The long-awaited start to the NFL season has finally arrived, as Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos will face the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in the thin air of Denver at 8:30 p.m. tonight. Live stream the game here; Broncos fans can listen to the action on 850 KOA, while Ravens fans can listen to the game on WBAL 1090 AM.
Tonight's season opener will be a rematch of the second round of the 2012 AFC playoffs, in which the heavily favored Broncos were done in by a blown coverage late in the game that allowed Baltimore to send the game into overtime, and eventually win on a field goal.
This season, the Broncos look even stronger than last year after adding slot receiver Wes Welker, while the Ravens must replace the leadership of linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ed Reed. Adding to their disadvantages, they will be the rare Super Bowl winner that opens the season on the road, due to a conflicting home game being played in Baltimore by MLB's Orioles.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has prepared his team for an extremely hostile environment. "I've got a pretty good feeling that the Broncos fans are going to make us remember (and) think about everything that they want to. We know the environment we're going into. It will be the same environment, or even tougher, than the one that we faced in January. And we're excited about that."
Meanwhile, Manning has gotten a brand new toy on offense, but the defense will be without arguably its three best players from 2012 in Week 1. Elvis Dumervil is now a Raven, thanks to paperwork mistakes, Von Miller is suspended for six weeks, and Champ Bailey isn't ready for game action yet while he recovers from a sprained foot.
Harbaugh doesn't care who is missing from Denver's defense however, and plans on taking them seriously. "The Broncos are still the Broncos and they're going to put 11 excellent players on the field and they're going to put pass rushers out there who can rush."
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