It's better to play well in the preseason than win. Allowing an 86 yard drive is more significant than stopping it at the one. The drive ended when Kyle Orton left-handed shot put the ball into a crowd of defenders. Ken Lucas intercepted a pass that begged to be intercepted. Seattle had bent but it did not break. But if this is the strategy, the Seahawks better hope for another wave of backups and bad quarterbacks like it faced in 2007.
Nevertheless, the conclusion of this drive was more palatable than the start. The defense came alive in the red zone: Pass rush where there hadn't been pass rush. Cover. Leroy Hill blasting Chris Kuper back into the hole. Darryl Tapp turning the corner against Ryan Clady and coming free at Orton. Kelly Jennings body-screening Jabar Gaffney and forcing an incompletion. Big ol' Cory Redding swimming Ryan Harris and creating pressure from the left.
The final play was successful, just not as successful as the outcome.
Broncos: Trips (left), TE (right), RB (right), Shotgun
Seahawks: 4-3
This is all about the defensive line. Redding is slow off the snap and stonewalled by Harris and Daniel Graham. Later, when Orton was scrambling, Redding freed himself and cut to the quarterback, but too late. Craig Terrill drops into a short zone. Patrick Kerney attacks the edge, cuts in and then out again closing on Orton but ultimately washed out by Clady. Red Bryant isolates Casey Wiegmann, drives him back so fast that guards Kuper and Ben Hamilton struggle to triple-team him, and drives him right at Orton. That's when Orton panics. There's a 62 in his face and two trunk like arms waving all around him. He scrambles left, switches the ball into his left hand and...
Seattle lucks out.