A bad night for the Broncos turned worse with the news that defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban will likely miss the rest of the 2007 season because of a torn Achilles tendon.
Ekuban suffered the injury midway through the second quarter.
Running back Travis Henry also suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He will undergo an MRI examination back in Denver. If it comes back negative, Head Coach Mike Shanahan said that Henry could return to game action as early as next week.
Needless to say, Ekuban’s teammates were saddened by the injury. Here’s a sampling of their thoughts from the locker room:
JOHN LYNCH:
“Eb’s a warrior. He goes out there every week and gives his heart. He played at a high level … It seemed like his legs had come underneath him this year. When he came here, it looked like his knee was still bothering him, but now, his legs were great. He was playing outside and inside. He was going to be a key contributor. We’ve certainly hit some adversity with the way we’ve played, with some key guys (injured). Every team goes through that at some point. We’ll see how we respond.”
NICK FERGUSON:
“Oh, man. … I know he was looking forward to the season and doing something with this scheme. To have a guy like him go down and lose him for the remainder of the season is difficult, but at the same time it could have happened to any of us, so (it’s a chance) for all of these guys who are drafted to come in play.”
CHAMP BAILEY:
“Oh, you hate to hear that. A guy that we definitely depended on up front and now it’s just time for guys to step up. He’s a veteran, he’s leader on our team, and we’re going to miss him. But with all that said, we’ve got to keep playing football and hopefully some of these young guys will step up.”
DRE’ BLY:
“Eb was one of the sack leaders last year leading the team in sacks. Personally, we were college mates, we came into college together and came out together, so I’m going to be disappointed because I was looking forward to playing with Eb and reuniting with him, but that’s part of the game. Guys have to step up. Injuries are something that we have to deal with. That just gives an opportunity for one of the younger guys to step up in his place and try to fill the void.”
Tags: Dallas Cowboys, Defensive linemen, Ebenezer Ekuban, Running backs, Travis Henry
does this give moss the job
if his knee holds up yes i think jarvis will have the job…how bad is the sprain on travis’s knee is he gonna miss?……this is why we sit all of our key players like champ,dre,jay,javon,danny,travis,and john lynch. i mean its preseason its not rele that important its time for the rooks and 2nd and 3rd stringers to step up not starters they already stepped up and we kno that y wud we need to see them
hope this doesn’t hurt my broncos too badly :/
my man Champ said it best.
[...] action as early as next week. Needless to say, Ekuban
I was really disappointed in how we played Saturday. The running game was nonexistant, and the protection was horrible (luckily Jay didn’t get killed). The d-line had no pass rush and the secondary blew quite a few coverages. I think the only real positive to take out of this one was B-Marshall having a decent game. He looked like he was running pretty well. I think the Cowboys did a little better job of studying our game plan and attacking our weaknesses. Any word yet on Henry’s MRI? Why didn’t Mike Bell see any real carries? Is he hurting too? Let’s all hold our breath and pray that we don’t lose anybody else against Cleveland!!!!
The team looked terrible. But that is what the preseason is for….. learn the scheme, get your timing and understanding down. You cant sit the starters when they dont seem to know what they’re doing.
Brian in Evans
The team did look horrible the defensive tackes werent getting any push and the running game was stuffed it was not going at all but i think they should have let jay get out the pocket more. I think we should have tried going deep more since the secondary for dallas was not that great and it just seemed like our players were getting to the ball just not tackling that great just a thought
I WAS REALLY UPSET TO SEE THE DALLAS COWGIRLS BET US LAST WEEK
This did not look like Mike’s teams. While the line work was rough it may be attributed to the many changes and injurys going into this season. Jay Cutler was a different story, I don’t know if it was coached but he seemed out of phase. Perhaps it was only concern over the line work, maybe the running issues but his own level of concentration and enjoying the game seemed missing to this simple viewer.
One issue Jake had to face and now Jay is never forget it is a game, play to win but play for fun also. The gift from John Elway was the farm boy smile, keep it in the game.
Sports Illustrated
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting