RB – A
Special Teams – A-
TE – A (yay Putzier! Like a beefy Eddie Mac in #87!)
WR – A
OL – A
DL – B
Secondary – B-
Simms – B+
Orton – Wow… Really?

The defense looked vastly improved, the ST looked impressive, and the offense is getting there pretty quickly.

Orton looked like he read/heard all the stuff people are saying, MSM, fans, etc, and came out thinking he needed to prove everyone wrong, and not just play the game, IMO

I did not catch any of the game. How serious did it appear? Any early speculation?

And despite the INTs, any reasonably sane person would expect a new QB in a new offense to be behind the Defense.

Once Orton gets to the point he is comfortable with the offense and not over thinking as appeared the case tonight he will look better.

The better news was the play of the defense and ST. After three years of watching conservative defenses we’re finally going to see some aggression. The speed, discipline and playmaking improvement was obvious even in the first preseason game. No longer will Broncos fans be embarrassed to watch a defense. It may not end up being the best, but it’s already a big improvement. How about the Punter, eh? Two potential weapons from the punting spot. Booming kicks.

There were mistakes, but better to make those mistakes now than in Weeks 15-17 like last year. Now they have film on those mistakes and can work to improve them. They continue the work tomorrow. Rome was not built in a day and neither is a entirely new football team with new schemes on both sides of the ball and a lot of new players.

This game provided a lot of good foundation pieces to build upon.

The DLine got penetration and made some plays, McBath and the Phonz played well. I noticed Reid was in the game, and my Fave Baker looked good. Orton still needs to get used to the fact that he has more time to throw. The ST’s were vastly improved and the gunners and gunner blockers did really well, IMO. After the 2nd pick, I knew that the masses would be calling for Orton AND Joshes heads. Next it will be Simms deserves to start. I’m still grinning and not worried.

McDaniels reaffirms orton is his guy: "I still have faith in him." Said he won’t make "knee jerk reactions"

a 2nd team defense but he was also playing with a second team offense.

Just like Kapiti said, we had our second team offense out there. The playing field was pretty much level as far as I’m concerned. With that in mind, I have some predictions for the preseason depth charts:

1. Kyle Orton WILL keep the job unless he throws away his chances next week. Then it will be an open competition I think.

2. Peyton Hillis is climbing up the depth chart fast. LaMont Jordan is sliding like a kid on a waterslide.

3. Spencer Larsen might be giving Andra Davis a long run for his money. Expect that position to be a strength this year.

4. Our defensive line is a lot better than anyone will admit to. Not only that, but our backup guys have some good potential. Remember, inside competition is always a good thing.

5. Our pass defense needs work. No doubt about it. Denver’s always seemed to have a problem defending the pass in the mid-range game. Rest your heads though, once Brian Dawkins shows up, he’s bringing a hell of a lot more than just his body with him. He’s bringing an attitude that can’t be replicated.

6. Our offensive line has good depth all the way across. No sacks allowed tonight makes me a happy boy.

7. Our ability to stop the run and keep pressure on throughout the game will save us on more than one occasion this year. Count on that. We were pretty dang good inside the red zone defensively. Now we just need to work out the third down defense and lay off the blitz so much on a 3rd down situation.

Awesome game, and I finally feel a little fulfilled. A little bit.

Hey all, the report above from Guru pretty much says it all but it was fun to be there live at the game even though they ultimately lost.

And I fully support McD’s decision to go for the 2 pt conversion, btw. There were a few Niner fans around me who were surprised but also said “ballsy move.” I thought it was the right one, what the check, who wants a tie or OT in exhibition. More chance for injures that way, too. Might as well go for it.

Few other observations from a few rows back of one end zone:

Both punters looked good! Not exciting I know but I was impressed by both Kern and Colquitt.

Broncos pass rush was impressive for a first game, and they stuffed the run pretty well too.

The 3rd string defense really blew the coverage on that late touchdown. That was awful, the Niners FB was wide, wide open and no one was near him til the end zone. It’s a backup D but still not a good mistake.

Looked like a clean first half from both teams overall for a first game as far as penalties and such.

Orton’s picks were all frustrating but he moved the ball well otherwise and as some of you pointed out above he also had the most complicated O to learn and implement.

I’m hopeful Knowshon is ok, seems like it. He was looking good in his few plays. The niners’ backup RB who got hurt was clearly far worse off, he had to get carted off the field and was down for awhile. Of course none of the fans around me seemed to care about him because there was some stupid fight that broke out to our left when that happened. Some fans were in regular season form already!

also, as noted here already, the pass defense could use some work but again, it’s early, there’s no B-Dawk, and so on. At least the pass rush looked good.

Simms looked good to me, but again was a less complicated offense to run. But he made some good throws and that TD was a delight (and right near me!)

Overall, for a first exhibition game with a new staff and a ton of new players, and considering I’d been more worried about the D, figure the O will be fine, I’d consider it a success even if they lost by 1.

I’d llike to see Orton get more confidence next week, make less mistakes; see Prater get a few longer field goal tries; see the D get a turnover or two; and mix it up on offense a little bit more as they get comfortable.

A lot of other Broncos fans there at the game tonight, all of us putting up with the usual drunken shouts. I mile high salute you all.

Just rewatched the game. Orton was not pressured on any of the picks. Just bad decision (#1 and #2), poor accuracy (#1 pick) and a weak arm (#3 pick).

Orton fell apart after the 1st pick. His second drive was terrible, throwing behind Stokley twice and fixing on Stokley to the point he got picked when Bly jumped the third pass Brandon’s way.

The third pick was the most distressing. No pressure, threw off his back foot and weak weak arm. It was his only long pass attempt of the night and by far his worst throw.

He does not appear to have the arm to be a good NFL QB. He better improve by leaps and bounds with his accuracy (?) and decision making (more practice). His lack of arm strength is very worrisome.

Special teams were much improved (maybe we can trade a punter for value), D-line surprised in a good way, Larsen, Elvis, DJ and Baker were great. Lot’s of positives from the D and special teams. Royal is awesome.

Was not impressed with Pittman (aka Jordan) and Gaffney was invisible (good thing BM got acquitted).

AWESOME!!

I’ll post this weekend. Hope they came out okay.

that Larsen had a game changing type hit/tackle near the end of the game. The kind of hit that, at another time or place would change momentum of a game.

I was happy to see Baker play well tonight with a sack and getting some push inside.

Defense looked improved too Seems like some people actually tackled.

WW is a beast. Larsen had an oh so pretty hit on a RB. And Baker got himself a sack!

still room for improvement but liked what i saw.

As fans, we can’t compartmentalize them in the way we’re used to, through wins and losses, because there are so many different aspects to what we’re watching. In one sense, its not even team versus team. The niners didn’t try to adjust to us and we didn’t try to adjust to them because each team had their own separate set of goals and intentions with what they wanted to accomplish. I don’t want to say the games don’t matter, because they do, just not in the way we’re accustomed to.

In the regular season we view each play as an incremental step to something larger—namely the outcome of the game, whether we win or lose—but it simply doesn’t work that way in preseason. The progression of plays that McD called is probably not the way he’ll call it in an actual game. The plays he called have a purpose, but that purpose may not necessarily be to win the game.

To me, it looked like he called plays for Orton similar to how they structure an SAT test. Start easy, then move to the more challenging stuff as you go. Notice early on how quickly and comfortably Orton made his reads and how almost all those throws were near the sideline. The calls definitely played to Orton’s strengths. Then, in the later plays Orton had to look more near the center of the field, near greater flows of traffic. He looked less certain about his reads and (as many have already said) much more antsy in the pocket and his technique suffered.

I wasn’t thrilled with what I saw from Orton, but I recognize he’s not operating at his full capacity yet. He has a long way to go in the playbook and if he is given time and patience, he will get it. Sometimes in football you have to over think things now so you don’t have to think at all later. I don’t think McD is going to open the QB competition back up because right now there’s no need. This is an important part of Orton’s process; the failure is what’s going to help him more than anything else. Growing pains is all.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Edison.

Well, right now it looks like Orton played the game and found at least 3 ways that won’t work.

I thought Chris Baker really stood out tonight, 1 sack, and a tackle for a loss. I’m guessing he will be our starting NT by mid season. He actually even looks like a NT.

I was impressed by Phonz, as well as our other starting cb’s. I however, was not impressed with Josh Bell, Jack MF Williams-two missed tackles and a couple blown coverages.

I still love WW and think someday, he will be a true superstar. I also thought Doom and Jarvis played ok, however was not impressed with our starting d lineman in general. They played ok, I just didn’t see anything too spectacular.

Did anybody see Ayers make any kind of plays cuz I sure didn’t. Oh yeah, and Hillis is still a beast. I’ll be pissed if I see Jordan and Buckhalter getting more time than Hillis.

Overall, I think that the D will be much improved, although still no turnovers

I just literally bought my Orton jersey yesterday. I didnt buy it too early, right??

is Moreno

When Hillis starts over Moreno in the first game.

“And the little known Hillis, a 7th rounder out of Arkansas, is set to start over the 12th overall pick, the sensational Moreno”…………. Then he busts up laughing

Gosh i pray that Knowshon is healthy and Orton gets his stuff together. We got to improve by week 1,

Orton SUCKED!!!

and knew I could count on MHR to talk me off the ledge that the SF announcers were nudging me further and further out on with their knee-jerk (emphasis on the second syllable) analysis of Orton and the Broncos’ QB quandary. If I hear Damon Bruce from KNBR say “It’s time to panic in Denver” one more time, I’m going to break something. I’ll grant that it’s pretty tough to sugar-coat KO’s performance this evening, but it’s THE FIRST PRESEASON GAME… nuff said.
A few brief impressions before I crawl into bed with my wife, lest she think I drove off the highway:

Beyond the obvious (Eddie and Peyton), players that pleasantly surprised me were

1) McKinley—though he dropped the big third down pass, I thought he showed better return skills than Phonz.

2) Spencer Larsen—largely for his leadership! The man was coaching up his teammates on the 2nd team D and special teams (along with Reid, who’s clearly an ST leader). He was also a joy to watch at fullback leveling textbook blocks on linebackers coming off the edge. He seems to be a key cog in the McD machine.

3) Chris Baker—who anchored a fairly stout 2nd team D-line. Marcus Thomas had his moments as well, I thought.

Players who didn’t impress:

1) Prater—His performance didn’t suffer much in the game, but I just didn’t see his ballyhooed leg strength, his (penalty aided) touchback notwithstanding. More than anything, though, he just seemed nervous to me. I could feel the black hole of his lack of confidence from the front row of the second deck. I’m worried.

2) Josh Bell—I’m sure the TV showed just fine that he may have played himself onto the back edge of the backside of the bubble tonight.

3) Jarvis—I was watching him, hoping for a flash, and didn’t see it. Ayers didn’t particularly impress either, but had at least one nice swim move.

And I don’t know how Crowder got buried neck deep in McD’s doghouse, but he didn’t get a single sniff on defense as far as I noticed. Even Rulon and Pedescleaux got a few snaps toward the end, but Crowder sure looked like a man on the outside looking in tonight.

All in all, though, I thought it was a pretty decent team performance. If Orton had thrown a couple more passes to the guys in white, I think we would be feeling pretty good about ourselves this evening….

however, trying to put a positive spin on this game is pointless. That was bad…really bad.

That was as bad as could have been imagined.

The correct spelling is definitely.

Not definately.

Not definatly.

Not definantly.

Not definetly.

Not definently.

And certainly not defiantly.

The correct spelling is definitely.

This was played more like a late season game when both teams really need a win. Singletary obviously has the Niners on a higher level, and the Broncos showed us all some fire and energy. And power! This defense is not at all like last year’s.

at home against Miami. This stuff isn’t unheard of, especially in a first preseason game with a new O. We won’t really know for awhile yet. But I liked what I saw from McD in formations and aggressiveness, and I liked the 1st team D a LOT.

I questioned the play call. I really thought that we would make a statement with giving the ball to Hillis or Jordan. I mean, we really need to show improvement on our short yard and goal line running ability too, besides passing. I can give Josh a flyer during preseason, but I DO NOT want to see a play calling like that. that was a typical Bates call, IMO.

I also think that the tackling at the 2nd level needs more practice attention.

As a Colorado born/bred Bronco fan now settled in Kansas City for the past 10 years, I have had the misfortune of listening to the local media laugh off the Broncos all off-season. They proudly take credit for the domino effect of Bowe dropping the on-side kick against San Diego leading to the new coaching staff in Denver, the loss of Cutler, et. al.

Personally, I am thrilled with the result of this game – in particular the interceptions of Orton. Not that I don’t want him to succeed or because I don’t believe he’ll improve and eventually be a solid starter… but because that one item is the ONLY thing the media here is talking about (and continuing to feed their shallow perceptions regarding the decline of the Bronco franchise).

There was a tremendous amount of new things introduced this year and to expect perfection after one pre-season game is laughable… for the most part, there was much more good things than bad out of this game. The three picks weren’t pleasant, but let’s watch a few more games before we get nervous.

As for the rest of the division – go ahead and focus on those three interceptions. Continue to downplay the ability of the team, and align your perception of the Broncos with these plays alone… If we continue to progress like we have, and show signs on D, STs, etc… you’ll have a surprise coming when we meet.

Which players “on the bubble” had the most movement?