We join this game in progress thanks to the previous game dragging on like a political convention keynote speech, and we've already missed a TD, a pretty 33-yard rainbow from Matt Hasselbeck to rookie Deon Butler, beating Andre Goodman to give Seattle a 7-0 lead. (Fortunately, nfl.com got a picture of it, at left.)10:30 left in the first quarter as Kyle Orton gets flushed into a short scramble. 3rd-and-7 from the 41. Seahawks bring the blitz and get burned by a smoke route to speedy Eddie Royal, flying downfield for 26. Why blitz on 3rd-and-long? Orton play-actions a pass into the end zone that falls harmlessly incomplete. A screen to Correll Buckhalter gains 8 down to the Seattle 25. Denver gets away with a false start as Orton hits Brandon Stokley on a quick hitch at the 20. Buckhalter right up the middle for 8 as the Broncos push the Seahawk line around. Buckhalter bounces inside the 10 with another first down. Orton ignores Buckhalter ALL ALONE in the flat for what would have been an easy TD and hits Royal over the middle at the 3. 2nd and goal. Ken Lucas breaks up the fade pass to Tony Scheffler, who actually dives for the tipped ball and appears to catch it with a foot still in bounds. Whether he was robbed is moot because Orton hits Stokley in the opposite corner of the end zone with another fade route. Nice answering drive by the Broncs.
Denver 7, Seattle 7.
Hasselbeck starts Seattle back up at the 16. Delayed blitz by D.J. Williams drops Hasselbeck for a 3rd-down loss. 3-and-out there for Seattle.
Empty backfield for Orton from the Denver 48, and he hits Lamont Jordan up the sideline for 11. A long run by Peyton Hillis down to inside the 10 is expunged due to a clipping penalty. 1st-25 from the Denver 45 instead of 1st-goal inside the 10. Denver fakes a handoff and fires the smoke pass to Royal again, but he doesn't really gain anything. No matter, Matt Prater crushes a kick from 53 yards out to give the Broncos the lead.
Denver 10, Seattle 7.
Wesley Woodyard crushes Butler on the return to start Seattle in a hole at their 17. Justin Forsett is already on the field for Seattle. The Broncos stupidly call timeout with just 19 seconds left in the quarter. It's third and 3 after a couple of touches for Forsett, 3rd-and-8 after Shawn Locklear false starts, but Butler makes a nice grab over the middle for a first down as the quarter ends.
End of first quarter: Denver 10, Seattle 7.
After a near-interception by Goodman, Duckett surges off the left side for 8. Hasselbeck and John Carlsson cross wires on a third-down pass that falls incomplete. Seattle does pin Denver at the 8 with the punt.
The Broncos never get going from their own end, with Seattle stuffing a Hillis sweep and Orton pressured into throwing a third-and-short pass away.
Feeling the late hours starting to get to me, I'm quickly to soda #12. My waistline and my teeth are probably loving this challenge equally.
"Don't forget us kidneys!"
Hasselbeck leads Seattle from the 48. Forsett's getting significant action with what I'd have to call Seattle's first unit. Mario Haggan stuffs Duckett on second down and Kenny Peterson eventually beats Locklear to sack Hasselbeck. Coverage sack, really.
Orton GUNS to Jabar Gaffney on a slant for 13. 13 more to Gaffney out to the 40. Orton is 12-15 right now for about 130. The Broncos burn their second timeout, with HC Josh McDaniels apparently determined to pull off his best Mike Martz impression. Along the same line, they've passed 15 times tonight and run 6. Well-setup screen to Jordan gets Denver across midfield. Stokley breaks a tackle and converts a first down at the Seattle 40. Orton burns Denver's last timeout, to McDaniels' dismay. The refs didn't give Denver the first down, either, so Hillis has to bounce a 3rd-and-1 run outside for 5. After a delay of game, Brandon Mebane clobbers Royal after a 6-yard catch. Seattle leaves Hillis ALL ALONE in the flat on 2nd-long and he rumbles all the way down to the 15. Orton hits Royal inside the 5 to make it first-and-goal. Jordan spins out of a backfield jam and wriggles down to the 1. PASSING from the 1, Orton fires way too hard and high for a lonely Gaffney at the back of the end zone and he drops it. 3rd-goal. PASSING AGAIN, Kelly Jennings breaks up a pass for Gaffney at the goal line. 4th-goal. PASSING AGAIN with trips left, Orton rolls left under pressure and IDIOTICALLY tries a LEFT-HANDED PASS into the end zone, which Lucas picks off while managing not to fall over laughing at ORTON'S BLATANT STUPIDITY.
The Broncos sure ain't Mike Shanahan's team any more, are they?
But when did they become Mike Martz's?
Seattle from their 20, with about 3:00 left. I still can't get over that Orton play, one of the stupidest plays I have ever seen on any football field. A pass to Housemazilli leaves them 3rd-and-3 from the 27 at the 2:00 warning. Denver blitzes big, and Seattle beats it with a screen to Forsett that goes out across midfield. 30 yards on the play. How come when the Rams screen against blitzes, they still get killed? Elvis Dumervil pushes Locklear back into Hasselbeck for another Denver sack. Does Locklear actually get the sack on that play? He's the one who took Hasselbeck down. 3rd-15 from the Denver 48, a tipped pass is caught for 12 by Housemazilli. Seattle goes on 4th-3 and Hasselbeck calmly hits Courtney Taylor on the sideline for 8. :44 left after a 5-yard screen to Forsett. Hasselbeck's 2nd-down pass is through the back of the end zone, no one open. Hasselbeck steps up and hits Carlson at the 13, then spikes with :26 to go. Just a 3-man rush by Denver there. And again, but Hasselbeck overthrows Housemazilli in the corer of the end zone. 3rd-down, another bubble screen to Forsett, and he bounces it down to the 2. Hasselbeck hits Housemazilli on a fade route to finish the super drive with a TD with 9 seconds left on the clock.
Seattle 14, Denver 10.
Broncos get the ball back with only 3 seconds left and just kneel it out.
Halftime score: Seattle 14, Denver 10.
Orton stays in the game after halftime with Denver starting at their 21. It's Denver's ones vs. Seattle's twos. And score one for Seattle's twos. Jennings puts his head on the ball after a naked bootleg screen to Scheffler, and Jordan Babineaux scoops up the bouncing ball and returns it to the 8.
Make that the 13 after a false start. Seneca Wallace now leading the Seattle offense. Forsett has a real nose for the goal line, bouncing off a tackle for positive yards the second time down there tonight. Wallace goes to Forsett on third down but Denver doesn't let him inside the 3 and Brandon Coutu settles the deal with a chippie FG.
Seattle 17, Denver 10.
Broncos take over at their 24. Orton STILL at QB for Denver. Seattle's pass rush only lets the Broncos move a yard in three plays. Nick Reed then breaks in and gets a piece of the punt, which only gets out to the Denver 30. Beautiful starting field position for Seattle.
Wallace escapes a blitz and scrambles down to the 10. First-goal. On third-goal two plays later, Wallace hits Cameron Morrah, who Josh Bell holds up at the 1 with a clutch open-field tackle. While Steve Spagnuolo sits at home yelling "What are you crazy people doing?", Jim Mora Jr. goes for it on 4th-and-goal from the 1. Wallace rolls right and TE Joe Newton just barely snags and hangs on to a tipped ball for a TD.
Seattle 24, Denver 10.
Chris Simms now in the saddle for Denver. Screen to Darius Walker good for a first down out to the 45. Looking very sharp, Simms hits Kenny McKinley on the sideline for 9 and another first. Walker dances in the backfield and gets taken down by Reid, but Denver was holding on the play anyway. 1st-20 from the 47. Will Herring kippers Walker for no gain. Sims throws a wild smoke pass on 3rd-and-17. Boom goes the punt.
Seahawks get the ball back at their 12 but 3-and-out with Forsett getting shut down on 3rd-and-1. Jon Ryan blasts a near-60-yard punt that CJ Wallace then knocks away from McKinney on the return to give Seattle the ball back. They 3-and-out again but are close enough for a 52-yard bomb by Brandon Coutu to expand their lead.
Seattle 27, Denver 10.
Denver starts over at their 25. A couple of Walker carries and a pass from Simms to Jeb Putzier get them to midfield as the third quarter runs out.
End of third quarter: Seattle 27, Denver 10.
Simms spears McKinney at the Seattle 38 on 3rd-and-3. Reed hits Simms late at the feet to add another 15 yards to the bill. Simms limps off in favor of Tom Brandstater. He gets plenty of time on 3rd-and-6 from the 20 to find somebody, ends up trying to scramble, and gets sacked. The referee calls a penalty on Seattle's defense we never hear, though, and Denver gets a first down at the 14. Brandstater gets a ton of time again on 3rd-and-5 at the 9 but never throws, tries to elude the rush and gets sacked back out at the 20 by Reed. Brandstater doesn't appear to know how to read the field out there as Denver settles for a FG.
Seattle 27, Denver 13.
10:30 to play. Butler flubs the kickoff at the 2 but picks it up and sprints up a mostly open far sideline for 39. New Seattle backfield: Mike Teel at QB, Devin Moore at RB. Moore nearly fumbles on 2nd down and Seattle runs a surrender handoff on 3rd down and punts.
Ryan's punt bounds into the end zone. Brandstater gets CRUSHED by Reed, who smokes Stanley Bryant and nails the QB from the blind side for a 5-yard loss. The Broncos actually run TWO surrender handoffs after this and punt.
Brandstater visited Rams Park prior to the draft, and the Rams were supposed to have been enamored with drafting him, but Keith Null looks more than a little better than the Bronco rookie QB right now.
Seattle at their 29 with 6:45 left. Nice pass by Teel to Newton for 9, and Moore plunges for the first down. Jarvis Moss flies in to break up a third-down screen pass to force a punt. Former first-round pick Moss now trying to pick up scraps in the last 5:00 of a preseason game. Ouch.
Brandstater back at work from the Denver 30 with 4:40 left. Holding, go back 10 spaces, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. They never overcome even two yards of that penalty. Brandstater looks absolutely awful out there. McDaniels' probably happy to be punting again.
Seattle takes over at 3:35 and should know that they can just grind this thing out for their second straight win over the AFC West. They do pound it down to 2:15 before taking a shot deep to Mike Hass, who should have caught it. Punt coverage pins Denver at the 10.
McDaniels scored points with me that last possession by not uselessly calling timeouts. Inside handoff to Walker gets us to the 2:00 warning.
Michael Bennett comes up the middle untouched as Brandstater stands there like a deer in the headlights and gets walloped like a deer getting hit by a semi. That's three sacks he's already taken. Surrender handoff and punt by Denver. Brandstater is rivaled only by Brett Basanez as the worst player I've seen so far this preseason.
Handoff to Moore runs out another win for Seattle.
Final score: Seattle 27, Denver 13.
MVP: DE Nick Reed for the second straight week. 4 tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble in the second half. Guy is everywhere.
What did we learn: Seattle's defense is going to be better than we think. They've played well now for two straight weeks. But their offensive line is going to be worse than we think. They're no more prepared for the demise of Walter Jones than the Rams were for Orlando Pace's. Locklear is a serious liability on their line. Everybody who misses Mike Martz, enjoy Josh McDaniels. He's every bit as pass-wacky and is also very likely as crazy. Orton's numbers were a lot better than last week's, but he's basically Rex Grossman. You're going to have to wait for 2-3 inevitably stupid plays every game and just hope the damage from them is limited.
Up next: No tripleheader for yours truly today. I'm hoping to manage recording the next two games on NFL Network, then pick up the QUINTUPLE header tomorrow (this) morning, with Detroit vs. Cleveland.
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