From: johndoe@spock.inmet (johndoe)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: TNT Announcers / Bronco Comments
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:03:30 GMT
Organization: Intermetrics, Inc.

In article <1992Sep8.014939.25644@colorado.edu> davewood@bruno.cs.colorado.edu (David Rex Wood) writes:
>The announcers for the Bronco game last night were some of the worst I've
>ever heard.  Among the idiotic things I can remember were:

actually, i think most of these comments can be attributed to gary bender.
i thought pat haden was lucid and fairly attentive (except for the "illegal
man down field" call) most of the game.  haden was the one who pointed out
that the raiders kept running the ball into the middle of the line out of i-
formation, and he gave dennis smith credit for figuring this out and
blitzing on every play the raiders got into i-formation.  i thought this was
a key to the game, because that was when the broncos started completely
stuffing the raider offense.

but i can understand why cbs let gary bender go.

>As for the game...
>
>Well, lets call it winning ugly.  I won't deny that we looked real weak on
>offense.  REAL weak.  But still, if you give Elway 3 minutes to make up a
>3 point defecit, he'll do it almost every time.  The offensive line looks
>really bad and it seems to be affecting Elway's confidence (of course) and
>as a result John looks pretty bad too.  A few other notes...

hopefully that last minute drive will do a lot to re-boost elway's
confidence.  another pat haden comment was that elway was probably really
chafing to get onto the field; the raiders had held the ball for the first
eight minutes of the game, except for the few seconds michael brooks had the
ball, and there was one good stat which read, "offensive plays:  raiders-15,
broncos-0".  elway did indeed start off shaky, but came on late.

the running game looked pretty pathetic.  unfortunately, until elway shows a
little more consistency this season, the other team will probably stack the
defensive line, try to stuff the run, and dare elway to beat their blitzes.
once he does this one time, it will hopefully open up some of those usual
trap running lanes for gaston.

>- Should have been ahead 21-0 after 15 minutes.  On the first LA possession,
>  we scored 7 points.  On the second, we got a turnover and started at the
>  35 yard line -- no points.  On the third, another turnover put the offense
>  at the 16 -- again no points.

actually, except for a couple of great defensive plays by raiders *offensive*
players, those 21 points could have been a lot easier.  i would have settled
for 13 on a couple of treadwell field goals, but...

>- Defense looked very good early and stayed strong as the game progressed.
>  They were out on the field a LOT and did not seem to tire much.  They
>  obviously missed Atwater, hopefully he'll be back next week.

my take on the defense was that they looked okay, but gave up a lot of
rushing yardage up the middle until they picked up that raider i-formation
tendency.  this is where they missed atwater most.  and, of course, shroeder
did his part in making the defensive secondary look pretty good.

>- Daluiso showed that he was worth the extra roster spot.  Each of his 4
>  kickoffs were touchbacks -- the first almost went through the goalposts.

i was noticing the same thing and thinking later, "too bad he couldn't get
just a tad more height on that 55-yarder he tried.  should be good for
treadwell's confidence not to have to worry about missing 47+ yard field
goals. 

>- Reeves FINALLY came up with something to get us in from the goal line.  On
>  2nd and goal, Elway faked the handoff up the middle and gave it to Reggie
>  Rivers on the reverse.  Rivers walked in.

this i think was sold by the fact that reeves did try the line once up the
middle, which i also think was smart.  if they get in, it builds the
confidence of the offensive line; if they don't, they use up some of that
last minute and suck the defense a little more into the middle.


a lot of denver's confidence problems will hopefully be solved by a visit
from the bob gagliano led san diego chargers next week, and by atwater's
return in a few.

>David Rex Wood -- davewood@cs.colorado.edu -- University of Colorado at Boulder

-johndoe
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro