Preseason Game 3: vs Seahawks

Due to the malice of the NFL scheduling gods, this is Denver’s third straight preseason road game.

Statistically, Denver dominated in almost every area of the game and did so by large margins. One of the most impressive (for the defense, at least), is that while Denver converted just 5 of 15 third downs, Seattle converted 0 of 11.

Two other areas where Denver smothered Seattle were 1st downs (Denver 24 to just 14 for the Seachickens) and time of possession (Denver held the ball for over 38 minutes).

With the kind of overall domination exhibited in this game, it becomes a wonder that Denver can’t put 7s on the board.

It also eases my worries that the offense is altogether incompetent. I don’t get what’s going on, but I’m not especially worried. Yet.







OFFENSE

Alleluia, alleluia! Jake Plummer played an entire half with 0 INTs. Sadly, he accumulated an equal number of TDs.

He completed 57% of his passes, which isn’t stellar, but isn’t crap. But he threw for only 103 yds and had 9 balls land on the ground (though that is considerably better than having them end up in the hands of Seachicken players).

Plummer threw WRs Darius Watts and Rod Smith five balls each. Both men caught three.

If a QB passing for 60% is considered impressive, can we say the same for WRs who only catch 60% of the balls that come their way?

This is how the rest of Plummers passes fell (yeah, bad pun, but I couldn’t help myself).

Q had two balls thrown to him. He caught one of them.

WR Charlie Adams caught an early ball, then dropped one near the end of the half.

WR Ashley Lelie, who has taken some heat this year and who some believe could lose his #2 spot to rookie Darius Watts, saw two balls thrown to him by Plummer. He caught them both, as did FB Reuben Droughns. Yay, Beer . . . er, I mean, Ashley.

My boy, TE Jeb Putzier, was thrown to twice. Neither ball found its way securely to his hands, and TE Patrick Hape failed to latch onto the only ball that Jake sent his way.

Things started out looking so much tighter when QB Danny Kanell took over, that I briefly wondered if maybe Denver has the wrong QB penciled in as the starter. Kanell completed his first three passes for 26 yds. But he ended the night with just five completions in twelve attempts. It got so bad that offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak utterly abandoned the passing game.

Here’s the break down of Kanell’s passes, for those who care (I put them in italics, so if you don’t, skip on by).

He tossed one ball to RB Mike Anderson. Mike had the good graces to hang onto the damn thing.

WR Triandos Luke got one ball, which he caught.

WR Darius Watts caught two and let two more go by.

WR Charlie Adams failed to catch any of the five balls that came his way (including one from rookie QB Matt Mauck).

TEs Jeb Putzier and Mike Leach were both 0 -1.

TE Patrick Hape tried to make up for his earlier failure by catching the only ball Kanell tossed to him.


RB Mike Anderson did an incredible job (a 5.7 yd average). What I have a problem with is that he got a games worth of carries in one half of football. Of his 21 carries (120 yds), 19 came in the second half.

By the end, even the announcers were noticing that he looked out of gas. This seems to be just begging for an injury and makes no sense in a preseason game. Not when RB Garrison Hearst was ready to go and averaged 7.5 yds per carry on his measly two attempts.

Denver’s O line performed at a higher level, giving up only a single sack.

DEFENSE

The defense, to no one’s surprise, kicked some Seachicken bootay, allowing only 49 yds rushing for the entire game.

On the other hand, Seachicken RB Sean Alexander did average damn near 5 yds per carry against the first team, so all was not completely rosy.

Against Denver’s ones, ‘Chickens QB Matt Hasselbeck completed just 2 of 7 passes and didn’t look like he could have ever been last season’s boy wonder.

But, on the very first play after the ‘Chickens replaced Hasselbeck with backup QB Seneca Wallace, Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren made a brilliant call.

Correctly expecting that Denver’s D would be anticipating something conservative, Holmgren had Wallace go long against CB Champ Bailey, completing a 45 yd pass to WR Kevin Robinson. Even as a Denver fan I had to be impressed and give Mike a mental high five.

Sadly, for the ‘Chickens, Holmgren got stupid immediately afterward, going against Bailey again in the end zone, which resulted in Wallace’ pass being knocked down.

The Broncos D came up with five rockin’ sacks.

The bad news is that this defense, built with an eye toward interceptions, couldn’t come up with even one. With the line putting consistent pressure on the QB, I have to wonder what the Hell is up.

Not that things are falling apart. Seattle’s completion percentage was just 42.4%


SPECIAL TEAMS

Punting was just adequate, with Hayden Epstein edging Micah Knorr 38.5 to 35.0 (though I think it grossly unfair to judge punters based on net yardage).

Punt returns were anemic, averaging less than 8 yds per return. But, punt coverage was tight with Seattle also averaging fewer than 8 yds per attempt.

Kicker Jason Elam was, of course, perfect, connecting on all four of his field goals and his one extra point attempt.

FB Reuben Droughns was excellent returning kicks, averaging a beautiful 33 yds per return, his longest going for 49 yds.

However, kickoff coverage was, typically, lacking. Seattle averaged over 20 yds per return, with longs of 27 and 29 yds.

RELATED:

DenverBroncos.com

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Denver Post

7, 8, 9