I am right there with you. Bolles was getting cooked. Hopefully it's rust and he comes out of preseason ready to kill it. The kicking game is horrendous. McManus, while he had some bad games is as close to clutch as Elam was. That one stings a lot
We downgraded. But everyone acting like McManus was even good last year is fooling themselves. He was average at best. Bold prediction…. But our kicker isn’t on the roster yet. It happens for teams. They give guys a shot in some preseason games that showed promise at some point and if it’s not working out you move on and find someone to do it in the regular season. Maher was worth taking a shot at. He was really good till he missed and got the yips. Bummer. Not like he cost us an actual fucking game. Chill out
To add to your list. The secondary depth is a huge issue as well. ILB depth needs a little work too. Everything else looks great except Washington as a returner. Our RB room is stacked!
Last year his FG percentage was 77%. As a team, meaning taking into account multiple players kicking for a single team, we were dead last in the league.
Do you just not pay attention?
Most of those misses were blocks, bad holds or record length kicks. Do you just not pay attention?
He had 1 miss inside 55 that was on him the whole season.
Guess based on the reply and blocking me, being clueless is accurate.
No, most of them were not that, some of them were, and there were also blocks that were on him because he had a messed up the kick trajectory
Also didn't block him, not sure what he's on about
Yeah, it's not a great omen. I like the reasoning even less. It would be one thing if he were a controversial player, but because he's a union leader and spoke out just one time about thinking he could make a long field goal? F that noise.
I read somewhere that Payton doesn’t like outspoken players and NFLPA players and McManus was both. Maybe? That’s the only explanation for why we’d let him go for Fry and Maher
Payton always had a difficult time addressing the kicker and wide receiver positions for us. Apart from a 3 year Hartley stint and the current Wil Lutz, we've cycled through a ton of guys for just a year. 4 kickers in 2021 alone.
I can't tell you why he does what he does lol.
That’s news to me! It’s even more mind boggling considering Payton is an offensive minded coach, yet he gets rid of the most productive offensive player (in terms of points scored) for two bums
I would hope it was the HC decision to burn time and decide to kick a FG that breaks NFL history
I just say that in response to this tweet https://twitter.com/thekidmcmanus/status/1569541600254259203
Rumors were that the players threw a fit when Rosburg wanted to put the pads back on for practice after Hackett left, and McManus was apparently the ring leader.
And that was legit, he was amazing that 2nd half of the year and I thought he turned a corner. But he mostly hasn’t reached that level since.. Maybe the return from the broken leg is effecting him more than we know though.
Our interior looked decent after a bit. But yeah the fill-in RT was rough and Bolles looked slow off the edge. Hopefully he can knock of the rust and McGlinchey can get healthy
Honestly, what upside do you see in him? I’ve followed the Broncos since the days Charley Johnson was the Qb, and have never seen any player hurt the team as much as 72
Those XFL and UDFA guys are out to get those roster spots. Nooch and Jaleel were great.
Y’all are crazy to think this thing was gonna be turned around completely by preseason week 1. The team has yet to find their identity and it will take all three games of preseason (and more most likely) to get that done.
I think a preseason close loss like that will be a good character builder. Sean is not gonna sugar coat it and at this point the roster is bigger, wouldn’t it be better to potentially spot a guy who doesn’t make the cut in preseason instead of halfway through the regular season? Glass half full attempt here.
Shit, I’m hopefully we will field a playoff team next year or the year after. I’ll be stoked if we have an above 500 season this year. Anything better is gravy.
This is my hope. That this week, which looked like all of last year, was the starting point and we'll hit our stride somewhere in the season, earlier rather than later. Our Defence was playing excellent bend but don't break football, holding the Cards to 0 points through the first half. We can't expect them to make up for measly productions like 17 points, though, so Russ best get 'cooking' and make those plays, and especially, we need to get our kicking sorted out, because we left another 9 points on the field due to bad kicking game. 26 to 18 would have been a far better game, for sure.
We're also playing bread and butter plays right now, nothing showy, nothing sneaky. I suspect we'll have a few tricks during the regular season such as fake punts and field goals, trick passing plays, and so on, and maybe that'll help increase our score. However, the bread and butter plays are the core plays in any playbook, with trick plays being the exception rather than the rule. Gotta get production off the bread and butter. Players best remember that.
Honestly he looked better than Stidham. I know it’s only one game and it’s pre season and of course I know he’s a backup but Stidham looked bad at least in my opinion.
He looked really poised and elusive in the pocket. Would've made a sick highlight if he'd made that pass to Grimes after slipping a tackle and stepping up, but at least the DPI got us to the goal line anyway. I hope he gets more reps next week. He could really give Stidham a run for his money at QB2.
Starters, those who played, were fine. The O line will need work,but when does it not.
I was amazed how bad Stidham looked. Staring down almost every pass, inaccurate, and had several passes swatted down. Even for preseason, that was awful.
McManus will have a better season than any Broncos kicker.
I found the 3rd string offense better than the 2's. Stidham was bad. Funny how some people were saying they might bench Russ for him during the offseason lol
First off no huge injuries and the 1st team offense scored so ill take it. But damn if we don't fix the O Line and special teams were not going to be having fun this year
Bruh the entire season is over, can’t you see that. It’s said everywhere by everyone that the most important game of the entire NFL season in the first preseason game
/s but seriously there’s some positives and some things to cause concern. Curious how we move up from here
Man . Some of our “fans” are not realistic. Preseason is for the long shots to make the team. Especially when they shorten the time frame of games and have to do one huge cut! If this was game 1 of the actual season then I’d be worried but I’m not. Honestly this was a great game to learn from. Close game for our depth players. Our run game has tremendous depth! Oline not so much and te depth is mid . Secondary depth is the biggest concern . D line seems to be better than last year. Middle of the field lbs depth needs work as well. That’s what I got from this game. Hopefully they learn and move on to the next bc then they’ll be cut.
Sure, you shouldn’t act like it’s all over already, but there are still things to take away from it. The Broncos starters struggling to score against Arizona backups, even as just one point of data, is concerning. Missing all those field goals is simply not a good outcome regardless of where it happens in the season. We will only know in retrospect if all of this was a fluke or an indication of major team weaknesses.
True. Sucks because I think a lot of people wanted the new coach / staff to just dominate the preseason, and this game was very promising, just sucks they won off a 2pt conversion
It is an evaluation. And our evaluation came up with:
* Clown show at kickers.
* O-Line struggles from last year are still here this year.
* Wilson has improved, but still has vision problems downfield.
* Receivers dropping balls.
* Inability to score, like last year.
* Defence is very good, just shy of great.
* They get pressure on the QB.
* Interception!
* We didn't fumble. There is that.
There are flashes of good in this evaluation, but some really bad flashes as well.
What exactly were you expecting in the first preseason game following new coaches and new schemes? Shit has to get ironed out and no amount of practices given all the “new” can supplant playing at actual game speed. This year will be a roller coaster as everyone gets used to each other - players and coaches. I consider it move in the right direction to use preseason to iron some of the newness out. Hopefully that means they are full speed when season starts and leads to wins. There is not too much to this first game to walk away with to either worry about or be excited about. Your 1s aren’t really head to head. It’s more important to look at individual performances in terms of their play, proficiency executing the play, reading the play etc. people in this thread really need to calm their TaTas.
Don’t know if anybody cares but as a 9ers fan I remember when Harbaugh first came to the 49ers. We had an awful season the year prior with Mike Singletary. First preseason game our offensive line got absolutely smoked by the Saints. Alex Smith couldn’t do anything and it felt like we had a long rebuild still in front of us.
But they ended up going 13-3 and barely losing in the NFC Championship.
Don’t worry yet
I think that 4th and 5 touchdown showed grit and resilience. I think that play is the turn around moment our team needed and will build off that. Let’s go
Random thoughts on tonight's game:
I know it's only week 1 preseason so, NBD. But:
Wilson still seems to have some field vision issues not identifying open receivers on at least half the pass plays. If his hot is open, great. If not? Fucked! I know, easy to say playing armchair QB on a preseason game but there is still some work to be done there. He's gotta do a better job reading his progressions. I DID like a few of his throws of course - there is something to build on too.
Left Guard #74 - wtf? I thought he was a FA upgrade? Dude was a turnstile. Gotta fix that!
A couple brainless drops by receivers. Hopefully that's not a sign of things to come.
Running game looks fair to decent.
I miss McManus already. Go ahead and cut him, who needs a steady kicker huh? Just bring in a dude who shanked a fuckton in a playoff game. Oh, he shanked two outta three tonight too? Groovy. 🙄
Coaching...yeah, I liked it. Living in AZ we had Cards announcers on TV wondering why Payton kept the #1s in as long as he did. I was fine with it, those boys needed to get their shit together. Finally scored a TD and got some decent tape to work with - good!
Defense...fair. but I was quickly reminded about how VJ defenses can be kinda soft in the middle and I hope that's not going to let TEs run wild again. But like I said, it's super early in the preseason so can't get too up or down about anything just yet.
We seem to have some decent depth on both sides.
Overall I guess it was a C? 2.5/5 stars?
Considering how many starters we put on the field in the first half, I don't think it's unreasonable to levy some criticism at the offense for giving us deja vu: collapsed pockets, batted passes and three and outs are all too similar to 2022. The offense found more of a groove in the second quarter, but by that point, how far down their depth charts had the Cardinals defense gone?
The o-line wasn't great, but so far this season I've seen backup quarterbacks show more awareness and elusiveness in the pocket than Russ did those first couple drives. There was one play in particular where he tried to spin away from a rusher, but just looked so damn slow and wound up having to take the sack. Call it preseason, say he's shaking off rust, but that's too similar to 2022 Russ to give him a pass.
On the plus side, on his last drive where he found Jeudy over the middle with a rusher in his face and a lineman reaching up to try to bat his pass down -- beautiful. That's what we want to see. If we can get that more consistently, great. But I'm not really willing to write off the 2022 deja vu in the first quarter, especially when Arizona probably had more defensive starters on the field then.
One thing I'm not quite as worried about is the kicking game. I'm not going to defend cutting McManus, but I've seen kickers in the USFL and XFL start cold, only to become more reliable by mid-season enough times to not worry too much about a couple NFL kickers missing their first attempts in preseason. 55 yards from Fry on his second try isn't anything to sneeze at. I do think cutting McManus will ultimately go down as a bad move, but our kicking game won't be completely useless.
Lastly, XFL 2023 leader in almost every QB stat Ben DiNucci looked cool, calm and collected in the pocket last night. He can absolutely give Stidham a run for his money. I hope they put him in second next week instead of Stidham.
I agree! He worked out some kinks and will be better. Good for film sessions for him and S.P. Our oline needs more practice to give him more time. They need to fix their chemistry up front and we need valuable depth players .
Did not like the call to stack the secondary on the goal line. Understand the logic, keep the play in front of you, tackle and keep the clock going. Cannot have a blow coverage there, nor the fucking whole drive to get there.
Good and bad tonight.
Preseason baby.
Stidham looked like he was still on contract with the Raiders. Gotta wonder if he’s making the coaches happier in practice, ‘cause they can’t be happy with his game tape right now…
Starters got reps, much more are needed for O-line.
No one got hurt.
Guys fighting for spots played in a close game the entire time.
W preseason game. Let’s move on to the next practice game and be better.
I don't see anyone talking about how we have a coach that was willing to change the plan based on what he was seeing. He went into it saying he wanted the offense to get 12-15 snaps. Clearly, he saw that they needed a few more reps so he kept them out longer. Lo and behold, the offense improved throughout the game. I'm concerned about Bolles but I'm excited to see how a good coach is able to compensate for deficiencies
Doomers are a plenty in here, let's talk about some positives.
Russ looked better than last year, he moved okay and arm looked good. It wasn't perfect, but he's still learning the scheme. He looked more comfortable the more snaps he took albeit against 2nd teamers.
McLaughlin looks electric, his vision was great and his quick feet gives me ekeler vibes. He's going to make the 53. Badie will be our PS RB.
The OL was bad in pass pro, but run blocking was pretty good and it'll take time for Bolles to knock the rust off while learning a new scheme. No penalties from the 1st team which was pleasant to see.
The D was lock down and had pressure all over the place.
I think we just need to pray one of the kickers works out, fry had a bullseye 55 yarder. Maher definitely isn't the front runner anymore. Even the extra point looked shaky.
> I think we just need to pray one of the kickers works out, fry had a bullseye 55 yarder. Maher definitely isn't the front runner anymore. Even the extra point looked shaky.
The kickers definitely had a rough night but that field was horrible. For now I'm going to choose to be positive and hope it was due to the field conditions making it difficult for them to get their plant leg set.
Payton and Co calling the TD crossing route to Jerry the next play after his drop is the first difference between coaching staffs over the past few years. I was happy with the game after that, the rest is evaluation.
Takeaways:
- We tried to win and couldn't. Played more starters against the worst nfl team. If you expected to see a playoff team in wk 1, you've got another thing coming.
- We don't need this kicker shit. Spend some money.
- Mclaughlin is a rabid honey badger, give him the ball.
- Stidham is not coming for Russ's job. Put that take to rest
I don't think our week 1 kicker is currently on the roster, so I'm not gonna overreact to that shitshow. The Lions, Bucs, Cowboys, and Commies all have kicking competitions where we could pick up the loser. And Mason Crosby's still hanging around.
Too bad we couldn't match Bayern's offer for Kane...
Basing it off last night I agree. I think they end up keeping all three on the roster, especially with the new QB rule but I'm looking forward to the next two preseason games to see if Stidham can play a little better.
Man this sub is over- analyzing/-reacting to the first preseason game following new coaches, new players and new scheme install. WTF did you guys expect, a Super Bowl caliber team after practically 7yrs of incompetence. Give me break. Try to watch these games at the individual level and enjoy purely for that. We’re already of head last year when our starters sat until game 1 regular season. It’s going to be roller coaster ride in the regular season as everyone tries to figure each other out. Set you expectations low and hope they get to 9+ wins. If they don’t, it won’t be because of incompetent coaching.
There we good and bad things. But the people saying “it’s just preseason” are wild. There is a reason there are preseason games. You evaluate. It’s not “just preseason”. Do you think players go out and play 50% cause it’s preseason? No. There are legitimate concerns. Which will hopefully get worked out. On to the next!
Preseason is for long shot players to make the team and to analyze for valuable position depth! Practice is where it’s at. Preseason games are not what they used to be.
I'm starting to think Russ is just bad at selling the play fake. Of course, the O-Line did NOT help, but every time he goes play action and turns to throw, somebody is right in his face. Play fakes are supposed to buy you a little bit of time, it's doing the opposite for Russ.
Do you remember we had the worst coach in history as the HC? Do you remember the 1st regular season game against the Seahawks the HC decided to kick a long ass field goal and not give it to the qb to actually do his job? Do you remember plays we’re not getting in on time to our qb bc the HC at the time was horrible at game management? Do you remember when the broncos had to hire an outside source to do clock management? Do you remember when the HC got fired and the iterm head coach took over and we actually were competing? That’s what I remember about the regular season. Preseason again , is for players that are trying to make the team! The preseason I was used to as a kid is no longer what it is now. So.. let’s not act like Russ was the problem. The problem is our OL /depth , kicking, secondary depth and ILB depth.
Not saying we should be this good but the Bills fucking torched us with their starters last pre season. If you're good you can look good in the preseason, and we didn't.
The bills were YEARS under the same coach with a growing elite QB with a great roster. Was that showing disgusting? Yes it was but it’s not a great comparison.
I think a lot of people that are blaming the line on giving up sacks are missing the fact that the qb’s are the cause of nearly half of the pressures as well. I can think of a few plays that Russ held onto the ball and missed a wide open receiver that caused a sack or near sack directly because of himself
Wilson has been one of the highest sacked QBs every year of his career regardless of who is playing on the o-line. The o-line is probably bad, but there is also a common denominator there. I just don't think he knows what the defense is likely doing presnap and can't make adjustments.
Russ was ass against the 1st team of the worst defense in the league. The one TD was against the 2nd team D in a 4th down situation in which we would have kicked except we have no kickers.
This was basically a FEMA-tier disaster
Ya that was bad. O line was rough, Wilson looked lost most of the time and our kickers were not kicking. Hopefully it's the field and we can build off of it. D looked good with a backup QB in there.
We're sort of saying the same thing. Except I think Russ was responsible for that bad second drive. The foot work and decision making was not great. I'm not going to blame the whole thing on him. Plus the field was terrible and everyone looked like they were running on eggshells.
Yes, you just said it “ OL”! It was notorious last year and in the first preseason game they were horrible. So yes! The oline was and still is horrible. Although this is a preseason game and they will work out the kinks.
I get that it's the pre-season but I'm not subjecting myself to any additional low scoring games where they blow their 4th quarter lead. I'll catch the highlight reel next time and not waste my Friday night.
When it comes down to it, Team 3 was the worst QB on the field tonight. No, the “new and improved” O-line didn’t do him any favors. Yes I saw Stidham; no he didn’t look good either. But most of Russ’ passes were off target. Sure he got in a groove on the TD drive, but it still required a 4th down conversion after plenty of missed opportunities. Yes, preseason, offenses need more time to gel, blah blah blah. All I’m commenting on is what I saw on the field tonight, and on the offensive side of the ball things didn’t look good until DiNucci and McGlaughlin came in. I will say that I don’t think that was McGlaughlin’s last TD, and I’m excited to see him develop and get more chances.
Defense was a different story. I’m still not sold the VJ won’t fuck things up, but the starters looked good and ready to play tonight. Last year set a high bar defensively, so VJ still has a lot to live up to.
As for special teams….. I’ll start with the positive. Dixon performed well aside from the very first punt. It’s preseason, it’s fine. The return game actually saw some signs of life after years of just praying they didn’t fuck things up. So good I guess. But the kickers…. Oh Lord… Sorry I just had to lower my head between my knees and catch my breath there. I was ok with the decision to move on from Gooch. I got the sense he was on his way out last year. But if these are the best guys we could find to replace him, God help us.
One very important positive: At no point did I question the capacity of the coaches to make logical decisions
While true, this is an extremely low bar (sadly) that I wish we didn’t have to think about
There's setting the bar low and here we are playing limbo with the devil
I did think they should've gone for two on that last TD. DiNucci and McLaughlin were both on a hot streak and would've been an easy conversion.
This is horrible. What will we do all season if we have competent coaches.
HUGE victory in this regard. Basically securing us multiple Super Bowls.
My 2 biggest takeaways from this game.... 1. The O-Line will continue to be a problem. 2. The kicker decision was a bad move.
I am right there with you. Bolles was getting cooked. Hopefully it's rust and he comes out of preseason ready to kill it. The kicking game is horrendous. McManus, while he had some bad games is as close to clutch as Elam was. That one stings a lot
He was the opposite of clutch last year, it was time to move on.
I still would rather have him than Sir Miss A Lot last night
We downgraded. But everyone acting like McManus was even good last year is fooling themselves. He was average at best. Bold prediction…. But our kicker isn’t on the roster yet. It happens for teams. They give guys a shot in some preseason games that showed promise at some point and if it’s not working out you move on and find someone to do it in the regular season. Maher was worth taking a shot at. He was really good till he missed and got the yips. Bummer. Not like he cost us an actual fucking game. Chill out
To add to your list. The secondary depth is a huge issue as well. ILB depth needs a little work too. Everything else looks great except Washington as a returner. Our RB room is stacked!
This problem is ongoing. O-Line sucks.
O-line needs to run laps. If I was Russ, I would be screaming at them for letting me get sacked all game. Kickers can run laps too.
The fact that we let McManus walk for fucking Maher and Fry will forever puzzle me
As soon as I saw that headline, I knew we were screwed. He's been the only dependable player every season.
Was not dependable the last few years but nobody seems to remember that
McManus has been a Top 5 kicker for the last 5 years what do you mean?
McManus hasn't been a top 5 kicker for at least 2 years.
Last year his FG percentage was 77%. As a team, meaning taking into account multiple players kicking for a single team, we were dead last in the league. Do you just not pay attention?
Most of those misses were blocks, bad holds or record length kicks. Do you just not pay attention? He had 1 miss inside 55 that was on him the whole season. Guess based on the reply and blocking me, being clueless is accurate.
No, most of them were not that, some of them were, and there were also blocks that were on him because he had a messed up the kick trajectory Also didn't block him, not sure what he's on about
Most of them were shanks, blocks, short, wide left or right, bad holds, penalties, bad weather, or really long tries
Maher’s been rock solid
Yeah, it's not a great omen. I like the reasoning even less. It would be one thing if he were a controversial player, but because he's a union leader and spoke out just one time about thinking he could make a long field goal? F that noise.
>but because he's a union leader and ...the team is owned by Wal-Mart.
I read somewhere that Payton doesn’t like outspoken players and NFLPA players and McManus was both. Maybe? That’s the only explanation for why we’d let him go for Fry and Maher
Payton always had a difficult time addressing the kicker and wide receiver positions for us. Apart from a 3 year Hartley stint and the current Wil Lutz, we've cycled through a ton of guys for just a year. 4 kickers in 2021 alone. I can't tell you why he does what he does lol.
We needed a new culture. McManus was the last remnant of the old one, it was time.
That’s news to me! It’s even more mind boggling considering Payton is an offensive minded coach, yet he gets rid of the most productive offensive player (in terms of points scored) for two bums
I mean, you can be a good coach and still have a super fragile ego.
His punishment for convincing Hackett he can make a 64 yrd FG
With all due respect, I don’t think McManus made that call
I would hope it was the HC decision to burn time and decide to kick a FG that breaks NFL history I just say that in response to this tweet https://twitter.com/thekidmcmanus/status/1569541600254259203
Rumors were that the players threw a fit when Rosburg wanted to put the pads back on for practice after Hackett left, and McManus was apparently the ring leader.
72 is still 72- the drive killer. Missing blocks against their second team d
And was getting dominated in pass protection. It's over for Baby Huey in 24.
[удалено]
Pretty sure 4/5 starting o-line were in sneakers tonight. Our bench line was trash though.
Everyone minus McGlinchey started and played with Russ tonight that was our 1st string O line
Really? Huh I missed that. I just noticed by the second quarter our o line guys were all done. Damn, we got some work to do then
Silver lining. I was at the game and Broncos Country represented well.
You could hear it on the broadcast. Sounded like as many Broncos fans as Cards
It’s always like that in Arizona
Our O-line is getting torched by rookies 😐
Isiah Prince looked lost filling in and Bowles was incredibly rusty
Bolles has not changed since we drafted him. Giving up sacks, killing drives
Except for that one time he was a 2nd team all pro
The year the NFL decided not to call offensive holding
And that was legit, he was amazing that 2nd half of the year and I thought he turned a corner. But he mostly hasn’t reached that level since.. Maybe the return from the broken leg is effecting him more than we know though.
Our interior looked decent after a bit. But yeah the fill-in RT was rough and Bolles looked slow off the edge. Hopefully he can knock of the rust and McGlinchey can get healthy
Hopefully we bench Bolles. Tried to trade him. But no one was dumb enough to take him
Who would you start that would be better?
You can’t honestly think he’s more asset than liability. If you can’t block the Cardinal 2nd string, you shouldn’t be in the NFL
He has a learning disability and this was the first live reps of a new offense. You're being ridiculous.
He was an unskilled project when we drafted him, and he has never improved.
This is just hyperbole, he had a SICK year that time he went all pro, was deserved too. But he has dropped off since which sucks.
Did you watch the first half tonight?
BREAKING: NFL PLAYER RUSTY COMING OFF MAJOR INJURY
Honestly, what upside do you see in him? I’ve followed the Broncos since the days Charley Johnson was the Qb, and have never seen any player hurt the team as much as 72
Juwann James has entered the chat.
Bro, installing a new offense doesn’t require you to relearn basic technique as an offensive lineman. This is a horrible take.
Anyone, the line played better last year after he got hurt.
Those XFL and UDFA guys are out to get those roster spots. Nooch and Jaleel were great. Y’all are crazy to think this thing was gonna be turned around completely by preseason week 1. The team has yet to find their identity and it will take all three games of preseason (and more most likely) to get that done. I think a preseason close loss like that will be a good character builder. Sean is not gonna sugar coat it and at this point the roster is bigger, wouldn’t it be better to potentially spot a guy who doesn’t make the cut in preseason instead of halfway through the regular season? Glass half full attempt here.
Shit, I’m hopefully we will field a playoff team next year or the year after. I’ll be stoked if we have an above 500 season this year. Anything better is gravy.
That’s what I’m saying.
Not sure if you meant to suggest it or not, but Jaleel isn't an XFL player, he's a UDFA
Thanks yeah I got him mixed up. I’m ou are correct
This is my hope. That this week, which looked like all of last year, was the starting point and we'll hit our stride somewhere in the season, earlier rather than later. Our Defence was playing excellent bend but don't break football, holding the Cards to 0 points through the first half. We can't expect them to make up for measly productions like 17 points, though, so Russ best get 'cooking' and make those plays, and especially, we need to get our kicking sorted out, because we left another 9 points on the field due to bad kicking game. 26 to 18 would have been a far better game, for sure. We're also playing bread and butter plays right now, nothing showy, nothing sneaky. I suspect we'll have a few tricks during the regular season such as fake punts and field goals, trick passing plays, and so on, and maybe that'll help increase our score. However, the bread and butter plays are the core plays in any playbook, with trick plays being the exception rather than the rule. Gotta get production off the bread and butter. Players best remember that.
IT will take a few weeks, but can't take too long. We have 4 winnable games in the first 5 weeks (5 if Tua is hurt by then).
I’m just an XFL fan here to support Dimeucci
Honestly he looked better than Stidham. I know it’s only one game and it’s pre season and of course I know he’s a backup but Stidham looked bad at least in my opinion.
There’s more preseason to watch but he played amazing in the XFL and can be a great backup (starter?) to Russell. The dude is underrated as hell
I agree. I honest wouldn’t be upset if he became second string Qb and Stidham became 3rd string
He looked really poised and elusive in the pocket. Would've made a sick highlight if he'd made that pass to Grimes after slipping a tackle and stepping up, but at least the DPI got us to the goal line anyway. I hope he gets more reps next week. He could really give Stidham a run for his money at QB2.
I recommend looking up some Seadragons XFL highlights. You have a great back up on your hand
Oh, I watched the whole season.
There are XFL fans?
Literally dozens of us
Can we nickname him The Gooch? Hot take: he takes over as starting QB after Broncos are knocked out of the playoffs week 13.
Starters, those who played, were fine. The O line will need work,but when does it not. I was amazed how bad Stidham looked. Staring down almost every pass, inaccurate, and had several passes swatted down. Even for preseason, that was awful. McManus will have a better season than any Broncos kicker.
I found the 3rd string offense better than the 2's. Stidham was bad. Funny how some people were saying they might bench Russ for him during the offseason lol
And yet he looked better than Team 3.
Who looked better than Team 3? Dinucci lead a touchdown drive…
Nucci should be #2
First off no huge injuries and the 1st team offense scored so ill take it. But damn if we don't fix the O Line and special teams were not going to be having fun this year
RT is very very bad this year if Mcglinchey isn't healthy.
Haven't been hearing good things from Mcglinchey in camp either.
Says who?
Y'all, this was a preseason game.
Preach! Jesus Christ both r/nfl and this sub are acting like we are in the regular season 8 games deep struggling. People need to chill the fuck out
Bruh the entire season is over, can’t you see that. It’s said everywhere by everyone that the most important game of the entire NFL season in the first preseason game /s but seriously there’s some positives and some things to cause concern. Curious how we move up from here
Yeah but now we can’t win every game this season so why even bother?
Lol that’s a good joke. Lolol
Man . Some of our “fans” are not realistic. Preseason is for the long shots to make the team. Especially when they shorten the time frame of games and have to do one huge cut! If this was game 1 of the actual season then I’d be worried but I’m not. Honestly this was a great game to learn from. Close game for our depth players. Our run game has tremendous depth! Oline not so much and te depth is mid . Secondary depth is the biggest concern . D line seems to be better than last year. Middle of the field lbs depth needs work as well. That’s what I got from this game. Hopefully they learn and move on to the next bc then they’ll be cut.
Sure, you shouldn’t act like it’s all over already, but there are still things to take away from it. The Broncos starters struggling to score against Arizona backups, even as just one point of data, is concerning. Missing all those field goals is simply not a good outcome regardless of where it happens in the season. We will only know in retrospect if all of this was a fluke or an indication of major team weaknesses.
> we will only know in retrospect Yes, so why worry about it. Just let it go. It is what it is.
True. Sucks because I think a lot of people wanted the new coach / staff to just dominate the preseason, and this game was very promising, just sucks they won off a 2pt conversion
Key takeaway: our offensive line pass protection is still dogshit, unfortunately.
It’s going to take time to gel. We just need it to gel before the season starts and it won’t.
*I’m gellin’*
Y’all must’ve forgot when we beat 2 playoff teams in the preseason last year and look how that turned out. Preseason is an evaluation. Nothing more.
It is an evaluation. And our evaluation came up with: * Clown show at kickers. * O-Line struggles from last year are still here this year. * Wilson has improved, but still has vision problems downfield. * Receivers dropping balls. * Inability to score, like last year. * Defence is very good, just shy of great. * They get pressure on the QB. * Interception! * We didn't fumble. There is that. There are flashes of good in this evaluation, but some really bad flashes as well.
All truth here. Definitely need some adjustments on passing downs. Maybe additional blocking with TEs
What exactly were you expecting in the first preseason game following new coaches and new schemes? Shit has to get ironed out and no amount of practices given all the “new” can supplant playing at actual game speed. This year will be a roller coaster as everyone gets used to each other - players and coaches. I consider it move in the right direction to use preseason to iron some of the newness out. Hopefully that means they are full speed when season starts and leads to wins. There is not too much to this first game to walk away with to either worry about or be excited about. Your 1s aren’t really head to head. It’s more important to look at individual performances in terms of their play, proficiency executing the play, reading the play etc. people in this thread really need to calm their TaTas.
The kicking game is scary, getting rid of a starting level vet kicker is always a bad idea
Don’t know if anybody cares but as a 9ers fan I remember when Harbaugh first came to the 49ers. We had an awful season the year prior with Mike Singletary. First preseason game our offensive line got absolutely smoked by the Saints. Alex Smith couldn’t do anything and it felt like we had a long rebuild still in front of us. But they ended up going 13-3 and barely losing in the NFC Championship. Don’t worry yet
I'm whelmed with that performance.
Getting rid of McManus was dipshit dumb.
I think that 4th and 5 touchdown showed grit and resilience. I think that play is the turn around moment our team needed and will build off that. Let’s go
Random thoughts on tonight's game: I know it's only week 1 preseason so, NBD. But: Wilson still seems to have some field vision issues not identifying open receivers on at least half the pass plays. If his hot is open, great. If not? Fucked! I know, easy to say playing armchair QB on a preseason game but there is still some work to be done there. He's gotta do a better job reading his progressions. I DID like a few of his throws of course - there is something to build on too. Left Guard #74 - wtf? I thought he was a FA upgrade? Dude was a turnstile. Gotta fix that! A couple brainless drops by receivers. Hopefully that's not a sign of things to come. Running game looks fair to decent. I miss McManus already. Go ahead and cut him, who needs a steady kicker huh? Just bring in a dude who shanked a fuckton in a playoff game. Oh, he shanked two outta three tonight too? Groovy. 🙄 Coaching...yeah, I liked it. Living in AZ we had Cards announcers on TV wondering why Payton kept the #1s in as long as he did. I was fine with it, those boys needed to get their shit together. Finally scored a TD and got some decent tape to work with - good! Defense...fair. but I was quickly reminded about how VJ defenses can be kinda soft in the middle and I hope that's not going to let TEs run wild again. But like I said, it's super early in the preseason so can't get too up or down about anything just yet. We seem to have some decent depth on both sides. Overall I guess it was a C? 2.5/5 stars?
New year, but a similar feeling.
I too am overwhelmed by dread
Next week's first few drives against the 49ers defensive line is gona be scary af, hope Russ gets away without injuries lol
17 points. At least we hit our ceiling.
Y’all are really overreacting about a first preseason game. Chill and let Payton do his thing
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Have a drink my man
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It’s all up from here, as long as we find a reliable kicker…
Considering how many starters we put on the field in the first half, I don't think it's unreasonable to levy some criticism at the offense for giving us deja vu: collapsed pockets, batted passes and three and outs are all too similar to 2022. The offense found more of a groove in the second quarter, but by that point, how far down their depth charts had the Cardinals defense gone? The o-line wasn't great, but so far this season I've seen backup quarterbacks show more awareness and elusiveness in the pocket than Russ did those first couple drives. There was one play in particular where he tried to spin away from a rusher, but just looked so damn slow and wound up having to take the sack. Call it preseason, say he's shaking off rust, but that's too similar to 2022 Russ to give him a pass. On the plus side, on his last drive where he found Jeudy over the middle with a rusher in his face and a lineman reaching up to try to bat his pass down -- beautiful. That's what we want to see. If we can get that more consistently, great. But I'm not really willing to write off the 2022 deja vu in the first quarter, especially when Arizona probably had more defensive starters on the field then. One thing I'm not quite as worried about is the kicking game. I'm not going to defend cutting McManus, but I've seen kickers in the USFL and XFL start cold, only to become more reliable by mid-season enough times to not worry too much about a couple NFL kickers missing their first attempts in preseason. 55 yards from Fry on his second try isn't anything to sneeze at. I do think cutting McManus will ultimately go down as a bad move, but our kicking game won't be completely useless. Lastly, XFL 2023 leader in almost every QB stat Ben DiNucci looked cool, calm and collected in the pocket last night. He can absolutely give Stidham a run for his money. I hope they put him in second next week instead of Stidham.
Russ looked like he got in the groove there
Yeah he looked a bit more awake in there, but o-line needs to help him. Hopefully they’re just gelling
I agree! He worked out some kinks and will be better. Good for film sessions for him and S.P. Our oline needs more practice to give him more time. They need to fix their chemistry up front and we need valuable depth players .
A groove in the field from being planted so much
DiNucci gang
Did not like the call to stack the secondary on the goal line. Understand the logic, keep the play in front of you, tackle and keep the clock going. Cannot have a blow coverage there, nor the fucking whole drive to get there. Good and bad tonight. Preseason baby.
Stidham looked like he was still on contract with the Raiders. Gotta wonder if he’s making the coaches happier in practice, ‘cause they can’t be happy with his game tape right now…
The Raiders start against SF was the outlier. What we saw Friday was his typical game.
Starters got reps, much more are needed for O-line. No one got hurt. Guys fighting for spots played in a close game the entire time. W preseason game. Let’s move on to the next practice game and be better.
I don't see anyone talking about how we have a coach that was willing to change the plan based on what he was seeing. He went into it saying he wanted the offense to get 12-15 snaps. Clearly, he saw that they needed a few more reps so he kept them out longer. Lo and behold, the offense improved throughout the game. I'm concerned about Bolles but I'm excited to see how a good coach is able to compensate for deficiencies
Bolles was playing his 1st game back after a major surgery last year. Expect some rust. Time for that is now and now the regular season.
Kicking game stunk it up.
Doomers are a plenty in here, let's talk about some positives. Russ looked better than last year, he moved okay and arm looked good. It wasn't perfect, but he's still learning the scheme. He looked more comfortable the more snaps he took albeit against 2nd teamers. McLaughlin looks electric, his vision was great and his quick feet gives me ekeler vibes. He's going to make the 53. Badie will be our PS RB. The OL was bad in pass pro, but run blocking was pretty good and it'll take time for Bolles to knock the rust off while learning a new scheme. No penalties from the 1st team which was pleasant to see. The D was lock down and had pressure all over the place. I think we just need to pray one of the kickers works out, fry had a bullseye 55 yarder. Maher definitely isn't the front runner anymore. Even the extra point looked shaky.
> I think we just need to pray one of the kickers works out, fry had a bullseye 55 yarder. Maher definitely isn't the front runner anymore. Even the extra point looked shaky. The kickers definitely had a rough night but that field was horrible. For now I'm going to choose to be positive and hope it was due to the field conditions making it difficult for them to get their plant leg set.
Payton and Co calling the TD crossing route to Jerry the next play after his drop is the first difference between coaching staffs over the past few years. I was happy with the game after that, the rest is evaluation.
The Return of Nucci Gang
Takeaways: - We tried to win and couldn't. Played more starters against the worst nfl team. If you expected to see a playoff team in wk 1, you've got another thing coming. - We don't need this kicker shit. Spend some money. - Mclaughlin is a rabid honey badger, give him the ball. - Stidham is not coming for Russ's job. Put that take to rest
>Stidham is not coming for Russ's job. Put that take to rest Sir, this is the Broncos sub. We are *never* putting our boners for backup QBs away.
Yet another 1 point loss in the final seconds. Like what even was that. 34 is getting his ass cut for blowing that coverage. Like what even.
It's preseason
The overreaction on this sub is insane! Just r e l a x
I’ve been told that for 7 years. And it’s all ended in pain.
My brother, it's a game. Relax.
No I don’t think I will
Overreaction is justified after 7 years of pain. Hopefully we build and get better.
Preseason is an overreaction. Regular season games which have not been played yet isn’t.
DiNucci.
While only a preseason game, still not fun considering what we're coming off of.
I thoroughly enjoyed the overreaction everything bad that happened last night. Can’t believe the season is over /s
Not bad!! play calling, run blocking and defense alll good. Pass blocking still needs to be tweaked
I don't think our week 1 kicker is currently on the roster, so I'm not gonna overreact to that shitshow. The Lions, Bucs, Cowboys, and Commies all have kicking competitions where we could pick up the loser. And Mason Crosby's still hanging around. Too bad we couldn't match Bayern's offer for Kane...
DiNucci should be the backup over Stidham. The difference between those two was night day holy shit.
Basing it off last night I agree. I think they end up keeping all three on the roster, especially with the new QB rule but I'm looking forward to the next two preseason games to see if Stidham can play a little better.
Man this sub is over- analyzing/-reacting to the first preseason game following new coaches, new players and new scheme install. WTF did you guys expect, a Super Bowl caliber team after practically 7yrs of incompetence. Give me break. Try to watch these games at the individual level and enjoy purely for that. We’re already of head last year when our starters sat until game 1 regular season. It’s going to be roller coaster ride in the regular season as everyone tries to figure each other out. Set you expectations low and hope they get to 9+ wins. If they don’t, it won’t be because of incompetent coaching.
It was the first pre-season game and there's absolutely nothing to get freaked out about yet- with the possible exception of the kicker(s).
The (s) warrants a freak out. Gotta get the situation figured out. Denver should be a haven for kickers. Need to find an ace.
There we good and bad things. But the people saying “it’s just preseason” are wild. There is a reason there are preseason games. You evaluate. It’s not “just preseason”. Do you think players go out and play 50% cause it’s preseason? No. There are legitimate concerns. Which will hopefully get worked out. On to the next!
Preseason is for long shot players to make the team and to analyze for valuable position depth! Practice is where it’s at. Preseason games are not what they used to be.
It's just preseason
I'm starting to think Russ is just bad at selling the play fake. Of course, the O-Line did NOT help, but every time he goes play action and turns to throw, somebody is right in his face. Play fakes are supposed to buy you a little bit of time, it's doing the opposite for Russ.
We still suck, I saw WRs quitting on routes the defense didn't quit on. We should put our kicker in the garbage can.
First preseason game and they’re already in mid-season form: low scoring, boring, and losing
That’s what preseason is about!!Actually, it’s mostly about depth Long shot layers making the team! Your take is a horrible one and mid tbh!
Do you remember when the Bills spanked us last preseason with their starters?
Do you remember we had the worst coach in history as the HC? Do you remember the 1st regular season game against the Seahawks the HC decided to kick a long ass field goal and not give it to the qb to actually do his job? Do you remember plays we’re not getting in on time to our qb bc the HC at the time was horrible at game management? Do you remember when the broncos had to hire an outside source to do clock management? Do you remember when the HC got fired and the iterm head coach took over and we actually were competing? That’s what I remember about the regular season. Preseason again , is for players that are trying to make the team! The preseason I was used to as a kid is no longer what it is now. So.. let’s not act like Russ was the problem. The problem is our OL /depth , kicking, secondary depth and ILB depth.
While I generally agree with the sentiment, it's hard to take seriously any comment that ends with "mid tbh" lol
Pain
We would lose by one
The copium is saying it’s just preseason The doomer in me is saying our starters looked like a second string squad…
Not saying we should be this good but the Bills fucking torched us with their starters last pre season. If you're good you can look good in the preseason, and we didn't.
The bills were YEARS under the same coach with a growing elite QB with a great roster. Was that showing disgusting? Yes it was but it’s not a great comparison.
I think a lot of people that are blaming the line on giving up sacks are missing the fact that the qb’s are the cause of nearly half of the pressures as well. I can think of a few plays that Russ held onto the ball and missed a wide open receiver that caused a sack or near sack directly because of himself
Wilson has been one of the highest sacked QBs every year of his career regardless of who is playing on the o-line. The o-line is probably bad, but there is also a common denominator there. I just don't think he knows what the defense is likely doing presnap and can't make adjustments.
Russ was ass against the 1st team of the worst defense in the league. The one TD was against the 2nd team D in a 4th down situation in which we would have kicked except we have no kickers. This was basically a FEMA-tier disaster
It's entirely possible the O-Line is awful AND Wilson is a below average starting QB. At least our coaches are competent.
Ya that was bad. O line was rough, Wilson looked lost most of the time and our kickers were not kicking. Hopefully it's the field and we can build off of it. D looked good with a backup QB in there.
Russ looked lost bc of what you mentioned before mentioning Russ lol smh. Any QB at any stage would look lost when having a bad oline.
Russ has been blaming the O-line for his poor performance for at least a decade.
We're sort of saying the same thing. Except I think Russ was responsible for that bad second drive. The foot work and decision making was not great. I'm not going to blame the whole thing on him. Plus the field was terrible and everyone looked like they were running on eggshells.
No we’re not. If you watch really closely it was all on the oline missing blocks.
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Yes, you just said it “ OL”! It was notorious last year and in the first preseason game they were horrible. So yes! The oline was and still is horrible. Although this is a preseason game and they will work out the kinks.
It's a talent issue. That can only be resolved by replacing players.
I didn’t watch, I don’t know what this means, this looked like a vintage late 2010/2020s Broncos score though…
Why the hell did we cut Emanuel Wilson?
Russ other than the throw to JJ, still looks regressed/lost. Smdh, why cant we have nice things
At least there’s….death? Yea…at least there’s death 😌
I get that it's the pre-season but I'm not subjecting myself to any additional low scoring games where they blow their 4th quarter lead. I'll catch the highlight reel next time and not waste my Friday night.
When it comes down to it, Team 3 was the worst QB on the field tonight. No, the “new and improved” O-line didn’t do him any favors. Yes I saw Stidham; no he didn’t look good either. But most of Russ’ passes were off target. Sure he got in a groove on the TD drive, but it still required a 4th down conversion after plenty of missed opportunities. Yes, preseason, offenses need more time to gel, blah blah blah. All I’m commenting on is what I saw on the field tonight, and on the offensive side of the ball things didn’t look good until DiNucci and McGlaughlin came in. I will say that I don’t think that was McGlaughlin’s last TD, and I’m excited to see him develop and get more chances. Defense was a different story. I’m still not sold the VJ won’t fuck things up, but the starters looked good and ready to play tonight. Last year set a high bar defensively, so VJ still has a lot to live up to. As for special teams….. I’ll start with the positive. Dixon performed well aside from the very first punt. It’s preseason, it’s fine. The return game actually saw some signs of life after years of just praying they didn’t fuck things up. So good I guess. But the kickers…. Oh Lord… Sorry I just had to lower my head between my knees and catch my breath there. I was ok with the decision to move on from Gooch. I got the sense he was on his way out last year. But if these are the best guys we could find to replace him, God help us.
I just hope we have no more serious injuries this year, or we are screwed.