What To Take Away From The Broncos Win Against The 49ers

Denver defeats San Francisco 34-0. That headline alone would leave a lot to talk about. It would be easy for a team, or fan base to get excited after defeating Seattle, and San Francisco in consecutive weeks despite it only being the preseason. But the problem is it is only the preseason. The preseason is a very deceptive time of year for a football fan in that they know the games do not count, but also at times fail to see what matters. The classic example for this is the 2008 Detroit Lions who went 4-0 in the preseason only to not win a single game in the regular season. The build up going into the 2008 for the Lions is what made going 0-16 even worse. They showed so much promise in the preseason that the Lion fans were ready to celebrate being relevant in the NFL once again only to have those dreams erased come week one. So what can person watching these games take out of the preseason? I want to make it clear that it is still important to win games in the preseason. Seeing your 2nd and 3rd team players desire to win can sometimes bump those players up to 1st or 2nd string, and in turn if a 1st or 2nd string player is not giving his full effort and trying to win just as hard as he would a regular season game he could find himself demoted to 2nd or 3rd string. Winning also creates momentum and going into the season on a positive note is something that NFL teams strongly desire. What the preseason does the best job of showing is depth. How deep a team is at each position can often make or break a NFL teams season. Going into last season Denver was not nearly as deep as they are going into 2014-2015. What made this team deep is all the injuries the team suffered last year. Players like Chris Harris and Danny Trevathan came into their own, and players like Chris Clark and Kayvon Webster showed that they could be impact players in the NFL. Finally, and what I think the most important part of the preseason shows is what a teams mentality is. Have they come together as a team rather than a bunch of individuals? What players are going to step up into leadership roles? How will your team respond with their backs against the wall? These are all questions that are, or should be answered in the preseason. Thus far the Broncos are passing with flying colors. The offense seems to have picked up where they left off last year. Ryan Clady has been able to test himself against the Seahawk and 49er pass rush, Orlando Franklin has showed a pretty seamless transition to left guard, and Emmanuel Sanders is as good as advertised. Defensively things are quite different than last year. Rather than sitting back and resting in the fact this offense will score points the defense has shown a level of nastiness and grit that it didn't have a year ago. Demarcus Ware, Aqib Talib, and TJ Ward have all made immediate impacts and have been as good as advertised. Demarcus Ware was getting constant pressure against Seattle, TJ Ward has been all over the field, and Aqib Talib has picked up this defense and his natural man to man abilities have been obvious in these first two games. Week 3 of the preseason is the week that teams treat like a regular season game. The starters will play into the 3rd quarter, and they will actually put a game plan together. Granted the team we are playing will be here to practice all week, but if a fan wanted to get a good feel for how his/her team will do. I am excited to see the continue progression of this team as we get closer to the season opener against the Colts.