A few pre-game notes:

• Kyle Johnson is inactive. He sprained his ankle early in last Sunday’s win over Oakland, and while it wasn’t the high ankle sprain that the Broncos initially feared, it will be enough to sideline him today. Cecil Sapp will start in his place.
• The weather is, in a word, dreadful — and not just because it’s uncomfortable for fans. It’s 48 degrees right now, but perhaps most significantly for the actual game play, the wind is blowing from out of the west-southwest at 21 miles per hour, with gusts to 32. When I walked around the stadium about 20 minutes ago, I saw several kicks from Jason Elam and Paul Ernster that soared majestically to an apex before simply dying in the stiff breeze.