The Broncos practiced at the South Suburban Sports Dome this morning — the field at Dove Valley was a little cold.
WHAT BAD TASTE?
Much of the questions from reporters in the locker room this week has focused on the fact that the Broncos have lost three-in-a-row at home. “Is home field advantage eroding?” has been one of the favorites to ask.
Finally, Elvis Dumervil let loose when someone asked if the team wants to get the bad taste out of its mouth from losing recently at home.
“Bad taste? We just won, man. There’s no bad taste in this locker room,” Dumervil said. “It really doesn’t matter. It’s a 16-round fight. This is the NFL — you’re going to win and you’re going to lose. I think we’re in a good situation — three games up in the AFC West. There’s no bitterness, there’s no whatever. We just have to take care of business.”
WHAT’S ON TV?
The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are playing on Thursday Night Football tonight, and feelings in the locker room were mixed on whether Broncos players’ TVs will be tuned in.
“Oh, I’ll definitely be watching,” Brandon Marshall said with a smile. Though he said he’d probably watch the game no matter who was playing, because he’s such a sports fan.
Dumervil, on the other hand, said his mind is on other things.
“No. I’m worried about Kansas City,” he said. “I’ll go home and chill.”
OVERHEARD IN THE LOCKER ROOM:
“He is 135 years old. Michael Pittman played in the Pro Bowl with cave men.”
-Anthony Alridge, with a little good-natured needling of 11-year veteran Michael Pittman
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Anthony Alridge, Brandon Marshall, Chargers-Raiders, Elvis Dumervil, Gray Caldwell, Michael Pittman
Anthony Alridge… quick 6… I hope he emerges next year. Him and Royal out there on offense will make for good TV.
Peyton Hillis and Anthony Alridge would be unstoppable. One hell of a one two punch.
AsianOrange has a point. Can you imagine getting punched in the mouth with Payton Hillis only to find yourself chasing a back like Alridge who has legitimate 4.3 speed. That tandem might cause more than one defensive coordinator a nightmare or two. Add Royal and the titanic Marshall to the mix and that is one potent offensive set. Is it me or are the Broncos looking more and more like a team that not only has a heightened degree of speed but power and size on both sides of the ball? When I think back to playing the Charger teams of the last few years I kept thinking “Man our guys are just getting beat up out there and by the fourth quarter they have had it”. It would appear that our new team speed and the added size of some of our players like Hillis, Hagan, Barrett, Clady, and others is resulting in teams being outmatched by the Broncos physical nature.
Mike in San Diego
START CHAMP @ SAFETY THE REST OF THE YEAR.
Champ Bailey should start at Safety instead of V Fox.
Im not keeping my hopes up but I would love to see the Raiders upset cry-baby LT and the Chargers. Mathematically they are still in it but unless the Broncos fall on there face in December there is NO reason for that AFC west title to be ours. See you at the stadium Sunday and for crying out loud MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!!
CHAMP is not gonna play safety get real and stop posting that in every blog. lets put the #1 corner in the league at safety jesus shut up already. and the rest of you guys dont forget about torain. torain and pittman is the one two i wanna see with hillis blocking and catching balls outta the backfield. quick 6 can share kick returning duties with eddie
ok, we have Torain, and Hillis beat up the D in the 1st half and we bring in quick 6 to run circles around them. and then of course Eddie and Marshall can burn em down field.
just reading all our imaginary ideas is kinda exciting i love all these young guys, i gotta say eddie and ryan have to be up for rookie of the year. i wanna see a lot more of woodyard. he excites me. making plays left and right. pass plays he is all of a sudden in the secondary, the kid is a ball hawk. with more time he will be great, not good great, another dj williams.
I think we have alot of talent on this team. We will be good for years to come with the young guys on the team. A few more pieces to this puzzle and we will be back to dominance.
This team has Talent. Lots of great Linebackers, Bly is looking sharp. Bailey is, well, Bailey. Barret has speed and size so he has potential. We need another true safety and I think our d-line has improved but we might be getting a new early round draft addition next year to help out. I’m excited for this young team. Can’t wait for them to prove everyone wrong in the playoffs. You guys should check out Marshall Faulk on NFL.com saying the jets game was “easy!,easy,easy” That we were going to get blown out, well HA!!! There was a blow out indeed.GO BRONCOS!!
This is out of the loop but I want Eddie Royal to be the rookie of the year. If not, Ryan Clady deserves it. Heck, all of our rookies deserve recognition. The future is bright because of them. Hopefully, Spencer can come back and smack Thigpen around a little bit. Elvis will get a hat trick in this game (a sack, fumble recovery and touchdown, I feel it in my bones!) Our stupid CBS affiliate in Utah wants to carry the 49ers-Jets game, but that’s all right the Broncos will decimate the Queefs so the nfl.com game tracker will work perfectly fine. As always, GO BRONCOS!!!
Ok… So far I’ve seen Hillis do better than Pittman had done w/ the games he started… But I would rather get Hillis ready for his career and develope him that letting michael get lots of reps when we wont have him much longer…
ORANGE JERSEY SUNDAY. Get psyched… It’s gonna’ be an orange avanlanche and a long day for the Cheifs!
Hillis, Hillis, Hillis….that guy is a frigging stud, and until he shows otherwise we need to let him keep on trucking. I think his style goes very well with Shanny’s blocking scheme and is just what we’ve been missing. He’s gonna break the first few tackles and get yardage every play. He has opened up our offense. Now defenses have to respect him, and when you have Eddie, B-marsh, and the Scheff out there we’re gonna make their heads spin. Defenses aren’t gonna know where to look. They’re gonna bite on the fake to Hillis, Cutler’s gonna roll out and let the gun go and those boys better pick up their jock straps and and run….they aren’t gonna catch oour boys!!
I’m not happy that we are just going to put our original starting linebackers back in. Bottom line, the rookies like Larsen and Woodyard have outplayed Webster and Williams. Winborn has been a stud, but at least Boss is out all year so Winborn should remain.
DJ and Nate just didn’t perform well when they played earlier this year. I realize they have more experience, but they were out of place all year long when they were in there. I hope the coaching staff holds them accountable for their play and just doesn’t play them because of their names. If they start struggling again and miss their gaps, they should be benched. We finally have some momentum and the D has looked better. None of this has been with Nate or DJ. PLEASE DO NOT BE STUPID COACHES. PLAY THE GUYS WHO DO THEIR JOB, NOT JUST THE GUYS WHO SHOULD DO BETTER. PERFORMANCE MATTERS.
Rusty – ….Im gonna need u to take back what u said about DJ cuz him and champ Bailey have been the most consistent people on our defense and team in general. If u were to say this rookie lbs with winborn seem to have some good chemistry boss, nate, and dj were missing…I would understand but to say that DJ…DJ doesnt do his job is effing blasphemy. Don’t be quick to forget just cuz our rookie Lbs have shown flashes of brilliance….Next thing i know u will be saying that josh bell has outplayed bailey since baiey has been out. DJ gets tackles, DJ feels his gap, and DJ is a leader point blank. and when Starting core was playing thats when coaches were tryign the 3-4 BS that obviously didnt work…they switched back to 4-3 when we were lacking LBs and thats the true key to our increased success. DJ is versatile and has played many different LB positions for us and has excelled at all of them. Him and Vilma are the best LBs to come out of college in a while.(with the exception of Patrick Willis cuz that boy is a beast lol).
As for the Broncos…Im just gonna need them to put this away…we havent won the division and san diego won’t roll over for us and their last few games are easy with the exception of us. we need to win 2 and put this thing away before we meet San diego in the final reg season game cuz especially with divisional opponents…..its any given Sunday. GO BRONCOS
champ at safety.. sit DJ.. wow ppl what are some of you thinking..
haha i know why put the best corner in the league at safety. no keep him and bly at corner and get some safeties in the draft. shanahan will do his magic in the draft. if we can get the same calibar of players like in 08 but on defense we will be scary good. and im not sure with dj. i say rest him b/c he isnt quite ready but we have won w/o champ and dj so. go broncos. beat the chiefs
I’m glad Shanahan is coach and not any of you…
man our backfield is gonna be so sick next year. i was thinking about this earlier while i was in my historic preservation class haha. look at this:
- when ryan torain comes back, he’ll start at halfback cuz he has everything, backed up by alridge with speed, pittman with power, and maybe selvin young with jukes if hes healthy dangit.
- next year, we start peyton hillis at fullback. remember what the bucs used to do with warrick dunn and mike alstott?? run alot of different packages in the backfield, like dunn n alstott in I, dunn in single, alstott in single, both in shotgun, anything. since hillis obviously can run the ball and catch out the backfield, we can do that tampa backfield with hillis n torain/alridge/whoever/me!! lol dang that would be so sick…….
we need quick 6 at starting runnig back torrain and pittman and the reserves we should play all 3 running backs like the giants do we would b unstopable then we would really c how those big mouth chargers would hold us then…not to mention Cromartie cant hang with Marshall and Royal is just a beast witck Stokley in the slot top 5 offense in the NFL only thing i ask of Jay is your getting the protection quit throwing into to coverage PLEASE other than that i love cutler and the rest of the broncos… for the defense it should be DJ,Webster,Woodyard, and Boss in the 3-4 pick up or trade 4 a big DT we got the speed guys on the end Witch ED92 and Jm94 corners champ and dre’ sorry dre bly is a beast hes proved he can do it with out champ i think hes had like 9 catches on him while champ has been gone and 4 of them was lelie who is just simply terrible but guys like Coles 4 the jets 2 catches Braylon 1 catch ted ginn 1 catch BLY IS THE MAN and put JACK WILLIAMS as the nickle switch Paymah to free safety and draft a strong safety in the 1st or 2nd round GO BRONCOS!!!
After reading a number of your blogs I agree that there may be something to letting the rookies continue as the starters on defense. One thing that I don’t think has been hit upon is the mental aspect that our rookies bring to the game versus that of the veteran players. Unfortunately I think that the veterans have a mind to let their interpretation of how well the game plan is going to work affect their effort on the field. During the off season it was stated time and time again that a lot of the starters on defense were not giving everything they had because they disagreed with the defensive scheme that the Broncos were running. I think that mentality may have carried over to this year. When those veteran players were injured and the rookies and free agents filled in, the mentality of our defense shifted. Players were flying around, making hits and doing what the coaches told them to do. They weren’t guessing or deciding how valid the scheme was. They were simply playing football and the defensive performance and the Broncos record improved as a result of it. I agree that individuals as talented as Champ and D.J. Williams can’t remain on the bench but I think they should be reminded that no matter what the scheme is, it is their job to play football. If the scheme stinks then we will see it for what it is. I think that we have one of the most underrated defenses in the AFC. If our rookies can maintain their level of play and our veterans can get out of their heads and just play football this could turn into a very dangerous defense that can shut down the running attack of the best teams in the league (like the Jets running attack) while getting hot in the turnover department. No matter what happens I am excited about this team and am actually glad that the Chargers won last night. If they had lost I believe that the mental block that the team has suffered from when playing at home may have gotten worse. As things stand in the AFC West race now, the Broncos have got to feel the rest of the league and those knuckle heads at NFL.Com believing that the Broncos are going to laps and allow the Chargers to get back in to this fight. There is no reason why the Broncos should give up the AFC West Title this year. They have positioned themselves as well as any team in the league to win their division. It is simply a matter of wanting it enough. If their is a lightning bolt anywhere near the title this year I’m liable to go postal. I don’t want the Broncos to win. I want them to make a statement to the rest of the league that says, “Yes we are young but if you take us lightly then you do so at your own peril because we are here to kick ass and chew bubble gum and we are all out of bubble gum!” Have a great game Broncos and destroy the Chiefs.
Mike in San Diego
thats a load of crap. i DONT THINK YOU KNOW WHY THEY CALL THEM STARTERS. and if anyone talks bad about dj williams( our BEST linebacker by a long shot) needs to shoot themselves in the foot. whoever said having boss out for the year is a jackass. i mean are you guys football fans or ballet dancers. you guys are ridiculous. i love woodyard more then anyone, i have been talking about this kid since we got him, but if it meant that dj would be off the field to have him on it id rather have dj. to have both out there at the same time is what i want. damn i cant believe some stuff i read on here
I figured out ways the AFC West can be clinched.
Denver-
1. Win 2 games (KC,CAR,BUF,SD)
2. Beat SD (Week 17)
3. SD loose 2 games (KC,TB,DEN)
4. Win 1 game, SD loose 1 game
Denver (if win this week)-
1. Win 1 game (CAR,BUF,SD)
2. SD loose 1 game (KC,TB,DEN)
San Diego-
1. Beat DEN (Week 17), DEN loose 2 others (KC,CAR,BUF), and win out (KC,TB,DEN)
Are you guys crazy? How many friggin running backs do you think we need? Why not go to the old four horsmen and keep all the running backs out there like pop warner. We could trade Cutler for a golden horsey. While we’re at it, put in D.J, Webster, Woodyard, Winborn, and Boss in. We’ll put Larsen at strong safety… he seems to be everywhere else. Fellas…come on. How about we build a good team. Let some of the talent go that we have been hiding on our bench to trade up and strengthen our week spots and put some faith in our coach’s decisions. We are fans…not Shanny’s underlings. It is quite entertaining though……..but seriously, put Webster in at strong safety, he’s psychotic, he’ll kill someone
WOW is all i can say, some good blogs here and some crazy stuff too. i will agree with most of you though and say that our rookies have stepped up and played to a level higher than expected. Starters are starters for a reason. DJ and Champ need to be back on the field. Webster is a back up at best, keep Woody or Larsen out there instead. bly and Champ on the corner with Bell and Barrett as safeties. now thats a secondary. Now i’m no coach but if i were that would be my move. the only concern i have about the starters coming back is, are they up to game speed. you can practice all you want but game speed is different as we all know. i see Shanny bringing them back little by little except for Champ, he will play cause thats how Champ is. watch for a big rotation of LB’s on sunday like they did with our line against the Falcons.
Now on to our offense, i’d love to see Royal get rookie of the year or even Clady, both have excelled past expectations. the only reason why they won’t get it is because of their position. Matt Ryan will win it because he’s a QB and thats it. yes he has done well but i believe others like royal and clady have done better but because of the spotlight that a QB gets he will win it. Sad but true.
now with our backfield. i see Pittman getting let go next year due to the emergence of Hillis and his ability to do EVERYTHING! a combo of Torain and Aldridge should make any defensive coordinator shake next year. throw in a little Selvin and mix things up with a few hillis packages and no one will figure us out. Our recieving corps is one of the best in the league and has been underated all year by those who have talked about us. they will only get better. Add another big DT and find one more dominant pass rusher and we are unstoppable for years to come.
I agree with Archangel, i’m glad that the Chargers won last night, it should light a fire under the teams butt to not downplay the Chiefs and destroy them at home, follow it up with a win on the road against the Panthers and we clinch the West title, i can see us closing out the season 10-6 just like i’ve been calling all year! give us the Colts at home. i know alot of you have said they own us and they have in years past, but this is a new team and we will change that streak this year. after that win against the Colts now we go on the road where we have been dangerous. no one can count us out and i’m certain by then, no one will
Keep the Faith and GO BRONCOS!!!
Anthony Alridge is the @#%$ and will definately be a great part of our offense. Hillis is a beast and I am glad he is here. I dont see Hall coming back and I dont see Pittman returning although I would like to see Pittman. Torain wont be a our starter or letr me say shouldnt be, we need to draft a solid every down healthy RB that is not injury prone. I like Torain but I dont think he is the answer and we need and answer.
Fact – solid running game eats up clock and keeps our defense rested
Rested defense defends much better.
We need a new proven D- Coordinator
New every down back:
FA= Chester Taylor or Draft = Moreno or Wells or Ringer.
2009 Bronco Back Field = Moreno – Torain – Young – Alridge
FB = Hillis, Pinnock or Pittman ( if he returns)
ALSO WE HAVE A SLEEPER IN COREY BOYD. Boyd may come out and show us something, he is a a good solid back and I am glad he is on the practice squad.
Alridge will do for us what Sproles does fr the Chargers that is going to be a great weapon next year we just need a solid every down back.
We get caught up in having a 1000 yd back and that is noot the measuring stick 1000 is far to low that is 62.5 a game if healthy we need a back that can give us a solid 1300+ yards and stay relatively healthy
no no no no no! why waste a high round draft pick on a RB when we have talent. Torrain and Hillis are going to be the 1-2 punch, with Young and Alridge as change of pace guys. We also dont need a new defensive coordinator, we need a system the guys know and can play based on instinct, not by the book. Very few teams do the every-down back these days, you see much more RB by committee and denver has been doing that for years.. having 1000, 600, 300 rushers is better than having one 1900 yard rusher, a team has to game plan for more than one person and come playoffs every back is a lot more fresh for the final push
no no no no no! why waste a high round draft pick on a RB when we have talent. Torrain and Hillis are going to be the 1-2 punch, with Young and Alridge as change of pace guys.
We also dont need a new defensive coordinator, we need a system the guys know and can play based on instinct, not by the book. Very few teams do the every-down back these days, you see much more RB by committee and denver has been doing that for years
having 1000, 600, 300 rushers is better than having one 1900 yard rusher, a team has to game plan for more than one person and come playoffs every back is a lot more fresh for the final push