If your first thought is that I got the date wrong, I didn't. It is actually the 4th already here, and this game took place entirely on the 4th of September for those of us across the Atlantic.  Time is a strange thing, like, if you died in a different country, would your official time of death be based on the time zone in which you died or the one of your country of origin? Imagine this:  if you were born in Japan instead of, say, Denver, your birthdate may have been a day earlier. What if your parents were on holiday there at the time? You'd be born on the 4th of September, while your grandparents would be celebrating the birth of their grandson on the 3rd! How unlucky is it for those twins that were born just a few minutes apart... one on the 31st of December, 1999; the other on the 1st of January, 2000. They were born in different millennia! I'm so befuddled! Are you?

Unfortunately, I missed a good amount of the game, so this won't be anything definitive. I did notice a few things, though...

BAD THOUGHTS (STRONG BAD'S COOL GAME FOR ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE ISN'T A VERY GOOD GAME):

Too many field goals. The excuse here is that the quarterback is still getting into system and a rookie, but if this were a regular season game, I'd be slightly disquieted, this offense needs to score more points, especially if their possessions are coming off turnovers, but it's the final game of pre-season, so we'll have to see...

The weak link seems to be at the LILB spot (Andra Davis), and this frustrates me immensely. A lot of people want Spencer Larsen to start instead of Davis, and although the logical side of me wants to agree, the sentimental part wants to hang onto Andra. I just dig the guy, he's someone I want to root for, and so, although I'm ordinarily a rational person, I have to lock rationality in the box I keep sanity and fresh underwear when it comes to the subject of defending the seams.  But if I let myself be rational, Davis has a problem in pass coverage, every one of us already knew this (and I don't doubt it), and in obvious passing downs, he should be subbed for someone better in coverage. Larsen may eventually take the starting job away (can anyone be down on Larsen playing next to DJ?), sucks but that's how it goes. With Andra in, Shannon Sharpe would do what Shannon does, so something needs to change. It disheartens me, though, to hear someone call a 30-year-old man "old and slow."

GOOD THOUGHTS (GUTE GEDANKEN):

In my last post, I reflected on the amount of penalties the Broncos committed. Hopefully that last game really was just a troll, stopping by and getting himself banned before things get dirty, because there was a definite improvement in this area from what we saw. More discipline, and less sloppy play (until the end).

The defense continues to improve leaps and bounds (I'm so cliché!).  Quarterback pressure, turnovers, and stopping the run, they're doing it. This smoke has discovered it's shape; time together, now, will only make them better.

I wanted to see the younger guys and bubble players play better... and, boy, did they ever! David Bruton had a fumble recovery and an interception, while laying some nice hits.  Robert Ayers played well and got a sack, I believe. Jarvis Moss made not one play (I know, surprise!), but several. Cutting this man got trickier, and I'm really glad he played like he did, he seemed to have a fire in his heart. The other 3rd teamers played well, too, and we have to give them props for keeping the game as a shutout.  Arizona appears to be making a few drives here and there, but they stopped each and every one of them, with a few 3-and-outs thrown in. What they did was make what could have been an apparently "close" 19-14 (or whatever) game turn into an impressive 19-zilch game. It's pre-season, so scores don't matter... to us. 3-13 doomsayers from behind the Rockies have their ears pricked, now.  Great work, guys.

Tom Brandstater looked great. He made some mistakes, but he's a rookie, he'll make those. He also drove the team down the field and put points on the board. I want to see what he looks like in two years. Forget how similar his name is to Tom Brady's, we're doing him a disservice trying to compare him to someone - currently - out of his league, let the man breathe his own air. If we let Tom develop and mature, without trying to put him on some pedestal already, we may have a very (very) solid starting quarterback here.

RANDOM THINGS I NOTICED DURING THE GAME THAT INCLUDES NON-FOOTBALL THINGS BUT MOSTLY FEATURES FOOTBALL-RELATED THINGS SO DON'T BAN ME FOR POSTING THINGS NOT RELATED TO FOOTBALL THINGS OR BRONCOS THINGS. THINGS, THINGS, THINGS:

1. On one possession, they cut to Mike Nolan, where he appeared to be counting the amount of men on the field before a punt.

2. Vic Lombardi sat behind something called a "Sonic table" or something or other. Besides his... well, unappealing performance, pretending to be Ron Burgundy on a football field was silly.

3. I know I've mentioned Jarvis already, but I give me a quick minute. Some people thought the only reason he came back was to get cut later on and avoid paying back the money he'd owe the team. From the way he played, I'd say this line of thinking is incorrect. If the Broncos cut him, I believe he'll want to find a place on a different team, not retire, and he is playing like he doesn't want to get cut. I'm really impressed, the easy road isn't sometime simply giving up, but he's going to go down fighting instead. I certainly hope he doesn't go down; he has talent, he just needs coaching. Again, I love to see that fire in someone, I'll root for someone with passion more than an overly-talented, bored athlete any day.

4. Ingle Martin's first throw was nearly (and should have been) intercepted. The first advice he got was likely, "Throw it away." That was the smartest thing to do, but I don't blame him for going for it.  3rd down, one chance to get a 1st. Now's your chance to prove your worth to the team, because you likely won't be making it unless you really show then something. Perhaps he wasn't so much trying to get a first down as make the team with this one throw.  Interestingly, though, I wonder if McD would have been more impressed if he had thrown it away.

5. After (or during) one series, Brandstater went to the sideline. Josh pinched his jersey (with two or three fingers) and dragged him closer, and then proceeded to give him an earful. He may have looked a little aggressive, but at the same time, you could see he was teaching him something valuable.

6. Another time, after Kern struggled to down it in the 20 again, by sending it into the endzone (Kern looked incredibly frustrated), McDaniels motioned to him that he wanted a quick word. Kern's next punt went out of bounds inside the 20 (maybe wrong on the location), and the team hi-fived him on the sidelines. I noticed Josh hi-fived him too.

Now, I may be wrong, but I always thought punters were below the kickers in their worth to a team's locker room. Special Teams is important, but I didn't think a coach cared enough to care about the punter, but taking a few seconds to hi-five him after a good kick really struck me.  Again, I could be wrong, but I see this as another sign of McD as a coach on the field. He'll criticise the player when he needs to be criticised, and he'll praise him when he should be praised, even if this player is a lowly punter (no offence). I dig this coach. That bullhockey of him being some tyrant drill sergeant is pathetic nonsense.

7. Retired for teh Elwayz.

8. I haven't watered my plants in a while, and it's beginning to show.

9. After the game, DJ hung out with Larry Fitzgerald. I wonder what they were talking about.

10. Ronald Fields looked mightily satisfied after the game. Eddie, to me, looked slightly awkward.

11. Players and coaches from both the Broncos and Cardinals prayed together in the middle of the field when the game was done. My thoughts on religion put aside, it's good to see the members of opposing teams in such a violent sport put that all away and spend some time together reflecting.

...OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!

Well, that's all folks! This isn't as much as I wanted, but you'll have to settle for it because I don't bend over nobody, yo. Except the doctor. Not that doctor, sick man.

I need to go eat!