The 2-5 Denver Broncos will take on the 1-6 San Francisco 49ers in London this Sunday. Both teams are coming off of losses last week. SF left early in the week to London to adjust to the time difference while Denver chose to stay home to prepare at home until leaving Thursday for London.
The 49ers lost to the 0-4 Carolina Panthers in a close game with a score of 20-23. Alex Smith went out at the end the first half with a shoulder sprain to his non-throwing shoulder. He did not return to the game. Carr completed the second half of the game and went 5 for 13 for 67 yards and one interception. Smith is listed as questionable to return in time for the game Sunday against Denver.
Denver's lost last week to the Raiders was a record breaker. The Raiders set a franchise scoring record on Sunday with their win against Denver. The final score was 59-14. Kyle Orton went 12 for 29 and 198 yards with two touchtowns and one interception and one fumble. The whole team developed butterfingers with a total of five fumbles that gave the Raiders multiple scoring opportunities.
Given both teams current records, there will be a lack of interest in the outcome of the game except for those die hard fans. This is a non divisional game. The 49ers are last in the NFC West, two games behind the St. Louis Rams. The Broncos are also last in AFC West, but tied with the San Diego Chargers that lost a heart breaker against the Patriots last week.
A Key match up next week will be the quarterbacks. Kyle Orton will be up against either Alex Smith or the backup, David Carr. Alex had a solid performance leading up to his injury. If he is able to play Sunday, the question will be if the injury will effect his play or not. David Carr has limited experience and his performance for the second half of last week's game was lacking with no touchdowns and one interception.
The other question for next week's game will be the performance of SF offence versus the defense of Denver. Denver will be looking to bounce back from the worst defensive performance of the season last week. If they are lucky, they will be up against Carr instead of Smith. Denver is ranked second to last in the league in points allowed while SF defense is 10th and led by All-Pro Patrick Willis.
San Francisco's offensive has been shaky. Alex Smith has had disappointing numbers with high initial expectations. They have also been plagued with a different offensive coordinator in the past few years. This year, Mike Singletary fired Jimmy Raye mid season and replaced him with Mike Johnson.
Whatever the outcome, I do not want to be the team that loses this Loser Bowl in London.
