Tag Yourself in Broncos FANCAM
Before Sunday’s season opener against the Steelers, a 360-degree, high-definition image was taken of Sports Authority Field at Mile High — Broncos FANCAM, presented by U.S. Bank.
The one-gigapixel composite image is now available here.
Fans are encouraged to zoom in, find and tag themselves, and then share with their friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.
To create the 360-degree picture, the photographer snapped as many as 700 images that were then combined in post-processing work.
Elway: Week 1 Win Exciting, Important
Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway and Broncos TV’s Chris Hall premiered the weekly Elway Access podcast on Tuesday afternoon.
It gave fans a chance to submit questions to Elway via twitter, as Elway broke down the Pittsburgh win and talked about the challenges in traveling to Atlanta on Monday night.
In reviewing the team’s Week 1 victory over the Steelers, Elway stressed the importance of the win because of the difficult schedule that lies ahead.
Denver opens up the season with three consecutive playoff teams from 2011. To start off by beating a 12-4 team from a year ago was extremely crucial to the 2012 season, Elway said.
“If we didn’t get off to a good start, who knows where we could have gone,” Elway said. “That’s why it was so important and exciting to be able to win that game.”
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Great Beginnings
By all accounts, the Broncos turned in a heck of an opening act to begin the regular season Sunday night against the Steelers. No, they didn’t play a perfect game but they did a lot of things right.
They won. And at times, they looked really good in doing so.
I was anticipating this season more than any other Broncos season in recent memory. What I saw only reinforced the fact that Broncos fans could be in for a really fun year.
First off, the Broncos beat a good team but didn’t play their best. I know the Steelers were without some key players. But the Broncos held a good offense to 19 points and the Broncos’ offense scored 24 points against a defense that is considered one of the better ones in the league.
No doubt the Broncos have some things to shore up. The defense gave up some big plays and had issues on third down. My guess is the offense would like to run the ball better, even though part of that was due to the fact that the Steelers controlled the ball so well.
As much as the defense had some problems, it also made some big plays. Tracy Porter had the game-sealing pick six and also batted down a sure touchdown pass. Five different players had a hand in a total of five sacks. And the defense played better as the game went along.
Manning Nominated for Never Say Never Moment
The Broncos thrilling season-opening victory led to a GMC Never Say Never Moment of the Week nomination for quarterback Peyton Manning, who played his first game in 20 months on Sunday.
Manning completed 19-of-26 passes for 253 yards and a pair of touchdowns to finish with a quarterback rating of 129.2. His yardage total and passer rating both were the highest by a Bronco quarterback in his debut with the team.
His first touchdown pass as a Bronco – a 71-yard screen to Demaryius Thomas – was the 400th of his career, making Manning just one of three players (Brett Favre and Dan Marino) to reach that milestone. Manning needed the fewest games and passing attempts to reach that exclusive club.
“It’s just one game,” Manning said after the win. “It’s a good start — it’s always fun to win Opening Night. What an awesome atmosphere, playing on primetime [and] the fans were rockin’.
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Broncos-Steelers Participation Breakdown
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Playtime Percentage A breakdown of Broncos’ players participation in Sunday’s Week 1 win vs. Pittsburgh |
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Inside the Numbers: Week 1
5
Cornerback Tracy Porter, who sealed the Broncos victory with a 43-yard interception return for a touchdown, finished with five pass breakups in the contest. That figure ties for second-most in Broncos history and ties Porter’s career high. Porter added eight tackles in the game, which ranked second on the team. He now has three career game-sealing interceptions returned for a touchdown with all three of those plays have occurring with less than 3:30 left in the fourth quarter with his team up by one score or less. Porter became just the 17th player since 1994 to record at least eight tackles and five passes defensed in a single game according to press box totals.
6
Defensive end Derek Wolfe became just the sixth Broncos rookie since 1982 to record a sack in the team’s season opener and the first to do so since Monsanto Pope in 2002. He finished with three solo tackles to go with the 9-yard sack that pushed the Steelers out of field-goal range on a third-down play.
12
Linebacker Wesley Woodyard led all players with 12 tackles in the game, including his second career sack. Woodyard finished one tackle shy of his career high, which he last set vs. Cincinnati on Sept. 18, 2011.
86.2
Denver’s 31-19 season-opening win vs. Pittsburgh improved the franchise to an NFL-best 25-4 (.862 pct.) in their 29 home openers in Pat Bowlen’s ownership era.
Broncos Bouncing Back
History does not travel in a straight line.
Sometimes the path to a really good place travels along a route that is filled with potholes and rocks, and sometimes it seems like we might never get to our desired destination.
The Broncos have one of the great histories in the National Football League, highlighted by 18 playoff appearances, 11 AFC Western Division titles, eight appearances in the AFC championship game, six Super Bowl games and back to back world championships.
But, in the most recent years, we have had some shaky times.
Those times are over.
Breaking Down the Big Play
The end result was a 71-yard touchdown from Peyton Manning to Demaryius Thomas.
It gave the Broncos a 14-13 third-quarter lead. It made Manning the third quarterback in NFL history to throw for 400 touchdowns and the fastest to ever do so. And it gave Denver the spark it needed to finish the game on top.
With the resounding significance of the play’s outcome, it would be a shame to overlook everything that made it possible.
Broncos vs. Steelers: Key Plays
Below are some key plays for both teams in Denver’s 31-19 season-opening win vs. Pittsburgh at Sports Authority Field at Mile High:
Third-and-12 at the 50 (11:30, 1st quarter): With Peyton Manning looking sharp on the opening drive of the game, Denver’s offense had momentum before Larry Foote broke into the backfield to sack Manning on third down and force a punt.
Third-and-1 at the Denver 49 (7:21, 1st quarter): Denver started its second drive of the game with good field position at its 40-yard line, but couldn’t convert a third-and-short. McGahee fumbled the football, turning it over to Pittsburgh in Denver territory.
Third-and-13 at the Denver 36 (3:35, 1st quarter): With the Steelers on the edge of field goal range, rookie defensive end Derek Wolfe collected his first career sack. Wolfe dropped quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for a 9-yard loss to force a Pittsburgh punt.
Third-and-13 at the Denver 21 (1:04, 2nd quarter): Facing his second third-and-long of the drive, Roethlisberger found wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for a 17-yard gain down to the Denver 4-yard line to extend the drive. The Steelers scored three plays later when tight end Heath Miller caught a 3-yard pass to take a 10-7 lead at the half.
Broncos vs. Steelers: QuotablesHead Coach John Fox
On QB Peyton Manning’s touchdown drives
“It was helpful that he only had it for about 36 seconds but we scored so that was the good news. I think that’s something that we’ll get better at. Part of that issue is we let them possess the ball, in particular on third down conversions, defensively. In a first game like that, [Steelers QB] Ben Roethlisberger’s a tough guy to play against because he does extend plays and he did and we had about three explosives there in that second quarter, the touchdown before half. Like I said, it’s a good football team that we played tonight and we were fortunate to come out with a nice win.”
On how QB Peyton Manning looked in his first real game this season
“He’s a great player. A lot’s been made of the injury and those types of things but we’re just glad he’s on our team.”
On the defensive effort, particularly with CB Tracy Porter
“He’s a guy that we acquired from New Orleans in the offseason. Guy’s had an excellent training camp for us. That was definitely a huge play. Probably the play of the game, being up only six, for him to make that play then was huge.”