Denver’s starters look good

By Robert Rousseau  |   Tuesday, August 29, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

Denver Broncos
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The jury has always been out on how important preseason football games are. Every year as soon as a high profile player gets hurt- this year, Clinton Portis, for example- the media and select NFL players tend to have a field day knocking the whole preseason concept. After all, a good record before the season has proven time and again to mean virtually nothing once the real games get under way.

Of course, the main reason behind this is obvious- the starters don't always play in the preseason. Consequently, plenty of players compete in these contests that won't ever even see the field once the games start to count. Perhaps then, preseason success shouldn't be judged by wins and losses. Rather, why not gauge exhibition success on two more pertinent factors?

First, the injury report (or hopefully lack thereof). Next, how did the team's starters play in the preseason? Forget the second and third teams, look at the guys destined to play for sure.

Going by the latter part of this formula, the Denver Broncos have been one highly successful football team thus far in the preseason. More specifically, when the Broncos' first offensive and defensive teams have played against their opponents' starters, things have clearly gone their way. First, they've outscored these opponents 31-9 and outgained them by a count 387 yards to 257.

Second, they've achieved five sacks in comparison to their opponents' goose egg, and have averaged 1.4 yards more per play (5.5 yards per play versus 4.1). Last, they've won both the rushing (161 yards to 118) and passing battles (226 yards to 139) against their first team counterparts.

Not bad, huh?

Beyond that, there's been even more good news from the starting front in the preseason. On Sunday, Javon Walker caught his first passes since the injury that kept him from playing most of last season (three catches for 41 yards).

Even better, he finally got hit in a game, and his reaction was uplifting. "I was just waiting to see after the catch what the tackle would feel like," Walker said, expressing the normal trepidations of a player coming back from a significant injury, according to an Aug. 28 article by J. Michael Moore at DenverBroncos.com. "After the first catch, needless to say, I knew everything was going to be alright."

So if one chooses to read into the preseason, it appears that the Denver Broncos' starters are doing very well. Soon, we'll see if this momentum translates to the regular season.

Get more original Denver Broncos coverage at Realfootball365.com
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or...
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