Not Making ExcusesThe Broncos weren’t making any excuses Monday after the team’s 24-17 loss to the Jaguars. Some might have blamed the weather, others could have noted that key players were out of the lineup and others still might have argued that a controversial late call could have cost them the game.
But Denver didn’t do any of that, the team knows this loss is on them, and it is up to them to get better and correct mistakes.
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Turnovers Hurt, No Magic Against JagsLike we said a few weeks ago, turnovers in this league will kill you. K.C. proved that against us and so did the Jags. To open the paper today was like reading about a 1-5 team, wow. Anything to sell a newspaper.
Simple math: turnovers = losses, that simple. We’ve all heard it all the way back to little league….in every sport….not just football….it’s that simple.
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Facing A Two-Headed MonsterThe Jaguars have had one of the top running games in the league over the past several years, and with Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor in the backfield, it’s no wonder why.
But so far in 2008, they have struggled. In last week’s game against Pittsburgh, the Jaguars’ two-headed running attack combined for just 26 total yards on the ground. The Broncos’ defense remembers last year’s game against the Jags, however, so they know not to underestimate them.
“We still know the talent they have,” D.J. Williams told reporters after Friday’s practice. “Just cause last week they only had 26 yards doesn’t mean they’re not capable of coming in and running for 100 or 200 yards. But that’s our job – to stop them from doing that.”
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Another Physical ChallengeAs Sunday’s matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars gets one day closer, the Broncos remember last year’s game all too well.
The Jags jumped out to an early 17-7 lead in the first half, extending it to 20-7 before the Broncos would get on the board again. A fourth quarter touchdown got Denver within a score, but it was not to be. The Jaguars won that game 23-14. This year, the Broncos would like to swap it up.
Denver is coming off a 16-13 win over a Buccaneers team that is similar to Jacksonville in several ways. Both teams like to play hard-nosed defense. Both like to pound the ball in the running game. And in that game against the Bucs, the Denver defense stepped up to match the physicality of their opponent. They’ll need to do it again this week.
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Disregarding RecordsThe Broncos have the Jacksonville Jaguars on tap for this weekend. The Jags come to Denver with a 2-3 record on the season but the Broncos know that Jacksonville has played all five of its opponents close this season. Denver realizes that it is up against a talented football team, regardless of what its record may be coming in.
“The average fan looks at them and they see a 2-3 record and they don’t see the football team,” Head Coach Mike Shanahan said. “That’s usually indicative of most people. You are looking at the record and not how they have been playing. Our football team is well aware of that and we will be ready to play.”
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Divisional Playoff RecapEveryone misfired on Colts-Chargers … and we now have a two-way deadlock for first place heading into the conference championships:
THE PREDICTIONS SO FAR:
ANDREW MASON: 4-4
MIKE RICE, NEWSRADIO 850 KOA: 4-4
KYLE MONTGOMERY, BRONCOTALK: 6-2
JOHN BENA, MILE HIGH REPORT:: 6-2
JONATHAN DOUGLAS, BRONCOTALK: 4-4
GREEN BAY 42, SEATTLE 20
“Is it snowing there?” queried a friend back in Colorado via text-message as the Packers and Seahawks battled in a gorgeous snowfall that is surprisingly rare for playoff games at Lambeau Field.
Where I was — elsewhere in Wisconsin — the landscape was wintry, but the skies were dry.
There was no snow beyond a few flurries in Madison, which is 135 miles south-southwest of Green Bay. But by dining at the locally renowned State Street Brats, a favored establishment among University of Wisconsin students and state-government officials alike, I gave myself the next-best experience to being at Lambeau, replete with Brett Favre jerseys galore and the ubiquitous “Go Pack Go” cheer being played over the speakers throughout the restaurant.
(And by the way, from being at Lambeau Field once before, I can only offer this thought on the “Go Pack Go” cheer — cut it back a bit. It’s like going to games at Oklahoma or Tennessee, where one hears “Boomer Sooner” or “Rocky Top” after every … single … play. Two-yard run off tackle? Strike up the band! Less is more, everyone.)
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Divisional Playoff Preview: Saturday
SEATTLE (11-6) AT GREEN BAY (13-3)
WHEN: Saturday, 2:30 p.m. MST
WHERE: Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wis.
TV: FOX
You have to love Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck for not merely acknowledging, but providing a Vermeil-worthy embrace the proverbial elephant in the room as soon as his team’s divisional-round trip to Green Bay was assured:
“We want the ball, and we’re gonna score!”
That sentiment, uttered upon winning the coin toss at overtime of the teams’ wild-card duel four Januarys ago, will likely adhere to his résumé for the rest of his days — since his Seahawks did not live up to that proclamation that day, and lost on a touchdown return of an errant throw by Hasselbeck himself.
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Wild-Card RecapObservations, witticisms and other random thoughts from a playoff weekend …
THE PREDICTIONS SO FAR:
ANDREW MASON: 2-2
MIKE RICE, NEWSRADIO 850 KOA: 3-1
KYLE MONTGOMERY, BRONCOTALK: 3-1
JOHN BENA, MILE HIGH REPORT:: 3-1
JONATHAN DOUGLAS, BRONCOTALK: 2-2
Worthy kudos to Mike, Kyle and John. Perhaps I’ll forecast next weekend’s contests with a clearer head now that the team for which I had season tickets while growing up — Tampa Bay — has been scratched from the docket.
SEATTLE 35, WASHINGTON 14
So much for momentum.
Washington’s lofty hopes were spoiled quickly and exploded like a ripe banana in a microwave. Two plays from scrimmage, two Seattle touchdowns — one on a D.J. Hackett reception and the other on Marcus Trufant’s 78-yard interception return — sent the Redskins home just when it seemed they had snatched all momentum and were poised to deal the Seahawks a humbling home defeat.
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Wild-Card Preview: AFC
JACKSONVILLE (11-5) at PITTSBURGH (10-6)
WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m. MST
WHERE: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh
TV: NBC
GHOSTS OF PLAYOFFS PAST:
JACKSONVILLE: Natrone Means. His 175 yards in the Jaguars’ wild-card win over the Bills in 1996 gave the team its first playoff win and perpetuated the momentum they’d built in a five-game, five-win mad dash from 4-7 despair to a playoff-worthy 9-7 finish. What he and his Jacksonville comrades did next week is something that I’m sure most in Broncos Country wish to forget, even though that 30-27 loss at Mile High Stadium is pointed to by many players as the fuel that powered a world-championship engine a year later.
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Cutler: Hindered By Ankle, Irked By CommunicationsOne day after injuring his ankle late in the Broncos’ 23-14 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, quarterback Jay Cutler said he felt “good,” although the injury left his leg “a little bit sore.”
Cutler underwent an MRI examination and post-injury treatment on Monday, and figures he should be ready to practice by the time the Broncos return to the field Wednesday after their day off.
“Everything’s fine. We’ve got a lot of time left. I’ll take it easy these next couple of days. Maybe it’ll be a little sore on Wendesday, but I should still be able to practice and get a full week in.”
Cutler said he injured the play on the Broncos’ next-to-last series, when he was sacked by former Broncos defensive end Reggie Hayward back at the Denver 3-yard-line, forcing the team into third-and-11. Two plays after the injury, Cutler’s downfield pass for Daniel Graham skipped in and out of the tight end’s grasp, effectively ending the Broncos’ comeback hopes.
“As soon as I (was sacked), I knew it was pretty bad,” Cutler said. “In the heat of the moment, there’s some things you can play through and some things you can’t.”
If anything, Cutler was more frustated about the balky sideline-to-quarterback communications apparatii than the injury. The technical snafus forced the Broncos to burn a pair of timeouts in the third quarter, and while Cutler remained composed, his words steamed frustration with the in-helmet radio receiver.
“They’re not the finest contraptions they have out. I don’t know. It gets really loud in some stadiums. At some stadiums they cut in and out. In some stadiums you hear concession people. You never know what’s going to happen with those things. (I’m) serious.”
Fortunately for the Broncos, “serious” does not appear to describe the state of Cutler’s ankle … although Wednesday’s practice will provide futher illumination on the subject.
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