The Broncos' first scrimmage of the fall went about as planned, provided you were planning on few big plays, lots of missed blocking assignments, and absolutely no idea who will be the starting quarterback in 18 days.
The reports from the media kind of made it seem like the end of the world out there, but it's not like Jon Gott was taking his shirt off or anything. Then the newspapers might have had something to complain about. From what we saw of the scrimmage, it looked pretty similar to one of the lackadaisical scrimmages from the spring, except it was hotter. And Bob Behler was there.
Are we panicking? Of course not. If anything, we are stoked because we got to see the Broncos play for the first time in months. They'll have all the issues ironed out by Saturday (the next scrimmage), and we'll be in for a good show.
Here are some observations from the first scrimmage of the fall:
The Boise State defense was coming early and often for a good portion of the scrimmage. Let's hope we see this same aggressiveness during the season. The linebackers and defensive backs for the Broncos are some of the most athletic guys on the team, so it makes sense to put them in position to make plays. Derrell Acrey, we're looking at you.
The Johnson who stood out in yesterday's scrimmage was not the one you might expect. While Ian Johnson had a decent enough afternoon, safety Jeron Johnson really shined. He had a number of big hits on ball carriers and receivers, and he looked solid roaming the secondary.
The final numbers for the running game were 122 yards on 52 carries. And it looked like it. If you enjoy watching running backs blast into piles of big bodies, then this was the scrimmage for you. On the one hand, the defensive line did a good job holding the line of scrimmage. On the other hand, the offensive line did a bad job of creating running lanes, opening holes, or doing its job.
We would bet large sums of money on the fact that Coach Pete and his staff are not making any quarterback decision following this scrimmage. First off, they love to tease us. Secondly, no one separated themselves far enough to make the decision easy. One interesting subplot from the scrimmage was the time that walk-on QB Drew Hawkins spent under center. We really don't need a five-man quarterback race right now.
There are some big freshmen out there. Specifically, we noticed Faraji Wright enveloping people, and we were shocked to see how big Byron Hout's arms were. Along the line, there are several new players with some much-needed size, including Wright, Joe Kellogg, and others. The future looks bright...and beefy.
Wide receivers dropped an awful lot of passes yesterday, which will probably be the first and only time that will ever happen. As an aside, it sure was nice to see Jeremy Childs lining up alongside Titus Young, Austin Pettis, and Vinny Perretta.
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