Originally Posted by avsfan987

Most of the pressure is coming from the blitz. Nolan has been very aggressive and creative so far and it's working very well. Also, Elvis Dumervil has been a beast on his own and has really gotten to the QB with no problem.



I was watching NFL Live last night and Trent Dilfer did a few minute segment on the extremely inconsistent rushing the passer calls and there were several replays of calls you can't believe weren't made. Even during the Pats-Ravens game they showed a Patriots player take two full steps after Flacco threw the ball and totally demolished him, no call was made. Have you seen the hit where Garrard gets piledrived into the ground nearly head first yet?

I'm not complaining about bias necessarily but these rushing the passer calls are some of the worst calls this league has ever seen. Horrible implementation by Goodell on this protectionism.

Originally Posted by Bostonian1962

Nice post. Welcome Bronco fans. I think the Broncos have some nice talent, and are well coached. The Pats don't exactly love playing in the Mile High City, and that makes a win there tough. I do think the Patriots will win though. I believe they have a far superior QB, more overall talent, and a far more experienced head coach. Should be a great game.

Originally Posted by RYObroncosfan

Guess I can't post in the general Pats forum until I get to 100 posts, which should be sooner or later, but for now I'll just post here.

Anyway, I always make an appearance on these boards when the pats play Denver, and aside from last year, it's usually a good match up.

So what's different this year compared to last?

Defense, Defense, Defense...No Shanahan, No Cutler and Defense.

The D is completely different...for one, it's led by a very competent coordinator in Mike Nolan, who switched things up to a 3-4. This means Elvis Dumervil is now an LB, and he's had incredible success thus far with 7 sacks on the season.

The addition of Brian Dawkins has been HUGE. He brings an intensity this D has not had, and he's a significant upgrade over either of last year's safeties.

Andre Goodman has been brought in to play corner opposite Champ, and he's been a huge upgrade over Dre Bly. Champ's back to his old ways, DJ Williams is still one of the league's better linebackers, and Robert Ayers (rookie out of Tennessee) has quietly been very effective.

This D is for real. It may not be the best in the league (though statistically right now it is), but it's certainly a top 10 defense.

Offensively, McDaniels is really doing a great job. You'd be surprised to hear that Orton is the league's 8th rated passer right now, with a a QB rating close to 100. All he's doing is managing the game and not screwing up...no INTs to this point (although sooner or later he'll throw one, it'll probably be this game), no lost fumbles...although he has had a problem picking up the blitz.

That's the one criticism I have of him so far...the Broncos O-Line is one of the top 5 in football (ranked #1 by Yahoo)...it's pretty much exactly the same as last year's, and they only gave up 3 sacks all of last year. Orton's just had trouble recognizing it, and once it's there he can't avoid it like Cutler did. Another O-Line fact: Ryan Clady set a new NFL record after the game yesterday: 20 consecutive games without allowing a sack. He's also only played in 20 career games

You'll catch a break with Buckhalter being hurt...doesn't look like he'll play, and he's been fantastic so far, averaging over 7 yards per carry. Knowshon has been great though, a really tough runner with great moves. If it's just him and Lamont Jordan though, I don't expect us to get the 150 yards a game we've been getting so far. Should still see at least 100 rushing yards though next week out of this offense.

Gaffney's been a very pleasant surprise thus far, and Stokely has been fantastic, although he's been injured the last couple of weeks. Marshall is getting more and more comfortable by the week, and I expect him to get more and more receptions each week. Eddie Royal's been VERY quiet this season, but as Marshall picks it up, I think Royal will too.

There's a lot of depth with Denver at WR, Orton's got plenty of options.

That's pretty much it...Broncos are playing very, very well right now, they're very confident, they're at home, and their defense has been superb.

If Orton can continue to avoid the mistakes, I see no reason for this game to be more than 7 points one way or the other.

I'm looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by lonestar

been a broncos fan since SEP 1960..

We beat Y'all the first day and then again today..

Y'all have a hell of a team that for some reason DEN has your number IIRC we have won 6 of the last 7 games we have played..

Until today I thought is was Mike Shanahan being inside Bill's head..

Folks the Broncos appear to be real thanks to Josh coming from NE.. HE is the real deal.. and Y'all will win a lot of games..

Our OLINE has been pretty stellar since we got Clady last year at that time we revamped 3 of the 5 spots.. coupled with Daniel Graham we tied for the least sacks in the NFL last year..

so getting to Orton is not easy unless you blitz the hell of of him and then he is good enough to make you pay..

We have alot of weapons to go to not quite as many as You all do but I think OUR DB field is better.. out front seven is a real hodge podge the DL are all cast offs from other places.. the LB's only one of them played for us last year..

we have 8 new starters on D this year. and IMO only lack at NT with some BEEF like your Wilfork.. neither of the OLB have ever played there prior to this year both were hand on the ground DE last year.. one in college and the other on a failed Defense.. and he was double covered for most of the year..

when Josh came in he hired Nolan to revamp the D he cut more than half of them and then switched us to a 3-4.. which everyone had to learn from scratch..

the Broncos are brand new team excepting the OLINE and the ZBS that they were used to last year was pretty much scrapped for YOUR blocking system.. OUR WR had to learn a new system and blocking and routes for your spread O..

so folks Josh is a wunderkind for bringing this team this far this fast this year..

I'm sorry for your loss there but have been doing cartwheels since he came to town.. :salute:

come join us at

http: // broncosforums.com / forums for more info we have a decent little forum going there that a few of your fans visited last week.. they were all great posters..