Hot Damn, I Love Being Wrong

I'm going to level with all of you out there in in the real world (I, of course, am coming to you live from Blogo-land, a mysterious and fictional world which makes celebrities out of anybody with an opinion and the ability to take a jumble of words and put them into coherent sentences.) Let's talk Broncos here for a second. I know the majority of my posts have been about the Rockies, but come on, one can only take that much self loathing and embarassment for so long. Now I am what you would call a Broncos fan. And by fan I mean that I have a life size cutout of John Elway in my living room which I talk to and believe he watches over me as I go about my daily life. Going into Monday night's season opener against the Raiders, yes, I thought we'd win, but with the way the last two years have gone, I was cautiously optimistic at best. I thought it'd be a close game for the first three quarters but that we'd pull away in the 4th and take it by a 27-17 score.......hot damn I love being wrong.

It wasn't just a massacre, it wasn't just an obliteration, it wasn't just a helluva lot of fun to watch, it was a portent of things to come.* Let's see how the Broncos answered all their apparently glaring holes in the first game of this season:

1. Defense

Moving DJ Williams back to the weak side linebacker, his natural position and the place where he won Defensive Rookie of the Year back in 2004 was seamless. He contributed 7 tackles, 1 sack, and stalked Jamarcus Russell all night. He was like a lion to Russell's Val Kilmer from Ghost and the Darkness.

The much maligned defensive line did give up 150 yards rushing combined to Justin Fargas and Darren "I'm on the Raiders? Shit." McFadden, but only allowed one big run in garbage time to Fargas and forced the Raiders to pass the ball which they proved to be a near impossibility with the second year rookie Russell at the helm.

Champ didn't even sniff a ball. Seriously, can he still get into the Hall of Fame if no one passes to his side for the rest of his career? Or will the voters realize that respect is just as important as stats?

2. Offensive Line

You rarely even heard any of the O-line's names mentioned during the entire course of the game. With any other position on the field, that'd be a bad thing, for these guys? Pure bliss. We didn't hear Clady's name, or Ryan Harris' name which means they weren't committing penalties, getting beat by the Raiders D-lineman, or allowing their QB to get pummelled into a blood-sugary pulp (too soon?). They'll have a bigger test next week against you know, a good team in the Chargers, but with his knee knocking Shawne Merriman's lights-out (oh yeah, pun majorly intended) it'll be a different look than they've seen in past years from the Chargers.

3. B-Marsh's Replacement

Yeah, you could say that Eddie Royal filled in admirably in Marshall's absence. Other things you could say that have the same gravitas as that statement: "I guess the Pope is Catholic, "Con Air was just an ok movie," "Brett Favre is only kind of a douche," "Luis Vizcaino is as effective as a clear shower curtain." That pretty much sums it up because you can't really put into words the superlative performance from that diminuitive dude. On top of being JC's favorite target, he made the Raiders $70 million man DeAngelo Hall look like a whiny little kid on the playground by provoking two personal foul penalties on consecutive plays. He caught passes, ran perfect routes, rushed the ball, even threw a pass (smartly out of bounds when the play broke down...take notes, Jamarcus.) What didn't he do? Um, listen to Creed to get pumped up before the game?

4. Running Backs

"My Dinner With" Andre Hall, Selvin Young, and Michael Pittman combined for 110 yards on 24 carries with 3 touchdowns 2 coming from the legs of Pittman and 1 from Selvs. Shanny pretty much split the carries evenly with the 3 backs, but Hall was the leading rusher of the day. Who knows how he's going to use them from this point on but it seems like Pittman is the goal-line back, Andre is more like an every down back, and Young is just going to get his carries whenever Shanny feels the need. Nevertheless, Young's preseason prediction of 2,000 yards on the ground might have been a little premature. Unless he absolutely destroyes dudes the rest of the season.

5. Blasphemous Statement That Might Send Me to Hell

Jay Cutler is well on his way to becoming the the Divine Son to John Elway's Almighty Savior.

The ESPN announcers, while being obscenely pro-Raider for the majority of the game, couldn't seem to wrap their heads around the playbook that Shanny whipped out against his most hated rival. They didn't quite understand just how much joy Shanny gets in beating the Raiders who still owe him hundreds of thousands of dollars from his firing about 20 years ago. Shanny's now 21-6 against his former team and seriously, watching this game, I bet Shanahan was sporting some serious wood all night. Don't let that image get ingrained in your head.

Go America.

Yeah, go Broncos.

*- Yes, yes, yes, this game was fantastical and totally radical......but it was against the Raiders who'll be lucky to win 3 games this season. If we do the same thing against the Chargers this week, then we'll have some reason to be excited for the coming season. I'm still being cautious with my optimism.