It's almost 3:00 am here, so these are my very brief thoughts.

1) Royal is the real deal.  He made a joke out of DeAngelo Hall.  His ability to stop, pivot, and catch (as well as juke to the out route) made him an unstoppable force.

2) Shanahan called a perfect game.  While I thought we would see us go after an early lead to pressure JM (and we did), Shanahan ran everything in the book.  oakland never had a chance to settle in to pass or run defense, short or long, wide or gut.  Denver's offense was everywhere.

3) Kudos to the ESPN crew.  I read a lot of negative comments when I got home and read the threads, but I disagree.  The commentators spent a lot of time praising Cutler, and made a point of saying how good Denver was despite how poorly oakland was playing.  The only real negative I heard was Denver being called a wild card possibility early in the game, and given last year, I think that was meant as a compliment.  The important thing was that there was no fluff and no celebritiy interviews.  I heard Shanny being praised, as well as Royal.  I thought the game was called straight.

4) I didn't see the Show Blitz.  Perhaps because this is a one gap system, and we were facing a Zone Block team.  Or maybe it was because we were getting enough pressure with our front four (and an occassional LB).  Or maybe we didn't have to get away from vanilla, as effective as we were playing.  Or maybe Slowik fooled me, and isn't going to use his aggressive reputation for blitzing.

5) Boy, that Rob Ryan guy sure looked mad, hih!

6) That lady in the booth looked like a prostitute (the fishnet stocking thing), but I'm told that was Al Davis' daughter.  She must be the same one who threw a tantrum at the exec headquarters and was screaming and throwing chairs.  She seemed a little subdued tonight.

7) I love seeing Al Davis shake his head.

8) Cutler is what we already knew he was.  He can lead us to the promised land.

9) No sacks against Cutler.  Clady and Harris are for real.  Props also to Wiegmann.

10) Can Selvin hold up for a full game?  We still don't know.  He only had 7 touches (5 other players split 27 carries).  But who cares?  Selvin averaged over 5 YPC, while Hall (10 runs) averaged over 6.

11) Pittman tied for third in the League for scoring (12 points), while Royal led the League in reception yards (146).

12) DRob and Doom - No tackle or sacks.  What's missing from that stat is how much pressure JM was under.  (The two sacks came from DJ and Peterson).

13) Webster had 7 tackles, while DJ and Winborn each had 5.  On the defensive line, Engleburger was king with 6.

14) Prater was perfect, hitting 2 FGs and 5 XPs.  Kern's punt average was pretty much the same as Lechler's, despite Lechler booting a 62 yarder.  Good consistency.

15) Coverage teams botched an early kick return (giving up a 58 yarder), but otherwise did well (oakland averaged one yard on punt returns).

16) Much improved in the red zone this year (75%)

17) Denver's defense held oakland's 3rd down proficiency to a measly 16%.

18) The only negative I see (if you can call it that) is Cutler not spreading the ball.  Royal 9 RECs for 146 yards and a TD; Scheff 1 for 72; D. Jackson 1 for 48 (TD); Stokley 2 for 25; Hillis 1 for 4; N Jackson 2 for 4.

19) I still like Scheffler over Jackson for TE.  As the numbers in (18) above show, Scheff did a better job with receptions, but he's also the better blocker.

20) Man, it's great to be a Broncos fan tonight!