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Denver Native (Carol)
11-27-2009, 09:03 PM
http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=334&storyID=9617

DENVER -- They had been waiting for this feeling for a long time.

Five weeks, in fact.

"It seems like it's been forever," Kenny Peterson said.

But on Thanksgiving night at INVESCO Field at Mile High, the Broncos got back in the win column in decisive fashion. And there a noticeably lighter mood in the locker room after the game.

"That looked like the Broncos from the first six weeks of the season," said Andre Goodman, who recorded his third interception of the season and led the team with three passes defensed. "We have shown two different teams, but this felt different, and the team that showed up and started fast today was a good one."

The team had gotten quite used to the feeling of a happy locker room after a win, but four straight losses after the bye week meant the Broncos hadn't felt a win in more than a month.

After last Sunday's loss to the San Diego Chargers at home, Kyle Orton made it clear that he was "done feeling the loss."

"I'm sick of it, and I know everybody else is," he said. "It's been a long time since we've won, so let's get back on the field and win a game."

So four days later, that's what the team did. And Peterson said he could feel a difference as the game was playing out.

"It's just actually a good feeling to have fun out there on the field, and that's what we did today," Peterson said. "We pinned our ears back and just did what we know how to do."

Vonnie Holliday said the team talked about from the beginning of the year that Thanksgiving was an important point in the season -- when the NFL season gets down to crunch time as the calendar heads to December.

For that reason, Holliday said the Thanksgiving win was the "start of a new season," and the club knows it needs to carry the momentum from the slump-busting victory down the stretch.

"We said we wanted to win the most games after Thanksgiving because that's when real football starts," Goodman said. "That's when the contenders start to play their best football. We got off to a good start."

After having to prepare on a short week for the Giants, the Broncos now have a few extra days to prepare for their next game -- 10 days from Thanksgiving.

"I love it," Brandon Stokley said. "Towards the end of the year it's always good to have a few extra days off to let guys heal up, relax and get ready for the stretch run."

And that stretch run continues next week at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs, a club that, as D.J. Williams said, has "been stacking up a few wins, and it's always tough to win there."

The preparation begins tomorrow as the team will take a look at the tape from Thursday night's victory, and Orton said the team hopes it can continue to get off to a good start in the post-Thanksgiving season.

"We're 1-0, and we hope to get to 2-0 next week," he said.

Peterson said the key will be to keep that fun feeling that was present on the field on Thursday going strong.

"We're going to go out there and just have fun," he said. "We know what it feels like, we did it in the beginning -- we kind of got away from it -- but now we're back and we're just going to have fun again."