2007 Best and Worst Broncos' Moments #12

The Bears game was the worst moment of the season for me, I watched in stunned silence with a pal who is a Bears fan. I think he was as shocked as I was at how we threw that match down the pan.

As for the punting situation, I have Romanian roots so I’m cheering for Paulescu! Go Sam!

1. I blame Todd all the more because of his foolish comments before the game. He stated that we weren’t going to play “chicken$hit” ball and kick away from Hester. Whether the decision came from higher up or not, the statement was foolish, classless, and only invited motivation from the other team.

2. While I like to think I know a little about the game, I confess ingorance about most aspects of special teams. I’m interested in the notion that the punter is responsible for watching for a potential blocked punt. I would have thought that the punter stays focused on his execution while the rest of the team manages his protection. If the punter does watch for an unblocked “shooter”, I wonder what his role is? Does he have time to kick away? Does he follow through with the kick, and hope for a roughing penalty? Does he have a pass option?

At the HS level, I’m pretty sure the punter only focuses on making the kick and ignores any rush. But of course, HS is light years away from the pros. Here’s an area I would like to learn a little about, if anyone has any thoughts or knowledge.

I am stoked that Todd is gone, he was a doofus, but mostly I am excited because Sam Paulescu is here! Along with being a huge Bronco fan I am also a huge Beaver fan, and live in Corvallis and watch all of the games. After watching Sam kick for several years, I KNOW he will be a great NFL kicker. Here is the thing though…You can NOT just look at his raw distance, or hang time stats. Sam may not have the strongest leg in camp, but he is a directional kicker extraordinaire. He is EXTREMELY accurate. For those that like watching opponents get pinned inside the five, you will love this guy. He routine is able to have the ball hit at the five and roll out of bounds. Also on the fly he will see where the returner is at and kick it away from him with a lot of top spin so that the ball will bounce and roll a long way.

If Shanny and crew gives Sam a chance this guy could be a WEAPON and not just a random punter!

but a bum off the field. he had a bad last year with us, but he wasn’t that bad overall. as for the kicking to hester and such, that was the st’s coaches call. would you let your punter do what he wanted to? that came out after the game, by broncos players. whatever, i’m just saying we still have a questionable st coach, and a kicker with little to no experience. the kicking game, and st’s in general, are my biggest concern going into the season. more than the run d, injuries, or anything else.

i like the comment that sam is a good directional punter. for the life of me, i can't figure out why nobody, and i mean nobody, in the nfl can consistently kick it inside the 10 when they're in range. for god's sake, i used to punt 40 yards and pin it inside the 5 consistently when i was 10-11 years old. it is also pretty easy to get a good roll past the returner, and even possible to make him fumble the catch(kick it sideways). it is the least difficult to pin it, but for some stupid reason, the coaches must discourage it. i could have been the greatest directional punter ever? come on now. if this guy can do that consistently, he will be my favorite punter of all time. let's hope he does, and he'll ring in a new era of punting prowess. does anyone know what the problem is with this strategy?

how does this gray area happen and chop off the rest of my rant? ok, again:

i like the comment that sam is a good directional punter. for the life of me, i can’t figure out why nobody, and i mean nobody, in the nfl can consistently pin the ball inside the 10, when in range. it is not that hard. for god’s sake, when i was 10-11 years old, i could punt it 40 yards inside the 5, consistently. it is also pretty easy to roll it past the returner(kick it on an upward angle on the rear half of the ball, on a line-drive), and even possible to make him fumble it(kick it sideways at a slight angle). the easiest one to do is to pin it. why is this discouraged by coaches? are you telling me i could have been the greatest directional punter of all-time? come on, now. if this guy can do this, he will be my favorite punter of all-time. if they let him. what is the deal with this strategy, anyway? any ideas?

I hate to admit it but I had all but given up on the season, even this early. Our team had been ravaged by injuries-we had been crushed in Detroit-and despite two nice wins I was looking to next year, even this early.

Things were so bleak that even my Seahawk-fan-friends were feeling bad for Denver.

To make matters worse we were running a, ‘Buy truck or suv get a free 42” HD TV’ ad. We had one of the HD’s on the tailgate of a showroom truck-playing the game.

Bad me! I was trying to stay away from the game but friends kept coming up saying, “Your team really looks good.” I begin to watch (when I could) big mistake.

I begin to converse, “I told you we have some great players, we’ve just been injured.”

I began to believe again, big mistake! Blocked punt, no defense, friends making fun of my team.
2007 I hate that year.

I don’t blame the punter. I blame the coaches. It was PAINFULLY obvious that the Broncos punt protection unit was very confused and aware that they were overmatched before the play even began. The Denver coaching staff had plenty of time to call timeout before the put and Denver could have run the clock to 1 and called the TO. Denver easily could have called max-protect and set up for a full all out put block call by the Bears.

I thought that the non-timeout call on that specific play by Denver’s coaching staff was the moment that the season was done for. I could tell that the players knew that they had zero momentum and knew that the season was done.