Broncos at Chiefs: Thursday Injury ReportOn Thursday, Head Coach John Fox said that cornerback Tracy Porter has been cleared for action.
“He’ll be traveling with the team and he’s been cleared to play,” Fox said. “Just like all 53 players, he’ll be making the trip to Kansas City with us.”
Below are the injury reports for both Denver and Kansas City.
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Heading Into a Hostile Environment
Kansas City has never been an easy place for the Broncos to win.
In fact, the Broncos are 15-33 in Kansas City since the Chiefs moved to the city in 1963.
So when Denver heads to Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, the club knows it’s in for a challenge.
“It’s always tough playing at Arrowhead,” quarterback Peyton Manning said. “It’s always been loud the times I’ve played there. I’ve always thought their fans are smart fans. They get loud at the right times. They’ve always had good defenses when I’ve played there as well. It’s a good combination I think.”
Tight end Jacob Tamme will make his first trip to the storied venue on Sunday, but said he’s well versed in what to expect.
“I know it can be one of the most fun places to play in the NFL. I know they have a great fan base there and we’ll be expecting it to be loud and we’ll see how it goes.”
Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway, who saw plenty of Arrowhead Stadium during his playing days, said on this week’s Elway Access that he knew the type of game to expect every time he headed to Kansas City.
“I always knew I’d come out of there with a lot of bumps and a lot of bruises,” he said.
But the Broncos also know the game is played on the field, not in the stands. So Elway said it will be up to the 7-3 Broncos to make sure the 1-9 Chiefs don’t grab big plays to ignite their home-field advantage.
“Any time you go into Arrowhead (Stadium), it’s a tough place to play,” Elway said. “I know the Chiefs are struggling this year, but as we know, everybody in the NFL can beat anybody on any given day. Peyton has the right attitude. The fact is, it doesn’t matter what their record is. They can get hot at any point in time. So hopefully we can go in there and take control of the football game early and keep the crowd out of it, because it’s probably as loud a stadium as there is in the league when it’s going.”
Looking around the locker room after last week’s win against the Chargers, you could tell there was still some disappointment. That’s just a testament to this team — we win, but we’re still frustrated with some of our performances. We just want to make sure that we’re running more consistently.
I think that even though it wasn’t our best game, this is the ultimate team sport. That’s why we play. Every week there are going to be mistakes, you’ve just got to correct them and get better. I think offensively we didn’t play good situational football, and that’s something that we’re going to focus on this week. Meanwhile, the defense played unbelievable. The beauty of it is you get another opportunity this week to get better. That’s really our focus.
Like they say, throw the records out when you play a division team. You have to. In this division, anyone can win. In this league, anyone can win. We talked this morning that Arrowhead’s a really tough place to play. The fan support there, the noise and just the whole atmosphere that Kansas City brings, it’s something that we’ve got to stay focused on and make sure that it doesn’t affect us as we’re executing our job on Sunday. One play at a time, one drive at a time.
From the front end to the back end, the Chiefs have got a lot of playmakers. Just watching film, they get after it in the run game, they put pressure on the quarterback in the passing game. Eric Berry, he fills for the run and Brandon Flowers is a Pro Bowl cornerback. So we’ve got some challenges ahead of us. We’ve got to, again, stay focused on our job and the task at hand.
Coach Fox has a saying, what’s better than five-in-a-row? Six-in-a-row. That’s the goal. I wrote earlier this year that great teams string wins together. That’s something that at the beginning of the year we struggled with, just finding that consistency overall as a team. But we’re finding who we want to be and creating an identity. It’s fun to win ballgames. It’s fun to win with these guys on this team. It’s a very unselfish team and everybody’s doing their part to win the ballgame. We’re starting to groove.
Broncos at Chiefs: Wednesday Injury ReportBelow are the injury reports for Denver and Kansas City after Wednesday’s practices.
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Quinn to Start for Chiefs
On Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs announced that Brady Quinn will be the starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Broncos. It will be Quinn’s third start of the season — his first in Kansas City — after spending the prior two years with the Broncos and not appearing in a game.
“I like his leadership qualities,” Chiefs Head Coach Romeo Crennel said. “He has experience with a couple different teams and he’s seen a couple different things. I think that will bode well for him.”
Shortly after Crennel made the decision public, quarterback Brady Quinn spoke with Denver media on a conference call.
“Anytime you get the opportunity to start in the National Football League, you’re very blessed,” said Quinn, who has started 14 games since coming into the league in 2007 as the 22nd overall pick. “I haven’t had as many opportunities in six seasons as some guys get in one season. Any opportunity for me to play is good. I’m always learning, always trying to get better.”
Tebow Acknowledges Need to Improve
Quarterback Tim Tebow is a big reason why the Broncos went 7-4 in their last 11 games to finish the season as AFC West champs.
However, his performance Sunday showed that the second-year quarterback still has a lot of growing up to do in the NFL.
“Well, obviously when you lose it’s just not good enough, and for me it wasn’t good enough,” Tebow said. “I just have to get better and learn from my great coaches and just come out next week and try to be a better quarterback, a better leader and be a better player.”
Click to continue reading “Tebow Acknowledges Need to Improve”
Broncos vs. Chiefs: QuotablesHead Coach John Fox
On injuries
“[G] Chris Kuper looks to have a broken lower leg, and [FB] Spencer Larsen sprained his knee.”
On making the playoffs
“We’re AFC West champs. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Once you get into the dance, they can’t kick you out, so what we do with it we will be determined here next weekend. We’re excited about it. The team is excited about it. Obviously we didn’t want to get into it without winning tonight, and I can answer questions on the game tonight. It was unfortunate. I thought it was a great effort. We just came up a little short.”
On confidence in the offense going into the playoffs
“We didn’t get enough done tonight. I think we need to score more points. I think our running attack has been effective. It was very effective again tonight, and our passing game is something we need to improve at. We’ve got all next week to do that.”
On the running backs
“I think our running backs have done a tremendous job all year – our offensive line, the whole blocking element whether it be our fullback, tight ends, our offensive line. There have been some pretty good teams around here in the past, and to break a franchise record rushing the football, it has a lot of people’s signatures on it.”
Quarterback Tim Tebow
On his feelings on winning the AFC West
“It’s, obviously, a little bittersweet right now. We would have loved to have won that game, and [had] a little bit more momentum going into the playoffs, but, I think it’s still a special thing what we accomplished, to come back to win the AFC West, and I still think that’s very special.”
“First and foremost, like every week, I just want to thank my lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and thank my teammates for their effort and my coaches for their game plan and their effort the whole day. I’m very proud because you just saw character for 60 minutes, once again, so that’s what I’m most proud of.”
On his confidence
“The three losses haven’t shaken my confidence. I’ve had to go through a lot of ups and downs in my sports career, and so I’m not going to let a few losses affect my confidence. I’m still out there playing the game that I love, so I still consider myself very blessed and honored to be playing quarterback for such a great organization.”
“There have probably been a few plays in there I should have tried to force, to make a play, you know, make something happen. But that’s just part of the game.”
On his and the team’s mindset heading into the playoff week
“I know our coaches will come up with a great game plan, like they always do, in this week, and we just have to go have a great week of practice and execute and come out and find some momentum early in the game and try to get things going.”
On assessing his own play
“Well, obviously when you lose it’s just not good enough, and for me it wasn’t good enough, and I just have to get better and learn from my great coaches and just come out next week and try to be a better quarterback, a better leader and be a better player.”
“As a quarterback you’ve just got to find a way to put your team in the end zone. We had a nice drive going, and I fumbled—and that was very disappointing—just trying to fight for extra yards. And we had other opportunities we just couldn’t take advantage of. We’ve just got to find a way.”
Cornerback Champ Bailey
On getting into the playoffs on a loss
“It’s good to get in regardless. We have to get better. We have to prepare better, we have to play better, period, if we want to win this game next weekend.”
On playing the Steelers
“They are in the tournament every year. They are a good football team. We definitely have to bring our ‘A’ game. We’ll look at tape and see what they’re doing well and what they’re doing bad and go from there and just prepare our butts off for this game.”
On the feeling of the team entering the playoffs
“It’s good and bad. It’s a little bittersweet because I know we’re better than what we’ve been showing. It’s just that we haven’t shown that. To go into the playoffs with losing the last three games, it sucks. But, we’re in it. We just have to keep preparing, stay positive and move on.”
On the defense’s effort vs. Kansas City
“Definitely – in the second half, anyways. I think in the second half we picked it up. We started doing our jobs better. We have a good defense, we just have to correct some things and make sure we’re perfect out there.”
Wide Receiver Eric Decker
On offensive struggles
“It’s tough, because you’ve got a defense that’s playing so great and you want to be able to score some points and take some pressure off them. I think we all understand that it’s a little frustrating. We want to score touchdowns, and we’re not doing that. We’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to get in the film room, practice and just get better.”
On having confidence given three straight losses
“It takes a couple plays. If you start the game out quick, get some points on the board, keep rolling, keep executing, I think that’s when you get your confidence back. When you can score those points, you understand, ‘OK, we can do this.’ We’ve just got to go out there and do it.”
On Head Coach John Fox’s message to the team
“We’re AFC West champs, congratulations. We get another opportunity next week, let’s make the most of it, and we’ve got to get better, period.”
On what it will take to turn things around
“Our defense is playing lights out. When they have seven points on the board, we’ve got to do a better job of executing and take some pressure off them. There’s no one answer, a miracle to get it done, we’ve just got to get better.”
Defensive end Elvis Dumervil
On getting into the playoffs
“We have to get better. When you get to the dance, you’re there. This is my first time, so I’m looking forward to the experience.”
On entering the playoffs coming off a loss
“It’s kind of bittersweet. The good thing is the crowd was excellent today for us as far as the defense and being loud. They gave us a lot of energy. We just have to do a better job in all three phases and try to get a collective team win.”
On getting better for the playoffs
“Why not? We’re a streaky team. We don’t want to be streaky, but we have the ability on offense, defense and special teams to get things done. We just never know. As far as the defense, we have to do our job and then hopefully the offense can get going and special teams can get going. If we can do those things and get clicking – we just have to make sure defensively-wise we’re ready.”
On whether the loss takes away from being AFC West champs
“No, because when you go back in the record book, it’ll say AFC West champs. We’re proud of that. We did some good things this year to close off the season. Obviously to get to where we want to get to, we have a lot of work to do.”
Running Back Willis McGahee
On the team’s rushing performance vs. Kansas City
“We didn’t do a good job. You can run the ball and get three or four hundred yards. But, we didn’t get a touchdown running the ball, we didn’t get touchdowns passing.”
On winning the division despite a loss to close out the season
“I don’t think it’s a hard way. It’s a lesson learned. You don’t want to come into the playoffs like that, because everybody’s going to be on their A-game. We’ve got to be on our A-game, so that’s the thing that we have to get in everybody’s head. You’ve got to be prepared. You’ve got to study film. You’ve got to do this; you’ve got to do that. Those guys, I think it’s really starting to get to them now.”
On winning the AFC West
“It goes both ways, you know? Like I said earlier, we had to wait for another team to win their game to let us know we were going to be AFC West champs. At the end of the day, we made it; we’re in it. It’s over with now, and we’ve got a big game coming up this weekend.”
Broncos vs. Chiefs: Key PlaysThird-and-4 at the Kansas City 15 (8:47, 2nd quarter): Quarterback Tim Tebow saw an opening on the left side, but was hit and stripped by Chiefs safety Kendrick Lewis. Linebacker Justin Houston fell on the loose ball, thwarting a potential Broncos scoring drive.
Third-and-6 at the Kansas City 36 (11:05, 4th quarter): Tebow scrambled on third down while looking for a receiver downfield, but was brought down for a loss of 9 yards by Houston and Chiefs defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry. The 9-yard loss took Denver from the Kansas City 36 back to the 45-yard line, taking the team out of field goal range.
Third-and-9 at the Kansas City 12 (5:53, 4th quarter): Chiefs quarterback Kyle Orton found rookie wideout Jonathan Baldwin for a 15-yard gain to extend the drive. Instead of punting from deep in its own territory with more than five minutes to play, Kansas City was able to run nearly two more minutes off the clock and drive to their its 46-yard line before punting.
Fourth-and-2 at the Denver 48 (0:19, 4th quarter): Tebow’s desperation fourth-down pass was intercepted by Kansas City cornerback Brandon Carr, ending the Broncos final drive of the game. The Chiefs took over with :08 remaining and Orton took a knee to end the game.
-Stuart Zaas
Chiefs Beat Broncos 7-3Chiefs cornerback Brandon Carr intercepted Tim Tebow’s desperation heave on fourth down to seal the 7-3 victory for Kansas City.
Kyle Orton took a knee to run out the final seconds of the game. Denver’s record drops to 8-8 on the season after the loss.
The Broncos turned in a strong rushing performance, finishing with 216 rushing yards for the game, but weren’t able to move the ball through the air as time wound down.
Willis McGahee paced the team with 145 rushing yards, the fourth-highest total of his career and second highest of the season.
Check back to DenverBroncos.com for more coverage of today’s game.
Broncos vs. Chiefs: Gameday CoveragePREGAME:
We’re here at Sports Authority Field at Mile High with less than two hours until kickoff of the Broncos final regular season game this year.
Both teams are on the field warming up, as Denver looks to clinch the AFC West with a win or a Raiders loss.
Stay tuned as we keep you updated with all the latest info.
BRONCOS MOBILE APP: For those of you who follow the action on your smartphone, there’s a brand new — free — official Broncos mobile app. For more information on the app, check out this blog. On your smartphone, visit BroncosMobile.com to download it.
BRONCOS VS CHIEFS GAMECENTER: For play-by-play action and up-to-the-minute stats, check out the DenverBroncos.com Gamecenter. We’ll keep you updated here with scoring plays, drive recaps and all the fun bits and pieces you can’t get from looking at a box score.
BRONCOS ON TWITTER: Another option is to follow the @Denver_Broncos Twitter account. There are constant updates on there throughout the game. You don’t have to be on Twitter to read the posts, but if you are, you should follow the account for news throughout the week as well.
BRONCOS PLAYOFF SCENARIOS: The Broncos are in the playoffs with a win, but check out the other ways the team can make the postseason.
BRONCOS VS. CHIEFS – INACTIVES: Safety Brian Dawkins is one of the seven players inactive for the Broncos for today’s game.
PREGAME PHOTOS: Here are some photos of the Broncos warming up for this afternoon’s game courtesy of Eric Lars Bakke, Gabriel Christus and Ben Hays.
CHIEFS TO START WITH THE BALL: The Broncos won the toss and elected to defer to the second half, meaning Kansas City will get the ball first.
INJURY UPDATE: Right guard Chris Kuper will not return after he was carted off the field with a leg injury.
KANSAS CITY STRIKES FIRST: A Dexter McCluster 21-yard touchdown run gives the Chiefs an early 7-0 lead.
*INJURY UPDATE*: Fullback Spencer Larsen has a knee injury, he will not return.
BRONCOS TRAIL HEADING INTO HALFTIME: The Chiefs lead the Broncos 7-0 as the teams head into the locker room for halftime.
MCGAHEE TOPS 100 YARDS: For the seventh time this season, running back Willis McGahee has rushed for more than 100 yards in a game.
PRATER PUTS THE BRONCOS ON THE BOARD: Matt Prater’s 38-yard field goal cuts into Kansas City’s lead, 7-3.
BRONCOS SET SINGLE-SEASON RECORD: With McGahee’s four-yard run in the fourth quarter, the Broncos set a franchise record for rushing yards in a season.
CHIEFS BEAT BRONCOS 7-3: Tim Tebow’s fourth-down pass was intercepted sealing the Chiefs victory..