna run. That is something Tom Brady will NEVER bring to the table.
And yes, I have spent some time tonight drinking some beer flavored orange koolaid.
I expect (right now) Tebow to be the Michael Jordan of football. He will be successful throughout his career, but he will do it by being ungodly physically talented, coupled with an exceptionally strong work ethic. In the beginning it will be his athletic superiority that carries him, but, as he ages and he loses the ability to make defenders look foolish with his pure athleticism, his accumulated knowledge of the game will continue to allow him to make defenders look foolish.
I will go on the record now as saying Tebow will almost certainly end up in Canton.
and of course it doesn;t hurt to be playing at 6′ 3 250 (or so) of rock hard, adrenaline-pumping muscle.
Don’t even get me started on Miller. Basically, almost everything I just said can also be said about Miller.
Miller is like Palomolu. He turns a decent defense into an elite one. Trust me when I tell you the vikings would not have scored so high if Miller had been in the game. Ponder can thank his lucky stars.
I think that the Broncos were meant to be an option offense. McDaniels passed up the prolific Dez Bryant to draft Demaryus Thomas from Georgia Tech. In my opinion Georgia Tech executes the best flexbone option in football. McDaniels did some great things for us like bringing in B-Dawk. Also he drafted some exceptional lineman for us J.D. Walton and Zane Beadles. There is nothing new about option football but the option we use is new. The read option/zone option is the latest and most effective form. Chip Kelly Oregon head coach has been running an awesome zone option for years.
And don’t even get me started on Champ, Doom, Dawk, Harris, McG, Decker, Mays, DJ, …
You know what, just don’t get me started on this team. I could probably write a book about this team right now.
If I thought that book would sell, I would do it. But it wouldn;t sell. It would just be me ranting about how good Champ, Clady, Doom, McG, Tebow, Miller, DJ, Decker, Walton, Kuper. Beadles, Franklin, Goody, Dawk, Woodyard, mays, Colquitt, Prater, Royal, DMT, Willis, Harris, Moore, Bunkley, Ayers, etc are.
Gmoncrick, I Agree.
I honestly think that McD wasn;t bad. His biggest fault was being an arrogant prihk, and losing the locker room.
But if you look at the guys he brought in (and consider that we are now winning pretty much with what McD had envisioned) he really didn’t do too bad for us.
My biggest complaint was hillis, but this year Hillis proved himself to be a prima donna type guy. So now I even have to give McD a pass on that trade. Especially while seeing Quinn helping the starter out on the sidelines. He is a high character guy.
Honestly 6-0 in the nfl is not a fluke, no matter what way you spin it. Any given sunday even one win is hard to get.
I believe McD really is a genius (I think now we have to say this even as a talent evaluator since so many of his additions are playing so well for us now, and so many of the people he got rid of are now failing to contribute much to their new teams.
McD failed because he was an unlikeable prat with a hint of cheating, and he lost the locker room. Beyond that I believe he did well by us.
Can you imagine where we would be right now if McD would of started TT last year right after drafting him. We mijht still have McD as a coach!!
Up early again with the baby. (God makes ‘em cute to save their lives. LOL) I think I’m going to go soak my hurting knees. I need to ask Weiman how he plans on knowing when to retire from softball. On second thought, not being able to play might kill me, never mind.
I’m glad McD is gone. The cover-up and the rumors were going to tear apart the team. I don’t think it matters if McD had a great idea – plan – draft scheme – etc. I hope that he is watching EFX implement his ideas and gets great satisfaction out of the Broncos success. I also hope that he feels spanked for low-character issues, and that he deals with those issues personally.
Alex – welcome aboard. Here’s to the Broncs. Here’s to Tebow.
I don’t think the orange Koolaid is an acquired taste. When it’s good – it’s really good!!! When it’s not….? Just hold your nose and swallow anyway, it’s habit forming.
daddybronc, I didn’t say I wanted McD to still be pour coach! Heavens no!!! Key word there was IMAGINE.
Imagine = bad dream! LOL
And I do hear an…Amen!
Weatherman – lot’s of die hards getting on the Tebow train. We know Carnage won’t join just out of principle……how about you?
Bay likes to win but he won’t sell out either. Haha
Remember – Maclintock….Nice Party where’s the wis…..Tebownade!!! LOL
Well, let me put this in this manner. I have been on that train since before it began. Actually, I was hoping all through his college career that he would come to Denver and was stoked when he did. I just basically have tried not to say a lot about him because of all the ‘labeling’ that was going on. The one thing that I do is follow college sports, especially the SEC since I live in Florida.
Ahhh – welcome then! Gotta have all my ‘toasts’ prepared.
One thing I said last year was that I didn’t understand the ‘mental reps’ they continually said that TT was doing during practice. He doesn’t learn much on ‘mental reps’. He is one that learns by doing, or as they call it ‘a gamer’. Put him on the field and magical things begin to happen.
I never followed a college team but like to watch some Sat. football when I can. I did get to where I really liked to watch USC – Coach Carroll and especially the domination over UCLA.
We have home educating friends from North Carolina who told me about Tebow when he was a junior in High School.
Tebow writes about his dyslexia in his book. He tells how he is one who can’t picture the plays on the board. He likes the walk throughs.
Yep, and the analysts were the same then as they are now. Can’t do this and can’t do that. He continues to prove them wrong. The only difference now is that the analysts are ex-pros that have been there and done that, and none of them had stellar years when they started out in the pros, yet they can sit and say that he can’t be this or that. How short their memories are!
I think what we are seeing is that the coaches understand what Tebow is doing and how to ‘defense’ against it. Knowing just doesn’t make them capable of tackling Tebow or keeping him in the pocket.
I’m still not certain how to explain the Lions game – nor can I project what the next match-up will be that is able to get to Tebow.