MVN - Most Valuable Network

Delight in Our Young

Winning at Arrowhead Stadium is a daunting task.  It’s made even tougher when you are a division rival of the Kansas City Chiefs, and the evidence of it with regards to the Broncos showed when you consider they have won there only once since they last won the Super Bowl.  The meaning of today’s victory over the Chiefs encloses that fact and so much more, as the Broncos make a turn to save their season, and place themselves only a half of a game out of a share of the AFC West lead.

The most comforting factor in the win is the performance of Selvin Young, garnering 109 yards on 20 carries, slightly above a 5 YPC average.  What makes his performance exceptional was that he did it in a physical manner.  Although he had a few dancing moments that Bobby Turner won’t approve of, he wasn’t afraid to initiate contact and grind out a couple extra yards.  That was not seen out of, for example, Quentin Griffin, when he had a two-game wonder performance against the Chiefs and the Colts.

With Travis Henry either hurt or under the specter of suspension, things are feeling much rosier if Young will have to be the feature back from here on out.  He’s not reminding anyone of Terrell Davis or Clinton Portis, and he’s bound to have an off game, but he proved his worth today.

I am also continually impressed at what a tough character Jay Cutler is.  He fought the leg injury that he sustained in Detroit last week for almost every snap.  He was definitely not 100 percent, especially in the first half where his passes were sailing up, down, and in the hands of Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson.  But he gritted his teeth and showed excellent leadership throughout the game.

Enough can’t be said about the defensive performance as well.  It’s clear that Priest Holmes has not lost a step despite being out of football for around a year and a half.  However, the Broncos have natural familiarity in Holmes, and they were well prepared to hold him down to only 79 total yards, and more importantly, only 65 rushing yards.  That had to be the best performance against the run all season.

The passing defense did its job as well.  Three interceptions and four deflected passes are the highlights, but the bigger story is that both Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle were continuously harassed at the point of origin, led by Elvis Dumervil with a sack and a forced fumble that Nate Webster returned for a touchdown.  It is true that the Chiefs offensive line is a shell of its Willie Roaf and Will Shields days, but production is production.

Of course, there is room for improvement, especially with the Chiefs coming to Denver down the road.  I’m not sure what Herm Edwards has in mind, but Croyle had a valiant performance in a loss, and my decision would be to keep him as a starter.  He threaded several passes to the likes of Tony Gonzalez and Dwayne Bowe.  Of extra attention will surely be his hard count, which proved to be as good as Brett Favre or Jake Plummer as he caught the Broncos in an embarrassing string of offsides penalties.

A pat on the back is well deserved right now though, and that’s what we heard from Mike Shanahan in the locker room after the game.  A cursory search of their remaining schedule only shows next week’s Monday night game against Tennessee as a team with a winning record.  Further discipline is necessary to keep this team on track, and it will be needed when they run into a team that has more pure talent.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.