A smattering of pre-game notes as the Broncos and Chargers warm up:
- Tatum Bell is back among the inactives after playing last week. Cedric Cobbs was also scratched, leaving Mike Bell and Damien Nash as the Broncos’ two tailbacks.
- Both Ian Gold and Ebenezer Ekuban are among the 45 active players and each is expected to start.
- San Diego deactivated defensive tackle Luis Castillo. Jacques Cesaire will start in his place.
- The blue pants are back again; the Broncos are 2-0 in them this year and 3-1 overall, with the only loss coming in a 2003 Monday Night Football game to the New England Patriots.
- Tight end Tony Scheffler is again among the inactives; he played the first eight games before being moved off the active game-day roster last week.
- Both of the Broncos’ recent kickoff returners are inactive — Quincy Morgan and Brian Clark.
- Denver’s three other inactive players are Patrick Chukwurah, Chris Kuper and Antwon Burton.
- The 1972 Miami Dolphins will remain the last unbeaten team in NFL annals after the Colts fell 21-14 at Dallas tonight. One Bronco in town for the alumni reunion was a part of that ’72 team — Marlin Briscoe, a Broncos quarterback in 1968 and a wide receiver for that unblemished ’72 Dolphins team.
Head Coach Mike Shanahan knew Sunday that Tatum Bell’s toe problems were worse than he thought.
After going from the starting lineup to the game-day inactive list in seven days, one would understand if rookie running back Mike Bell was a tad flummoxed over another hairpin curve in a rookie season that has seen more unexpected turns than a mountain road.
Head Coach Mike Shanahan doesn’t see the Broncos’ 63-yard rushing performance Sunday at Oakland as cause for panic. Certainly not when his running game — which has included carries for four different tailbacks in the last two games — still ranks fourth in the league through nine games.
Well, we got our answer on Tatum Bell … he won’t carry the football at all.
Tatum Bell played through toe pain at Cleveland and practiced through it in the days that followed. All along, though, he believed that being hurt didn’t mean he was injured, and that he’d be able to make it through a full day’s work Sunday against Indianapolis.
