This is the third time in Denver Broncos history that the team has hosted a Thanksgiving Day game.
It first happened in 1962 when Denver entertained the New York Titans, forerunners of the Jets, in one of the greatest scoring matchups in pro football history, with the Titans eventually taking a 46-45 win over the hosts before a crowd of just over 15,000.
The next year AFL schedule makers had the Broncos hosting the Oakland Raiders, and the Raiders won that won by a 26-10 margin.
When you open the pages of history it is always fascinating what you find.
The “official” play by play for both games shows, in each instance, “Denver in red.”
Amazing. I guess we were so far from the Orange Crush at that time that orange was not even accepted as its own color, just another version of red. Nineteen sixty-two was the Broncos’ first year in orange, so I guess it took some getting used to.
That is the only explanation that I can think of.
This week the Broncos will be wearing their standard home blue, by the way, and the Giants will be wearing one of the game’s great uniforms, their road whites with red numerals—this is classic because it is the uniform the franchise wore in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, before they went to the almost exclusively blue that they wore until throwing back.
People out here may not know it, but the Giants have a blue home jersey, a red home jersey (like our blue and orange) and then of course the road whites. They will have their gray pants this week, again a tribute to their ancestral look.
There were 16 scoring plays in that 1962 game, which ended on a disappointing note for Denver when Gene Mingo—who earlier in the game had set a pro football record for field goals in a single season (24) missed a 48-yard attempt that would have won the game for the locals.
But it was one of the most entertaining games in the AFL that year and then everyone ate turkey.
This one’s a night game, so most of the turkey will have been consumed and the tryptophan will be doing its work when fans settle into their seats or easy chairs to watch.
The Broncos played and won at Dallas in 2001 and 2005, losing at Kansas City in 2006, so this time 75,000 fans can savor the experience first hand, with NFL Network providing a nationwide telecast to cap off a full Thursday of NFL football.
Broncos fans are hoping that dessert on this Thanksgiving Day will be a visual one.
Tags: New York Giants, Thanksgiving Day, Week 12
I dont know if any one else did this but when i saw orton warming up i screamed “SAVE US ORTON!!!!!” lol Oh man oh man when he came on the field i saw the chargers almost crap themselfs they didnt know what to do or how to stop him it seemed. HONESTLY GUYS I WANT TO POINT THIS OUT SO PLEASE LISTEN!!!
I think with mcdaniels system its a hit or miss. If you dont produce to it, we will lose by a large margin. If we do we will win. FOR EXAMPLE. DId any of you notice that in all of our loses we were in the game ?? What i mean is..On sunday we were in the redzone on our first drive..COuld have gotten 7..FUMBLE. Again when orton came in..FUMBLE. THink of it..We make those 2 its 14-13. ALSO if orton was in to begin with, we prob would have scored more pts on those 3 and outs.
REDSKINS GAME. We were torching the number 2 pass defense **im sure its number 2** AS soon as orton threw it deep our chances INCREASED DRAMATICALY!! Why? cuz orton is a dangerous QB when he stretches the field, cuz it allows him to open up the pass game short which is his work.!!
STEELERS GAME!!!! Every qb has those games.SPecialy starting his first season. If i remember if that turn over never happened the steelers wouldnt have scored any points in the first half. THATS AMAZING!! If we would have produced we would have blown them out!!!!
Ravens game!!!! Yet another tough loss but we held them to 6 points was it? in the first half? Once again, eliminate the penalties and get points on the board. BLOW OUT!!
FANS THIS BRONCO TEAM is like a car in the cold colorado weather. It runs reliable in the summer but in the winter , sometimes starts and sputters. ALl you have to do is keep trying at it and by the 4th to 5th time the car starts and runs smoothly. THAT IS OUR SEASON FANS!! AS SOON AS WE GET THIS CAR STARTED WATCH OUT!! We would have beaten the Ravens, We would have beaten the steelers w/o mistakes and penalties. WE WOULD HAVE BEATEN THE SKINS, If Kyle didnt get a rare injury before half time!. AND I BELIEVE WE WOULD HAVE GAVE THE CHARGERS A GAME MINUS THE FUMBLE AND BS CALLS BY THE REFFS!!
WE HAve to support Mchoodie all we can cuz he is our leader. And i respect the guy for getting us to 6-0 cuz im sure non of you were crying and bsing when we were on that streak. IT disgusts me to hear people call into KOA and say OH NOW WE WANT CUTLER, Oh mcdaniels Sucks. You people are horrible. LETS NOT FORGET! that our players are letting us down too. IF they would produce at the level they are capable of we would be 9-1 at the least right now. BEcause from what i see, if you follow mcdaniels system you have a high chance to win. AND OHH WATCH OUT NEXT YEAR! cuz if orton stays for another year we will be rolling. ANd if we get another QB or start tom, and they put in the extra time and efffort. WOW
-Also i would like to hear about marshall and tom or orton doing extra practice togeather.
-AND FOR EVERYONE AGAINST ORTON! how can you say he is not a leader!!!! HE went out in that game on a bum ankel and risked injuring it to save us! THat produced alot of respect in my eyes for orton..
SORRY FOR THE LONG POST!! DOubt many of you read it any way lol. \
GO broncos!
((sorry i posted this on the last blog right as this one went up -.- so yea))
Blaze that was a long but good post.My biggest beef is that one of our best player sits on the bench(Hillis) Mc D is his worst enemy at times. Look how we did LY when Hillis was made a starter. Big road wins at Atlanta(only one to win there), at NY. Hillis goes down and we never won again.If we win on thurs we will forget the SD game and the losing streak. BUT if we lose 10 more looonnnggg days of hell.So does anyone feel this is a must win game? Or do we just lose a 5th straight and 3rd straight at home.As Bronco fans 2 or 3 loses at home is a distrace.
DISGRACE!
I thought the last one was a must win game..I actually think every game is a must win game. I’m not sayin’ that to be stupid, but shouldn’t you be giving it all every game not just the games that are must win games. If you’re only going to give 100% for the must win games, then every game should be a must win. IMO.
I think that will be fine this week. I think were HUNGRY for a WIN!!!
Lets Go Broncos get us a few more win lets go baby!!!
Jim,
Nice post. I always enjoy your history lessons. Hopefully we can get a win this thanksgiving.
Good post Jim.Whoever said the QB crop for next year wasn’t going to be any good,needs to do more research’because i’ve seen 3 or 4 QB’s that would make good NFL QB’s.(a couple might come out early).GO BRONCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jim,
As always your post are always informative but here is a cool little fact, the Giants wear the alt red jersey as a homage to the 1994 movie Little Giants.
Trust me Blaze, I read your post and I have noticed that we were in every game that we lost. I still believe in McDaniels after hating him thru the off-season & pre-season…I know that he wants to win and he’s pushing our boys to the limit to get it done. So come on Broncos fans…have faith but I know this for a fact…teams out there are afraid!
I do have a healthy respect for our opponents. The Giants are class but so are we and we’ve got to get our playoff mojo back. No better time to do it than against Eli and the G-Men. Thanks, Jim, when I eat my banana cream pie during the game, it will be all the sweeter when we win! GO BRONCOS!!!
So 3rd time hosting a Thanksgiving game huh? How charming! What a beautiful day here on the front range. Sure tomorrow will be just as amazing. I can’t wait. I hope its 30 degrees and snowing! Just gotta run out and get a poncho… Happy Thanksgiving and GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
Wish I was around to watch the Broncos in the 60s. I loved the game on Thanksgiving they played there best game of the year well rounded on offense and they were beasts on defense. 1-0 the way I look at it keep playing with this intensity and your best football in December. Just get in the playoffs and anything can happen. Bronco Fan Forever. Also Josh McDaniels is a great coach couldn’t of hired a better coach.