Sunday’s game made the opportunity to choose the two top Heavies, and brought with it the impossibility of choosing only one from each side of the ball. Both the renewed offensive line and the play on the defensive line were absolutely top drawer. Kyle Orton barely got a grass stain on his uni, while Matt Cassel was sacked 4 times and hurries and knockdowns came with clockwork regularity - a fitting outcome to the Broncos cleaning his clock, and those of the team around him.
KC just wasn’t ready for Denver. It might have been the expectation that a 2-6 team with multiple problems wouldn’t be much of a challenge. It might have been that Josh McDaniels just plain out-coached Todd Haley, Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis. The Chiefs fans that I’ve talked to have in great part blamed their injuries, particularly in their defensive secondary and the need to bring Shaun Smith to the DL, but given what Denver has dealt with this season, their cries have fallen on deaf ears in my case. I’m sorry to not be buying, but Denver is still missing Elvis Dumervil, Robert Ayers, and Andre' Goodman. At this point in the season, it’s a rare - and usually winning - team that hasn’t suffered some major injury difficulties. Some of them have greater depth than Denver or KC, some just have been fortunate in this area.
This week’s awards are easy. The 4-3 formation and all of the variants that Wink Martindale sent against the Jets was predicted by many of the staff and members of IAOFM.com, but the way that Wink used it was a job to see.
This is going to be a weekly gig - a celebration of two players, one from each line, who made a positive difference, win or lose. Some weeks it’s not easy - the guys who do the best are in the middle of piles and you can’t read their jerseys. But this week, that wasn’t hard.
Offense: The award for this week goes to the rookie center, JD Walton. Walton was fighting for his life on much of the day, but watching him racing Ryan Clady down the field, the second level quickly turning to the third, looking for more people to hit gave you an idea of how hard he was working throughout the game. Like most rookies, he is learning by doing. He’s going to get mauled at times, but he’s holding his own better and better. Congratulations to him.
Continue reading "He’s Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Bronco - Week 4"
