What I'll be Watching For...

Thank goodness!  We made it through the bye week, one of the most difficult and "hair-tearing" week's in a year.  I guess Halloween took some of the anticipation away and allowed some people to relax.  One thing that I noticed about this bye week is that it's an extra hour longer!  For some reason, it seems like I'll never be able to watch Broncos football again.  But, sooner or later, we will watch the Broncos dismantle the "mighty" Ravens.  Maybe then we will receive the honor of being favored in a game.  We shall see.

Anyway, I hope that everyone had a great Halloween and that you didn't get sick eating too much candy.  Now, onto the discussion...In Week 6 Denver held the San Diego offense to 23 points, 238 passing net yards, and 73 rushing net yards.  They gave up 20 points in the first half, but as always, gave up way less in the second half, with only 3 points allowed.  On offense we scored 34 points, really putting the Chargers away in the 2nd half.  Eddie Royal returned a punt AND a kick-off for touchdowns and Kyle Orton threw for two more TDs.  With those stats in mind, here's what I will be looking for in the Baltimore game:

1.)  Eddie Royal and Special Teams:  After a dominant performance from Mr. Royal in Week 6, I will be looking at how well he runs the ball this week.  Will he be as explosive and will his decision-making be as precise?  How will our gunners do today against a fairly good Ravens' coverage team?  I'm not saying that if Eddie doesn't return a kick for a touchdown, then he's failed.  No, I'm wondering if he'll have that explosiveness that he showed two week's ago.  Before his two great returns, Eddie seemed to be trying to hard to make something happen.  He would go side-to-side, instead of toward the opponent's end-zone.  I can't wait to see how he does today.

2.)  Offense and Turnovers:  I know that our team is capable of forcing turnovers.  What I want to know is if our offense will use that turnover as a confidence booster and take advantage of the good field position.  To me, it seems like our offense gets the ball in a great spot right after the change of possession, but then is either right off the field, or they only get a field goal.  I want to see if our offense can score touchdowns after we force a turnover.  Field goals aren't always going to win the game for us.

3.)  Our First Half Performance:  As we all know by now, our team plays much harder in the 2nd half.  This team digs a hole for itself and in the 2nd half, we are usually trying to crawl out of it (and this team, so far, has done that).  Today, I will be looking for how good we play in the first half.  There is a saying that says, "It's not how good you start it's how good you finish."  Well, I want to see if this team is able to start and finish games with excellence.  I will be looking at how well the offense moves the ball and how well the defense gets pressure on the quarterback in the first half.

Those are the three things that I'll be watching for today.  Take a deep breath Broncos fans, because we have many more games to go and a lot of things to prove.  This is a great team that deserves everyone's respect (even though, everyone at MHR most likely respects this team), including the media's!!  This is the biggest game for this team until next week when the Steeler's game is the most important.  One last thing...we made it through the bye week.  We all deserve a pat on the back for that.