Explosive was the word of the week.
Since Monday, Head Coach Josh McDaniels and his players have talked about the physically gifted players that fill up the Raiders roster. On Friday, the talk turned to special teams.
“They’re the biggest team, the fastest team and the strongest team that you’re going to find in the NFL,” Joe Mays said. “It carries over to their special teams, no doubt.”
As they enter division play, the Broncos are keenly aware of what could happen if they let their focus drop on kicks and punts. They don’t want to allow Oakland’s athletes any momentum-shifting plays like the two punts they blocked — one for a touchdown — in a win against San Diego.
“More than half of the time they are rushing the punter with eight in the box, so protecting the pocket there for the punter is very important,” McDaniels said. “We have been working real hard on that.”
Mays said the key to protecting the punter is keeping up the chatter on the line in order to synch up the protection.
Once the linebacker and his teammates see the punt fly above their heads, they can zero in on a group of Raiders returners who boast track speed. McDaniels cited a 64-yard kickoff return rookie Jacoby Ford ran against the Texans as the type of play the team must avoid.
“He got to the corner and it looked like about 10 guys had an angle on him, and he just went by all of them,” the coach said. “If he hits something full speed, you’ve got a problem because he’ll catch the kickoff and be in the end zone in 10 seconds.”
With team captain Wesley Woodyard and Darcel McBath — last year’s leader in special teams tackles — ruled out of the game for the second week in a row, the team will look to Mays and David Bruton to lead the charge in kick and punt coverage.
Both players play on every special teams unit, and they relayed the same message. As long as everyone does their job, the coverage will stay solid. No one man can dominate that phase of the game.
“We all have a role out there, it’s really not just me alone,” Bruton said. “We all have a part. Some things are schemed for certain players. Without (Woodyard) there, someone has to step up and fill that void.”
Last week, the team brought up rookies Kevin Alexander and Kyle McCarthy from the practice squad to step into special teams spots. On Tuesday, second-year man Diyral Briggs made the same move from practice squad player to active roster member for the same reason.
“(We’ve used a) lot of young players that are really playing important roles for us in the kicking game — and they have to,” McDaniels said. “I think they have a great attitude, a great mindset. All of them want to contribute to our team.”
Since his arrival from San Francisco, Briggs said he’s learned a valuable lesson about life in the NFL from Woodyard, his fellow linebacker.
While he won’t be playing on Sunday, Woodyard’s preparation will carry over into Briggs’ game.
“(Woodyard) breaks down plays to a ‘T’ on special teams. He knows exactly what opponent we’re going to face, what they’re going to do and what they want to do,” Briggs said. “Just by picking up this guy’s habit, I’m learning my opponent really very well. I kind of know what he’s going to do before he does it.”
After spending last season on San Francisco’s active roster and playing in this season’s opener with the 49ers, Briggs is eager to prove his mettle against a Raider’s squad he faced in the preseason.
“I think this is a huge opportunity for me to show not only my players, but my coaches and the people around that I’m capable of making an impact on the team — whether it’s special teams or playing on defense,” Briggs said. “Whatever you need me (for), I’m going to give it my all. That’s what I’ve always been, a player that no matter what, I’m going to give it my all.”
Robert Ayers (foot), Brian Dawkins (knee), Andre’ Goodman (quadricep), Darcel McBath (ankle) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring) did not practice on Friday and are out for Sunday’s game. Eddie Royal (groin), Champ Bailey (ribs) and Kevin Vickerson (groin) were limited in practice and are questionable for Sunday.
For the Raiders, DT John Henderson (foot), LB Thomas Howard (knee), WR Chaz Schilens (knee) and LB Travis Geothel (back) did not practice on Friday and are out for Sunday’s game. TE Brandon Myers (concussion) did not practice and is questionable. RB Michael Bennett (hamstring) and RB Darren McFadden (hamstring) , S Tyvon Branch (back) and S Hiram Eugene (back), QB Jason Campbell (knee) and QB Bruce Gradkowski (right shoulder), were limited in practice and are questionable for Sunday.
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Below are photos from Friday’s practice.
Tags: 2010, David Bruton, Denver Broncos, Diyral Briggs, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Joe Mays
At least the injury report is not all one sided like it was last week, the Raiders have a crapload of problems there too.
the raiders are as banged up as we are. Might as well play in wheelchairs. Crazy.
Anyone heard of Donkey basketball??? We could play Donkey football.LOL
Is Orton that big,or is McD that scrawny.LOL
What’s up guys. Trying to catch up on everything since I’ve been away. It’s been a busy week for sure.
23-13 Broncos. Payback time!
GO BRONCOS!!!
I sure hope Thomas doesn’t field all or most of the punt returns on Sunday… we need him more on offense!! Tellin’ ya, put Squid on punt returns and you won’t be sorry.
Our defense is going to be at their very, very best on Sunday. We can’t afford silly, stupid mistakes like that PI call on Hill. We got to stop the run and get our running game going with Moreno. Even with all that said and even though we’re facing a rival team that shouldn’t be underestimated in any way, we will win this game. 31-21, Broncos all the way.
Have faith Broncos Country….
GO BRONCOS in 2010!!!!
I say broncos win 23 – 20
you wouldnt think that Josh would be stupid enough to put Demaryius back on kick offs would you?
c19……McD isn’t stupid,he’s still learning in a win win world,where a man don’t last too long if he dosen’t win.Give him a little more time,I have jumped the gun too,but he is like a Rookie,he has to learn too,just like the players,give him time,like Phonzy,don’t cut his feet out from under him before he gets a chance to prove himself,just saying.
BFE
CasinoRoyal- it sure looks that way.
You never know man, you just never know. I wouldn’t have thought he’d put Thomas on returns a few games back, but he did anyway. If he doesn’t plan to have him take a few kick returns, why would he have him fielding them in practice? Again, this whole team is just flat unpredictable. No sense in trying to figure out what that man is thinking. Just go with the flow.
Have faith Broncos Country…
GO BRONCOS in 2010!!!!
Go with the flow girl,go with the flow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Missed my chance at a prediction last week, so gotta make this one count!
Denver 34 – 17 – Balanced offence for us, some special teams joy for them.
For the first time I won’t be able to watch this week, taking the mrs away for the night and just won’t get away with going on-line. To make up for it, I get to watch them live for the first time ever next week! 4-4 after Wembly……..
broncos 31
faders 17
Last day for your score predictions, no picks on game day.
Lindsay Jones says:
With all due respect to the fine folks at the NFL Network, may I say: Are you nuts?
John Elway, at No. 23. Sorry to go all Amy Poehler on this, but, REALLY?!
Anyway, go to that Elway No. 23 all time article on “All things Broncos” in the DP and click on the Amy Poehler link, it is absolutely worth your while, it’s hilarious, check it out.
I hope champ can go. And im gald to see am not the only one questiong thomas on KR. I know he is fast and all but so is syd and especially vaughn (him and bruton one of the fastest on team) and they did very well returning in preaseson. I would however like to see Cox return stuff but since he is starting now, we dont need him too winded. And with Royal questionable, I really think we need Thomas more on the offense than needlessly getting hurt on ST.
oh yea. Broncos win 23-10
Broncos 24 (3 Td’s, 1 Fg)
Raiders 18 (1 Td, 3 Fg’s, safety).
Now that is being precise…Lol.
Please don’t let Bay Bay return kick offs. Of course now that I say that he’ll run one back for a TD. lol But in all seriousness, we need to save him for for offense. There is just too much risk. He may be big. But that also means he makes a big target for a linebacker with a 45 yard head start. Its better to have someone a little smaller and shifty like Syn’ Quan (probably butchered the spelling). He gets hidden behind the bigger blockers on the recieving team, and has very quick lateral movement. That makes it very difficult for a guy running full steam to make a clean hit on him. Save guys like Thomas and Royal for making big plays for us on offense. JMHO.
On another note, I’m hoping for the Broncos to build on their performance against the Jets. We need to playing with effort and enthusiasm and clean up the dumb mistakes. It sure would make everyone in Broncos country feel good to dominate the Faiders. I predicted 30-10, and I hope that is a conservative prediction and we beat them by more.
I LOVE ME SOME DENVER BRONCOS….
OOppps, mean’t we need to keep playing with effort and enthusiasm.” lol
30-21 denver
24
Ya Bay, I agree big time on John Elway at #23. He should be in the top ten. I wrote a piece on a earlier blog on Oct. 21 at 8:11 pm and that NFL Network is a complete joke. I`m sure you already read it. No QB has ever had the intangables as John Elway. None.
Yes, I agree with most people on here whenever they say for Bay Bay not to return kicks!!! He is such a threat as a receiver and I would love for him to keep getting reps in as a wide out! It’s funny because if you look at when Bay Bay has played, we’ve gotten two TD’s with him and he is such a threat!! It was amazing when I watched him against the Jets!! On one attempt he completely jumped over Darelle Revis and about made a catch!! I would love to see Asmomuah or w/e his name is spelled try to cover him! Plus with him just having a concussion only two games ago, I would like to not see him in as KR. But McD seems highly on it to do so so I guess we will see!!
My Prediction:
Broncos 34
Raiders 10
Broncos 35
Raiders 7
Go Redskins!
31- 13 Denver…
Denver 17-10
Denver-21
Oakland-17
Tom Brady better than Elway? Not a freaking chance!! That’s just absurd!
What about Sayers at #22, granted he was a pure joy to watch but he had less than a 4 year career, no way you can compare his achievements to Elway’s. This top one hundred ranking is totally off the wall anyway, how can you compare the greatness of players at different postions and in different times, there is just no way to do that, it is making a mockery of pretty much every single choice they make, a futile and absurd way to boost up their ratings. However each story on each individual is very well done and Marty Schottenheimer doing Elway was a blast, LOL.
BTW, Borrachazzo C.R, I got you down with your earlier pick this week of 31-10 Bronco win, first pick made counts.
i still think eddie should return kicks. the chance of him getting hurt is less the chance of him returning one all the way. he’s a beast back there. i read an article that cambell is likely to start so i guess thats good news huh?
broncos- 27
raiders- 13
Even thogh Elway burned Marty schottenheimer all through the years, Marty has a great respect for John, which is cool.
Dang! Number 23? That’s a slap in the face to him, the organization and us fans! I’m 37 and I’ve watched the Broncos since I was a kid so I pretty much was lucky enough to watch him throughout his whole career. Elway made a huge impact on me becoming a BIG football fan and a ridiculously HUGE Bronco fan. He was and still is THE MAN! Anyways, Bay Bay should make a nice impact wherever he plays. I just hope that coach isn’t being reckless with him, because he is a future star. Heck! He already is! I hope we absolutely mop the floor with the Raiders and I my prediction is Denver-34/Raiders-20 although I hope we smoke them more. STOMP THE RAIDERS! GO BRONCOS!
C
Sayers played in only 68 games. He`s incredable. TD played longer than Gayle and he didn`t make the list. What`s up with that?
Because we are the Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL, we get no respect.
Agreed! TD was an outstanding runner with an outstanding system. One thing that helped him become great was our zone blocking scheme with Naylen and Schlerriff among others. Oh wait! Opposing teams feared Elway’s cannon arm along with some of our other greats, some being, Rod Smith and Eddie Mac! We had a SUPER BAD A** offence!
Not to take anything away from TO, though. He was awesome! I hated to see his career come short because of injuries. If he was young and healthy, does anyone think that he would be able to run the ball, with our current o-line and power blocking scheme?
I called him TO (whatever), TD!!!!!!!
TDs! We need some in the red zone!
Haven’t had a chance to check in lately had to visit my newborn son in the hospital all last week but he is home now and ready to watch the broncos kick raider butt 24-13 broncos.
Marshisboss, Congrats to you and your family. What a blessing.
Ditto, daddy!
Congrats to you Marsh! I hope the little guy is well! I’m sure he will grow up to yell and scream the Bronco way! I’ll be doing alot of that tomorrow!
Thanks guys question what exactly was the injury to Willis
Willis broke his leg on a ST play. He`s now on IR and out for the season.
Marsh- http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_16369166?source=rss
Thanks for the info will we see more of Eric Decker now and i too hope Bay Bay doesn’t return kicks tomorrow
Actually Willis broke his foot, Decker came over with a broken foot, so did Demaryius, now Willis, it’s a broken foot year. It’s break a leg for good luck, not break a foot, they have it all wrong, haha.
Demaryius will most likley do return duties tomorrow, McD pretty much said so:
McDaniels said rookie receiver Demaryius Thomas could once again be an option to return kickoffs. Thomas won that job in September but suffered a concussion and fumbled when he was got hit low and high on a return two weeks ago against Baltimore.
“He’s practiced back there,” McDaniels said. “He feels great about it. He’s fine in that regard, in terms of what happened a few weeks ago. You try to talk him into keeping those guys away from him a little longer on kickoff return.”
Oh, it was a broken foot? Wrong info on my part. Go Bronco`s!! Kick some raider you know what!!