Awesome Monday Night

Although there were some rough patches, the Broncos drudged through the slop and got the win.

It was another uneasy night, but they beat the Ravens. They did to the Ravens what the Ravens to everyone. They beat up on them and uglied out a win.

I will say I was not too pleased for most of the first half. First play on offense they turned it over. I was having the flashbacks to all the other losses.

I also could hear the grumbling from the crowd about Jake's performance. The first turnover was not his fault, the second was god awful. I don't know for sure if Walker ran the wrong route. He also had a couple throws that ugly, even in the conditions.

The Offense

Well they did not get off the greatest start. First play fumble ;ed to an early deficit. Second drive, INT. At that point it seemed that this was going to be one of those nights.

Jake looked awful to start the game, he had only 6 yards passing in the first half and a INT, could have another INT. You could hear the grumbling, but he came back in the second half and made enough throws to get them big first downs and the TD to ice it. He also made a couple of plays with his feet. He seemed to lock in after that play. There were still plenty of throws he missed on that have to improve on.

Tatum Bell - along with helping my roto team win, he did some hard running against a good D. He still does too much darting and dancing on some plays. But he did put his head down and pound it. His run in the 4th where he dragged Ray Lewis a couple yards for a first down. Take that Ray Lewis. I hate Ray Lewis.

The O-Line did an effective job in that it gave Jake time to throw for most of the night. The run game made plays and got creases for Bell. Also good to see George Foster get out in space and flatten someone. That is what we have been looking for George.

The Defense

They did a great job last night. They gave up a field goal, only a field goal. Sure the Ravens are not Air Coreyel, but they have some weapons. But they got into the face of McNair, made him make mistakes. His first one may have been what changed the game. That was one of the worst fade throws I have seen. Darling is 6-6 and you want the jump ball, but throw it outside. You give Champ Bailey a chance and he will kill you. And he did. So the Broncos escape the first half tied instead of being down 10-3 or 6-3. That is what good teams do. They make teams pay for their mistakes. They did a great job in holding down the run. They did not allow the Raven to get their North/South running game running.

Special Teams

They did a alright job, Elam made some big kicks in bad condition. So big up to Leach for the snap and Jake for the hold. Ernster did a good job with the kickoff and the punts. You could see that he was playing for a job. I wonder what the Broncos will do now the Roided one is coming back from the suspension. The return teams did a good job, even with the penalties on a couple of those kicks.

Coaching

Shanahan game planned very well and put his team in the position to win. Hey nice job Larry. Coyer dialed up a great game and just stymied them all night.


So next week they get the Raiders. Hopefully they will not be looking past the Raiders. Because there are few things better than watching Shanahan torment Al Davis. Making the Raiders suffer is one of my favorite things to witness.