Thursday Night Recap
Denver beats out Baltimore in an opening game with a few twists to say the least.
Broncos
Peyton Manning had 27 completions, 42 attempts 462 passying yards, zero interceptions and a miraculous 7 passing TD's setting a record. Manning's vision and passing accuracy was on full display, spotting J.Thomas early in the game with two TD passes and then another beautiful two TD throws to Welker.
D. Thomas was quiet in the beginning but put the game away with his 80 something yard TD. He finished with 5 catches, 161 yards and two TDs.
Welker's first game as a Bronco ended with 67 yards receiving and two TD passes albeit he fumbled a punted kick which provided the Ravens with some energy.
This probably shouldn't have been a surprise and hindsight is always 20/20 but J.Thomas regardless played above expectations with 110 receiving yards and two TDs on five receptions.
Montee Ball received the ball a fair bit in the third and 4th quarters but was largely ineffective with the run accumulating only 26 rushing yards. Moreno was the main RB in the first half and also was uninspiring with 28 rushing yards on 9 carries and a total 65 yards.
Ravens
While Manning was calm under pressure and provided the necessary game time plays Flacco played poorly. While under pressure he made several poor reads and decisions with the throw, ending up with two interceptions. Bottom stat line: 55 % pass completion rate, 362 passing yards and two passing TDs.
Jacoby Jones was injured by his own teammate early in the game and the Ravens were left with 3WR of Smith, Stokley and the rookie Marlon Brown. Celek dropped an easy catch at the goal line forgoing an easy TD which put a dagger in the Raven's momentum. Stokley seemed constantly out of gas and couldn't ever get himself into another gear. Brown played well, running his routes, getting open and receving a TD pass. He was definitely under utilized.
Ray Rice was the best RB on the field for both teams but that isn't saying much with his 36 rushing yards. This game was an aeriel one with Manning and his WR corpse outplaying Flacco and his troops.
Defense had a large part of this. Smith was well covered throughout the game and the Ravens collapsed in the second and third quarters with poor CB coverage leaving Welker, J. Thomas and D. Thomas alone to do their thing. Ray Lewis is missed. Not much ownership from the Raven's IDPs in settling down the team compared to Woodyard doing an outsanding job for the Broncos.
Last edited by msb; September 6, 2013 at 2:31 AM.
Hockey
12 Team Yahoo H2H standard scoring 1 year
Start: 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 4D, 2G
G,A, PPP, SHP, Shots, +/-, W, L, Shutout
To be drafted.
Football
10 team league. Standard Yahoo scoring. (Non PPR)
Start 1QB, 3WR, 2RB, 1TE, 1Flex (WR/RB/TE) 1K, 1DEF, 1 defensive player
QBs: Wilson, Manning
WR:V. Jackson, Patterson, Benjamin, Cooks
RB: J. Charles, A. Morris, D. Martin, K. Davis, K. Robinson
TE: Gronkowski, Cameron
K: Novak
DEF: Steelers
IDP:Worrilow