***Official Knowmo2724 homer-2000 thread***

[Ebolapox]

Very few non-bronco fans can tolerate him. he creates inane threads that are homeristic in nature (his avatar is very apropos), and nobody loves him (not even his own mother)

'face, this can be the home for all knowmo threads so we aren't treated to the bi-weekly steaming 'presents' left by the front door.

[Bane]

Isn't what happened to the Chiefs when were 9-0 and went to Cinn in 03? !!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Raised On Riots

Yeah, my fuzzy math screwed me.

I figured you meant 3 seasons ago counting the current one.

[Quiet Storm]

I really am liking the Pub they are getting now. It's going to make it all that much sweeter...ala 08.

All was great and rosey last year...they were given wins by the officials, Shanarat was being his smug self in his pressers, they had a huge lead in the West....and yet, we all know how that turned out.

Give it time people....the meltdown will come.

[Cassel>Manning]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

Sh*t... why put the SI Cover jinx out there when the Patriots are coming to town? Thanks SI...

Don't fret Mile High Mania!

Posted October 6, 2009, 12:22 pm
Digging into the SI vault
By Lindsay Jones

Just got a text from a Broncos Super Fan (who just so happens to be my former boss), with a eerie fun fact about the Broncos being on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Turns out, the Broncos were on the cover 25 years ago this week, on Oct. 8, 1984, with the headline “The Broncos Bust Out.”

Here’s the cover, featuring Sammy Winder.


Compare that to this week’s cover, featuring Daniel Graham. Pretty crazy, no?



Those 1984 Broncos won six consecutive games after the issue came out, finished 13-3 and won the AFC West (but lost in the divisional round of the playoffs.)

http://blogs.denverpost.com/broncos/...-the-si-vault/

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Quiet Storm

I really am liking the Pub they are getting now. It's going to make it all that much sweeter...ala 08.

All was great and rosey last year...they were given wins by the officials, Shanarat was being his smug self in his pressers, they had a huge lead in the West....and yet, we all know how that turned out.

Give it time people....the meltdown will come.

How does it feel to have to be the bitterman?

[Mile High Mania]

Originally Posted by Quiet Storm

I really am liking the Pub they are getting now. It's going to make it all that much sweeter...ala 08.

All was great and rosey last year...they were given wins by the officials, Shanarat was being his smug self in his pressers, they had a huge lead in the West....and yet, we all know how that turned out.

Give it time people....the meltdown will come.

I'm expecting several losses... but, not in the fashion of 2008. Eight wins are realistic... but, that's as far as I'm going right now.

[Cassel>Manning]

Broncos' Dumervil has become money as big-time pass rusher
Big bucks ahead for 2006 fourth-rounder who has turned into sack star

With all the money NFL teams waste on scouting, perhaps some of it could be transferred to players like Elvis Dumervil.

The No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft was defensive end Mario Williams. Houston gave him a six-year contract worth $54 million. To date, Williams has 32.5 sacks in 52 games.

Way back in the fourth round of the same draft, with the No. 126 overall pick, Dumervil was selected. The Broncos gave Dumervil a four-year deal worth $2 million. He has 34 sacks in 49 games.

Thus, Dumervil has nearly two more sacks in three fewer games for $52 million less than the pass rusher drafted 125 picks ahead of him.

Kudos to the Broncos' scouting department and executives for coming up with perhaps the greatest fourth round in NFL draft history. Besides Dumervil, Denver nabbed a wide receiver named Brandon Marshall earlier in the round.

Then again, weren't the Broncos also a bit lucky Marshall and Dumervil were still around in the fourth round?

"I think the biggest thing about Elvis is he plays the game with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder," Broncos defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said. "He is a little shorter and people bring it to his attention, including me, but he overcomes it. He's very competitive."

Pound per pound, inch per inch, the 5-foot-11, 248-pound Dumervil is arguably the NFL's best pass rusher. Stripping away subjective reasoning and getting more to the point of statistical production, Dumervil is the NFL's sixth-best active pass rusher — and climbing.

Dumervil in his career has .694 sacks per game, a clip that exceeds all but the highly compensated Shawne "roidman" Merriman, Jared Allen, DeMarcus Ware, John Abraham and Dwight Freeney.

And while Merriman hasn't reached the quarterback since the final game of the 2007 season, and Ware is sackless this year, Dumervil has eight sacks in his past three games.

"They should break that down to sacks per plays," Dumervil said, noting he played in less than 30 percent of the Broncos' defensive snaps in his rookie year of 2006 and was primarily a third-down rusher last season. "But I've got a long way to go. I'm still trying to learn."

With his Broncos taking a 4-0 record into their game Sunday against the New England Patriots, Dumervil does not have dollar signs racing through his mind, but quarterback Tom Brady.

"When you start thinking about contract stuff, that's when you get off course and lose focus," Dumervil said. "If you just come out and do your job, those type of things will come. I love the game. This is something I love to do."

The Broncos are likely to address Dumervil's contract the minute after it expires at season's end. What could Dumervil command in the open market? First, consider the boom of teams using the 3-4 defense and the premium it places on pass-rushing outside linebackers like Dumervil.

Baltimore recently re-signed Terrell Suggs to a $63 million deal. Freeney, with whom Dumervil is most often compared, is in the third year of a six-year deal that will pay him $72 million.

Among defensive linemen, it's the pass rushers who get the big money.

"On defense, all they ever talk about is stopping the run, stopping the run," said Broncos defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday. "That's the No. 1 goal. But the guys that get paid are the ones that get sacks."

Why is that? If the quarterback is the undisputed most important position to a football team, then it follows that the next significant positions are those who can directly stop the quarterback.

"I think it's because the quarterback is so important and it's also very exciting for the fans, for the team — it's third down, you've got to have a stop and you sack the quarterback," Holliday said. "You're talking about the excitement it causes, the momentum shifts, all those things are very important."

Not only are exciting, momentum-shifting pass rushers important, they're apparently difficult for scouts to find.

http://www.denverpost.com/premium/br...793?source=rss
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

[Cassel>Manning]

McDaniels takes Belichick's lessons into Sunday showdown with Pats

Josh McDaniels, 33, faces his former mentor Bill Belichick and the Patriots on Sunday.

After several seconds of trying to convince a listener that Sunday's game against the Patriots is significant only because it's next on the schedule, Josh McDaniels leaned against his black BMW sedan, flashed a wide smile and, for one of the few times since becoming the Broncos' head coach in January, veered off message.

"It is going to be special for me in that I'm going to relish the opportunity to try to get ready to play and beat a team that I was a part of for eight years, a team that I respect so much," he said last Sunday, after the Broncos improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2003 with a thrilling 17-10 victory over the Cowboys. "I'm forever indebted to the Patriots for what they did for me and for what they've allowed my family to accomplish in terms of my professional career."

It is a career that was aided greatly by New England coach Bill Belichick, who gave McDaniels his first NFL job in 2001. While climbing from personnel assistant to coaching assistant to quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator, McDaniels, now 33, absorbed many of the Belichick's teachings and adopted many of his football principles. You can see it in how the Broncos run practice, evaluate personnel, write scouting reports, and attack opponents on offense and defense with situational football. They're all so ... so ... New England-like.

Still, perhaps the most important lessons McDaniels learned came in February 2008, two weeks after the Patriots' quest for an undefeated season ended with a 17-14 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLIII. When the coaches returned from a two-week break, Belichick called McDaniels into his office and handed him a five-page, typed report on what it takes to be an effective coach and have a winning organization.

"I had been talking to Bill for a few years about being a head coach, and after I didn't do any interviews during the bye week in the '07 playoffs he said, 'I will help you in any way I can to get you ready for all the other things that go into the job,'" McDaniels said. "Just being around him every day was going to help me from a football standpoint because I could see what he did and how he did it. But he was saying he would help me with some of the things that you won't really get a chance to witness or understand or become knowledgeable about until you're in that position.

"I remember when we first came back after our break, that very first day, that very first morning, he brought me into his office and he gave me five pages, typed, of all the topics and things that he felt like I needed to be educated about to become an effective head coach. I'm thinking to myself, here he's got 10 or 12 days where he can do whatever in the hell he wants to do -- we've just come off a season where we were 16-0 and lost in the Super Bowl -- and the very first day back he gives me this? That was kind of like my bible."

During the 2008 season, the men met for an hour here, 30 minutes there, until they had addressed every point in the report. From there McDaniels developed 60 to 65 questions of his own that he carried into job interviews with Cleveland and Denver earlier this year.

"When you say where did the questions come from, it was Bill's background," McDaniels said. "He had been a head coach in Cleveland and New England, he was a coordinator in a number of different places, and he understands the salary cap, free agency, the draft, contracts, all that stuff. He gave me as much of that information as I could possibly ask for -- and then he gave me a whole bunch of information that I never would have asked for. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything."

That's why Sunday's showdown against the 3-1 Patriots is more than the next game on the schedule. McDaniels knows that one of the best ways to show Belichick how much he respects and appreciates him is by having his team as prepared as possible.

"They're going to know some of the things we're doing, and we're going to know some of the things they're doing," McDaniels says. " It's ultimately going to come down to whose players execute and make the most plays. It'll be a lot of fun. The games that are really special are the ones where you're playing the best teams, and they're certainly one of them."

With that, McDaniels was back on message -- which is exactly where Belichick would want him to be.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ick/index.html
Damn, Belicheat* is pretty cool after-all.

[Cassel>Manning]

"I tell you what, just being under Josh McDaniels for a few months now, I mean he's a guy that is going to have you as prepared as you can be for a game, and that's something that throughout my 11 years I haven't had a lot of," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "I've had some great coaches including [Mike] Shanahan, but [McDaniels] is definitely one-of-a-kind in the way that he approaches the game."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/column...dam&id=4543184

[Cassel>Manning]

In Denver, they're using the 'f' word to describe Kyle Orton
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Nah, couldn't be. My hearing apparently is acting up.

I could have sworn Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley just referred to Kyle Orton as a franchise quarterback.

"I definitely think we've got a franchise quarterback," Stokley said.

The "f" word? Orton, a franchise quarterback? In Chicago, the term has been defined as a person with a cannon arm, a swagger and initials other than K.O. We've been told so often that Jay Cutler is a franchise quarterback we repeat it in our sleep.

"You don't have to have all the flash and the strongest arm in the world -- and Kyle does have a strong arm, by the way," Stokley said. "But you don't have to throw the ball 100 mph and do all these dynamic things with the ball. You just need to win games and get the job done. You can be a franchise quarterback that way."

Denver is looking at Orton differently than it did when he arrived in the blockbuster trade that sent Jay Cutler to the Bears. And Denver certainly is looking at Orton differently than many in Chicago did. What lots of people scoffed at in our town -- Orton as the dreaded "game manager" -- Denver is embracing.

He is more than a caretaker, but it's easier to make him out to be a one-dimensional stick figure.

"I guess that's another one of those perception things," he said after Friday's Broncos practice. "Once you get a label, you're not going to shake it.

"I guess some people would rather win and have the quarterback throw three interceptions and somehow do it flashy. I like to try not to put my defense in bad situations. I try to play complementary football."

He and the Broncos are 4-0. It's true they haven't beaten anybody great, and it's also true their road gets precipitously steeper Sunday when New England comes to town. But Orton is edging closer to being The Guy. He never has been that, even when he was the Bears' starting quarterback. Until this year, he had never gone into training camp as the undisputed starter.

"I loved Chicago, but I feel like I'm in a better situation, no question about it -- the talent around me, the system I'm in," he said. "This is a great offense I think I can thrive in, that I think is really suited well for me. You've got to think, you've got to handle the operation correctly and then you've got to be accurate.

"I think I can do all those things well."

One thing he does particularly well is win. He said he doesn't keep track of any of his stats, save one: He is 17-2 as a starter at home. That .895 winning percentage is the best by an NFL quarterback with a minimum of 15 starts since the 1970 merger.

"I'm proud of the fact that I've won as many games as I have," he said. "I'm not saying it's just me winning those games, but winning is the goal. Somehow I've been able to accomplish that more often than not."

It's time to give Orton some props. He is 25-12 as a starter. He was rolling along for the Bears last year when he hurt his ankle, came back too early and struggled through a 4-3 second half.

It's not coincidence his teams tend to win. There are a lot of mediocre quarterbacks who can help their teams lose. The teams that win consistently in the NFL are getting, if not great play from their quarterbacks, then at least very smart play. Orton is smart. He has yet to throw an interception in Denver's surprising start, and his passer rating is 97.7.

"The way I evaluate quarterbacks is wins, production, taking care of the football, helping your team do what it needs to do on a regular basis," Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. "We've won four games, and Kyle's taken care of the football very well throughout those games."

The Broncos' defense has been great, allowing 26 points in four games. The offense has been good enough. Orton's longest completion was a tipped, 87-yarder to Stokley in the final seconds to beat the Bengals in the opener.

That play is Exhibit A for people who don't believe the Broncos are for real.

"Hey, games in this league come down to the last two minutes," Orton said. "If you can make plays in those situations and score points and hold people, you can win. We won a lot of crazy ways in Chicago. That's the league."

Orton lives four blocks from his good friend Brian Griese, a former Broncos and Bears quarterback. Griese has offered Orton advice, but their situations with the Broncos are different. Griese replaced John Elway, which is to say that he didn't replace Elway, because nobody could.

Orton was replacing Cutler, a physically talented quarterback who demanded to be traded after a nasty, public falling out with McDaniels. Although there were raised eyebrows about Orton's relative abilities, a lot of Broncos fans were happy to be rid of an unhappy Cutler.

Orton has made his own way. He has played with an injured finger suffered in an exhibition game against the Bears. Teammates are impressed by how hard he works, both in practice and in the film room. They elected him one of the captains.

He becomes a free agent after the season. His preference would be to stay in Denver. Actually, his preference would be to get a new contract done during the season.

"I know I'm playing good football right now, and I know how much I like it here," he said. "I just totally believe that I'm going to be successful with this coach and with this system and with these players around me. Hopefully, (a new contract) happens sooner than later."

Rather than label Orton a franchise quarterback or a game manager, perhaps we can agree he might have found the perfect place for himself. The Broncos appreciate his skills and his smarts.

The Bears appreciate Cutler's abilities. There are different ways to do the same thing.

"I wish Jay the best of luck," Orton said. "I'm happy I'm here."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports....column?page=1
Lock him up McDaniels!

[orange]

Broncos' McDaniels is more than a Belichick disciple

by Alex MarvezOctober 10, 2009, 11:59 AM EDT
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -

They are the NFL's Boyz in the Hoodies.

New England's Bill Belichick popularized that style of sweatshirt by wearing it on the sideline. Josh McDaniels has donned one in Denver — albeit with the sleeves intact — as a tribute to his mentor.

With cool weather forecast, both head coaches will probably sport them once again during Sunday's Patriots-Broncos game at Invesco Field. That fashion statement would further feed into the perception of McDaniels being a pure Belichick clone from having worked under him the previous eight seasons in New England.

In this case, clothes don't make the man.

Sure, McDaniels has liberally borrowed from one of football's sharpest minds in how he runs the surprising Broncos (4-0). Practice schedules, the offensive system, even media policies are almost exactly the same. The Patriots-style "team" concept is stressed to the hilt, especially when player individuality comes at the expense of others. Wide receiver Brandon Marshall learned that the hard way when suspended in the preseason for deviant behavior.

But even though their relationship is the main media storyline heading into Sunday's game, Belichick isn't the most influential coaching figure in McDaniels' life. That distinction actually falls to Thom McDaniels, a long-time Ohio high school football coach who began taking his son to practices at the age of 4.

"My coaching style — how I am with the players, what I say on the sidelines, how I act — probably comes a lot more from my father," McDaniels told FOXSports.com before Friday's Broncos practice. "I watched some 200 games standing right beside him growing up. I was his guy that held the (headset) cord and all the rest. I can go over and over about the things I remember seeing him do.

"It's an invaluable experience to go through as a young kid. People who don't grow up that way really don't understand how much value there is in that."

As the son of a football coach himself, Belichick does. That's one reason Belichick and McDaniels became so close personally and professionally. So are all the positive qualities Belichick spouted about McDaniels — "smart, loyal, hard worker, good sense of humor, very committed, easy to work with" — during a telephone interview.

It didn't seem like that at first in Denver. Replacing a Broncos coaching legend like Mike Shanahan was daunting enough. McDaniels' grace period then ended prematurely when a blow-up with Jay Cutler led to Denver's star quarterback being traded to Chicago in April.

Skeptics began to question whether McDaniels — a 33-year-old wiz kid as New England's offensive coordinator — was in over his head and quickly headed toward the same fate as other ill-fated Belichick proteges who flopped as head coaches like Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini. McDaniels was tested again in August. Upset about his contract status, Marshall's frustration boiled over when he became disruptive during practice. McDaniels suspended Marshall for the rest of the preseason.

The Broncos appeared in chaos from the outside, especially with Cutler replacement Kyle Orton getting off to a rough preseason start. But the Marshall suspension galvanized the team around McDaniels, who had been quietly winning players over with his football acumen and upbeat demeanor.

"The key was staying together," Broncos safety Renaldo Hill said. "In the locker room, we knew all we had was each other."

McDaniels finally caught a break in the season-opener. Brandon Stokley's 87-yard touchdown catch off a ricochet with 11 seconds remaining gave Denver a 12-7 victory in Cincinnati. The Broncos haven't stopped rolling since and enter Sunday's game with a better record than New England (3-1). Denver's revamped defense has allowed only 26 points in four games. And while not in the same league as Cutler as a passer, Orton hasn't thrown an interception in 117 pass attempts.

"Clearly, Josh's way of doing things was different because there was some conflict there," said Kansas City general manager Scott *****, who worked closely with Belichick and McDaniels in New England. "You change the culture when you win. That's happening now. People are buying in. They should know Josh is doing the right thing."

Marshall now does, having bought into McDaniels' program upon returning from his suspension. Not only did he catch the game-winning touchdown pass in last Sunday's 17-10 victory over Dallas, Marshall crashed McDaniels' postgame news conference to give him a hug.

That was the first public display of affection McDaniels had received as Denver's head coach. It also went a long way toward humanizing someone who was widely perceived as cold and impersonal like how Belichick comes across in a news conference setting. But feel-good moments are really nothing new for McDaniels, who is still young and fit enough to physically interact with his players on the field. New England's Wes Welker remembers when he was challenged to cover McDaniels — a wide receiver himself at John Carroll University — at Patriots practices.

"I don't think he caught one ball," a laughing Welker said. "I wouldn't exactly call what he was doing as running routes. They were scramble patterns. He thought he was still good. He thought doing double, triple and quadruple moves would be able to help. It didn't."

While he jokingly recalls having more success against Welker than that, McDaniels admits personal interaction with players is a cornerstone to his coaching philosophy.

"There is the business side of it, but there are also plenty of relationships you can hold outside of that aspect," McDaniels said. "I try not to separate the two. I love those guys in that locker room. I know some aren't going to be here forever and some are going to be here longer than others. But when they're out there playing, practicing and in meetings, they're all your guys. You've got to treat them like that."

McDaniels also is comfortable in his own skin, which the 57-year-old Belichick says is vital to coaching success.

"The big thing is to be yourself," said Belichick, the NFL's top head coach this decade with three Super Bowl titles. "I don't think you can be somebody else. I don't think anybody else can be me — and I don't think they should want to be. Just because something works for somebody else doesn't mean it's going to work for you. You have to create your own style in a way that's comfortable for you."

On that front, McDaniels already is a success even if the pupil doesn't beat the teacher in Sunday's matchup.

"People always associate me as being from New England, which I am, but I'm also my own person," McDaniels said. "My background and personality doesn't conflict with the information that I'm bringing with me from New England. I think I've really learned over the last 12 weeks here how to put that all together — be the leader of the team, communicate effectively, have great relationships with our players, get them prepared as much as I can and still hold onto the things that I've learned but do them in a different way.

"My own way is OK."

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/1...chick-disciple

[scott free]

Originally Posted by vailpass

How does it feel to have to be the bitterman?

Why, we didnt come here ta dance around like a bunch of Denver Dicklickers!

You are witnessing our meltdown, cant we atleast pine for yours?

Fair is Fair...

[Cassel>Manning]

Broncos’ Bowlen heaps praise on Marshall, McDaniels

BOSTON — Broncos owner Pat Bowlen said Josh McDaniels is maturing into the head coach he expected him to be and that WR Brandon Marshall is playing himself into a “significant raise.”

“Brandon understands that he’s got a year left on his present deal, but if he keeps playing the way he is, he’s going to get a very significant raise — a much better contract,” Bowlen said Tuesday at the NFL Fall League Meeting. “That’s the way it goes, and Brandon has accepted that.”

Marshall, who asked to be traded and later was suspended because of insubordinate behavior at a preseason practice, has played well the past two weeks for the 5-0 Broncos. At least publicly, Marshall has shown a more amicable attitude toward McDaniels after a contentious offseason.

As for McDaniels and his team’s hot start, Bowlen said, “Things couldn’t be any better.”

Bowlen went on: “We took some early criticism hiring a young coach — he was 32 years old at the time — and were questioned about what he was going to be able to do. He’s been terrific. It’s been extremely important as we got into the process of him being a head coach, that the way he’s handled particular situations was well beyond his years. He’s proven he is ready.”

Bowlen singled out the way McDaniels singularly absorbed the criticism for trading Pro Bowl QB Jay Cutler to the Bears in exchange for Kyle Orton and draft picks, although it was an organizational decision.

http://blogs.nfl.com/2009/10/13/bron...all-mcdaniels/
Lock Marshall up Bowlen!

[Cassel>Manning]

Orton To Receive AFC Offensive Award
October 13th, 2009 - 4:50pm by Chris Gentilviso

For the first time 11 seasons, the Broncos are off to a 5-0 start, and Kyle Orton is a big reason why.

For the first time in his five-year NFL career, Orton is set to receive a conference player-of-the-week honor. The Broncos learned on Tuesday that he will be named AFC Offensive Player of the Week, for his performance against the Patriots on Sunday.

Orton completed 35-of-48 throws for 330 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception in the Broncos’ 20-17 overtime win. He drove Denver 98 yards to the game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter and 58 yards to the game-winning field goal on the first drive of overtime.

Orton’s 35 completions tied for the third-highest single-game total in the NFL this year, and his 330 passing yards were the most by a victorious AFC passer during Week 5. His 72.9 percent completion percentage set a career high and marked the second-highest game total in Broncos history among players with at least 45 pass attempts..

Orton has also proven his value in the clutch. The overtime drive he engineered against the Patriots represented the fourth time this season that he led a touchdown drive of 67 yards or more in the final quarter of play. It was also third time this season overall that he led a game-winning drive.

Orton is the 44th Bronco to win an AFC Offensive Player of the Week award since its inception in 1984.

– Chris Gentilviso, DenverBroncos.com

http://blog.denverbroncos.com/denver...fensive-award/

[Cassel>Manning]