15:00: It’s third-and-8 for the Saints on their own 36. Drew Brees drops back and finds an open receiver for a first down. There’s a flag on the play, but it’s offsides on the Broncos.
14:37: D.J. Williams puts a big hit on Reggie Bush after a three-yard gain on a pass from Brees, setting up second-and-7.
13:16: INVESCO Field at Mile High is a little less raucous as the Saints continue to pick up first downs into Broncos territory, but the Broncos still lead New Orleans by eight, they scored 34 points before the fourth quarter even began and the defense has scored a touchdown this afternoon. It’s been a pretty solid day so far — now if only Reggie Bush would stop picking up first downs.
13:16: Pierre Thomas takes a handoff and runs 10 yards in for the touchdown, diving for the pylon. The Saints elect to go for two to tie the game, but Brees’ pass falls incomplete. The Broncos lead by two over the Saints, 34-32.
10:00: The Saints special teams unit walks onto the field while the cheerleaders are performing, and they’re met with a round of boos from the INVESCO Field faithful. Now both teams are on the field and Andre Hall and Peyton Hillis are back to receive for Denver.
Hall takes it at the one, and runs it out to the 23-yard line. First-and-10 for the Broncos. Eddie Royal takes the reverse to the right sideline near the marker, and there’s a flag on the play — after Royal was out of bounds, unnecessary roughness on the Saints. It sets up a first down at the 44-yard line.
9:00: Brandon Marshall catches a pass from Jay Cutler with the defense draping all over him — it’s a pass interference call, but it’s declined, because Marshall takes the pass and avoids several tacklers before getting tripped up by what looked like a touchdown-saving shoestring tackle after a 28-yard gain.
7:57: Tony Scheffler takes a pass from Cutler and takes it up the right sideline for a nine-yard gain on first down. On second down, Cutler’s pass falls incomplete as he avoids pressure. On third down, the offense is called for a false start penalty, bringing up third-and-6.
Cutler lines up in the shotgun, flanked by Peyton Hillis and Michael Pittman. He proceeds to find Brandon Stokley at the marker for the first down after Pittman picked up a big block. Stokley is fired up and it’s a first down for Denver just inside the New Orleans 20-yard line.
6:30: Cutler drops back and fires a pass out left to Tony Scheffler to set up a first-and-goal at the eight-yard line. Miles is standing in the back of the end zone, watching intently. Several of the fans in the endzone are waving the offense in, hoping for another Broncos drive to be capped off by a touchdown.
5:33: Cutler completes a pass to Tony Scheffler at the five-yard line as what looks like the entire Saints defense closes in on him, but Scheffler fumbles the ball and it’s picked up by Saints cornerback Jason David and returned 25 yards before Casey Wiegmann tackles him out of bounds.
From the replays it looks like Scheffler might not have ever had control, or even when he did took only one step. The rule is the player has to take two steps or make a “football move” in order for it to be ruled a fumble as opposed to an incomplete pass. Play has been stopped for an official review — Head Coach Mike Shanahan threw out the red flag.
The ref is back on the field — he says the ball was in Scheffler’s possession and takes two steps upfield. The ruling on the field stands — the Saints have the ball at the 21-yard line, and it cost the Broncos their final timeout.
5:33: The crowd is on its feet in support of the defense as Brees takes the snap in the shotgun formation. His pass is intended for Jeremy Shockey, but Nate Webster and Boss Bailey collapse on the tight end and force an incompletion.
On second down, with Dumervil closing in, Brees finds Shockey for a seven-yard gain, bringing up third-and-3. The crowd is really going and Kenny Peterson hits Brees as he finds Devery Henderson, who runs for a 23-yard gain and a first down.
Boss Bailey is down after the play. He gets up under his own power and walks off the field, and play resumes with the Saints at the Denver 48-yard line with a first down.
4:00: Jamie Winborn tackles Lance Moore after a 15-yard pickup. The Saints have the ball at the Denver 33 with a first down, and Reggie Bush takes the handoff. He’s brought down by Marquand Manuel after a seven-yard gain.
Marlon McCree is down after the play. He too gets up and walks off the field under his own power, flanked by two trainers.
3:00: Bush takes a handoff and runs up the middle for two yards, setting up third-and-1 at the 24-yard line. The crowd is on its feet and INVESCO is shaking. D.J. Williams bursts through the line and makes a huge stop on Pierre Thomas behind the line.
As the clock clicks down to the two minute warning, the Saints face a fourth-and-2 from the 25-yard line.
2:00: Martin Gramatica is out to attempt a 43-yard field goal that would put the Saints ahead by a point. The Broncos are out of timeouts. There’s not a body in a seat as the crowd watches the Denver special teams unit attempt to block the field goal.
Gramatica’s kick is no good — wide right. Nate Webster runs to the crowd in the endzone, getting them riled up. Kenny Peterson runs out to greet Webster and it’s all high fives and hugs on the Broncos sideline as the offense trots out on the field with 1:55 remaining in the game, the ball at their own 33.
1:50: New Orleans takes its third and final timeout after a two-yard run by Selvin Young.
1:50: Young picks up another six yards on second down and the clock continues to run. On third-and-2, Michael Pittman takes the ball outside of the right tackle and is brought down after a loss of four yards. The clock is still running as both teams are out of bounds.
Brett Kern is out to punt the ball away for Denver with Reggie Bush back to receive. He gets the ball inside the 10 and is tackled at the 20-yard line by Niko Koutouvides.
0:08: The defense is back as Brees lets go of a pass that falls incomplete. With two seconds remaining in the half, Brees will have one last chance to get the ball in the endzone. The Broncos are rushing three as the rest of the DBs and linebackers are backed up to about midfield.
Jarvis Moss makes the final tackle of the game as Reggie Bush tries to start a series of laterals after a short pass. He pitches it to Lance Moor, and Moore is nailed by Moss and the game comes to a close.
Final score — Denver 34, New Orleans 32. The Broncos are 3-0.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Fourth Quarter, Gray Caldwell, Live Blog, Week 3
Can anyone say what kind of D formation we’re using right now?
looks like an ‘ole formation to me
the kind that gives away first downs like candy at halloween
Anyone?
i dont know one year we cant stop the run and now we give up thousands yards a game in passing. The way the offense is playing it shouldn’t be this close of a game last week the same thing. Defense sucks!!!!!!!!!
SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
what shame an offense like the broncos have and a defense that could’nt stop cherry creek high
Come on D!
thought this was suppode to be a better year for the defense. We suck the defense sucks sucks sucks suck sucks sucks
Are we waiting for Torain to heal before we run the ball on offense?
Get well Torain. This game would already be over if we could run down the clock.
Chevy, what do you mean? Great defenses always give up 500+ yards per game.
Oh wait, no they don’t.
We’re as bad as the droolfins, padding stats for mediocre QBs.
But the droolfins won today, maybe our offense can save us.
thank god for kickers somebody, please find someone or someway to generate a pass rush or this is going to be a long season
we won the game but our D gave up more than 30 pts.:(
We need to BLITZ. At least implement some packages. We obviously don’t have the D-Line to generated a pass rush with just four guys.
yah when is shanny gonna address the terrible D? and the offense needs to do something about second half performance, they always come out blazing in the first couple quarters and then they just stop.
obviously bates’ – i mean slowik’s scheme is not doing too well. i wasn’t able to see the game because i am in missouri, were they still using that weird formation that they used against SD last week? with the LBs all in tight on each other?
and what happened to all the great innovative offensive play-calling from the first game? didn’t seem to be much of that this game (but i didn’t see it, so maybe it just didn’t come through in writing).
We need some work on D !! Need some cornerbacks and safety. Need a Defensive line that can rush. The offense is there. Get some D !!! 500 yards, 60 + points in 2 games…..
What’s with the defensive alignments being called? We coulcn’t mount any sort of a pass push with 3 man front, yet we used it over and over???? ^^%#$&^*()(&*%^&^&^
Some of the dumbest D play calling ever perpetrated.
It’s only dumb luck that we’re not 1-2.
God the defense needs help, and why the heck were we constantly playing zone. Boss and D.J were playing nice but Nate disappeared in some plays. Also we needed to get pressure on Drew so why the heck were we only rushing 3 guy!!
Make sure you watch the language when you post a comment.
Also about the formations… I liked them. They were designed to stop Bush and designed to keep plays in front of them but our defense is just to slow and stupid to run them. Yeah DJ is fast and powerful, Boss is fast and big, and Webster…(I dont know what he brings to the D except a lose helmet) but our linebacking corps is terrible They play way to far back in there zones and the angles they take to make tackles make no sense.
Plus Champ and Bly are slowing down. Even though we’re 3-0 I think we’re gonna miss the playoffs this year. (and every year untill our D catches up with the O)
Why isnt Crowder Starting Watch his play from last year. Big upgrade over Engelberger who is too slow, too weak, and to small to make any impact. We practically have 3 down lineman on every pass play Engleberger is involved in.
stop complaining!
Dr. Doom.. champ didnt allow one reception to his man today and Brees looked his way very few times, our linebacking corp is great, there fast and tackle pretty well.. they fit the system, the problem we had was adjusting to their spread formation, i thought they should have rushed 4 or 5 and play bump coverge to stop the receivers from getting off the line so quick while the rush got upfield.. and also Engelberger played great today, i forced that fumble that went for a TD and made 2 big tackles on bush.. 3 plays, can you name any other D-lineman today that made 3 or more.. didnt think so
Change the subject why was John Lynch at the game today??
ok it is obvious to everybody that a few areas need some work. I will be the first to say that our defensive line does not blitz very well or at all, but for people to say that come back torian so we can run is just plain nonsense. Ok first things first the defense last year could not stop the run to keep the offense from getting a first down no matter what. This year their is a significant improvement. The pass coverage this year isn’t what it was and now we complain about the pass coverage we are no going to be perfect as in football it is all about momentum and learning week from week to get better and put yourself in a position for a chance to win. You can complain all you want and it won’t help the fact the defense is learning with the coaches on the approach of how to play certain areas of the game. Our offense is young and doing well and we praise them but again why do they need to be perfect in week three, when even with a loss we would still be on top of our division. Remember there are several games left before we even reach the or hear about the playoffs. Calm down and lets watch our team grow and just give them confidence as that will be what will get them there and far beyond. GOOOO BRONCOS 3-0 STAY FOCUSED
thanks lynch4prez too many negative people on here. Sure our D isn’t performing the way we want. But these past two games have been against very explosive offenses. We did good against Chokeland, as any D should, plus we should dominate KC next week. We will be 4-0 and 3-0 in our division. We don’t play many offenses that are as good as these last two for awhile. We have a great team and a very nice lead in the division. Especially if SD loses again tomorrow. And Webster did great, he was all over the field making big plays, big hits and he was key in stopping the drive at the end of the half.
exactly jazzyfrizzle, webster and engelberger are on the hot seat for some reason from some fans and its over my head why, if you wanna look on a bright side, its human to have an off day, at least we still got a W when some guys on D were having an off day
ps when i said ‘i forced that fumble’ in my above post i really meant to type ‘he’
Are u guys even broncos fans? First of all be happy that we are 3-0…..i dont see anybody in the division coming after us now unless the chargers pull something off like last year which is unlikely. Talking about the game today…if ur saying the offense looked bad when they score 34 points is stupid. Wat u really mean is our offense is sooo good that even when cutler isnt as sharp as normal and when royal isnt involved much we still put up big numbers. The passing d is shaky so far and even against the raiders, WRs were open but russell just couldnt hit them. Today our run d has improved but with brees having 4 seconds to throw every time wont get the job done
Dre Bly is WAY overrated!!! Enough of this zone – I thought we had a Threatening duo of CB’s – let them man-up… I thought that was also why we had athletes for LB’s… To “cover” TE’s and RB’s??? One play we had Dumerville in the flat in stupid zone trying to cover Reggie Bush… Dumerville is best used rushing the passer… It is also hard to generate any pressure when you only rush 3 guys all day. Not too smart. We better not go into KC and let the worst team in the NFL take us to task… Both of our Safeties suck too… They are slower than many teams defensive linemen… HELP!!! Offense score points, defense wins championships. The only thing Denver has going for it is “It is better to be lucky than good!” (2 missed fg’s and a goaline stop)
The positive on Defense – Nate Webster has stepped up and done well in the middle at LB and D.J. Williams with a monster 16 tackles today… And Nate Webster – way to scoop and score with a dandy of a run!!! That was sweet!!!!!!!
hey Gray, thanks for all the posts…..I’m in Hawaii and wasnt able to watch the game..only followed highlights and online stats…..bummer
OK evryone,,settle down,,some of u guys are jst being ridiculous..too negative after and an exciting win..just because we won our first two games doesnt mean you expect every game to won….Drew Breese is an elite QB, and he brought an excellent test to Broncos…it was well fought game..
yeah the defense gave up probably too much yardage….but thats what you’d expect from an NFC contender with a spread offense…
we should be thankful the Broncos are taking it one game at a time…and not get too cocky and overhyped about a couple of wins…they’ll be coming in one at a time..
Hats off to Dj for making stops when it was needed..He and Boss were flying all over the place….. putting up monster stats…
I’ll be cheerin on the Jets tmorrow…
Sweet win indeed!
nice to wake up 3-0 ! Once again the offense carried the broncos despite some mistake . Just one stat : 3 games , o sacks allowed and a name for the offensive rookie of the year : Ryan Clady .
First of all, I feel the need to address everyone who doesn’t realize that Brees puts up points on everyone, not just us. San Diego, puts up points on everyone, not just us. Complain about the defense all you want, on fourth and goal from the one NATE WEBSTER (who people are bashing) made a HUGE stop. NATE WEBSTER (who peple are bashing) scoop and score. Complain about the defense all you want, but when the game was on the line 3rd and 1 the DEFENSE made a stop. We do not have to shut teams out to win, just make plays when necessary, and well they are. the pass rush was not there, I agree but they went into the game attempting to throw off the Saints. The Saints even said they are used to a Denver defense that plays 80% man and we came in in mostly zone, That is a ood strategy to go against tendencies. Seoncdly, our offense is so explosive that they are rarely on the field for a long time, meaning our defense gets very little rest. If you are a fan be a real fan, be excited about the 3-0 start and know that we will improve every week
Lets give our young guys on defense a little more time before we pass judgement on them. They stepped up on a number of occasions this week and they will get nothing but better as the season progresses. The last two weeks they have been playing against two teams that had their backs against the wall to a certain degree. Both the Chargers and the Saints have dynamic offenses, it’s not like we have been playing the Chiefs! Lets support these guys, I think they are determined to improve. Lets be true fans and let them know we believe in them and believe that will get better every game throughout the season! Go Broncos!
one more thing : the placekicker , man , this guy is 100% !! Had he miss 2 and we’d be 1-2 , it’s a real good suprise , considering the guy he replaced . Kudo to the coaching staff…. and he kicks off !!
great to see good offense and 3-0 is awesome, but the D is still lacking big time and the winning streak can’t continue if we allow all those points. Let’s hope for some improvements we have some great defensive guys on the squad we just need to see them step it up a bit
I agree with VABroncoguy, Nate had a huge game today with that goal line stand and the scoop and score… i didnt know this kid had moves too lol. but either way some of u guys are being too negative, the saints and the chargers have one of the best offenses in the league. and yea we can improve in alot of areas, especially our pass coverage and pass rush. but no one should be really bashing the LB corps; they’ve been doing a great job especially today with great stops from nate then dj late in the game…
i do have to say that i noticed how teams run right at dre bly with sweeps n such… when reggie bush ran that TD outside, dre bly didnt force bush in, and bush beat him to the corner for the TD. now i played corner and olb, and we were always taught to force everything back inside where u have help… then on the pierre thomas TD they ran right at dre bly again. now its a team game so its not all his fault, our whole defense is supposed to be there, but if i have to criticize anyone it is bly. come on dre step up… if teams keep running at him then he needs to learn how to stop them. but either way great start broncos, stay focused!!
Someone needs to pull the reigns in on bates the quaterbacks coach. Run the ball with the Selvin Young he avg’s 6.9 yds a carry this season. Cmon lets stop being so perdictable. Bates chill out you are acting like your unemployed daddy. The D is awfull!!! We have to stop hiring other teams trash. Bob Slowik has been fired a couple times. Why have this guy running the D? His schems look elementary. CMON Shanny lets dump this cat! I know we keep firing our D coordinators. This guy though is garbage. He has no idea what he is doing thats why Green Bay couldnt wait to throw him out. Lets stop rescuing known losers were better then that.
I’m with maceano—–The D is very novice at this point !!! Really got a bad feeling in my stomach right now !!!! 957 yards in the air against us in the last 2 games!! Those are pretty gautty numbers for just 2 games.The defense has to compliment the offense or it’s all 4 nothing this year !!!