As much fun as it was to watch the Broncos beat the Seahawks, it was hard to make much of this preseason game.

Lighting came. It saw. It kicked everyone’s ass.

By the time the rain delay was over, the starters barely had time to take some plays off.

What do we do with this game, one that doesn’t matter to anyone other than bloggers, cheerleaders, and small-college roster hopefuls?

We mock, that's what.

The Positives

Juwan Thompson—the next Terrell Davis? Let’s not get too carried away, folks. Let’s just be happy the guy didn’t get a concussion. My definition of excitement after the last Broncos game? Watching Peyton Manning and Manny Ramirez execute a successful shotgun exchange. On a serious note, though, outside of one overthrow, Manning was his normal robotic self. And we all like robots who set records, don’t we? Scary thought: Demaryius Thomas improved his route running in the offseason. I think he caught something like five thousand, two hundred, and eighty passes tonight. Good luck stopping him, AFC West. This game made one thing absolutely clear to me. Orlando Franklin didn’t move to the inside because he was trying to help the team—oh no. He moved inside so that tiny defensive linemen had less space to hide. Aqib Talib isn’t shy when it comes to tackling. With Talib and T.J. Ward in the defensive backfield, bodies will assuredly hit the floor. A few things struck me about Bradley Roby. He’s big, has good instincts, and can cover. I’d like to see more, but so far, so good. Although I’m still not sold on Brock Osweiler, he did something tonight that's usually reserved for quarterbacks like Manning. Early in the third quarter, Osweiler read single-man coverage on one side of the field and didn’t give his intentions away to the defense until post-snap. Then he looked off the one side of the defense and went deep to Nathan Palmer, who drew a defensive PI call. The Broncos second-string offensive line wasn’t just good in the running game; it was road-grading good. Props to Marvin Austin for continually getting into the backfield. As Doug pointed out earlier in the week, there were some of us who wanted the Broncos to draft Austin several years ago. Now that he’s healthy, I can fake like I knew it all along.

The Negatives

It would be silly for me to pretend like the stepping down of Pat Bowlen means nothing to the Broncos. The truth is, and John Lynch basically said it during the broadcast, Bowlen was exactly what you want in management. He hired talented people and got the hell out of their way. Manning’s overthrow on the first series was pretty bad. And since he’s such a perfectionist, I thought it only appropriate to let him know. I wasn’t excited by either Ronnie Hillman or C.J. Anderson, although Anderson seems a bit quicker. I’m not saying I miss Knowshon Moreno just yet, but expect a lot of talk tomorrow to be about Juwan Thompson moving up the depth chart. There were too many penalties on the Broncos tonight. Sure, it was preseason, but that doesn’t make it right or particularly useful when it comes to building good habits. Demaryius Thomas and Wes Welker—other than that, we didn’t see a lot of action from the Broncos' receivers. I’m not saying this is completely bad, but it’s something to watch for in the future. Cody Latimer, where are you? As Ted and I were discussing during the game, the Broncos’ defensive line is stacked this year. That could mean the end of the line for a decent lineman like Mitch Unrein. The good news for Unrein? He doubles as a goal-line fullback. The Broncos’ specialists weren’t exciting in any way. Britton Colquitt, Matt Prater—they looked old and average. Some more on Osweiler—he had some good, tough throws, certainly, but he also held onto the ball too long and took a sack he shouldn’t have. I do like his beard, though. In six months' time, Pete Carroll didn’t become any less annoying on the sideline. During the lightning delay, I learned that someone robbed a liquor store in the Denver-metro area and made away with the store’s entire supply of Patrón Tequila. I naturally assumed they were Raiders fans, since watching the Raiders requires that much alcohol in one sitting.

The Who The Heck Knows