Week 8 GDT: Broncos in London VS Jags

[paul-mac]

1 minute ago, broncos67 said:

I don't hate 9:30am EST games, I'll say that. My mom came down and helped with the baby while I drank and watched football in the AM. Beautiful thing.

Anyway, look it's nice to win, and I sense from the post-game clips and interviews that this was a massive monkey off the team's back, but I wasn't impressed by the team. Another 1H with an absurd amount of penalties (most in a game this year for a half, I believe). Offense still stalling out far too much. Run defense was not great by any stretch. It's going to continue to be the hope that kills us.

You can see how good this offense *could* be. But for a variety of reasons, I'm not sure when we'll see that consistency. I can't decide if this bye week is coming at the best or the worst time for us. The next few games are winnable and it's agonizing to know Denver could be sitting pretty with a good record if not for all of the boneheaded stuff earlier in the year.

On the player front, Dulcich is going to be a good one. He's got the size and speed to be a true mismatch at the position and he's already playing at a level above where you'd expect a rookie TE to be which is superb. 

 

Dulcich is the best young TE we’ve had in a long time, probably since Julius Thomas. Fant’s effort was questionable at times and Albert O can’t run block to save his life. The production we are getting from Dulcich helps offset the lack of a first round pick this year. 

[lomaxgrUK]

1 hour ago, paul-mac said:

How was the beer mile? 

Great, thanks. Couldn't believe how busy it was, and there were so many NFL jerseys in every stop.

Overindulging until 2.30am in Amazing Grace was the bit where things unraveled

 

[Broncofan]

5 hours ago, paul-mac said:

How on earth does Wilson get a passing TD yesterday? Admitted I was sitting at the other end of the stadium but it really looked like a jet sweep rushing TD for Jerry Jeudy. 

It was a jet sweep, but Jeudy was in front of Wilson, and it was a forward toss - pass TD.

[Broncofan]

3 hours ago, jsthomp2007 said:

Jeudy and Dulicich are playing well.  And is it me, or was the OL better with Glasgow at center? Also, I saw some Bonnito sitings.  The announcers said Bonnito struggled in the run game, but I saw him make a few plays.  

Like a lot of pass rushers - Bonnito sells out far too soon and often inside - and doesn't set a good edge, or even any edge - on too many plays.  As a rookie, it's definitely fixable - but he's also undersized, so this might be a way he compensates.   It's why he's ideally suited as a 3rd EDGE - come in on predominantly pass downs.

[Broncofan]

3 hours ago, BullsandBroncos said:

Might be onto something there. Cush hasn't been too bad but Glasgow is WAY better at Center than Guard. At least it seems like that anyway. Very small sample size however.

 

Meinerz still sucks in pass pro

To be fair to Meinerz, he's likely playing nowhere close to 100 percent.   We know he's injured the hammy 2x (missed week 2, then re-injured it in the Vegas game) - unfortunately, unless it completely settles down with the bye week now upon us, he's probably going to be more limited range wise for the ROS.    It's a tough injury for any lineman, but with a power/bull guy like him, losing any extra range / quicks is a killer.    

Side note - ACL/broken bone/shoulder/high-ankle injuries are likely not preventable - those are just bad events that occur.   But the soft tissue injuries (groin, hammy, calf, oblique) - those do call into question how much flexibility training / stretching our training staff are getting the players to do.     It's interesting Paton mentioned the injury history we've had this year - it's definitely worth following.  Again, stuff like Javonte's ACL or Jeudy's AC sprain, or the high-ankle/MCL type injuries - can't really prevent those.    But the calf strains, hammy's, etc. - training staff have to take some responsibility if it's a team issue.

[BroncoBruin]

3 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Like a lot of pass rushers - Bonnito sells out far too soon and often inside - and doesn't set a good edge, or even any edge - on too many plays.  As a rookie, it's definitely fixable - but he's also undersized, so this might be a way he compensates.   It's why he's ideally suited as a 3rd EDGE - come in on predominantly pass downs.

He should be able to put on a good 10-12 pounds in muscle this off-season. It’s never going to be a strength of his game but it can be fine eventually. It’s definitely exciting to see he’s already capable of making splash plays in the run game against NFL tackles. 

Abraham Lucas looks great at RT in Seattle though…ugh. Would have been one less hole to fill on the OL this offseason.

 

[Broncofan]

2 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

He should be able to put on a good 10-12 pounds in muscle this off-season. It’s never going to be a strength of his game but it can be fine eventually. It’s definitely exciting to see he’s already capable of making splash plays in the run game against NFL tackles. 

Abraham Lucas looks great at RT in Seattle though…ugh. Would have been one less hole to fill on the OL this offseason.

 

The reason SEA has progressed so much is they had a 2017-Saints like draft - getting Lucas & Cross at both ends of the OL, and getting Walker as their impact RB (much like Javonte was looking that way for us), and the real steal - Rd5 Tariq Woolen at one side, and R4 Coby Bryant being "OK" (but in year 1, at rookie min wage) scale....it's made them serviceable.   The 49ers will be taking over as NFCW leaders shortly, but the SEA improvements have far more to do with hitting the draft on Day 2-3 (Cross has been very good R1 and likely ends up as their foundation LT, but Day 2-3 is where they really made their bones).

[jolly red giant]

My first time seeing the Broncos in person after 34 years as a fan - it was an experience.

I actually disagree with p-mac - I think the ratio of Broncos to Jags fans was greater than 70/30. The small section of the ground I was in had about 150 people and at least 50 were wearing Broncos gear - 3 people (including one of our group) had Jags jerseys - and while the orange was the predominant colour, a lot of Broncos fans were wearing navy or white. My son commented that he saw more Dolphins jerseys than Jags as we were walking around after the game. It was like pulling teeth for the announcer trying to get momentum from the crowd behind the Jags (I think they were piping in crowd noise). On two if not three occasions the Broncos fan noise disrupted the Jags offence.

Alongside us 4 from a small town in the West of Ireland, were 2 guys from Sweden, 4 people from France, 2 from Germany, a half a dozen English and two Broncos fans from California. Apart from our Jags fan the only other jersey apart from broncos, in our two rows of seats was a young guy wearing a Panthers jersey who was cheering every time the Jags made a play. He nearly got a box across the ear for his efforts.

As to the game - the one thing I noticed is how much more you can see happening than watching on telly. My disjointed oberservations -

During warm-up I was shocked at how many Broncos players dropped passes. Sutton droped 3-4 in a row. Brett Rypien was tossing the most accurate deep passes.

Dulcich was so much faster than the rest of the TEs - I mean yards ahead of them in warm-ups - he has the potential to be a nightmare for opposing defences.

The Broncos started the game as if they were completely unprepared - the offence was all over the shop and the defence were committing penalties. After Wilson almost throwing a pick on the first play you got the impression that the defence felt 'here we go again - why make the effort'. This was compounded by his interception on the next series. The turning point in terms of momentum was the Simmons interception. It seemed to galvanise the defense's competitiveness. After the Simmons int and for most of the first half the Broncos offence was very flat (as in - no sign of any inventiveness - boring and ineffectual). Even on the TD drive it was Wilson keeping the ball on 4th down that made the drive - a couple of plays later he hit Jeudy and then Jeudy ran it in (and yes Wilson just flipped the ball out of his hand as Jeudy was running past in front of him).

Particularly during the first half (but also during the second half) there didn't seem to be a lot of energy on the broncos sideline - most of the coaches just seems to be standing around not doing anything - very few seemed to be talking to players (see later comment).

Chubb gave off the vibe that he was a player expecting to be traded and didn't want to get hurt - he constantly overran the QB when rushing and seemed to be trying to stay away from the ball most of the time. If we can get a first rounder I would snap the hand off.

While Jeudy played well, there was one play that was really frustrating to watch - in the 3rd Qtr there was an incomplete pass to Jeudy to the deep left. Wilson slightly underthrew it but Jeudy had a step on the defender. It would have been easy catch if Jeudy stopped and made a jump over the defender (who didn't see the ball coming) - but Jeudy didn't make any effort to get to the ball. Really annoying - and unless he is willing to make the effort to catch balls like that he will never be anything more than average.

I also thought the OL played better with Glasgow at C.

One thing that was very noticable - when ever there was a stoppage or time out etc - Lawrence would go to the sideline and be back in the huddle before the play clock started to count down. Repeatedly when Wilson was in the same situation anything up to ten seconds could be gone off the clock before he made his way back into the huddle.

I also noticed that when the Broncos offence was on the field in the 2nd half, one of the Bronocs coaches was very animated on the sideline and was going from player to player when they came off - didn't notice it during the first half. I was sitting in the corner of the endzone on the Broncos side of the field, so the Broncos sideline area was some distance away - but to me it looked like Klint Kubiak.

To me the atmosphere was weird during the game - given the crowd mix it wasn't like one team had a serious homefield advantage. It was only when the broncos fans were cheering a big play or a score that you felt that the atmosphere was genuine and even then it wasn't particularly loud given that there were 87,000 people in the stadium. Indeed the best bit IMO was after the game in the Boxpark where it was mostly Broncos fans, when the band played teenage dirtbag and the 2,000 or so in the place were signing along.

Last thing - Americans really need to learn how to come up with new chants like British (and Irish) soccer fans - you guys are boring (I mean - the sum total is 'let's go broncos'). In the pub on Saturday night we were talking about this and an English broncos fan came up with this one in about 30 seconds - Russell Wilson is a ponce - he can't win to save his *** - instead of high-stepping on a plane - he should try and complete a pass. Sing along in 3/4 time (*ponce = a pretentious assh*le).

P.S. - I still think Hackett needs to be sacked - Wilson can get the job done if he has the right coach.

[Cutler06]

4 hours ago, jolly red giant said:

ast thing - Americans really need to learn how to come up with new chants like British (and Irish) soccer fans - you guys are boring (I mean - the sum total is 'let's go broncos'). In the pub on Saturday night we were talking about this and an English broncos fan came up with this one in about 30 seconds - Russell Wilson is a ponce - he can't win to save his *** - instead of high-stepping on a plane - he should try and complete a pass. Sing along in 3/4 time (*ponce = a pretentious assh*le).

 

Yeah, LAY-OH-LAY-OH-LAY and the infamous OLE add SOO much to the games, you Euro's are so intelligent that way LMAO

[paul-mac]

9 hours ago, jolly red giant said:

My first time seeing the Broncos in person after 34 years as a fan - it was an experience.

I actually disagree with p-mac - I think the ratio of Broncos to Jags fans was greater than 70/30. The small section of the ground I was in had about 150 people and at least 50 were wearing Broncos gear - 3 people (including one of our group) had Jags jerseys - and while the orange was the predominant colour, a lot of Broncos fans were wearing navy or white. My son commented that he saw more Dolphins jerseys than Jags as we were walking around after the game. It was like pulling teeth for the announcer trying to get momentum from the crowd behind the Jags (I think they were piping in crowd noise). On two if not three occasions the Broncos fan noise disrupted the Jags offence.

Alongside us 4 from a small town in the West of Ireland, were 2 guys from Sweden, 4 people from France, 2 from Germany, a half a dozen English and two Broncos fans from California. Apart from our Jags fan the only other jersey apart from broncos, in our two rows of seats was a young guy wearing a Panthers jersey who was cheering every time the Jags made a play. He nearly got a box across the ear for his efforts.

As to the game - the one thing I noticed is how much more you can see happening than watching on telly. My disjointed oberservations -

During warm-up I was shocked at how many Broncos players dropped passes. Sutton droped 3-4 in a row. Brett Rypien was tossing the most accurate deep passes.

Dulcich was so much faster than the rest of the TEs - I mean yards ahead of them in warm-ups - he has the potential to be a nightmare for opposing defences.

The Broncos started the game as if they were completely unprepared - the offence was all over the shop and the defence were committing penalties. After Wilson almost throwing a pick on the first play you got the impression that the defence felt 'here we go again - why make the effort'. This was compounded by his interception on the next series. The turning point in terms of momentum was the Simmons interception. It seemed to galvanise the defense's competitiveness. After the Simmons int and for most of the first half the Broncos offence was very flat (as in - no sign of any inventiveness - boring and ineffectual). Even on the TD drive it was Wilson keeping the ball on 4th down that made the drive - a couple of plays later he hit Jeudy and then Jeudy ran it in (and yes Wilson just flipped the ball out of his hand as Jeudy was running past in front of him).

Particularly during the first half (but also during the second half) there didn't seem to be a lot of energy on the broncos sideline - most of the coaches just seems to be standing around not doing anything - very few seemed to be talking to players (see later comment).

Chubb gave off the vibe that he was a player expecting to be traded and didn't want to get hurt - he constantly overran the QB when rushing and seemed to be trying to stay away from the ball most of the time. If we can get a first rounder I would snap the hand off.

While Jeudy played well, there was one play that was really frustrating to watch - in the 3rd Qtr there was an incomplete pass to Jeudy to the deep left. Wilson slightly underthrew it but Jeudy had a step on the defender. It would have been easy catch if Jeudy stopped and made a jump over the defender (who didn't see the ball coming) - but Jeudy didn't make any effort to get to the ball. Really annoying - and unless he is willing to make the effort to catch balls like that he will never be anything more than average.

I also thought the OL played better with Glasgow at C.

One thing that was very noticable - when ever there was a stoppage or time out etc - Lawrence would go to the sideline and be back in the huddle before the play clock started to count down. Repeatedly when Wilson was in the same situation anything up to ten seconds could be gone off the clock before he made his way back into the huddle.

I also noticed that when the Broncos offence was on the field in the 2nd half, one of the Bronocs coaches was very animated on the sideline and was going from player to player when they came off - didn't notice it during the first half. I was sitting in the corner of the endzone on the Broncos side of the field, so the Broncos sideline area was some distance away - but to me it looked like Klint Kubiak.

To me the atmosphere was weird during the game - given the crowd mix it wasn't like one team had a serious homefield advantage. It was only when the broncos fans were cheering a big play or a score that you felt that the atmosphere was genuine and even then it wasn't particularly loud given that there were 87,000 people in the stadium. Indeed the best bit IMO was after the game in the Boxpark where it was mostly Broncos fans, when the band played teenage dirtbag and the 2,000 or so in the place were signing along.

Last thing - Americans really need to learn how to come up with new chants like British (and Irish) soccer fans - you guys are boring (I mean - the sum total is 'let's go broncos'). In the pub on Saturday night we were talking about this and an English broncos fan came up with this one in about 30 seconds - Russell Wilson is a ponce - he can't win to save his *** - instead of high-stepping on a plane - he should try and complete a pass. Sing along in 3/4 time (*ponce = a pretentious assh*le).

P.S. - I still think Hackett needs to be sacked - Wilson can get the job done if he has the right coach.

We made one up on Sunday night after the game:

 

His dad gave us nightmares, because he was a Chief.

But now he is a Bronco, he’ll send KC to sleep.

Shutting down receivers, turn them into beef.

Pat Surtain the second, best corner in the league! 

[paul-mac]

And another one, to the tune of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a place on earth”

 

 

Ooh baby do you know what he’s worth, 

Greg Dulcich is the best on earth.

Dodgy haircut, who gives a f***?

He’s gonna win us the Lombardi cup 

[AKRNA]

On 10/30/2022 at 9:00 AM, anewdawn said:

Thought the game turned when Cush went out.  He is garb and Glasgow is way better.  The oline actually started playing pretty good when he left.  I wouldn't necessarily give up on Cush though and I'm wondering if anyone (Arkna) can maybe comment on making him a guard because as of right now he is one weak link.  I also think this was Hamler's coming out party.  Not to happy with Sutton either (already made my comments re Jeudy) but maybe just maybe if this revamped oline continues to gel and play well we can see some better play out of them.

     So who wants to send me a plate of crow.  I have been ripping on how this defence is so overrated but to my favour is the fact that I have walked away from so many bronco games because they have been just so frustrating to watch.  I don't even mean team wise I mean game wise.  Jewell I know and like.  But Williams played great today as did Bonito.  We have Gregory in the fold too.  It is a better defence then I give them credit for.  Don't get me wrong I don't see us as world beaters just due to one win but my son told me the same with regard to the first on the table for Chubb.  I agree Broncobruin - this trade needs to be made and we need draft capital and lots of it to address this oline because even though it came together this game it needs lots and lots of work - too much.  You can replace both Risner and Cush and we still need a good RT...............   

I don't know what you can do with Cush outside of cut him. He's about the worst center I've seen when he's uncovered. He just doesn't seem to have any awareness, has problems changing direction and it hasn't gotten better. Maybe LG but Muti's kind of a classic for that spot.

It's too bad 'cause he's a great kid. 

[lomaxgrUK]

The atmosphere is always pretty poor at the London games. I don't think it's fair to say this is down to Americans not having chants - it's much more a reflection of the amount of neutral fans there, and the amount of casuals who don't understand the impact that crowd noise can have (and when to make noise).

The atmosphere at most NFL stadiums is up there with UK soccer grounds, no doubt. I'd argue most are far superior. You can't expect people to sing songs for 3 1/2 hours; it isn't the same as soccer.

What I would say from my own perspective is that having attended probably more than 75 soccer games as an away fan, nothing beats that atmosphere. 2,000 - 5,000 (depending on the stadium) of your teams most loyal fans sat together singing non-stop, hated by 95% of the stadium - can't explain the feeling. There's nothing comparable in US sports to that. You guys are too friendly to have to segregate fans.

The most recent example of away fans going crazy (or 'limbs', as UK soccer fans fan call it, due to the amount of limbs flying everywhere when a goal is scored):

 Skip to 2 mins on that video and look at the Leeds fans behind the net when the goal is scored. Nothing like that feeling.

Edited November 1, 2022 by lomaxgrUK

[jolly red giant]

2 hours ago, lomaxgrUK said:

The atmosphere is always pretty poor at the London games. I don't think it's fair to say this is down to Americans not having chants - it's much more a reflection of the amount of neutral fans there, and the amount of casuals who don't understand the impact that crowd noise can have (and when to make noise).

The atmosphere at most NFL stadiums is up there with UK soccer grounds, no doubt. I'd argue most are far superior. You can't expect people to sing songs for 3 1/2 hours; it isn't the same as soccer.

What I would say from my own perspective is that having attended probably more than 75 soccer games as an away fan, nothing beats that atmosphere. 2,000 - 5,000 (depending on the stadium) of your teams most loyal fans sat together singing non-stop, hated by 95% of the stadium - can't explain the feeling. There's nothing comparable in US sports to that. You guys are too friendly to have to segregate fans.

I agree that the atmosphere at Wembley was down to the large number of neutrals - rather than the Americans not having chants - and that for NFL home games in America there is a seriously good atmosphere. 

But the repetitive single chant can get dull after a while. A number of years ago I was at a college game in Croke Park. More than 15,000 came to Dublin from the US to support Penn State. We ended up getting seats in the middle of the stand that was given over to the Penn State fans - and they spent the entire game just chanting 'Penn State' - 'Penn State' - 'Penn State' - over and over and over again - only stopping at half-time and for a couple of other extended stoppages during the game. I nearly walked out.

I do agree with the point you make about away fans at games in England - nothing generates an atmosphere than several thousand away fans crammed into one section of the ground. I do have to say that in comparison to England, I found that Spanish fans actually generate a much more exciting and intense atmosphere. About 10 years ago I was at a cup game between Valencia and Barcelona in the Mestalla - 50,000 packed into the ground. The ground is smack bang in the middle of residential apartment blocks and there is no parking. There was an incredible buzz outside the ground as the fans mingled. We were sitting just below 5,000 Barca fans packed into a section high up in the stand. The game went into extra-time - and was heaving with noise from about 15 minutes before the kick-off right through to the end of the game - two and a half hours of non-stop chanting and cheering. It was a late night game - started at 10.30pm I think - which only added to the atmosphere. I have been to many games in England and several in Spain - and I have to say the Spanish know how to party and to create an atmosphere at a football match.

[jolly red giant]

I have to say that I wouldn't get too bullish about beating the Jags - they are not a good football team and Lawrence is not living up to the hype at the moment.