Denver has two games within the course of 5 days. They split them and they’re in decent shape. Winning them both is even better of course, and if they split, beating San Diego is best of all.

I think Simms, if he does play, will be a lot better than he looked on Sunday. I mean the guy works hard and has talent and has been good in the past. Give him a week to practice with the first team and he’ll be better. That said we’d rather have Orton in there of course, but only if he’s healthy enough to be effective. Otherwise he’ll look about like Simms did on Sunday.

Also Marshall sounds like he will play, and Buck is looking better too, so that’s good news.

They key will also be if the Broncos D returns to form or looks more like the iffy D seen over last 3 games. If theyplay like they did earlier in the season, get pressure on Rivers and cover the wideouts like they’re capable of they have a really good shot in this one.

Hope fans will be out in full force for this one, they’ll need the crowd.

I find it hard to believe that we get this fumble and don’t absolutely handle the rest of the game. I know that it’s a long shot but we recover this fumble we likely score and then the whole scope of the rest of the game is different, and most importantly the possesion and clock situation are different which takes out the last minute drive for FG and Orton’s ankle injury. So in the most diluted version of reality I could come up with the refs are to blame for Orton’s ankle injury. :)
Obviously that’s a far cry but I do believe that any one play happening differently changes the course of the game, but that also being said I do not envy the officials in these games it is impossible for them to make all of the calls that occur.
Great post! Hopefully we can get the swagger back!

Or what did the San Diego radio guy say???

Oh and the refs suck – no remorse. As a fan, I demand excellence in play calling and if you screw up this bad then you HAD BETTER MAKE UP FOR IT this week against the Chargers. I want to see tons of blown calls going our way dammit!

uh yeah, that’s about all I got this fine morning. :)

but, really if he can go and not be limited then you play him. Simms can handle it, he just needs to shake off the rust quickly.

IMO the real key is how well our D holds up to the SD O to keep us in the game. I really think the line was missing McBean in there so having him back is a good thing.

Orton is tougher than a lot people give him credit for.

The best hope of winning is Orton — I saw nothing from Simm last week to think he’ll be at all successful. And those who are thinking he played well in the preseason, I remind you that his playbook was limited and he wasn’t going against top competition. Simms (like Griese) is an NFL quarterback because of his last name more than because of his skills.

I would be almost positive that Denver wins this game.

But he isn’t. Whether or not he plays, Denver is at a distinct disadvantage. Three factors determine my opinion on playing Orton:

1. Orton’s health
2. Orton’s health
3. Orton’s health

This is the first time this year that I have not felt confident toward a Broncos home game. I do not believe Denver will win this week. There are six games left, and all the rest are winnable if Orton can do his thing (yes, even Indy, with a so-so run defense). Rest Orton and get him ready for that stretch. If Denver wins most of them, then the postseason is a reality . . . maybe even the AFCW championship.

IMHO.

Play Orton. Inject him with pain meds and keep Graham and Hillis in for Max protect.

Marshall and Royal are good enough to win this game for Denver.

..but with trepidation and fully aware of my blind optimist’s heart. I usually listen to my gut, and my gut isn’t really worried about this one as much as it should be. We wore San Diego the hell out at sea level, and don’t see how that doesn’t happen again at 5280. I also can’t come up with great evidence that we didn’t see a good effort from SD the first time. Everybody talks about how SD finally turned it on— but I think that started against Denver…and the Broncos still won going away.

I hope I’m right. And I hope that Simms real weakness last Sunday— his tentativeness— is mitigated by a healthier dose of practice reps.

I say keep the faith until the bitter end.

I voted to play him…this is a must win in my opinion. We lose this game I don’t think we make the playoffs with the tiebreakers being held by Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Divisional home game is the most important game on the schedule. We risk losing him for a significant period then so be it because if we lose this game we may lose the season anyway.

Ton Brandstater…COME ON DOWN! You are the NEXT contestant on the Price is Right!

Referee’s are not all created equal and make mistakes (often for one teams favor) sometimes and we wonder what the motives behind the missed call were. I am not saying that all referees are crooks and get paid under the table to sway a game one way or another. That’s not what I am saying at all, but who is to say that they don’t. How many games was the NBA considering making null and void? Hmm. Three calls in a row that changed a game situation is suspicious wouldn’t you say? Not saying they did it on purpose or any other reason. I’m just saying. The fumble was the most notable to me and was a fumble that should have been reviewed. That was a terrible call and could have switched the momentum back to Denver. Referees to me are the necessary evil of all sports and have been the forefront of controversy ever since their inception. Good or bad.

Sounds like you’ve been very busy of late. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

For some reason, I’m optimistic about this game. As bad as the defeats have been, the Broncos led the Steelers in the 3rd Quarter and led the Redskins in the 4th. The Ravens game was the only true thumping in the bunch, and I just don’t feel that the Chargers will be able to exploit the interior OL in the same way. And their running game certainly doesn’t scare me, even if that guy running for 3.3 yards per carry has a famous name.

Wait, Chris Simms you say? Er, I’ve got a meeting to go to…..

You can’t start planning for next week’s game or the ones after that. Just like the team says each week, we have to focus on winning this game. That means you play your best players if they can play. If Kyle can play, he must be in the game. Sure there’s a chance he could get more injured, but there’s also a chance he could be fine, and winning this game is the most important thing right now because it is the next game on the schedule. So the risk is worth it. I tend to feel that might be what went wrong in Washington. We didn’t take the Skins seriously and now it turned out that was a big mistake.

I don’t know if I can agree with you on the officials though. They are paid to make the calls. Just like a player is paid to make plays and carry out assignments. I definitely couldn’t do a better job, but if you’re getting paid, and you have experience in the area of officiating, then you should be able to make the right calls…otherwise, that referee shouldn’t be officiating the game.

I voted rest Orton if there is SERIOUS risk of further injury. We will need him against the Gints. We still have quite a few very winnable games coming up. 3 against AFC west opponents after this weeks game. This game will NOT decide the AFC west by any means.

However, if it really isn’t hindering his ability to make the passes, being the front ankle, then keep him suited up….In case Simms goes down.

…I voted “rest”.

Here’s my reasoning (and there is good reasoning on both sides). I put in the poll that the injury isn’t fully healed. My belief is that the only time to play a key player with an injury with the potential for weeks of missed time is during the Super Bowl or the playoffs.

At the HS level, I believe you NEVER play an injured kid, even if the competition is the state championship.

Folks are ready to write us off if we lose this game. This game IS a big one; the biggest so far. But if we are really the better team, we’ll go to the playoffs ahead of SD regardless of the outcome of this game. At worst, we can only tie the head to head match up with a loss. If we are better, we’ll win more games down the stretch.

But my bottom line is, don’t put a QB in jeapordy. An example of my exception is SB 32, where Elway “helicoptered” instead of sliding. Right call in the Super Bowl, wrong call if during the regular season.

Just my opinion, and no better than anyone else’s.

check out the injury reports for the past few weeks – it seems Brandon is being given an extra day off.

I saw three terrible calls by the officials, but none changed the face of the game. I also believe that none of them were “purposeful”, as some folks like to claim when they see a bad call.

Ah, after my initial read I thought you were making the claim that blown calls never decide the outcome of a game, but after a closer look I realize that you’re saying you won’t let your emotional attachment to any team let you blame the zebras for a loss. Obviously blown calls rarely affect outcomes, but there are exceptions—Hochuli last year, for one.

Anyway, I still disagree with you about one thing—the non-running into call being accidental rather than purposeful. Normally I would agree, but since we’ve had Berger:

1. He has been knocked to the ground once in all three games.
2. The first two were obviously roughing (including bad shots both times to his extended leg). They were called running into.
3. The most recent was obviously not serious enough to merit a roughing call. But it was clearly not kosher.
   This tells me that the refs have a vendetta against Berger. And I think that that has hurt the Broncos more than his kicking ability relative to Kern’s (not hard since they’re about equal, for different reasons).
   Note: my baseline for determining roughing/running-into is that roughing call from the Pats game, since I was screaming at the tv that it was running-into.