5
Cornerback Tracy Porter, who sealed the Broncos victory with a 43-yard interception return for a touchdown, finished with five pass breakups in the contest. That figure ties for second-most in Broncos history and ties Porter’s career high. Porter added eight tackles in the game, which ranked second on the team. He now has three career game-sealing interceptions returned for a touchdown with all three of those plays have occurring with less than 3:30 left in the fourth quarter with his team up by one score or less. Porter became just the 17th player since 1994 to record at least eight tackles and five passes defensed in a single game according to press box totals.
6
Defensive end Derek Wolfe became just the sixth Broncos rookie since 1982 to record a sack in the team’s season opener and the first to do so since Monsanto Pope in 2002. He finished with three solo tackles to go with the 9-yard sack that pushed the Steelers out of field-goal range on a third-down play.
12
Linebacker Wesley Woodyard led all players with 12 tackles in the game, including his second career sack. Woodyard finished one tackle shy of his career high, which he last set vs. Cincinnati on Sept. 18, 2011.
86.2
Denver’s 31-19 season-opening win vs. Pittsburgh improved the franchise to an NFL-best 25-4 (.862 pct.) in their 29 home openers in Pat Bowlen’s ownership era.
129.2
Quarterback Peyton Manning completed 19-of-26 passes for 253 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions to finish with a passer rating of 129.2 – the highest by a quarterback in his Broncos debut in team history.
400
Manning’s first touchdown pass as a Bronco was the 400th of his career, making him just the third player to reach that milestone. Manning did so in 209 games and 7,226 pass attempts, which was the fastest of the three players that have reached 400 career touchdown passes.
76,823
Sunday’s game drew the fourth-largest crowd to ever watch a Broncos home game with 76,823 in attendance. The announced attendance included a total of just 181 no-shows. The crowd was the largest since the 2007 season.
-Stuart Zaas
WOot!!! Porter / Wolfe / Woody & pm….
I’m getting used to it…just give me a cotton pickin’ second!!!
I can hardly stand to hear those of you who are jumping down on the LB’s. Woody and Miller were phenomenal. Mays was above average. Champ, Porter and Moore were great as well – but Roth is a QB phenom and he burnt everybody a little.
Its going to be much easier to get to Matt Ryan next week, than what the Broncos just went thru going after BB and survived coming away with a WIN. The Falcons O is solid, but their D is not all that good. This is going to be a shoot out in Atlanta.
new blog again Daddy.
Proud of the way the team played! The only obvious problem was getting off the field on 3rd down. Our “O” looked great and somewhat unstoppable. All in all a great first win!
A big bear hug for the unsung hero……. Jack del Rio!!!!!!! Great job “D”