Not a huge Bob Seger fan, but I do like that song. I was singing that when I filled up my van with all my shit and drove down highway 50 on my way back to Cali after living there from 1985 to 1988. Not that we (or I) have much of a history there, but the only real significant thing to happen in Denver was the death of Thomas Herrion after a preseason game in 2005. Of course there was that Super Bowl, but I digress. That was in Louisiana. . .
Other than that, we are 3-2 in the rarefied smog of Denver. A city that resembles a giant dirty bathtub when seem coming down from the mountains during a nice temperature inversion, as the pic shows. Our last game there was in 2006, where we won an OT thriller, 26-23. Cutler and Alex both threw pick 6’s, and Joe Nedney kicked 4 FGs. The more things change . . .
This game? Well, pressure is the name of the game. Get to Manning early and often. The 2009 loss to Indy serves as a pretty good blueprint. Manning didn’t get going all game. We disguised our coverages and blitzes, and held Manning to 0 TDs (and 347 yards!). Course we lost on a halfback option pass, but that’s beside the point. Point being that was in Manning’s prime. For all his numbers, he isn’t there now.
Play nickel (and some dime), dare Denver to run, and blitz from unconventional places. We stunted very well last week, and blitzed from different angles to flummox Austin Powers. Manning is certainly better than Davis, but neither is good under duress. Manning is off to another big season numbers-wise (1500 yards, 15 TDs, 3 picks), but he did lose to Seattle again amid 36 yards rushing and a lot of pressure and a pick.
So, keep that up. Quick pressure up the middle is paramount. Jam the receivers at the line, and disrupt the quick passes. As long as we don’t follow the trend of falling behind early (against these guys it could be 21-0 before they get it) we should be able to grind this out.
It’ll be tough but it could happen. If not, oh well. Losing in their house is not a sign of anything really bad. We have the Rams at home, and the Saints/Giants on the road. Not easy peazy, but we should be able to get all 3 of those. 7-3 is fine at that point.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Get out of Denver, baby . . .
BLEEP Denver
Hat off to the Giants 2014 NL Champions!! My daughter’s boyfriend got Paniks home run ball.
I think he should give it to your daughter as a gift.
He gave the ball back to Panik and got a signed bat in return.
Which he gave to your daughter?
Not that I know of . . .
Looks like a tall order in Denver with all the injuries on D but I figure they can still pull it off. The back ups have played well when called upon and the scheme is sound. Fangio has come up with something every game to out fox the foxes.
O is still a bit Jekyll and Hyde but have shown the big plays on tape so Denver D will have to respect it. Each game looks more complete to me and they are improving.
Looking forward to a good match up of NFL premier teams.
Shit, we could lose by 20 and I wouldn’t really bat an eye.
Then again, the Jets have almost knocked off the Pats and Broncos in successive weekends. It’s all nutty out there.
Yeah, this has been an interesting transition from the 21 power formations to more of a 3 WR set. Except in the red zone and on short yardage plays .. . . .
In more news, don’t expect Mike Iupati or P Willis to play this Sunday Night.
Damn. The injury list is getting longer, not shorter.
Chuck must enter the breach!
Well, Looney is no Iupati and who’s limiting Orange Julius without Willis?
Good stuff there, NoFear.
Surprised Shotgun Willie’s didn’t make the list of joints in Denver.
In the “Are you fucking kidding me?” category, the Seattle Seahawks traded Percy Harvin to the New York Jets for a conditional pick. Grseat news for us, but WTF???? Did he bang the owner’s wife?
Another fine example of the Squawks prowess in the GM department who gave up a first, third and seventh in return for a guy who played 10 total games for them.
Ya Baalke sucks….
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Seahawks had been shopping Percy Harvin for several weeks.
Multiple reports suggest Harvin’s anger management issues led to his trade to the Jets. For the Seahawks, moving on from his contract was an easy decision. Harvin has no guaranteed money beyond this year and likely would have been released after the season regardless. It’s still an admission of failure from the Seattle front office after they gave up first- and seventh-round picks last year, and a 2014 third-rounder to acquire Harvin. Seattle will save $6.47 million in cap space by trading him, which should go towards extending Russell Wilson. Oct 17 – 7:41 PM
Playing for Rex Ryan and his 1-6 team will surely improve his disposition.
Got that right RTF. He’ll be the primary WR though.
Funny how memory fades. I watched a Game Rewind of the ’09 game in Denver, first half anyway, and it was a pretty fun game to watch. Ol’ Aubrayo Franklin played a helluva game at nose tackle, in fact the entire D-line looked pretty good. And Alex had a great drive at the end of the second quarter that ended in a TD. Takeo Spikes and Willis harassing Manning, even Rachal looked pretty good, mostly. Lots of passing from spreads for a “Singletary/Raye offense”, too. And Bethea doing alright on the other side next to Bob Sanders.
We played a lot of deep coverage, in quarters mostly, it looked like. Hard to tell on a lot of it as it wasn’t in the all-22 format. Mostly four man pressures, some five, with regular blitzes from Willis and Bly and a lot of blitz looks (everybody up on the line) and drops into coverage. I think this is the game where Manusky started doing the roaming D-Line with everyone in a two point stance. I forgot about that. It shook Manning up pretty good and he had mostly three and outs and a look of confusion.
We mixed man and zone at odd times and blitzed pretty effectively but got burned on a couple of them, too. Actually one of the blitz burns allowed the Colts to get in position for the field goal at the end of the half. Still two TDs to three FGs at the half wasn’t a bad start.
Also funny to see the official notify Singletary of a call against us and Singletary just nods once and back to the game. I didn’t realize I’d grown accustomed to a wild screaming dance at that point in a game.
Peyton is all about pre-snap reads and getting the ball out quickly.
I’d also suspect that Peyton is not the guy to go over our heads.
Sit on the crossers, play coverage and let them run.
I saw this game as a loss when it appeared on the schedule and haven’t changed my mind much with that outcome.
I do however think that we can give them a game, with or without several of our key starters.
Keys to success?
Disrupt Peyton’s timing.
Establish a ball control game of our own, let him watch from the sideline.
We can win a close low scoring game.
Never say never in this business.
How eff’d up is that ‘Inside Deal’ between Idzik and his former team?
NYJ sitting on a mountain of Cap Cash, Seattle stewing in their own juices over a piss poor deal for Harvin and along comes Idzik to provide them with an out?
Totally ridiculous.
Harvin is a cancer. The type of which the NYJ have just rid themselves of this past year.
What the NYJ have needed is Secondary help.
So sure Idzik, go help your former employer by bringing a loser into the already lost locker room.
Way to waste money on a guy that rarely plays unless he wants to.
How long before the migraines surface I wonder?
That’s the Jets being the Jets.
Just win baby! …….oops…..I thought I was on a Raider’s blog.
Yeah, the curious thing for me in that Indy that game was the success of the 2 minute no-huddle offense we ran to close the half. It worked great, so naturally we didn’t try it the rest of the game.
The one thing I always admired about Walsh was, when he found something that worked, he would keep on doing it until the other team stopped it. These guys seem more concerned with their preconceived notions of how things should go rather than what’s actually happening on the field.
Game day thread is up,