History does not travel in a straight line.
Sometimes the path to a really good place travels along a route that is filled with potholes and rocks, and sometimes it seems like we might never get to our desired destination.
The Broncos have one of the great histories in the National Football League, highlighted by 18 playoff appearances, 11 AFC Western Division titles, eight appearances in the AFC championship game, six Super Bowl games and back to back world championships.
But, in the most recent years, we have had some shaky times.
Those times are over.
Every fan can feel the ultra-positive orange vibe bouncing off the walls at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, a vibe that seems to fill the very air itself as it spills beyond Denver and the Rockies to the rest of the country.
NBC Sports President Dick Ebersole himself called today to tell team owner Pat Bowlen that the ratings for the Broncos’ 31-19 win over the Steelers were the highest in the history of Sunday night football, and in fact the highest for any primetime NFL game since the Denver-San Francisco matchup in 1997.
Everyone watched and saw a tremendous game by the Broncos and Peyton Manning.
Despite a 21-minute second and third quarter time frame in which Pittsburgh ran 44 offensive plays to Denver’s three (with one of those three a kneel down to end the first half), Denver posted a huge opening-night victory over one of the league’s storied franchises.
Despite a time of possession of just 24:55 minutes, Manning produced more first downs (20 to 19), and total net yards (334 to 284) than Pittsburgh while throwing his 400th and 401st touchdown passes in one of pro football’s ultimate and most obvious Hall-of-Fame careers.
Just fantastic for all fans.
And that is another part of the story. Denver’s 181 no shows and the fourth highest attendance in team history – 76,823 – at the Sunday night game, which in an era of NFL Network, Direct TV, TiVo, plasma screens, big screens and home theaters is an astonishing low total.
The excitement level at the stadium was palpable, team fed on the crowd and the crowd fed on the team.
The orange jersey is back as the primary home jersey for the Broncos and without making any effort to encourage the fans to wear orange to the game, the stadium was a wall to wall, top to bottom sea of orange.
The no huddle? A big weapon for the team Sunday night and moving forward. Manning was 19 of 26 for 253 yards two touchdowns and a passer rating of 129.2.
The fans like it. It is us. The atmosphere was fantastic all night.
The overall vibe and results Sunday night were everything that the fans and team hoped for, and we only build on it from here.
It is a tough schedule and there is a real difficult opponent taking the field against us every week.
But the 2012 season is underway, and it could not be more positive as the Broncos get ready for the rest of our one-game schedule.
At Atlanta, Monday night football.
In Denver, and nationally, must-see TV.
History does not travel in a straight line, but the Broncos have survived the potholes and are back on the freeway. And you have to love the guy who is driving the car.
Tags: Jim Saccomano, Week 1
My God, there is so much to get excited about. We`re making history here!! BRONCOS 2012!!!!
This is in response to Just Drifting from the last blog…
The only block I saw Moreno miss was when 2 defenders where coming on the same side and he had to chose one. This left the other wide open to make the play. This wasn’t so much a miss as a bad protection call. Moreno chose to block the inside defender which I see has a good choice cause it is the one that most effectively protects the “pocket”.
For all those who criticize the disdain for Peyton – and for those like Tyler Everett here who say, “and you have to love the guy who is driving the car.”
If a politician switches parties and puts all of the same energy and talent into the new party, he is called a flip-flopper and he is held in suspicion for many years until he has proven that he can be trusted. The doubt in the back of his constituents minds, never leaves. There will always be an element of suspicion. A guy that can abandon his original party can abandon again.
If a person attempts to switch sides in organized crime. That person is taken advantage of and then removed. At least that is what I see in the movies. LOL
If a person switches sides in war, or espionage, he is branded a traitor. In the old days his life would be forfeit. Now we take them to the dark dungeons of Guantanamo to a fate which we can only imagine, because news from there is only on a need to know basis.
Pardon me – but the colors were all right! The score board said what I was wanting it to say! My favorite guys were on the field – for the most part!
But the guy driving the car looked like a “Colt” – not a “Bronco”!!!!
Forgive me…but this is still gonna take some getting used to!
(all tongue in cheek.) Have a great day Bronco N….Country!!!! Just checkin’. LOL
And thanks JIM for the heads up on everything. We`re making noise in 2012!!!
LOL I guess Big Ben never wants to come back to Denver. LOL Theres an article on DenverPost but the page wont load for me that talks about that lol
Now how did that happen. This was originally posted with Tyler Everett’s name as the author. Now it says Jim Saccomano. I scrolled up twice to make certain I spelled his name correctly. How did this happen?
Loggin out. I think I may be losing it.
Judging by Week 1 which team is likeliest to make the playoffs?
55%
Broncos
8%
Jets
21%
Cowboys
16%
Redskins
DaddyBronc, you’re not losing it — there’s a dropdown menu to select the author, and the wrong box originally got clicked. Jim Saccomano wrote the blog, but at first it showed up that Tyler Everett was the author. It has since been corrected. Hope that clears it up!
Whew – Thanks Gray!
DB, you are definately losing it to compare a qb to a politician. Especially when the team quit him. Pretty much same thing applies to a traitor. Mob guys are all living in Jersey where another qb resides. Just funnin with ya DB
Thanks Wolfe. You made me laugh! (C’mon now can you imagine Tebow as a gangster?)
Here comes the Ponies led by the greatest Colt Ever…God I love the Broncos and now we seem to be complete…The D, The D, aver the The D is what wins championships and Our boys looked P R E T T Y darn sharp….I know it was just one game but I can garantee the NFL just took notice and I can hear the front offices all over the league takeing a deep breath wondering what the heck they do now… I did not see any weaknesses last night and Manning makes EVERBODY
BETTER!! Go Broncos!!! I really think this team can go all the way….Cause THE ORANGE CRUSH IS BACK !!! And the Duke has resuscitated our franchise…hear that Rumble?? It’s a STAMPEDE!!!!!
“Manning avoided many big hits, too, getting the ball out quickly. Running back Knowshon Moreno was beaten on both of Manning’s sacks, one of them coming when he was left trying to block two pass-rushers.”
Copied out of an article writen by an AP beatwriter, which I promptly lost the name of trying to paste it here as a reply to RH709 above.
The Knowshon whiff was shown on replay during NBC’s broadcast of the game (where I saw it, leading to the comment earlier) and earlier today repeated on some Denver Post writer’s blog.
Probably too much prose here on the issue, but I consider his best use by the Broncos would be to trade to some running back poor team for something we can use. At the moment I’d vote for a safety who understands the defensive plays.
Glad to Join the Denver Fam!! From Fort Wayne about 2 hours from Indy and NOBODY loves P Manning more than me. I know how Denver feels having a QB like him. It was awesome to see all the smiles as Peyton took the field!! He is a master mind and if you go back and watch the Peyton sack where Knowshon had to pick who to block (DVR) you will see before the snap Peyton pointed to him for Knowshon to pick him up because Clady had the End that was coming he didnt listen so “sack”. This is what you get with a guy like this and i got Denver picked to win it all. What Big Ben did is normal but if it was Brady, Rivers and so on it would have been many of 3 and outs. If Denver plays like this for 15 more i dont see one “L” in the future!!!! #GoBroncos
If Denver somehow manages to go 4-0 and wogs into Foxborough on October 7th in good health watch out Patriots!
Happy days are here again! Thank you Jim Irsay!!!