Two words continued to pop up in the Broncos locker room when discussing the team’s attitude toward this week’s postseason matchup — “excited” and “focused.”
“I know personally, this is the biggest game of my life,” Robert Ayers said. “That’s how I’m approaching it. I want to lay it on the line. It’s all or nothing. You win or you go home. I don’t want to go home, so I’m definitely going to give it my best effort.”
Joe Mays said the team’s excitement is growing as its tilt with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Sports Authority Field at Mile High gets closer.
But the team isn’t letting its emotions get in the way of putting in the work it will take to come away with a victory.
“They’re not cheerleaders,” Head Coach John Fox said. “They all come to work, do their job. They are preparing. I think, obviously, any one of the 12 (playoff teams) is very excited. They understand if you don’t win you’re out of the tournament. They’re professionals, and they’re prepared.”
The players understand the challenge ahead of them, and they’re ready to make their first postseason appearance since the 2005 season count.
“I’m sure the crowd is going to be into it. It will be a great atmosphere so we’re excited about that,” Elvis Dumervil said. “We all know what’s at stake. We got in through tough circumstances, but we’re in and we have to take full advantage of that.”
PRESSURING ROETHLISBERGER
Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had limited participation in Wednesday’s practice with an ankle injury.
In a conference call with the Denver media Wednesday, the signal caller said he rates his ankle’s health as a five out of 10.
But the Broncos don’t expect it to hamper the two-time Super Bowl winner.
“I’ve been watching him the last couple of games,” Ayers said. “He’s still shrugging guys off. He looks wounded, but he’s still making plays and they’re still winning. He’s a tough guy to get down. We’re not going to worry about his injury. We’re just going to worry about us.”
Dumervil agreed.
“As long as you’re out there, I’m going to come at you,” he said.
Fox said that watching the tape has shown him Roethlisberger won’t be very limited by the ankle.
Players mentioned the Steelers quarterback’s arm, mobility and most of all strength as traits that can cause them problems on Sunday.
But the defense hopes to cause him problems as well.
“It’s going to take a lot of us to get to him,” Ayers said. “He’s a tough competitor. It’s going to be a challenge as it is every week. I think we’re up for it, and I think we’re ready.”
THE UNDERDOG
Even playing at home, many see the Broncos as the underdog in Sunday’s Wild Card contest.
Lance Ball said that can be a motivation, but the team isn’t paying attention to any outside opinions.
“It really doesn’t matter, but being the underdog spices it up a little bit,” Ball said. “We’ll have that attitude going in and it’s going to be a street battle. It’s going to be mano y mano to see who is going to come out and win it.”
Mays said that underdog or not, the fact that the Broncos won the AFC West and are playing this week speaks to the character of the club.
“It just shows the type of players that we have in this locker room, the type of coaches that we have,” he said. “We’re just a bunch of resilient guys that won’t take no for an answer. We’ve been the underdog all year and we thrive on that.”
The Broncos aren’t looking for a pat on the back from the media. They’re looking to accomplish their goals, and do it as a team.
“Everybody in this locker room trusts one another, and the camaraderie is at an all-time high,” Eric Decker said. “There are no ‘me’ guys on this team, and we expect to win. We set the bar high. We had six consecutive wins. It’s not about how you get it done, but the W. You’ve got to find a way to that get.”
INJURY REPORT
For the Broncos:
DID NOT PARTICIPATE: S Brian Dawkins (neck), FB Spencer Larsen (knee), WR Eddie Royal (toe)
LIMITED: S David Bruton (Achilles)
FULL: LB Von Miller (thumb)
For the Steelers:
DID NOT PARTICIPATE: CB Cortez Allen (shoulder), LB James Harrison (toe), DE Brett Keisel (groin), RB Mewelde Moore (knee), S Troy Polamalu (calf)
LIMITED: C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), QB Ben Roethlisberger (ankle)
FULL: G Doug Legursky (shoulder), LB LaMarr Woodley (hamstring)
Below are photos from Wednesday’s practice:
-Gray Caldwell
You need to anticipate the WR getting open, and that’s part of trusting your targets. For instance, on a curl route, you don’t wait to throw it when the WR turns around and curls, (the defender will most likely be right there to break the pass up). You anticipate him coming out of his break and as he does you should be throwing the ball so when he does it is right there on the money, giving the defender little time to react. Nothing too ingenious but that’s where Tebow is faulting.
Hey GoBroncos I could be wrong but wouldn’t the Bronco’s have to actually sign Weber to the active roster to start him? Just saying.
No wonder why we can’t tackle, Harris is tackling at the chest height. You can’t even bring down a kicker if you tackle him at chest height.
Those two picks of Brady and Tebow really give you a better look at his throwing motion. Look where the height of the ball is.
Broncfalls had his shot at coaching, now it’s Woody’s turn:
Let’s start with the gameplan first. You may have read my interview with John Elway, which appeared Wednesday, in which he said Tim Tebow must “pull the trigger.” That’s the first, and foremost, thing the Broncos must do offensively. Tebow has played tentative and, I think, afraid to throw because of the interception issue.
What’s the worst thing that can happen if he throws 50 yards down the field? It’s intercepted. Like a punt. Tebow always has told me he is not interested in statistics. Well, let loose, Tim. Play as you did against Oklahoma in the BCS Championship. Throw as you did against the Texans last year (for 300 yards). Throw as you did against the Vikings this year. Throw with confidence. Throw before the wide receiver makes his break. Throw over the middle. What’s the worst thing that will happen? The Broncos will lose to the Steelers, as they likely will, anyway.
Offensive coordinators have told me for more than 40 years that you get the quarterback into a rhythm right away by throwing three or four passes they’re best at, they’re comfortable with, and they can complete. The Broncos need to do that on the first series. Throw a screen, flip the ball to a back, throw a safe pass to Eddie Royal after he’s gone in motion across the backfield. Get Tebow into the flow as a passer right away, and get his confidence level up.
How about a couple of bootleg plays? Mike Shanahan used to have Jake Plummer fake to the back and roll out and run. The other play that always worked for Shanahan was to send everyone left and have the quarterback roll out and throw to the tight end coming from the other side. Maybe Mike McCoy should look at a few of Shanahan’s successful pass plays. I’d use Jerimiah Johnson more often. He does seem to catch the ball and can break some plays. Put him in the running back rotation instead of Lance Ball .
I’d surprise Pittsburgh and open up with passing to set up the run. The Steelers aren’t expecting passes on first and second down. Well, you say, you give the Steelers more chances to score? Since Ben Rothlisberger got hurt, the Steelers aren’t scoring, either. Without Mendenhall, they won’t have a great running game, and Big Ben can’t scramble around on that ankle. Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil have to vary the rush, coming inside the tackles sometimes. I’d play Wesley Woodyard more as a fourth linebacker and use six defensive backs in obvious passing situations. Go hard at Isaac Redman . He fumbled twice last week. The defense needs turnovers to win this game.
The Broncos have to play wild and crazy, in my opinion, and go for it. The crowd needs to get into it, from the get-go, and drown out the Steelers fans who will be out in force; probably about 20,000 or more because the wishy-washy Broncos fans will be capitalists and sell their tickets on the secondary market. The Broncos can’t hold back anything. Dennis Allen says he is an aggressive defensive coordinator. Well, then, do it. Show us that New Orleans style of defense. Mike McCoy is trying to get a head coaching job. Well, then, show us more creativity. How about a handoff to a back out of the shotgun a couple of times, and a throwback to Tebow? How about Brady Quinn coming into the game for a couple of plays and throwing to Tebow in the slot?
As I’ve suggested, you’ve got nothing to lose but the game. But I sure wouldn’t go down losing 7-3 again.
I love all that except the part where he says “What’s the worst thing that will happen? The Broncos will lose to the Steelers, as they likely will, anyway.” Always have to be reminded about the reality of it all, can’t escape it, but it was good morning news overall so far.
That pretty much sums up my feelings as well.
why do I have the feeling we’ll see run, run, incomplete pass on the first 5 series of the game?
oh, cause that’s what we’ve done pretty much all season……….lol
The real meaning of the sickle-cell caused loss of safety Ryan Clark for the Steelers, all good news for us but unfortuntae that it has to be this way:
“Ryan does such an awesome job of complementing Troy (Polamalu),” Roethlisberger said, referring to the perennial all-pro safety. “People don’t realize that, (while) Troy makes a lot of plays and gets a lot of notoriety and publicity, Ryan is kind of the backbone for it.
“Troy ad-libs a lot. Troy just sees stuff, and that’s what makes him so good, his instincts. In order for him to do that, you have to have a guy that’s able to back him up and cover for him. We’ll have to see how Troy does back there as kind of a safety blanket.”
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Clark will be replaced this week by third-year pro Ryan Mundy , with ninth-year veteran Will Allen backing up both safety spots. Tomlin said Clark will make the trip and become a coach of sorts on the sideline.
And so you know, every coach in the NFL has the next man up philoshy, it’s not something Fox invented as some here seem to think:
Tomlin said the Steelers’ “next man up” philosophy is always to expect the replacement “to play winner football.”
But Clark is not completely helpless in this one:
That’s not to say Clark is taking it easy this week. Apparently, he is imitating Broncos safety Brian Dawkins during Steelers’ practices.
Maybe they know more than we do about Dawk being able to play this week?
I watched no huddle last night and believe it or not a couple of the guys kinda stuck up for Tebow. They were actually talking about Mark Sanchez and how in his third year he has regressed and how he should get at least another year to improve and then one of the guys piped up and said hey wait a minute you guys don’t even want to give Tebow a full season but you are willing to give Sanchez 4 or 5 years. That is just crazy. I agree. Come on Tim lets throw and run like crazy and win this game. NO ONE gives us a shot at winning and this morning they ranked the playoff QB’s by how convinced they were that the QB have a good game and out of the 8 QB’s playing this weekend of course thay rated Tebow #8 and proceeded to say he only got ranked that because there are not 9 QB’s this weekend. I really hope he comes out and throws 28 of 33 passes for 306 yards and 3 touchdowns and no picks or fumbles. Then I hope he runs over Palomalu while running for 2 more TD’s. MAYBE then those idiot analysts will shut it.
Of course as usual Legwold has to bring the team back down to earth and thank god for that, it’s not like we want the team feeling this is going to be nothing but roses, LOL:
Dick LeBeau , the Steelers’ defensive coordinator, invented the zone blitz. It calls for a defensive player to drop back from the line of scrimmage into pass coverage so a teammate can rush the quarterback from another place on the field. Other teams use the zone blitz, but nobody uses it as frequently and as well as the Steelers. LeBeau’s group has led the NFL in scoring defense four times since the start of the 2004 season.
Getting Tebow fully prepared for what’s coming to Denver this weekend is going to be difficult. Even if the Broncos get their defensive players on the scout team in the right place during practice, there’s no way those players can run the zone blitz as well as the Steelers. To keep that from being an issue Sunday, the Broncos know they have to create a game plan that will cushion Tebow from the impact of the zone blitz.
In the passing game, Tebow will have to throw the ball as quickly as possible. If he doesn’t have an open receiver, he has to throw the ball away rather than take a sack. The more he hesitates as he processes what he’s seeing from the Pittsburgh defense, the greater chance he has of going down behind the line of scrimmage.
Veteran safety Troy Polamalu has the freedom to leave an assignment and chase the ball. He can do that because the Steelers have a lot of disciplined defensive players who can cover for him.
Throwing the ball against Pittsburgh won’t be easy for the Broncos. The Steelers held nine teams to fewer than 175 net yards passing in their 12-4 season. That’s an extraordinary feat in a league stocked with explosive offenses.
Basically it comes down to playing “aggressive yet smart.” We’re one and done..so we ought to play like it..a bunch of reckless renegade rocket scientists…aggressive yet smart!
Miller doing is best to hang in there despite his injured thumb and swearing he hasn’t hit the rookie wall:
Outside linebacker Von Miller has heard the term “rookie wall,” but he insisted Wednesday that he hasn’t hit it.
“It’s a wall for every guy in the NFL. The season is so long. But I enjoy doing this, coming in here, spending time with these guys, going out to practice,” said Miller, a former Texas A&M star. “It hasn’t taken its toll on me. I’m excited to be in the playoffs, excited to play the Pittsburgh Steelers .”
Miller’s legs are fresh, but his upper body hasn’t been normal since undergoing surgery Nov. 29. Miller said Wednesday he has been unable to lift weights, but the Broncos’ strength coaches have improvised with body resistance exercises.
“It’s the same type of motion. It’s just not with free weights,” Miller said.
Von, maybe it’s a wall for every guy in the NFL, but guys other than rookies are used to playing minimum 16 games a season, college players have never done that, it will get better as you get used to it, promise, it cannot all be blamed on the thumb, all the rookies in the NFL have a tough time in December and January, not many around at this time of year contributing big time at positions that require lots of physical action like yours…
During the win streak, Tim Tebow was running the ball hard. No avoiding hits, seldom looking for the sidelines. That seemed to change the last few gaomes of the season and my guess is the coaching staff it treating him like any other QB and trying to protect him. Tebow doesn’t need to just pull the trigger with his arm, he needs to be Tim Tebow. Let him run and deal out some punishment. Then let him through the ball and see what happens. Go Broncos!
Words from Williams. Veteran linebacker D.J. Williams is among the quietest Broncos, preferring to skip interviews during the regular season. A few weeks ago, Williams said he would talk to the media if the Broncos made the playoffs.
Wednesday, after the first practice of the postseason, Williams allowed a television camera and a few tape recorders for a brief session in front of his locker. Williams and cornerback Champ Bailey are the only Broncos remaining from the franchise’s last playoff team — the team that lost to the Steelers 34-17 in the AFC championship game of the 2005 season. Williams said he’s not looking for payback. “No motivation,” he said. “That was then, this is now. We’re just trying to get a victory now.”
And that’s it! You have to say he makes it really hard to be respected as a leader of this team as he should since he has been here so long. He has had a great season on the field, but come on, maybe you should work on your communication skills next off season, it would help both with your teammates and the fans.
If he can lead with his actions on the field this weekend, I’ll take that. Better than all talk, no action.
If we can win this game it will be strangely reminiscent of this one:
In the 2005 season, the Broncos stayed alive in the playoffs by beating Tom Brady and New England 27-13 in an AFC Divisional game played in Denver.
I mean it would be almost as big a shocker and bringing down just as big a team. That victory over the Patriots remains one of the biggest thorn in their side to this day, they were on a 10 game winning streak and a shoe in to go all the way, pretty much exactlly like we were in 1996 when we suffered arguably the worse loss of our franchise against the Jaguars at home in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Hopefully we can make Pittsburgh feel that bad for years to come.
I can still see champ blazing down the sidelines after that pick! lol
and that loss to the jaguars still leaves a bad taste in my mouth……..but it was sweet seeing them avenge it the following year………and of course we all know what happened after that……….
No real bad angle to today’s news as you can see, as it should be right before a playoff game, good stuff, GO BRONCOS!!!!
Just saw that Big Ben suffered a “set back” with his high ankle sprain.. While expected to play, and one of the toughest players in the league, we got to figure out a way to get to him and knock him around.. The last few weeks our pass rush hasn’t been on point – who’s gonna step up!?
Yeah, but that was our shot at being the greatest team ever in the NFL, three SB wins in a row, and we blew it big time, will never forget it.
However had we won that one we might of never won any other, I realize that, but it still is to me the greatest disappointment I ever felt in my nearly 40 year Bronco fan career, way worse than even the 89 SB loss to the niners.
I have to say that I am so proud of the ENTIRE TEAM! I just read about the Jet’s locker room problems. When a rookie QB comes right out and says that players didn’t care if the team won or lost and were only concerned about theiur personal numbers that says a lot about the team and it’s coaches. How many times have our player said it is about the wins and losses and not the stats? I think that is a wonderful thing and in time with more experiance the stats will come along. I hope if we do get any veteran players we are careful not to get the selfish ones with bad charater. I think our team is full of great character guys and there were some not so unselfish types here before which are now gone. WTG BRONCOS, please do not even consider Santonio Holmes if he comes available. Thank you.
B-R-O-N-C-O-S BRONCOS BRONCOS BRONCOS!!!!
ONE LOVE BRONCO COUNTRY!!!!
VON TEBOW FOOTBALL!!! Playoff TIME!!!
FTS
what are everyone’s thoughts on the bengals/texans game? two rookies going up against one another………..two solid RBs and two decent Ds. Should be an interesting matchup.
It’s a totally different atmosphere when you get into the playoffs,I am proud of this team for fighting thru so much adversity this year,and getting into the playoffs,ANY GIVEN SUNDAY!!!
It’s just the Jets turn now, our team was exactly like they are now for our last two seasons, no one gave a crap about winning for McD, as none for the Jets give a crap winning for Ryan.
I agree 100% with giving Tebow a few easy short passes early in the game and build his confidence, as well as catch the Steelers D off guard.. We only let him throw on obvious passing downs, when he’s got no shot.. A Royal dump pass can turn into a nice 20-30 yard pass play! Get the ball in fast Eddie’s hands in the open field, and see what happens, we’ll all wonder why we never did that before..
I think we should study our own game film from the last few weeks, the same film that the Steelers are watching, and make a conscious effort to change it up..
Does it make a difference,who wins the Texans/Bengals game,in who we play if we beat Pitt?
yup, if the bengals win, they play NE. If the texans win, we will play NE.
But we gotta beat Pitt first! lol
Btw, Clemson got destroyed by WVU last night.. I missed it, but some people have us taking Thompson, one of their DT’s… Looks like they mostly got beat in the pass game, anyone see it? Wonder how that kid played.. On the surface, it doesn’t look good..
I think if Cincy wins they would play the Pats and if we win we get the Ravens right?
and if the Texans win we get the Pats and the Texans get the Ravens?
GO BRONCOS!!!
GO CINCY!!!!!!
I want the Ravens!!!!!
I’d love the opportunity to have the broncos go into foxborough and stick it to the pats!
a man can dream, can’t he? lol
You missed an entertaining first half OT… WV scored 49 first half points… one TD was on 99 yard strip of a Clemson back reaching for the goal line… Awesome play…
WV did what they wanted in that game and had many, many big plays!
the score was 70-33 F
Good thing teams are not like fans, they take it one game at a time, haha.
OT…I watched the entire game 70-33,the most points a team has ever scored in a bowl game in history(70)Clemson looked awful last night,I hope we don’t draft any DL from Clemson in the 1st round!!!
Other than basically LSU and Alabama, College D has sucked big time this year, it’s just plain embarrassing, and problem is we have to build a D out of all of that mess…
The Jets can only blame themselves.. They had success being a ground and pound team, then they let a few OL walk, replace TJones with LT and change their style to make Sanchez pass more…..
Our front office could take notes on that one…
Good one, you’re saying don’t let Tebow pass more, LOL.
Even on Sanchez’s off days, he still passes the ball better than Tebow.
Everybody passes the ball better than Tebow, stats don’t lie in that respect.
LOL! I do think we should let Tebow pass more, but the Jets completely changed their offense.. Take a look at the number attempts they had Sanchez take.. They completely abandoned the run game this year..
Everyone’s favorite word: “balance”… But does anyone know what it actually means?? Lol
We completely abandoned our passing game. We’re like the anti-Jets!
Tebow has a 46.5% rate, no one else has less than 50%+
Sanchez attempted 59 passes two weeks ago vs the Giants… LOL!
Sanchez has had 3-4 years in the league and still sucks!!!
I love to see the Jets lose,Ryan don’t run his big mouth!!!
Obviously I was talking completion rate, just clarifying for the novice, haha.
I guess I’m building a deck today,in the middle of Winter,go figure.lol.
LMAO!
Use screws!