Game Thread: Preseason at Houston

[MrDoc420]

Shaquil Barrett is legit. Shane Ray shoving their LT all over the place. 2nd stringer but the rookie looks to have some nice power when he gets up under the shoulder pads of the OL.

 

[iknowftbll]

Decent first half. Not great, but then again, we don't know what the coaches were focussing on. That's the thing about pre-season. We always want to see our 1s in for two series and exit with a 14-0 lead. There's a lot of newness here. If the team had looked awful maybe there would be cause for concern.

 

[Duffman]

Todd Davis with some big hits tonight, I like it. And Ray looks ok he walked off without much help.

 

[Duffman]

Shaq Barrett is a stud that dude is nice.

 

[randymon]

Lot of faith in the run game.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Lot of faith in the run game.

I see Thompson broke a 22 yarder. Hope he gets some more carries.

 

[randymon]

Nice D stand

 

[Duffman]

The only person who hasn't impressed me tonight is Ball, everyone else has had a good night but he can't seem to get going.

 

[Duffman]

I'm glad Siemian got playing time over Dysert, he earned it after last week.

 

[Duffman]

If we cut Siemian I don't think he makes it to the practice squad someone will take a chance on him he's been fire tonight.

 

[MrDoc420]

I think it's safe to say that Dysert's days in Denver are over. Siemian has to be the clear choice to make the PS after another nice performance tonight.

 

[cdumler7]

Alright so some thoughts...

I saw some thinking that our offense early on with Manning looked pretty much like last year and I do think it did. I think part of that is just to get Manning comfortable being in a live game again. Instead of having to think a lot he just does what comes natural.

Next with Manning I know the offense didn't get things moving and didn't look balanced. Some of that was by design. Just look at who Manning was throwing at almost every time during his series. He was throwing to Daniels and Thomas the two guys on offense that haven't gotten any live action yet. Pretty much the goal for the Broncos with the 1st string offense was get the guys going who haven't had a chance yet. As we saw there is some rust on some of that as DT struggled to get off the line on time and it threw the timing off. That is why you have this time in preseason.

CJ Anderson looked much better. He is healthy and ran with some authority. I am honestly starting to get giddy about our run offense for this year. That's right I said Giddy.

Speaking of the run game this starting OL just keeps looking better and better. Now I know there was no JJ Watt and no Clowney in this one but they gave Manning plenty of time and the run game looked like it opened up some very nice holes for all our RB's today. Last year pretty much about every other play our RB was getting hit in the backfield and now I am seeing some plays where they are 5 yards down the field before they get touched. Oh how I have missed the old days of us just running it down the throats of an opponent.

DT as I said earlier looks very rusty. Just not seeing that burst. He seems to be thinking too much. We had 2 drops on 3rd and short that just really killed us.

Sticking with the 1st units really loved the shut down coverage of our 1st unit. They were everywhere in that secondary. The pass rush wasn't quite getting there but it didn't seem to matter. I think QB's are looking to get it out of there so quickly because of the fear of our pass rush that even when they have good blocking they are still trying to force it some. On the run defense side of things I do see that our team will give up a few longer runs this season. The tradeoff though is what we saw in lots of negative plays in the run game as well because of the aggressive nature of this defense. They were looking to hit!

Now moving onto the 2nd units. Osweiler had a pretty average day. The touchdown was a thing of beauty with him looking off the safety then delivering a great throw! Beyond that he had a couple of other nice throws but some inconsistent accuracy. Some of this could be him working with the 2nd unit instead of 1st. Just not quite the talent on that 2nd unit.

2nd unit defense looked good as well! Shaq Barrett better be on this team come week 1. The kid is just a beast. Shane Ray looked great as well before he got hurt (thankfully he is ok and actually came back in the game). Also loved that we now have 10 sacks from 10 different players. That just sounds nuts to me. WE are getting pressure from all over the field with this team. The secondary other than Kayvon Webster looked really good. Kayvon I just wanted to shake. Not sure what his deal was tonight.

Ok since this is getting long finish this up with Special Teams...

Thankfully tonight was an improvement. The coverage units looked much better. Our returners still look about as bad as it gets. I think the best we can hope for is to have a punt returner that when given a chance can just move it up 5 yards from where he catches it and just doesn't fumble. That is about as special as might get. We don't have that guy that can go from 0 to 60 in the snap of a finger so our guys just can't get around the edge. I do like the new punter. Much better distance and was good at kicking it to one of the sidelines to help out our gunners. I'm also thinking that McManus is pulling ahead in the kicking competition. Hasn't missed a field goal and 2 out 3 kick offs went for touchbacks.

Definitely a lot sloppier game for the team but still some promising looks especially at some young defensive players.

 

[cdumler7]

I think it's safe to say that Dysert's days in Denver are over. Siemian has to be the clear choice to make the PS after another nice performance tonight.

Can he make it on the practice squad is the question? I'm starting to think we might have to keep 3 QB's if we want to keep him.

 

[MrDoc420]

I sure hope so cd. I'm guessing he'll get alot of burn in the 4th game, so he looks good in that one we could have trouble getting him there.

 

[cdumler7]

I sure hope so cd. I'm guessing he'll get alot of burn in the 4th game, so he looks good in that one we could have trouble getting him there.

Yeah have to see how he finishes this preseason. I'm definitely interested to see how they decide to do this 53-man roster. First cuts are in a little over a week. Those cuts are usually pretty well known but man that 2nd cut is going to cause some to go into an uproar.

Also another thing about tonight's game...I do think Ronnie Hillman has put himself into that 2nd RB spot. He might even be moving up to compete with Anderson. I know some will think that is crazy but have to remember Hillman is a lot like Forsett in his running style/size and obviously Forsett looked great in Kubiak's system last year.

 

[randymon]

Well couple things stand out.....the D only gave up 3 pts....Simian drove offense 92 yrs with around 3 mins left in gm and STs except for return game,much better. Can't wait to watch it in morn. Good job men.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Didn't get to see the game yet, but I know that Caldwell caught a long TD. Think he'll make the team? I had kind of been hoping that a young WR would replace him. Not so sure now. I know he also dropped a ball he should have caught last week.

 

[cdumler7]

Didn't get to see the game yet, but I know that Caldwell caught a long TD. Think he'll make the team? I had kind of been hoping that a young WR would replace him. Not so sure now. I know he also dropped a ball he should have caught last week.

To me everything depends on the coaches thoughts on the return game. If Bolden is both our kick off and punt returner for this team then good chance that Caldwell and Fowler are the two guys. If they have to keep one of the punt return guys like Burse then good chance Caldwell does not make this team as I do think Fowler is above and beyond everybody else for the 4th WR spot. He has been huge on kick off and punt coverage so far plus been showing well as a receiver. That is what the coaches want is guys who can do both instead of just specialist.

 

[cdumler7]

Also biggest thing about this game is no serious injuries that I have seen reported so far. Obviously Shane Ray went down but came back into the game so should be fine. Only other injury reported was that of Tevrin Brandon hurt his ankle but no word on how serious. I don't think it is bad though.

 

[TDs3nOut]

To me everything depends on the coaches thoughts on the return game. If Bolden is both our kick off and punt returner for this team then good chance that Caldwell and Fowler are the two guys. If they have to keep one of the punt return guys like Burse then good chance Caldwell does not make this team as I do think Fowler is above and beyond everybody else for the 4th WR spot. He has been huge on kick off and punt coverage so far plus been showing well as a receiver. That is what the coaches want is guys who can do both instead of just specialist.

I would like to see what Fowler could do on returns. I remember last year looking up and posting his return stats at MSU and they were pretty good. I have to think that he has least gotten some looks returning in practice.

Following the game on the espn game cast I was surprised that James Casey apparently fielded a punt. Not sure if that actually happened or if it was an error in the game cast.