The Rumbling Stampede Turns West!

"Took my love, took it down. Climbed a mountain & I turned around. Then I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills, then the land slide brought it down." Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, Landslide.

"Go West, young man!", exclaimed Horace Greely, whose namesake blesses my birthplace. I'm sure those words resound in the ears of Josh McDaniels today. Coming off of a primeval beat down of his own mentor in the most primitive & brutal sort of fashion, Coach McDaniels ascended to the highest peaks of the Rockies &, in the rarefied air up there, turned his gaze toward the setting sun, while listening to the drumbeats of war that were emanating from that direction. He savored the moment, & then began the westward journey towards the ensuing conflict. Hoofbeats of the mounted warriors he has raised up thunder behind him, awaiting his command, ready for his smallest direction, wanting more of the glory they have already tasted, stirring up a whirlwind cloud of icy permafrost dust behind them. Raw football meat & gridiron gunpowder is their daily ration. The swift moving horde craves more. They sense the urgency of the moment as they ride roughshod towards their objective. The reckoning is now. Give no quarter, & take no prisoners. Complete & total victory is at hand, long before most of the combatants even realized the end game was so near! Checkmate looms over the setting sun's horizon. A rare chance to end a battle, a preemptive strike, before it even has a chance to start. Is it fear this team now smells in the distance?

The Broncos have left behind them a trail of smoldering ruins. Trampled opponents whom may or may not recover from their brief encounters with this latest edition of destiny's child. That's right, I said it. This is a team of destiny. Earmarked for greatness. Without a doubt, this team is not looking back on their conquests & reflecting on the havoc they have wrought. That is the realm inhabited by fans such as myself, who can only witness & testify of the greatness they have seen. When the pawns of Cleveland & Oakland were taken effortlessly, no one took heed. Once the knights, bishops, & rooks of Dallas, Cincy, & New England had fallen, a sudden realization has occurred that the queen is in dire jeopardy. San Diego's rule over the West is going to be challenged in the most blatant & confrontational form imaginable. Their supremacy will be fiercely contested in their own house much sooner than they thought possible. The siege of their stronghold is already under progress. May it fall quicky & decisively. The previously feared gauntlet may become a welcome "hit me with your best shot" tour de force. A forge upon which this team can hone it's weapons to a precision razor sharpness for an eminent playoff run through the same foes they have previously battled. No small advantage for a field general such as the Broncos have. The magnitude of the Monday Night showdown with the Chargers will not strike the casual national observers until game time when the MNF crew will clue them in to the significance of the game and it's implications for the rest of the season. The Broncos know it, the Chargers know it, & we know it. On Monday night may a national TV audience also realize that the West was won in such overwhelming fashion, hardly a salvo was ever fired by the Charger canon.