THE ANNUAL PRESEASON
RANT
After watching this one about the only thing that can be
said and repeated over and over is: Preseason games for the most part are
worthless and should be brought down to 2 per year with the NFL going to an 18
game regular schedule. It may not be a bad idea to drop them altogether and let
Rookies and Free Agents make the team on the practice field.
This was no game guys; it was a nothing more than a very
poorly played scrimmage by both teams. Frankly, I think if the NFL is going to
insist continuing with this type of schedule for the preseason they should
charge a minimal fee to attend or better yet let them be free. Minimal as in
say $10 per adult and $5 per child because generally what you get in return in
most instances in these games and especially in this one, is a 3 hour yawning
festival. Granted some preseason games are better than others but not enough to
pay big bucks to see.
Then there’s the whole fear of the injury issue to key
starters (Manning) which by itself is a good enough reason to cut down or
completely eliminate these meaningless games. Manning shouldn’t take a single
snap in preseason, he has nothing to prove and he’s good enough he can get the
kinks and rust out of his game on the practice field.
If I’m a paid fan at this one I’d of asked for my money back
even if the ticket had cost $10 because it was a sloppy horribly played and
executed game by both teams. Today even ticket prices to these meaningless
games are too expensive for most average fans. If yours is a football family
and you’re all fans of the team and say you have a wife and 2 kids there’s no
possible way you could justify going to a game like this one. You’d have to
take out a second mortgage to pay for it and then once you got home listen to
your wife rag you about how she would have liked a spa day or weekend trip out
of town instead.
I always have to air this out after watching the 1st
preseason game of the season. Then I can try to move on and gather what
intelligence I can glean from the 4 games and how the team might improve with
the new additions. Personally I enjoy the bad preseason games because I’m
trying to study each part of the game as a whole. But I completely understand
those who don’t care about breaking down what they saw and just want a good
competitive football game to watch.
THE GAME
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| Could C.J Anderson be the answer at RB? Maybe... |
The Ying was the Broncos Defense forced four 49ers turnovers
and scored a defensive TD but the Yang was the Offensive didn’t come close to
capitalizing on their mistakes. The Broncos had 220 yards of total offense and
got inside the 20 yard line twice and couldn’t score a TD. Why?
Because in most cases no risks are taken in the first game
and all the grunts trying to make the team are on the field. The most glaringly
bad moments of the game came from the Broncos backup Offense Line which was
horrible in pass protection and not much better in run blocking. Brock Osweiler spent most of the game
running for his life and when he did throw he threw short and not long.
Yes, you have to admit the Broncos D did what they were
suppose to do but the backups on the 49ers Offensive Line were even worse.
The part of the game I was most interested in was the
Broncos running game because it may be what makes or breaks the Broncos in a
playoff run this year. I was hoping to see Rookie Montee Ball have at least one break out carry but it never happened
due in large part to the poor blocking by the OL. Ronnie Hillman didn’t provide
any spark either and neither did Lance
Ball for the same reason.
As for Knowshon Moreno
the OL didn’t do much for him either but he looked like the same RB he was when
he couldn’t pick up a single yard for the bad Josh McDaniels era teams. He has no
speed, no cut back ability, doesn’t make the first guy miss, can’t break
tackles and is at his worst running between the tackles. I’m still confused why
they didn’t try to trade him in the off season or during the draft because I
just don’t believe he’s ever going to be a quality starting RB in the NFL.
The one shining star in the game was Rookie RB C.J. Anderson. He had 15 carries for 69
yards; one was for a 17 yard gain. He was impressive up the middle, showing
more strength and smash mouth ability than any of the other Broncos RB’s. He
like the rest of the RB’s had to deal with subpar blocking but he was able to
make yards after the first contact. The Broncos must have a go to guy in short
yardage and goal line situations, maybe Anderson can become that guy.
You can’t really get any kind of feel for how good the
Broncos can be after watching this game. The conventional wisdom says the
Broncos will score points like a pin ball machine this season in the passing
game; maybe so but without a good running game I question how far they can go
if they can't control the clock and the ball late in the season and into the
playoffs. Every unit on the defensive side of the ball is not set in stone
either.
So we’ll all go through the preseason grind with the team
and hope the Broncos get better in their weak spots and became the unstoppable
power house almost everyone is predicting they will be this season. We’ll see
when they count.
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