I know you’ve seen the commercials, and it’s almost funny how kids pick up on these sayings that have been around longer than me and you both. The commercialization of them that makes them bigger than life.
It’s TRUE, this is OUR HOUSE and it’s important to win at home for the city, the fans and the home team. You create a dominance and you create a mystique that has it’s own life and advantage.
We have a distinct advantage here in the Mile High City and I’ll reminisce. We’re a MILE high.Therefore, the opponent — no matter how good a shape he is in — is at a distinct disadvantage. MILE HIGH, less oxygen.
We use to use it to our advantage. Our objective all game was to knock guys to the ground, cut block, chop block, blind side, whatever. If you have big guys getting off the ground the entire game, eventually you start to wear them down in this altitude. Guess what?, it worked….probably partially responsible for our wrap as chop blocker. Anyway, it was inside the tackle box (mostly), which was legal. And if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying was an old saying. Odd but true. Until you got a penalty, then you knew what you could get away with.
Advantage Denver. Advantage HOME TEAM. Mile High Stadium mystique? No strategy…to win. Like Chess, but after a while guys started worrying about getting cut and that slows a guy down a 1/2 step (nano-second) which is sometimes the difference between winning and losing.
I don’t know about you, but what a great game to watch this weekend. That was a fan’s game. Hasselbeck was our best player early, and not taking anything away from the defense, but he was awful. To our credit, we took full advantage. No real need to recap much, the statistics tell it all. I liked the offensive line play, and thetwo new guys played together really well. That’s something we need a lot of.
I was talking to some folks around town, and something was said that caught my attention. A LONGTIME Bronco fan in my office comes up and says, “Hey Mark, when I look through the program I hardly recognize anyone’s name anymore.” That made sense. There’s been a lot of turnover and new faces, and Head Coach Josh McDaniels is molding the team of the future that he wants here to win with.
Orton was flawless, and I liked what I saw on defense. The key will be consistency and no injuries. The thing that bothered me most was Goodman and Champ being injured. I watched some of the Colts Giants game, and if we’re missing those two it could make for a long day. Heal up fellas.
-Coop
Rip Kenny McKinnely and also nice post mark
Well said Coop. RIP Kenny.
Hey Mark, good to see you back. I know your article was written before the terrible news about McKinley, but now I somehow can’t find it in my heart to talk about the home field advantage, it seems so irrelevant at times like these, mourning seems like the right thing to do for now. As far as human tragedies we have been snake bitten on this team, Darrent, Nash and now Kenny, so coincidently it seems now like a bad time to talk about home field advantage, there seem to be very little in the way of advantage now, just real deep sorrows, which unfortunately will linger on throughout the season.
Suicides are hard to handle for anyone, family or football team family, I lost my godfather, one of my uncles, to it when he was in his mid thirties, one of my first cousin in his late twenties who left his wife and three young kids behind and my aunt, the same cousin’s mother, when she was in her sixties. Those things just never completely go away, they stay with you the rest of your life.
The timing of this death could not be any worse, at the beginning of a season, not like the other ones, and now there is no choice but for everyone to put their shoes on ultimately going back to work, but it will be a much bigger challenge than a football chalenge, a life challenge.
I will spear anyone the let’s win this Colts game for Kenny type of thing, it seems so cliche, at least for right now, we need to bury the man before we can even think that way. I hope his kid is still too young to understand what just happened, since Kenny was only 23 that is most likely the case, at least I hope, but either way that kid’s life will be ultimately affected for the remainder of his existence, very very sad. Selfish one could say, at least from my own life experiences, it’s only easy for the ones who chose to go, but heart wrenching for ever for the ones left behind.
I hope there was a note left or something that will help us find out what led to this tragic death, it would help me in reconciling this whole thing at least a little bit. My first cousin was suicidal but left no notes, he simply disappeared now over 30 years ago, never to be found, that’s the toughest, no answers, ever, for his wife and three kids and everyone else he knew. Sorry for the downer, but talking out a grief is needed in times like these, at least for me. Best of luck to everyone involved with this loss.
just wanted to send out my condolences to the mc kinley family! always tragic when someone in their prime is lost. god bless
Like everybody else, I was prepared to make some comments on two other points, but the tragic appearant sucide of Kenny needs to be talked about first.
My father-in-law commited suicide after severeal attempts, so I speak from tragic experience. The one thing that anyone associated with Kenny mnust understand is that there was nothing that they could have down or seen that would have changed this sad end to life. Please, please do not “if only”, “I should have seen”, etc. Mourn his tragic passing as you should but please realize that it was beyond your control.
It’s no one’s fault, but it is necessary to try to understand what happened, to see if anything can be learned from it. I would like to know more.
I tried to find five plays that determined the outcome of the game, but I came up with 7 big plays:
1) Seattle’s false start at the Broncos 1 yard line that eventually turned into Champs interception.
2) The Broncos recover the muffed punt.
Result of 1 & 2 is Denver ahead 7-0 instead of Seattle.
3) Dawkins interception deep in Bronco territory.
At least 3 points lost by Seattle.
4) Broncos make 3rd and 14!!!
5) Broncos run back 2nd half kickoff from deep in end zone. Results in poor field position and 62 yard return of punt.
6) After the Seahawks siezed the momuntum with a TD, Moreno gets it back with long pass/run.
7) Seahawks fail on 4th down in the 3rd quater.
Report card
OFFENSE
QB A++ Just another great performance for Ortron.
RB C- 1.7 avergae per carry!!! Bleh!! However, Moreno showed flashes.
WR A- WE HAVE A NEW BEAST!!!! WOW!!! A few dropped passes.
OL C- No overpowering blocking. Considering that there was only one starting OL from last years OL, they really did a perform as well as could be expected.
ST
Kick coverage A+ since Prater put them all through the end zone.
Kick Return F- You don’t run a kickoff from 5 yards deep in your end zone!! This is not the time to be a hero!!
Punt covergae A+
Punt return C No threat of breaking one.
DEFENSE
DL C- No pass rush, several long runs.
LB C- See above.
SECONDARY A++ Champs and Dawkins come through at important times.
To quote the robot from Lost in Space (How’s that for dating yourself?):
WARNING!!! WARNING!!
The Broncos next 4 opponents are, on paper, better than the Broncos and the Broncos will be underdogs in all of the games. Even if Kuper, Harris ands Clady all are back at 100%, it will still take time for the OL to really work as a team. Don’t abandon ship if they lose all of them! The Broncos will be a team to be worried about by their opponent by week 10-11.
I finally got a little more info from CNN, Kenny’s girlfriend had taken his kid out on errands when he took his life, at least the kid wasn’t there, had been wondering about that.
A sad day for bronco country. This is bigger than football. Unfourtunatley this is a business and his teamates will have to move on sooner than they would like and prepare for their next opponent.
From a players perspective, you would like nothing more than to bring back a victory to honor your fallen teammate. Some how makes it feel right, but hey that’s just me.
Interestingly enough, the Broncos winning or losing didn’t seem to matter at all to Kenny since he took his life the day after a huge win. We need to win this one for us, not for Kenny, he had bigger fish to fry seems like, just me also.
You hit the nail on the head with this blog Coopster,we’ve been missing the home field advantage for a while now,but after Sunday hoefully we got the Mile High Magic back for good,I remember when other teams dreaded to play here,but the past few years we been losing a lot of games at home,and that’s not what the fans are used to seeing.
The Broncos are the only team in history to go undefeated at home 3 years in a row ’96-’98(24-0)hows that for home field advantage!!!!!
Over the past 26 years the Broncos have the best home record in the NFL with a 163-58 record .738 winning percentage.
THIS IS OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BFE
This death is obviously way different than both Darrent and Damien’s deaths, the life of those guys were taken away, Kenny gave his up. It’s just incredible to me that no one around him saw this thing coming, so he could get the proper support, at least the girlfriend must of known something was up, but maybe she did and we just don’t know yet. And what about the team? they have so many doctors and NFL counselors, how does something like this slide through the cracks, how did no one see anything coming? So many questions, hopefully we’ll get some answers and can move forward better equipped to see trouble on the horizon. Was the second knee injury in less than a year a factor, was the fact that he was sitting #8 on a team that keeps only 6 WR a factor, was it because he was so highly lauded in college and so behind the spotlight in the NFL, was it a girlfriend problem? Obviously the options are endless, either way it would be helpful to learn what precipitated all this so we learn from it, because one thing for sure this was just not a random act for no reason, from everything I’ve heard Kenny was not a mentally disturbed young man by any accounts, in fact all that keeps popping up is how big his smile was. What was hiding behind that big smile? What became the cracking point.
Hey Coopster… nice to have you back. The game against Seattle was an awesome game. The boys really came out fighting and dominated the whole game. The home field advantage helped… I just hope they can carry that domination attitude with them on the road games too. Was really looking forward to see how they play this Sunday against Indy but the death of McKinley is just overwhelming. I’m still shocked by it. So sad to think he let life’s troubles get to him that much. God rest his soul.
Sad day in Broncos Country
The altitude in Denver is certainly one of the best home-field advantages in the league…no doubt about it! I don’t think most people outside the state understand the adverse affects altitude has on visiting teams.
Coop, did you ever feel like training at altitude in Denver provided you with an advantage when you went down to lower altitudes?
This is gona be a tough one ladies and Gents…..The Colts pummeled the Gman last week…but who cares I think Us having the home field this yr is gonna help.we picked Manning off Three times last yr!!! If we had did that at home we would have won I think….Though the Hawk game was great seeing we still had some misteps…still waiting for Knowshon to EXPLODE!! one game…he was staying on his feet though!!!!!!!!!!! maybe he has finally kicked the turf monsters butt!!!. Orton was rock steady again this week….actually was confident by the fourth QT that we where gonna make our third downs!!!!! He is not flashy but he is the rock of our O right now.Still nervous about the O and D LIne want them to start to dominate…gonna need that down the rd..Over all Great job by everyone hope we can translate this to next week
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
Certainly my condolences to the McKinley family. My heart felt prayers are with them.
COOP!!! Welcome back!! Hope you are doing well. I thought the O-line pass protected well. They’ve communicated protections better than I thought they would so far. Saw that first hand from my 5th row perch in the South Stands. The best block of the day happened right in front of me. JD Walton getting to the second level and blasting the safety….Knowshon on his heels for the touchdown. I hope those guys can get better at run blocking though. I know Josh will try to keep the colts honest. We certainly don’t want to be known as a one dimensional team.
I agree with oldsouthstander’s report card.
I noticed that we got caught in our 3-4 shell early and B Dawk had to cover the TEs against the ‘hawks. Given his week 2 performance I hope Dallas Clark gets matched up on him too. I want Peyton Manning to have a bad day for once. Hope we confuse him. GO DEFENSE!!!
GO BRONCOS!!!! South Stands Forever!!! The Orange Crush Lives!!
No doubt a tough week of questions about Kenny. Sad, sad, sad. My heart goes out to his family and mostly to his little boy who will always wonder why. God Bless him. I wrote my post late in the evening and heard the next morning and was as surprised as anyone. One of roughly 1600 guys in the world playing in the NFL….sad, sad, sad. I’m not good with grief.
I’ve been in and out of town at a few charity functions as you guys know from past years. In the fall I participate in about 4 functions out of town and also host a tournament of my own in Basalt that raises money for Cystic Fibrosis (8th Annual). Having mine this Friday and Saturday up the hill.
Tough week all around for the Bronco Nation. Indy’s in town and Champ and Goodman haven’t practiced. Have to keep Manning OFF the field…period. Orton has been playing well so if we can keep long drives together we have a shot. You guys know me. We don’t match up well but let’s use the altitude and a little (atitude) to our advantage.
MN-Mr. 24, good question. Yes we were better conditioned in my view bit if we played in the 98 degree heat and 90% humidity we melted somewhat. We prepared for it with 150 gallon coolers of ice water with towels in it and drapped them soaked over or necks and heads between plays and dunked our heads in the ice chests and drank a ton of water because we were not use to that heat index…coming from the cooler weather (low humidity) here.
Growing up in Miami I was probably better mentally prepared. My three years in Tampa we used it to our advantage and played at 2pm in the old Sombrero where it would be 120 degrees on the grass at Gametime. Guys use to get I.V.’s before the game. Crazy! That was the olny place in my entire football career I got heat stroke. Was in 3-a-day practices before the season. Funny story I’ll tell sometime.
BIG week. Indy’s in the House and we have to play a flawless game to beat this team because I’m not sure I’ve seen Manning playing any better.
God Bless all!!
Coop