Oakland, Calif. – The old Browns are now the banging Broncos.
In three straight Raiders possessions beginning in the second quarter and ending early in the third, these four defensive linemen, one by one, again demonstrated their mettle.
They took the challenge to heart, the one in the Denver game plan this week for all Broncos defensive linemen to apply pressure minus extra help from blitzes. To get in the Raiders’ backfield and pockets a bit more on their own.
Plan accomplished.
Four Broncos sacks, all by linemen. Countless hits and pressure on Raiders passer Kerry Collins. It helped make the Broncos 31-17 winners.
Back to that impressive sequence:
* Tackle Michael Myers busted loose and sacked Collins for a 10-yard loss in the first minute of play in the second quarter. That helped force a Raiders punt.
* Tackle Gerard Warren tipped a 45-yard field-goal attempt by the Raiders that sailed wide left, keeping the Broncos ahead 10-0 with 2:27 left in the second quarter. Denver led 13-0 at halftime.
* End Courtney Brown on the first play of the third quarter sacked Collins for a 6-yard loss.
* Two plays later, facing third-and- 21, the Raiders dumped a screen pass to LaMont Jordan. He rambled 20 yards before end Ebenezer Ekuban brought him down, 1 yard shy of the first down. Raiders punted. Broncos drove 80 yards and pushed ahead 20-0.
Quite a contribution from the old Browns, er, banging Broncos.
They were called castoffs, but through eight games we already had learned better. We could see through the first six victories and two losses that Myers, Brown, Warren and Ekuban were more talented players than critics had labeled them. We could see that they were athletic and stout and hungry.
That is what we have come to appreciate most about them. There is no dog in these players, as some in Cleveland suggested, not here, not now – only bite.
“The first car I ever had in my life was a 1986 Mercury Cougar,” Warren said. “When I saw it, something about it stood out to me, even though it didn’t look like much and didn’t seem like much, since it was going for $600. We used that car for almost 10 years.”
No, it does not happen enough, but what a wonderful thing in pro football when you find treasure in junk.
“We were coming in here to play a team that was 3-5,” Ekuban said, “and it was like a playoff game to them. That made it like a playoff game to us. Nobody wants to be 3-6. It’s pretty much over for them. They seemed a little tired.”
No one pulled the quartet aside and advised them on Raiders Week. They got the message in a meeting when coach Mike Shanahan told his entire team: “They don’t like us and we don’t like them. This is a game we must win.”
Message clear.
“It was a new season, we acted like we were 0-0, and we went after Collins,” Myers said. “We made him throw it away. We made him throw it to us.”
It took training camp for the group to mesh, but all of them said they were comfortable here from the start. Brown was the last of the four to join the Broncos. He came as a free agent and chose Denver over Washington.
“I felt something good here,” Brown said. “I just want to keep working.”
Work is required when the world thinks you are garbage as a player, when you are the talk of the league and called four mistakes. These former Browns linemen have heard it all.
“Let our play have the last word,” Brown said.
We get it. The league gets it.
The Raiders got it as they walked off the field with birds circling overhead – not vultures, but reminders nonetheless of where the Raiders are and where the Broncos reside.
“We’re just four guys who try to satisfy our coaches and get ‘W’s,”‘ Warren said.
They have given the Broncos defense a mighty push.
They have earned their new start, their new day.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
