The trivia question from the 20th day of training camp comes from the final drill of practice. The offense was faced with a tough situation — having just scored a touchdown with no time on the clock, the group needed a successful two-point conversion to tie the game. More on that drill in the “quick hits” section of the blog, but the question is this: On the final play of the drill, quarterback Adam Weber hit a wide receiver in the end zone for a successful two-point conversion to tie the game and give the offense the win in the drill. Who caught the pass?

Leave your answers in the comments section, and the answer — and winner — will be revealed at 6 p.m. MDT. The winner will receive a Broncos prize pack.

ROLL CALL

Safety Jim Leonhard (knee), safety Quinton Carter (hamstring and knee), linebacker Keith Brooking (hamstring), cornerback Tracy Porter (illness), linebacker Danny Trevathan (ankle) and wide receiver Tyler Grisham (knee) did not participate in Tuesday’s practice.

Those that left practice early were guard Chris Kuper (forearm), running back Ronnie Hillman (hamstring) and defensive end Jason Hunter (triceps).

Ty Warren was again excused for “a family situation,” Head Coach John Fox said.

“You’re concerned about all of them — you’d like them out there because this is how we get better,” Fox said of the injured players. “But we take a next-man-up approach, and it gives the guys behind them an opportunity.”

UPDATE: Kuper suffered a left forearm fracture during Tuesday’s practice. He is expected to fully recover within 4-6 weeks.

PLAYMAKERS

• Early in practice, wide receiver Andre Caldwell drew the biggest cheers of the morning from the crowd. Streaking down the middle of the field, Caldwell hauled in a bomb from quarterback Adam Weber in between the coverage of cornerback Chris Harris and safety Rafael Bush.
• Caldwell had another big catch shortly thereafter, this one courtesy of quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning dropped back, fired and hit Caldwell deep in perfect stride as the wide receiver ran across the field for a touchdown.
• Demaryius Thomas also caught a touchdown pass — another deep strike from Manning, this one in front of cornerback Champ Bailey.
• At the last moment, Bailey broke up a deep pass from Manning to wide receiver Eric Decker in the end zone.
• Rookie defensive lineman Jamie Blatnick arguably had two “sacks” on fellow rookie Brock Osweiler during team drills.
• During two-on-twos between offensive and defensive linemen, second-round pick Derek Wolfe made a nice move to get into the backfield, which got the rookie fired up.
• Cornerback Drayton Florence nearly intercepted a Manning pass intended for wide receiver Matthew Willis, but it fell incomplete.

ALL TIED UP

Just before the end of practice, the offense and defense squared off for some situational football. This particular situation: both teams tied at 21 points apiece, 59 seconds on the clock and no timeouts remaining for either squad. The offense started with a first-and-10 at its own 40-yard line.

Manning got to work right away, hitting Thomas at the defense’s 48-yard line, where the receiver ran out of bounds to stop the clock. That set up a first down, and Manning quickly hit a diving Jacob Tamme at the 36-yard line for another first down. With the clock still running, the offense hurried back to the line and Manning fired a pass to Thomas, which was dropped. That stopped the clock with 29.8 seconds remaining.

Now second-and-10, Manning scrambled to his left on a designed play, picking up a yard to the 35-yard line. The offense let the clock wind down a little before spiking the ball with 6.1 seconds left.

That brought out Matt Prater for a 52-yard field goal — and the kicker split the uprights to give the first-team offense the win.

The first-team offense had success in another situational drill earlier in the session. In that instance, the offense had the ball at its own 35-yard line with one timeout, leading by six points with 1:54 left on the clock. The defense had two timeouts, and its goal was to get the ball back.

The offense, looking to burn time off the clock and pick up a first down, ran the ball on first and second down, and the defense called a timeout after each play. With a little more than a minute remaining, Manning tried to get the defense to jump offsides, but instead, tackle Ryan Clady was whistled for a false start. With the defense excitedly cheering, the offense backed up 5 yards and had to convert to win the drill. So on third-and-long, Manning dropped back and hit Thomas on the sideline for a first down to give the offense the win, since the unit could simply run the rest of the time off the clock.

QUICK HITS

• Tuesday’s practice brought with it a little chippiness — there were a couple skirmishes and some chatter involving Elvis Dumervil, Knowshon Moreno and Joe Mays.

  “It’s camp,” Mays said after practice. “That’s going to happen. Guys get tired. They feel like they’re getting pushed around too much … they have a little bit of an attitude. That’s going to happen. We’re family out here. We’re going to be fine. We’re going to go in the locker room and laugh about it when we get inside.”

• During special teams drills, punter Britton Colquitt nailed two punts inside the 5-yard line.
• The last portion of the day was another situational drill. The offense had just scored a touchdown and needed a two-point conversion — with no time left on the clock — to tie the game. The first attempt was a run by Lance Ball, who was stopped short to give the defense the win. The final attempt of the day, however, was a completion from Weber to (today’s trivia answer) in the end zone for a successful conversion.

The Broncos are back on the field this evening for a walkthrough session open only to the media. The team’s next full practice, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled to kick off at 2:20 p.m. MDT on Wednesday. Gates open an hour prior to the start of the session.

Tags: Training Camp 2012

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