After a long summer of camp workouts, injuries, preseason games and roster moves, it's time for the NFL to finally begin the regular season and for the first matchup of Week 1, the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens will be visiting the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High and it should be an exciting game to kick things off.
The Denver Broncos remembers getting beat in stunning fashion last season by the Ravens in the playoffs and after watching the team win a championship, Peyton Manning and company are ready to exact some revenge. The Broncos and Ravens both have new players on the roster, with Denver grabbing names like Wes Welker and Montee Ball, while the Ravens lost names like Ed Reed and Ray Lewis as well as Anquan Boldin after trading him to the 49ers.
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The Ravens and Broncos are both very balanced on offense and have great defensive units, but the Broncos may not be as dangerous as last season after losing Elvis Dumervil in free agency and Von Miller to a suspension and players will need to step up as the season goes on. The Broncos likely can still see Jacoby Jones making a 70-yard catch to tie the playoff game last season in the fourth quarter and after winning in overtime, the Ravens went to New England and beat the Patriots and the beat the 49ers for their Super Bowl win.
The Ravens lost a ton of talent with Lewis and Reed and they also are without former started Paul Kruger and Cary Williams as well as Bernard Pollard and Dannell Ellerbe and they will need to get some help from everyone. Lardarius Webb is back and the Ravens will try to exploit the fact that the Broncos are dealing with a weaker defensive line than last season and that could be a huge boost for Ray Rice. Dennis Pitta is done for the year after suffering a serious injury and now Dumervil will return to Denver for the first time since signing and Rice will be looking to get off to a nice start after rushing for over 1,000 yards and catching 61 balls during the season for 10 total touchdowns and he should be a league leader once again.
Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker were amazing last season in their first year with Peyton Manning and now that Wes Welker joins the crew, all three should get open looks and after adding Montee Ball, the rushing game should be even more consistent. Ronnie Hillman is expecting to get more carries as well and Ball comes in after scoring over 80 touchdowns in his college career and he should be able to bring more consistency to the offense.
The Ravens ranked 15th in passing and 11th in rushing yards per game while the defense was ranked 17th in passing and 20th in rushing yards allowed per game. The Denver Broncos ranked fifth in passing yards per game and 16th in rushing yards and on defense they were very good, ranking third in passing and third in rushing yards allowed per game.
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