Unser Chat » The touchdown pass, the route may have been designed

Top 5 plays from the Denver Broncos 24-23 preseason defeat to the Chicago Bears The Denver Broncos lost the game to the Chicago Bears 24-23 Bradley Chubb Broncos Jersey , but they really did manhandle them when it mattered with the first-team and second-team units. These top five plays from the game all occurred when those units were on the field.Bradley Chubb gets a safetyA poor handling of a snap by Mitch Trubisky in his own end zone was all rookie edge rusher Bradley Chubb needed to get the Broncos on the board with a safety.He was playing timidly in his first game, but let it loose in this one against the Bears. Playing opposite of Von Miller does put a bit of pressure on the rookie, so his focus has been on ensuring he does all of the little things right.“It makes a lot of difference,” Chubb said of playing with Miller. “People in the game are looking at him. I feel like it puts the pressure on me a little bit more. They want to run at me, see what I can do, see if I can prove myself. I feel like having him on the other side is fun and definitely a test for me as well.”He continues to impress everyone and will likely only get better as the season progresses.Royce Freeman gets another touchdownBroncos rookie running back Royce Freeman continued his march towards winning the starting job with his second rushing touchdown of the preseason. This one was only four yards, but his nifty footwork and nose for finding the gap was quite impressive.Freeman now has 10 carries for 58 yards and two touchdowns in limited work through two preseason games. So far, he looks the part of a bell cow kind of back.“I’m good,” Freeman said of his confidence level after two games. “Just going out there, I try not to get too complacent. Every week I want to go out there and get better and improve on my last performance.”The Broncos will likely have a running back by committee approach all season, but we should expect to see Freeman get the largest percentage of touches based on how he is running through these two early preseason games.Justin Simmons is a ballerFor as much credit John Elway gets for his poor drafting, he doesn’t get much for when he hits a home run. Justin Simmons has been a home run pick so far. Speaking of picks, he jumped the route here to intercept Trubisky for a big time play midway through the second quarter when the Bears were threatening.The Broncos are still having problems covering tight ends, but that could change when Su’a Cravens is healthy enough to play. Simmons looks like he’s going to emerge as a start in this league and may be a big reason why the No Fly Zone will retain some of its former glory in 2018.Courtland Sutton bursts onto the sceneHe has been limited to just 2 catches for 19 yards through the first two preseason games, but Courtland Sutton and Chad Kelly are definitely starting to get on the same page. This bullet from Kelly to Sutton was a perfect throw and a perfect catch. Welcome to the NFL, rookie.Sutton figures to be a big time red zone threat as a rookie and plays like this will help confirm our belief in that regard. Broncos starting quarterback Case Keenum is excited about how Sutton will figure into this offense in 2018.“He’s special,” Keenum said. “Having a guy like that, a young guy who’s pretty heady when it comes to those balls that--you give him a chance and really there’s three or four things that can happen, and a lot of them are good. He can catch it, he can go for it and get a defensive pass interference or it’s incomplete. I know that it’s going to be an incomplete at worst. I like throwing the ball down the field because he makes a lot more of those plays than he doesn’t.”The offense has so much potential this season. It’s going to come down to execution, but we should all be excited to see what they can do in the regular season.Tim Patrick is making this teamChad Kelly has earned the backup quarterback job and its throws like this that show why. Kelly saw the safety would be late coming over and with one-on-one coverage he knew all he had to do was throw a ball up that could only be caught by the wide receiver. Tim Patrick made an excellent adjustment on the ball to make the catch. It was a great throw and an even greater catch. After hearing Patrick’s name over and over again during Broncos camp, it’s hard to imagine him not making this team as one of the final wide receiver spots. ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Although the schedule gets easier for the Denver Broncos this month, the degree of difficulty in reaching the playoffs keeps going up.The Broncos (6-6) lost leading wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to a ruptured left Achilles tendon on Wednesday. He was hurt in a non-contact drill at the beginning of practice.The 31-year-old receiver was placed on injured reserve and on Wednesday night he tweeted , “If you know me then you know nothing can keep me down. I’ve overcome too much in life to let this stop me. I’ll be back next year w/ a bigger chip on my shoulder … I PROMISE!”The Broncos quickly claimed wide receiver Andre Holmes off waivers from Buffalo, giving them a seventh-year veteran to go with their four remaining receivers, all of whom made their NFL debuts this season.Sanders, who led the team with 71 catches for 868 yards and four touchdowns in a bounce-back year, was injured on a routine route. He sensed the gravity of the injury as he crumbled to the ground, tearing off his helmet and rolling it away as teammates and trainers rushed toward him.“It didn’t look good,” coach Vance Joseph said, adding Sanders “was sore last week in his heel area and he felt great today.”Sanders’ injury was the latest blow to a team that’s lost seven starters from its opening-day lineup, including six on offense.“It hurt, especially with an Achilles injury, that’s a major injury,” rookie receiver DaeSean Hamilton said. “He was our leader and he was a coach, too, so it was hard to watch.”Sanders’ injury came three days after the Broncos lost star cornerback Chris Harris Jr . to a broken right lower leg Von Miller Jersey White , an injury that could sideline him for the rest of the regular season.Sanders crumbled to the grass in an area of the field that has several brown patches and has led to several slips over the last few weeks, notably by rookie receiver Courtland Sutton.Normally, the Broncos flip their two main practice fields from a north-south configuration to east-west at midseason, but they didn’t do that this year. Nor did they rotate individual drills, leaving bare patches in several areas.Asked if he thought field conditions played any role in Sanders’ injury, Joseph said, “I don’t, no. The fields are fine.”Sanders’ injury amplifies odds the Broncos face in their quest to reach the playoffs for the first time in the post-Peyton Manning era. After surviving the league’s most arduous schedule through November, the Broncos’ next three opponents — 49ers, Browns and Raiders — are a combined 9-26-1. They finish the season in Denver against the Chargers, a team they beat last month.“We can’t cry about it,” Joseph said. “We have to move on and go play a football game on Sunday.”Winners of three straight, the Broncos (6-6) visit San Francisco (2-10) this weekend.The Broncos traded top receiver Demaryius Thomas to the Texans on Oct. 30 for financial reasons and to accelerate Sutton’s growth by getting him into the starting lineup opposite Sanders. After flashing in training camp, Sutton has taken his lumps as a rookie. He has 28 receptions — but it’s taken 59 targets — for 558 yards and three touchdowns.Now, he’ll face No. 1 cornerbacks beginning with Richard Sherman in San Francisco.“I love it,” Sutton said. “I look forward to it. It’s going to be good.”Sanders developed a rapport with his new quarterback as soon as Case Keenum arrived in March, and the speedy receiver’s leadership only grew in value when Thomas was traded.Sanders helped bring along the young receivers simply by grabbing attention away from them, Keenum said, pointing to a 30-yard TD catch by Sutton in the Broncos’ 24-10 win over the Bengals last weekend.“Sometimes you run routes to get open and sometimes you run routes to get other guys open,” Keenum said. “this past week for (Sanders), but just the way they covered him up allowed Courtland to be 1 on 1 on the outside.”Aside from Holmes, who has 15 touchdowns in 91 career games for the Bills, Cowboys and Raiders, the Broncos’ remaining receivers — Sutton, Hamilton, River Cracraft and Tim Patrick — boast a combined eight NFL starts with 37 catches for 692 yards and four touchdowns.“I have all the trust in the world in those other guys,” Keenum insisted.The Broncos’ best player on offense has been undrafted rookie running back Phillip Lindsay , who was the AFC’s offensive player of the week for his 157-yard, two-TD performance at Cincinnati.To prevent defenses from stacking the box to stop Lindsay, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave may have to relent and use Lindsay, along with running back Devontae Booker, more in the passing game.Keenum would be all for that.“We all know what Phillip can do with the ball in his hands in space,” Keenum said. “So, I think all of those backs — Royce (Freeman), too — they’re doing a great job of continuing to build their craft and not just being guys that run the ball between the tackles.”