FanPost

10 Reasons for Optimism

After taking some time to reflect on Saturday night’s game against the Texans, I have developed a guarded optimism concerning the Broncos 2008 season. There were clearly areas of “opportunity“; however, at Mike Clark’s suggestion, I have decided to focus on the positive aspects of the game (Mike says I’ll live longer). Therefore, I’ve put together a top ten list of reasons to be optimistic regarding the upcoming season based on Saturday’s game.

1. Jay Cutler: Is Cutler’s 3rd season going to be his breakout year? So far so good!!!

2. Run Defense: Saturday night was an early indication that our renewed commitment to stopping the run has paid off. We saw numerous 8 and 9 in the box formations and, as a result, Houston’s running game was consistently shut down within a yard or two of the line of scrimmage (excluding a long jaunt by Houston‘s punter and a couple of bootlegs by their 3rd string QB). Unfortunately, the defense looked poor on passing plays. Saturday’s game against Dallas will give us a better indication of how improved we really are on defense.

3. Eddie Royal: Is Royal’s 1st season going to be his breakout year? So far so good!!!

4. Running Game: Denver showed why they are a strong running team year in and year out. This year should be no exception, assuming the line gets up to snuff.

5. Tight Ends: Both Nate Jackson and Tony Scheffler demonstrated why they create such match up headaches for the opposing defense. Both are big men that can run and catch like wide receivers yet line up at TE. Several times during the game, Houston showed why you can’t expect to cover these guys with a LB. Hopefully Nate and Tony can help fill the Brandon Marshall void in weeks one and two. Oh yeah, Daniel Graham looked pretty good too!

6. Blitz Packages: While we were admittedly unable to pressure the QB with just our front four, all of the blitz packages we brought looked very effective. Several corner and safety blitzes hurried Houston’s Quarterbacks enough to make them get rid of the ball prematurely for incompletions and even caused a good looking sack off of a corner blitz. Look for Slowik to bring the heat this season!!!

7. Marlon McCree: M&M made two TD saving plays for us. While it would have been nice to see him get an INT on one of his stops, he effectively diminished any concerns about his ability to replace Lynch as a starting Safety.

8. Darrell Jackson: While Jackson did nothing spectacular, he showed he has consistent hands and the ability to get a catch in traffic for tough yards. That is all we need him to do this season…be consistent!

9. Ryan Clady: Even though Mario Williams made Clady his little (fill in the blank) early in game, Clady recovered nicely from an inauspicious begining and even looked pretty good towards the end of the first half. He looked solid on passing plays…his run blocking clearly needs improvement.

10. No Sacks!!!: this is a significant achievement for a line that is very inexperienced working together and extremely young at several key positions. While there was ample cause for concern, not allowing a sack in their first game playing together is certainly something to grow off of.

I know many of you would have liked to see Wesley Woodyard included in this list. However, while his performance against Houston was very encouraging, he played against Houston’s 3rd team offense. I will need to see Woodyard perform against 1st and 2nd team offense to get a real feel for his ability. Alridge is in the same boat. I’d like to see if he can have that same type of performance against the 1st and 2nd team defense. He also needs to show that he can be trusted with the football and can at least be semi-effective in the blocking game (an area in which there is considerable room for improvement).  Prater's debut with the Broncos was a wash.  While he went 3 for 4, the one he missed was a thirty yard chip shot.  We'll have to wait and see.

Another positive is that some of the biggest concerns, mental errors and penalties., are fixable in the short term and may have simply resulted from nerves and rust. Also, even though our secondary looked porous, neither Champ nor Hamza played and Dre Bly saw very limited action.  All in all, the game was somewhat encouraging and at least left open the possibility for a pretty solid 2008 season.

and yes, I know it's just preseason!!!  ;-)

GO BRONCOS!!!!

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.