It was, by all accounts orange and blue, a good time had by all.
The Broncos brought the hammer down on the Raiders, 23-3, Sunday afternoon in Oakland. What little there was of the Silver and Black before the blowout, undoubtedly nothing remained after. It was a team effort of terrific proportions.
“We talked all week about needing to play well in three phases in order to beat this team at home,” Broncos’ head coach Josh McDaniels told 850 KOA after the game. “We got a great effort by our kicking units, did a nice job defensively stopping the run (and) creating some turnovers and offensively dominated the time of possession.”
I’ll dispense of the obligatory “it was just the Raiders” preface and get right to the point: The Broncos have played pretty well to this point in the season.
That trend continued Sunday as they ran their record to 3-0. All the Broncos can do is beat the team that is on the schedule that week. They not only did that, but I thought continued to show improvement, even though it is tough to get a true measure of just how much improvement given the opposition was the Raiders.
Still, the Broncos showed me a few things that suggest they are becoming a team.
1 – They seem to have the makings of what could be a great defense. Against Oakland, the Broncos allowed three points, gave up only 137 yards of total offense and 42 net yards passing, forced three turnovers and collected three sacks. They certainly come close to numbers like that in either meeting against the Raiders a year ago.
I realize that the Broncos’ have faced Cleveland and Oakland, two teams with offenses that hardly have a pulse. But they still went out and crushed them. They got the job done.
Cincinnati’s offense seems to be better than what it showed in the season opener against the Broncos. I don’t know how good the Bengals are, but I know the Broncos held them to seven points and controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the game.
“Any time you don’t let them score more than six or seven points in a game, you have a great opportunity to win it,” McDaniels told 850 KOA on Sunday. “We know that will be tough to keep that pace up. We play a lot of good football teams coming up. But we feel we have a good defense. Those guys believe in each other and believe in what we’re doing.”
I believe, too.
2 – The Broncos’ running game can be downright scary. Correll Buckhalter rushed for 108 yards against Oakland and Knowshon Moreno added another 90 yards and a touchdown. The Broncos racked up 215 rushing yards and through three games are averaging nearly 160 yards rushing per game.
Assuming they stay healthy, Buckhalter and Moreno are going to be a great one-two punch. They are both talented but also different types of runners. And there is nothing like having at least two guys to whom you can turn every game.
“It allows us to stay fresh,” Buckhalter told 850 KOA. “We have no complaints. Whoever is in there, me, Knowshon or LaMont (Jordan), we’re going to get the job done.”
So far they have. If they continue to do so at this pace, the Broncos will win plenty.
3 – The special teams are making a difference. The Broncos kickoff return unit is allowing an average of 21.8 yards per return with a long return of 31 yards. The punt coverage team is giving up an average of 10.0 yards per return with a long of 17 yards.
No longer are we seeing the Broncos get gashed on special teams. They are more than holding their own, thus forcing teams to face a longer field.
So far, the Broncos are off to a good start.
In fact, as a team, they are off to a really good start. Now the schedule starts to get interesting. The Broncos will host the Cowboys and the Patriots the next two weeks, and then they’ll go to San Diego before getting a bye at the end of October.
It will be fun to find out how good the Broncos really are.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts about the win over the Raiders.
Best,
Mike
Tags: Correll Buckhalter, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Oakland Raiders, Postgame
The Broncos are ready for their official coming out party against Dallas Sunday. The team improves consistently every week and the Cowboys, from what I saw tonight, weren’t really that good. I’ll evaluate more fully tomorrow as I’ve Tivoed the game, but I believe there are plenty of areas where the Cowtards can be exposed. It’s time to go 4-0 and more fully shock the stupid media. GO BRONCOS!!!
Thanks for the post Mr. Rice.
You got that right Samoanbronco, TIME OF POSSESSION wont always get you a win but it doesn’t hurt to control it all the time. You know The Broncos controlled the TIME OF POSSESSION 3 out of 16 games last year and this year so far 2 out of three.
I could’nt be more happy with the changes so far. If The Broncos continue to run the ball well and play good D everything else will fall into place.
I’m actually looking forward to a breakout passing game against the cowboys. Hopefully Orton and Marshall will have thier timing down and connect down field this week.
The one thing I would like to see change the most in the red zone is: The Broncos should use a play action pass to the Tight Ends especially on third down. Let’s use the fact that The Broncos are running the ball so well and play action fake to Buckhalter, then hit Daniel Graham in the end zone. The cowboys wont know what hit them, they would never expect Graham to break off out of the jumbo formation.
Please let’s get out of the shot gun in the red zone, set up jumbo and use the talent we have and get the TE’s into the end zone.
TIME OF POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
Hey gang. Just wanted to let everyone know I posted my 1st article with Fan Huddle (I just finished it). The site is set to open sometime today. So please sign up when it does, pop on in, read it, comment (for good or bad, ha, ha). My articles will get more detailed as I go along. I will do match-ups of upcoming Bronco games on Fridays. On Wednesdays, I will do some follow up on the Broncos week. Injuries, etc.. On Sunday I will do a player piece, Hope to see you there (it’s not up yet, but should be, sometime today). http://www.fanhuddle.com/
I’m really looking forward to seeing some great matchups on Sunday against the Cowboys. No doubt Champ will be covering Williams which should be a great battle.
If the D plays aggressive like they have and pressures Romo, I can see some picks on the way. Once he’s rattled, his game falls apart.
Our running game will be too much for the Cowboys and will open up some plays for our offense to make some deep plays. Look for Marshall to be even more involved this week. He and Orton seem to be building a little chemistry and trust, which is huge.
My biggest concern is RED ZONE efficiency. This team cannot afford to kick FG’s instead of TD’s against the elite teams in the league……especially in this stretch of games coming up.
My prediction is 24-17 and another Bronco win!
GO BRONCOS!
20-10 Broncos over Cowgirls.
This is why. We have the number one rated defense in the league. Dallas is going to be about as explosive as the bengals were, maybe a little more. I expect their defense to come out a little more confident this week. They finaly forced 3 turnovers. Our one two punch with knowshon and Buckhalter will run down their defense however. Tony Romo had a better game, but with our defense and Doom Sacking him once a quarter he is going to make several mistakes and give the ball to Champ. This all being said I know that they will score on us. I think a touchdown in the 2nd quarter and a fieldgoal in the third. However we will have a fieldgoal in the first, touchdown in the second, no points in the third and touchdown and fieldgoal in the fourth.
Just my crazy prediction, but we tend to come on strong late in the game after we have wore the opposing team down and broke their will.
4-0 Go Broncos!!!!
Hey Mike,
Great Post!
I want to say something real quick about Kyle and his play at the QB position.
McDaniels was again asked several times about him “managing” the game vs. going downfield and such. Coach gave many of us a taste of what a QB must do before the snap.
Taking all of what he said into consideration, Coach JMac went on to say that many of the “break out” plays against Oakland were Kyle’s ability to read, check out, and change…thus possibly resulting in a more productive play.
To many times we as fans like to be “arm chair coaches/analyst’s”. When in reality, there is so much more going on then you or I could imagine.
This “team” has earned the right to call themselves a “team” and a pretty darn good one at that.
Let’s enjoy and rally around this “team” they deserve that! GET EXCITED! again, a great time to be a Bronco fan!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Destroy the Cowpies!!!!!!!!!!
BRONCOS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!
Great article mr. Rice, I have to agree with all said. I’m also glad to see less negativity on the forums now that the team is winning (we’ll see how fast they get loud again after the first loss though). only complaint so far is red zone, if they can fix that against the elite teams we stand a good chance at winning those games as well. Also really glad to see the team getting stronger in the 4th quarter instead of letting down.
Any idea if the glove is comming of this week for Orton, nothing worse for a QB than to not feel like he has that “touch” on the ball?
One last note to all the naysayers, most of whom predicted the team would not win more than 6 games this year. Half way there allready, and looking more competative than we did last year. Here’s to hoping the team can play competative through the whole season.
Hey!
Gotta love Seymour losing his mind out there! LOL!
Hey Seymour, that player that owned you out there is only in his 2nd year. His name is CLADY! don’t forget it!
…oh wait you were the one mad cuz you got traded there huh? yeah, how’s that working out for you? he he he
GREAT PLAY CLADY!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
3 AND 0. YOU GUYS CAN COME BACK NOW…..
angrybronco…NY_BroncoMan…..blum…..TheBroncoFan30…..broncosfromaway…….dsts09…..fit4denver…..vraptor567……and a bunch more who called for McD’s head.
We know you still love our Broncos!
Correction, Fan Huddle will open on the 1st to the public. My bad.
Well I can’t be more pleased with the Denver Broncos overall performance thus far. I feel like there won’t be too much of a focus on individuals this year, but on the team. Individually, Dumervil is the only player who is putting up eye-popping stats week in and week out, and he may be the best playmaker on the team, which is fine with me. Clady might be the best player we have, no joke, but his numbers only show up in the total offensive output. I feel like we have a squad that will be in contention, but that might not send many players to the pro-bowl, which is fine. Let other teams send high profile players to Hawaii, let’s just win football games as a team. That’s what I’ve seen so far, and that’s what I’m hoping to see from here on out. Remember the rag-tag Patriots squad that upset the Greatest Show On Turf (and beat Oakland on the way there…heh heh heh)? I’m just asking if you remember.