Broncos Stop Seahawks: Photos and Analysis

The Denver Broncos did what they set out to do last night on a stormy night in Mile High City, took down the renewed NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks.

It was a satisfying feeling for the Broncos, though they will have to try and duplicate that in week 3 when they travel to Seattle for the one that counts. That’s obviously not an easy task and one would think they’ll need to be a lot more crisp than they were last night to come out with a win that week.

This was a sloppy game. There’s no doubt there will be less flags to deal with in that regular season matchup, 25 were thrown with one ejection, but some of these moments are good for teaching.

Tharold Simon, for example, didn’t take long to get into it with the Denver offense. Instead of pushing and shoving his way to a penalty, he just hauled off and punched a guy… twice! That’s not how you make a team like this, especially when a veteran like AJ Jefferson steps up as he did last night.

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Terrelle Pryor played fairly well and had the Hawks on the doorstep of victory before trying to make a hero-play into triple coverage. To be fair, he had made that play several times already and the ball had a good enough shot at being caught before it bounced of the receiver’s pads and into the air, where it was picked off. But overall I was fairly impressed with his accuracy, decision-making and poise under pressure.

On a funny note, you can tell Pryor’s used to scrambling for his life, he was very adept at avoiding the free rushers that came at him almost all second-half long. The offensive line needs some work, but the Hawks are far from put together. In fact 18 players were inactive last evening and the O-line only started J.R. Sweezy as a regular along the line. Possible starter Justin Britt struggled a bit at times, but he definitely has all the tools to be a successful right tackle and he was up against a good pass rushing team.

I also liked what I saw from Christine Michael. He came to play last night and made it into the end zone once, along with a couple nice catches and some physical running. Paul Richardson made some nice catches and surprising linebacker Brock Coyle impressed in his stint on the field, making plays just like he did at Montana.

Overall there was nothing to be overly critical of for a first preseason game, especially with so many players missing from the lineup. Let’s have a look at some of the photos from the first action of the season.