Take a few steps back, then a few steps over. Raise one finger, with both eyes on the tee.
When Matt Prater lines up for a kickoff, it may look like he’s trying to kick the stuffing out of the ball. For Prater, that’s not necessarily the case.
“I don’t really think about it,” Prater said. “I just go out and try to hit it pretty solid. Don’t try to kill it but hit it pretty clean and get it down and give the guys a good opportunity to cover it.”
Through three games this season, Prater has been doing just that. Of his 15 kickoffs in 2009, 13 have landed in the end zone and seven have gone for touchbacks.
Opponents are starting on average at their own 20-yard line — 20.6 to be exact. That AFC-leading mark by Prater and the coverage team has aided the Broncos’ defense in their rise to a No. 1 ranking entering Sunday’s matchup with the Cowboys.
While Prater was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for September, he was quick to credit his teammates’ role in receiving that award.
“Our kickoff team has been doing an awesome job covering the kicks, keeping them inside the 20 for the most part,” Prater said. “It helps out the defense just off percentages on drive starts for opposing offenses.”
Knowing those percentages reveals a small piece of the sharpness cultivated under new special teams coordinator Mike Priefer.
Priefer arrived in Denver with a reputation for building tenacious units. In his seven years of coaching, his teams have blocked 14 kicks, while returning seven for touchdowns.
That success has continued this season thanks to an emphasis on looking ahead.
“He’s done a ton,” Prater said of Priefer. “I couldn’t think of just one or two things. I think a big thing he helps with is the mental part of it — just staying positive and learning from every kick. The most important kick is the next one.”
INJURY UPDATE
There were two Friday changes to the Broncos’ Week 4 Injury Report. After limited participation in Thursday’s session, Peyton Hillis (head) practiced on Friday with full participation. Kenny McKinley (illness), who did not participate in Thursday’s practice, was also a full participant in Friday’s practice. Both are probable for Sunday’s game.
The Cowboys had one change on their injury report. After not participating on Thursday, T Flozell Adams had full participation on Friday and is probable.
Here are some photos from the start of Friday’s practice, including Daniel Graham wearing pink gloves in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
– Chris Gentilviso, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Dallas Cowboys, Matt Prater, Mike Priefer, Week 4
man i love the broncos!!!!! and to all in the orange colored glasses fantasy league…. good luck i envision myself and estes 4-0 much like the broncos come sunday…..
time to give the cowboys a lil taste of the ROYAL treatment!!!!!!
Let’s go kill the cowboys. The media still thinks were not as great as the cowgirls. We’ll show em’ GO BRONCOS!!!!!!
Good Article. Thanks for the update!!!
i hope we beat the mess out the cowgirls this weekend let go d let get em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice to have hillis back. Good for McK too.
SO i convinced my friend to quit smoking if we beat the cowboys and pats. Its far fetched but i believe in my broncos. I told him if i lost the bet and the broncos didnt beat the pats OR the cowboys id give him 50 $ =-( so it shows the confidence i have in our team!
GO Broncos!!!!!!!!
What makes me so mad is on nfl.com they have the leaders in different areas for week 3…And doom was on there then the stupid cowgirls got their spot on there. WITH same number of sacks, but doom had better stats. Thats just ridiculous.
Yeah I saw that to Bronco-blaze. The only thing I can think of is that the Dallas guy caused a fumble on one of his sacks.
Argh
The only thing that worries me is that our slimline D-line is going to have to push around a bunch of heffers in order to make sure the run is stuffed. I have faith they will figure out a way to out maneuver the Cows. Go Broncos!!!!!!!
hey is orton going to be wearing the glove on his hand this week? and with our much improved Defense and a productive offense this a sure win for the broncos. Im calling it now Denver 24 Dallas 17. Buckhalter 115 yds Moreno 85 yards. Orton 1 td and 235 yds 0 int. Dallas 140 on the ground, Romo 1 td 2 int and 175 yds.
Go Broncos!
140 on the ground broncoguy, not gonna happen. More like 40 yards
MATT PRATER FO PRESIDENT ! ! ! Just teasin. Good job Matt I’m gonna get your jersey soon.
Bronco-blaze, Thats a great bet hopefully your friend sticks to it. It’s not going to be easy quitting.(Stay on Him!)
Thebroncoguy, I’m all for Romo’s 2 INT’s, in fact I think the turnovers have only just started to come this year, hold on cause the D is going to suprise us alot this year.
Way to go Matt Prater, Glad we stuck with you, shanny always believed you could break the longest kick record.
Funny thing is that, while champ hasnt gotten any INTs, alot of credit goes to him for at least 2 INTs this season that he has tipped away from the reciever and into the hands of Woodyard and McBath. So kudos to him.
Cant wait for this game, it is aired on the east coast so I dont have to look for links that show it. Im excited for this one, wanted Dallas to beat Panthers cuz if they lost and we beat Dallas this sunday….people will still be down on us cuz we beat a team that just lost. Analysts prefer excuses for why they think we suck, than facts and reasons for why they think we are good. At least Martz is one of the few analysts thats buying into us.
Way to go Graham for Breast Cancer awareness. Glad to have hillis and McK doing well. Brandon in the slot and Eddie getting double teamed, such a funny opposite of last year. Marion barber is gonna be ready to go so between him and choice they get about 100 on the ground.
GO BRONCOS!!!
Hey I’m not mad cuz how can i be when we’re successful and i know Marshall had a td last week but when are our top recievers really going to get into the game. Royal and Marshall are almost nowhere to be found on the stat sheet and Royal has been there all camp. I guess they’re still adjusting and trying to find a good chemistry. Anyway GO BRONCOS 4-0!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Bronco family,
With “TEAM” football the only stats that counts are team stats:
Wins/Loses
Turnover Ratio
Offensive Rushing/Passing/3rd Down conversion/Time of Possession etc..
Defensive Rushing/Passing/3rd Down conversion etc…
Individual stats are delusional and distorted; one play against eleven is not how the game is played.
With “TEAM” football you get sacks, touchdowns, first-downs, interception, Wins/Loses, etc… as a TEAM.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRONCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSS!!!!!!
Monodono, no wonder we think alike, we’re both ski bums, you now in Steamboat, me 20-30 years ago at A-Basin. Wow, a monoski, rare in this part of the world, a lot more of them in Europe, long single ski, both feet locked in side by side and big cruising turns, right? Anyway, always respected your comments, now I know why. Ski some for me this winter, I haven’t been able to strap any on since 1990 due to injuries, but I did for 27 years , so it’s not like I missed anything. Loved Steamboat, skied there as early as 76/77 with Billy Kidd.
Anyway, Go Broncos and I believe Prater will pull this tight one out for us Sunday. Of course I’d rather we win by 30, just don’t see it so, as I have already posted twice, I see a 16-10 win.
If the Broncos can just contain the cowgirls rushing game, then they can win this thing. I see a close game with the Broncos pulling away in the 4th quarter when the cowgirls huge, fat offensive line runs out of gas in the “Mile-High” air and Dumervil starts having his way with Flo’Naise Adams. Broncos 24-20. GO BRONCOS! Wish I could be there Sunday!
BroncoWildKansan says:
October 2, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Yeah I saw that to Bronco-blaze. The only thing I can think of is that the Dallas guy caused a fumble on one of his sacks.
Nope…just alphabetical order guys….nothing more than that.
The national media keeps saying that this is the game where we will see if the Broncos are for real. I say thats nonsense! So the Browns and Raiders weren’t the cream of the crop and we got lucky with the deflection in the Bengals game. The fact is that the Broncos beat the living crap out of the Raiders and Browns, and the Bengals were clearly dominated for the entire game up until :38 seconds left in the game. I know I’m preaching to the converted here, but it just has been really annoying listening to the complete disrespect that the Broncos have been getting by the so called “experts” this last week. I swear all these jokes clearly haven’t even watched a Bronco game this year and are making their “professional” opinion based on biased stats from last season.
But anyways,(Deep breath)… I really like how this game matches up for the Broncos. The Dallas rushing attack against the Denver defense should make for entertaining football. I really think the Broncos are going to have a good edge in that particular battle because of the speed of our LB’s have been quite impressive thus far. The Denver offense is really starting to find its stride. The rushing game is back to its old dominant ways and the passing game is becoming very deadly and unpredictable for opposing defenses. Dallas is known for being big with the leagues best pass rusher, but all I could notice last monday night was how slow the big guys were and how easily neutralized Demarcus Ware was.
I think this game is really going to come down to who can contain the rush and TE’s the best. If we can control Witten, we can control Romo. I can’t wait to see how this game plays out.
Go Broncos!
Baylinorcrush, Fan Huddle is up. Come on over and say hello. Give your input. What would be a site if I didn’t have a solid Bronco fan to banter with, ha, ha. Your opinion is always appreciated.
monodono, same for you in regards to Fan Huddle. You are always good with stats and your opinion is always welcome.
Oh, and Wolf Creek was always my favorite place to ski. 122 inches PTPP.
Here’s another win for the Broncos as I see Romo seeing a lot of pressure. This is going to be an excellent season and our dominance over the Cowboys is only the latest step to greatness. GO BRONCOS!!!
baylinorcrush, You’d be suprised at how quick the monoski is. I’m fat and old now but I use to ski with a bunch of pro mogal skiers, bumps trees everything any where I did’nt have to hike in or out of. I also spent two years in Summit County in the late 80′s, I grew up skiing Loveland and A-Basin and you’d be suprised at some of my favorite lines at Keystone, Trees that never get skied.
I’ve got a 195 bump ski, 201 cruser so I can do most anything my body let’s me. Come visit I got a couch.
Double D, I plan to check you out soon thanks for the invite.
TIME OF POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
the media has been smokin to muched blints or somthin to not see the broncos are back on top go denver beat the S**t out of them fat cows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey DD posted a comment on your Fan Huddle page, Great article you got talent bro.
Royalbeast5050
I think you meant blunts. lol. No respect will be given to our beloved Broncos until we get a win against the mighty Cowpies and the Patsies. Until then, lets enjoy this flying under the rader because that wont last forever. This game is going to start in the trenches. Whoever can get the run game going, stop the run etc. I predict the Broncos to get that going on both ends of the ball and then opening it up for some of our wide recievers, tight ends to make some Big play’s. 3 sacks for DOOM!!
Broncos win big 34-10
comments
The Bronco injury report has me very concerned. Hamilton is definetly out and Harris is questionable. The Dallas DL is no slouch. Second teamers need to play the game of their life. I hope that the first time Adams tries to trip somebody again, that he’s ejected from the game. He’s already injured one player with his dirty play.
Adams wont get ejected, but would probably be suspended the following game.
Chris Berman predicted we would win 16-19, which I would say is fair considering that we still have a problem in the red zone. But the way our defense plays the Cowboys will be very lucky to get ONE touchdown let alone two.
Hey Bronco homies, here’s my Sunday Matchup!
The Dallas Cowboys and their huge front line and punishing running game goes against the Denver Broncos Swarming Defense and Weapon X. It should be an explosion of powerful proportions as this game will be won in the Sweaty trenches of the World Famous Mile High Stadium.
This new-age re-match of Super Bowl XII features the Broncos in their beloved ORANGE JERSEYS! If all the fans sport their Orange hoodies, jerseys and barrels this sunday. The sea of Orange could be overwelming for the Cowboys and the NEW ORANGE CRUSH will have come of age!
The Denver Defense shoud be able to hold the powerful Dallas running game to 110 yards and one TD. Denver needs to be ready for the wildcat and other trick plays that could result in 2 FG’s. Dallas 13
Into the secondary, we have the Denver pass Defense almost topping the list in an amazing but not surprising fashon, this is where the Broncos are worth thier weight in GOLD as they could pick Romo 2-3 times.
The Dallas pass D is as porous as Sponge Bob. I believe McD will try to get favorable matchups on the Dallas corners. Royal and Marshall are highly involved in the gameplan. I look for McDaniels to use the run to set up the passing game and we could see a pair of TD’s through the air. match that with one TD for Buckhalter and one field goal from Prater to make it Broncos 24.
BRONCOS 24
COWBOYS 13
STONE COLD ORANGE CRUSH LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oakland Raiders’ Richard Seymour fined $7,500 for hair pulling. espn.
Still can’t get any respect. Even though it’s not right I love it. I thrive off being the underdog. That’s why I love the Broncos. In my whole life we’ve gotten the respect we deserve only the year after we beat the Pack in the Superbowl (when we were supposed to lose).
Use the energy Broncs, feed of the lack respect people give us and go out there and shock the Cowholes on Sunday.
Bleed Orange and Blue!!
OC, I posted my version of Sunday’s game on the previous blog, so this is kind of a repeat:
This week I predict a close one also, as you know I got lucky last week (had us by 21) but this is an all together different animal this week. A lot of guys are seeing big spreads (broncofan96, 31-7) and I don’t see where that lack of respect for the Cowboys D comes from. Wednesday, Dawkins said “coming from Philadelphia, I’ve had to play the Cowboys twice a year, and I know one thing, these guys need respect, and for 60 minutes.” I’m thinking everyone on D will follow Dawkins advice and respect them for 60 minutes, so who cares how some of the fans respect them or don’t, it won’t matter. Just because their D stats looked bad for the first 2 games doesn’t make them bad, they put up a very good effort Monday night and it helped their confidence which I believe they’ll carry into this game. Their D has many pro bowlers and is tough, great front 3, #90 Ratcliff at the nose is scary good, lots of pressure, fast LB’s, Marcus Ware, enough said, tough to run against, excellent secondary, Newman among them, will limit the long game so the answer might be the middle in front of the safeties with the TE’s and the RB’s as receivers. However we go at it I don’t see us scoring over 20, so I’ll say 16 (Prater excells again). As far as their O is concerned (I think bloggers predictions are a little more on the money here), I don’t see them scoring over 10. They might be able to run for 125 but not the 200 they’re accustomed to, Whitten will have a big day because McD will put in an extra LB up front to stop the run and to do that it will leave single coverage on Whitten. However they’ll move it between the 20s but won’t get it done often close in. Their deep game shall be the down fall of the Cowboys with Romo not being able to help himself but throw a couple of INT’s while Orton will do much better in that category and we’ll escape with a 16-10 win. It’s a good thing we play this one at home, it will be a lot like the Cinci game and nothing like the Browns and Raiders game. Just my crystal ball, hope it lets me down and we just crush them… Last note, it will be a very physical game against some very large bodies, some of them who are nasty and others just plain dirty, so my hope is we get out of this one without any major injuries, hope I didn’t just jinx them.
OC, you got us winning by 11, I by 6, may the best man win! ahahaha. I’m more of the scared group this week, so far only Danso has us winning by less (4).
I love the broncos
diehard, why?
Theres another Royalbeast?!?!!? wow….
anyway lol, OC was the closest to me, I posted Broncos winning 27-13
It’s not that i dont respect their D but their D just hasnt giving me a reason to this season. right now their Defense is 26th in the league (It was 32nd before the played the turnover kings….Panthers)….so i think my outcome is pretty plausible
GO BRONCOS!!!
Broncos win 27-20
Damn, Ben Hamilton and Alphonso Smith are probably out. And Ryan Harris and Stokely are questionable. This isn’t good at all.
DDave, I posted on your blog, after an hour, it was gone. I tried to get on again, but it keeps telling me my password is invalid, got a new one, same thing… obviously a lot of stuff to be worked out, I’ll try it again down the road. Hope you got to read my post the short time it was up, just wanted to say I was glad for you to have found your own playground to write in and talked about orange Sunday and the similarities between the 77 team and this one. Take care.
That was a great read baylinorcrush.
I had a five point spread until I looked closer at the Dallas pass defense stats. Dallas is 26th in total Defense and the BIG BLUE MACHINE is EL-NUMERO UNO!!!!!!!1
I feel like I might be selling our defense short by giving the cowpies 13. One more day to find out!
LET’S GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!
10-6 AND TO THE PLAYOFFS WE GO!!!
Same here DD. No Idea why they took it out!
Yeah OC, it’s like reading fiction, ahahahah…
usually cowboys ride broncos but tomorrow the broncos will ride the cowgirls denver d and running game will dominate and all who doubt the broncos will see the light and see we are a play off team hell ya damn right the number 1 defense wil pic romo 5 times and elvis will have 3 sacks
GO BRONCOS
champbigd, we’ll pick Romo 5 times !?!? Wow, I’ll have some of what you’re having! LOL.
listen to b.loyal rap it is petty good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgbqeNOvsw
my bad b Lloyd
b. lloyd’s a beast. I hope he plays if stokley’s gone…
I’m not the only who thought his pre-season performance was awesome, right?
this is random, but the only reason why all of the teams we played have bad ranked offenses are because they played US!!! I mean, there has to be some reason why the Bengals have a rancid offense at this point…
marshallman, you’re right , I tried to make the point the other day that both Lloyd and McKinley have been totally non existent in our game plans. Even so we play the team thing, as long as we win who cares who gets what, I bet you Lloyd and McKinley are a bit miffed at having performed so well in pre-season, yet have nothing to show for after three games. Hopefully we’ll see at least one of them out there tomorrow making a play. I mean everyone needs a carrot once in a while… McD can’t be that mean, can he?