Oline - B- ... maybe a C+ : They performed well, stopping Schobel from getting a sack all game, and from allowing to much pressure to bleed through. I've certienly seen worse performances. At the same time, run blockign seemed hap hazard, and there were times it seemed Cutler had to hurry his throws to avoid the pressure coming at him. Overall, better then I expected, but not nearly good enough to expect them to hold up against Pittsburgh/Indy/or SD's Dlines.
TE - B+ - Good looking job by Grahham blocking ,and on the few 2 TE sets, you could see better run blocking ahead. Still would of liked the TE to be more involved in the passing threat, which is why they don't have an A, but toherwise I felt Graham and company did a great job.
RB/FB - A - Henry and Young both did a good job. Both ran well, and Young made a really heady play by knocking that lateral pass out of bounds. Henry did well with what blocking he had ahead of him, and made some great gains when he did have the lanes to drive on, drive on. I also liked how the RB's and FB's picked up the blitz.
QB - B - Cutler did a great job of engineering those drives when the Broncos needed it, but also made a lot of rookie mistakes, and sloppy decisions. However, his accuracy and arm strength were looking great for a season opener, and 308 yards speak for itself. I think Cutler did an excellent job despite the growing pains, which are to be expected.
WR - A - Great job all around in getting open, breaking tackles, and finding the holes in the opposing defense. The Wr's did a great job, every one of them Stokley, Marshall, and especially Walker all had great days, and early on against two of the better young safeties in the league. Two thumbs up!
Defense
DT - C+ - I liked the gap control and how they held on to the players, but they didn't react as well as I would have hoped, and they should have done better in closign those gaps against the run IMO. I know Bates system with the Broncos has switched to a more one gap approach with his personel and putting even more responsibility on the Bronco LB'ers in comparison to his days in Miami, but overall, I felt the DT's could hav picked it up more.
DE - B- - I liked some of the pressure they created. Rice and Dumerville both looked good, and Engleberger made great plays to help broken plays, but there wasn't the amount of pressure I was hoping from this group. I think against hte Bills OFfensive line, while they have a great lineup, have had troubles geling as a unit through preseason, and it showed today IMO, but I felt the DE's could have done mroe, even though they looked far mroe impressive then they ever did last season IMO.
LB - C - Terrible terrible start to the day IMO. If it wasn;t for the blitz by DJ and the loss of 13 yards, that first Bilsl drive would have likely ended ina TD the way things were progressing. They did a so-so job at best at bottling up Marshawn Lynch, until the end of the game that is, and there was some poor tackling, especially by Gold. They certienly improved as the game progressed, but I want to see them do more out of the gates. A good enough job ot get it done, but simply average IMO.
CB - A++ - Shutting down the passing game like they did, and the way Bly and Bailey attacked the run as well, excellent day by the Corners. Couldn;t ask for much more really. They did so well. I didn't like that they yanked Foxworth for Shoate, but otherwise an extremly impressive day for the Bronco CB's.
Safeties - A - A good job. Both Lynch and Furgeson swarmed to the ball and handled their coverage assignments well. Especially Lynch, who made his presence extremely well known o nthe sack, even though he was un-abated by any Bills blocker. OVerall, I was very impressed, and with the Broncos CB's playing as impresively as they did, I hope to see more freedom taken with the safeties to produce not only pressure, but big blinding hits on WR's to force incompletions and fumbles
.
Overall Grade for the Broncos - B- - It was a sloppy game that ended in a W. There were many things to build off of, but also a great many mistakes made by both units. There's ground to be made to get this team humming, but overall I like the way things are headed