Unlike many of his teammates, Kyle Orton has made the journey from Denver to London before.
The Broncos quarterback and his wife, Bridget, vacationed in the city a few years ago, giving Orton — who majored in history at Purdue — a chance to take in many of its most famous sites.
After making the more than nine hour flight from the Mile High City to London’s Heathrow Airport this time around, the expectations for the trip are a little different.
“You want to have a great combination of having fun and enjoying your time over here, no question about that,” Orton said. “But for us it’s such an important game, that’s going to make the trip one way or another. If we can come out and play well and win the football game, we’re going to have a fun trip.”
The Broncos took their next step toward that goal Friday morning when they touched down in London. After three days of productive practice at Dove Valley, the team began what Head Coach Josh McDaniels called “the second phase of the plan” in getting ready to play San Francisco on Sunday.
McDaniels said most of his players were able to get some sleep on the plane ride before the team rolled into its preparations for the 49ers. On Friday, that included a morning meal, meetings and time to watch tape of Thursday’s practice session before heading to the historic Brit Oval — a more than 150-year-old cricket ground — for practice.
“Everything is kind of going as planned — no hiccups so far,” McDaniels said in a media session before the workout.
The Broncos got an early taste of local culture before the session began when the team’s captains met with a pair of players from the Surrey County Cricket Club.
Orton, Champ Bailey, Brian Dawkins, Daniel Graham, Chris Kuper and D.J. Williams signed a football to give to Surrey representatives Arun Harinath and Tom Lansford. The cricket players presented Graham and Kuper with fluorescent green cricket jerseys bearing their football numbers before giving them a taste of England’s national sport.
Graham — batting left-handed — got in a few good strokes against Harinath, a fourth-year player who is normally a batter for the Lions. Then Kuper, a right-hander, stepped in and cracked a few shots.
“I’ve played for 12 or 13 years and I still haven’t picked it all up,” Harinath said. “For those guys to just pick up the ball striking just like that is impressive. I think if you’re an athlete you can pick things up like that pretty quickly.”
McDaniels, who had never been to London before, said his players would have some time Friday night and Saturday afternoon to do some site-seeing. The team will get its first look at Wembley Stadium during a Saturday walk-through.
All of that is part of the adjustment to a new place with plenty of differences from home — some of which were evident to players even in their first hours in the city.
During his press session, Brian Dawkins was still shocked by his ride over to the practice facility and needing to get used to cars driving on the left side of the road.
“I looked out and I saw traffic and we were supposed to go to the right in my mind and we went left and I saw cars coming, so that kind of freaked me out for a second,” Dawkins said with a smile.
After a week of practicing and traveling, players made it clear that they were well on their way to making all necessary adjustments — physical or cultural.
They’ve embraced the plan set out by McDaniels and the coaching staff meant to have the team ready to play by 5 p.m. local time on Sunday and remain focused on the most important part of the trip — leaving England with a win.
“Now we just have to tune everything up (with) our game plan,” Graham said. “We’ll work on the last things we have to work on before Sunday and today we’re just going to sharpen up everything.”
While five players stayed in Denver to focus on getting healthy, McDaniels had good news on the injury front after arriving in London.
“We think that everybody that’s here should be ready to go and capable of playing,” McDaniels said. “We look forward to having a full strength team out of the group that’s in London.”
Robert Ayers (foot), Perrish Cox (concussion), Darcel McBath (ankle), Kevin Vickerson (groin) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring) did not travel with the team and are out for Sunday’s game. But Eddie Royal (groin), Andre’ Goodman (quadricep) and Dawkins (knee) fully participated in Friday’s practice and are listed as probable.
For the 49ers, Alex Smith (shoulder) and center Eric Heitmann (neck) were declared out earlier in the week. Cornerback Tarrell Brown (back) is doubtful. Running back Anthony Dixon (hamstring) and Vernon Davis (ankle) were limited during Friday’s session and are questionable. Linebacker Ahmad Brooks (knee), cornerback Nate Clements (ankle) and guard Adam Snyder (back) are listed as probable.
- Eric Detweiler, DenverBroncos.com
Below are some photos from Friday’s session:
Tags: Denver Broncos, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Kyle Orton, London, San Francisco 49ers, Week 8
49ers 28
Broncos 10
the Broncos is just a bad team with very bad leadership Mcd, it really hurts me to say that.
Go Redskins!
I hope that last Sundays game was a HUGE wake up call and growing experience for McD. Getting you a** handed to you might have actually helped in the growing experience of our young head coach. Having Dawkins and Goody back will be a big plus so our secondary should (I said “should’) be up to the task; however, our run game and run D, of course, is always the big question mark. I guess we’ll see what happens. I would imagine that we bounce back and play a good game tomorrow although the 49rs are probably better than their record shows (Just like the Raiders). There are two DESPERATE teams looking to bounce back tomorrow and I think we will come out on top. Broncos-34/San Fran-23.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
Finally some good news, relatively, from the injury report. If Andre Goodman is healed, we might have a better playmaker back in coverage. And Brian Dawkins will not only provide superior on-field leadership and heart, he could very well also improve our run defense.
This team has obviously been very inconsistent, but last Sunday was a confluence of Murphy’s Law, extremely one-sided luck, and absurdity. Now, the team did show that there’s still a mental weakness there, a continued tendency to think “The sky is falling!” and collapse in the face of adversity. To become a truly good team, we will have to find a way not to give up when a succession of breaks go against us. But I don’t believe that the Broncos are nearly as bad as that loathsome game might make it look. I saw a good portion of that 59-0 killing of the Titans last year, and they truly looked pathetic. And like they completely gave up. If that squad could pull themselves together to the point of being truly respectable by the end of the year – well, that doesn’t prove that we can, but it shows that it’s not unprecedented, let alone impossible. And we don’t have as challenging a division race to deal with as Tennessee did, either.
I do hate playing a team as desperate as the 49ers, though. With Patrick Willis and Takeo Spikes at linebacker, Frank Gore in particular on offense – they do have some scary talent in places. Will the run defense that stifled Chris Johnson show up, or will we get the one from the past couple of weeks? (Hmm, with no B-Dawk; may be coincidence….) Our run “O” was much better against a tough Jets squad; as long as there’s no huge early deficit this week, I expect to see some efficient run plays again, helping to give time for the pass offense to return to its impressive form. With Jason Hunter making some big plays, Marcus Thomas really coming along, Jamal Williams now stuffing the middle for our side, and our starting secondary now intact – and Syd’Quan getting more opportunities – we should have enough talent on D to hold down San Fran’s passing offense at the least, and hopefully to contain Gore. As long as no bad turn occurs which causes too many of the less-confident players to think “here we go again”…
Denver Broncos 27, San Francisco 49ers 23. Go Broncos!!!!!!!
Broncos win 14-13.
Broncos win 28-10.
Here’s to hoping.
Two desperate teams and two coach’s on the hot seat. Should be interesting.
I’m interested to see if the Broncos can bounce back. Was last Sunday a fluke? We will soon see…
My view, I don’t think I’m ready to view another 4 game losing streak.
GO BRONCOS!!
Well, I’m setting off for Wembley in an hour or so, picking up my Dad and having breakfast on the way, which is his first NFL game ever as well! He introduced me to the game during the mid 80′s superbowls when I was 7!
A mixture of excitement, nerves and pure dread at the moment, but I’m going to lap up the tailgate, the atmosphere and the game and I will give you all a detailed report on Monday.
Here’s hoping the UK brings us a bit of luck and the start of a much-needed win streak.
All the best,
UKB
Wembly is traditionally a Soccer/Football and Rugby League venue, so I am assuming it will not be as hard as the artifical turf or highly treated field the NFL is use to.
If it does rain and it probably will knowing England, the field might get a little heavy under foot, unless its been upgraded. Will be a good game to watch all the same.
D DAY! Pretty fitting today since we are overseas.
All score predictions are in, no picks on game day.
UK Broncos, looking forward to your game impressions on Monday.
And yeah samoan, it’s supposed to be raining all day and throughout the game, 50/60% chance, and soccer fields are not tilted like football fields to help water run off, but I hear they went to a style of mixed natural grass/synthetic fiber this Summer just like the Broncos field material, so hopefully it will be better than the mudfest of 2007, a 13-10 game won by the Giants over Miami I think, hence my very conservative 14-13 Bronco win prediction.
Klis is quite brave in not wasting anytime putting McD on the hot seat:
ON THE HOT SEAT
McDaniels feeling the heat now
Who: Josh McDaniels, Broncos coach
When: 11 a.m. today against the San Francisco 49ers in London.
Why: Do we really have to explain why? After his team lost 12 of its previous 16 games, McDaniels’ Broncos fell behind 38-0 early against the rival Raiders. At home. Given the outrage that followed the Broncos’ embarrassing loss last Sunday, McDaniels’ Broncos must demonstrate resiliency against 1-6 San Francisco.
Anyone interested in getting the flavor of what this NFL game is like in England ought to check out the DP today, countless worthy and funny accounts of what it’s like this week over there, including how the Broncos are becoming the butts of jokes in the NFL by commissioner Goodell himself.
LMAO! Found this in the DP today!
I’m starting to think coach Josh McDaniels is a total Slinky (something absolutely worthless, but can bring a smile to your face with a push down a flight of stairs).”
Read more: Bowlen has turned Broncos into punch line – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_16480326#ixzz13wk73oMn
Desperation turns people into the dark humor side as Kizla said, or something like that. Problem is we the fans are left with nothing but shame about our team while McD is lauging all the way to the bank at the tune of 3 mil a year for 4 years. Very small compensation that all we get in return is to make a couple of nasty jokes about him. This is now way beyond funny.
Yeah, that was very dark humor. I just hope McD can find a way to turn this thing around and give us at least some respectability.
One of the story line on game day on the NFLN this morning is the Doom in Denver… How did we get to this this fast…
And they are not talking about Dumervil, haha.
fire mcd and put in tebow
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