| | | | | | | |  Sunday, September 9, 2001
A perfect opener
By Dan Fouts
Special to ABC Sports Online
This is a perfect opener for both the Broncos and the Giants, because the quality of the players and coaches is top-notch, and it serves as great preparation for a long season.
|  | | Mike Shanahan has been to five Super Bowls in Denver: three as an assistant and two as a head coach. |
It's a classic matchup when Denver has the ball with its great running attack going against a Giant defense that stifles the run. The decision on who will start at running back for Denver is one that will be made public moments before kickoff. I expect Terrell Davis to start, and if that's the case, the Broncos will have an added emotional edge playing in front of the home crowd in their new stadium.
I believe the game will be decided when the Giants have the ball going against the Denver defense. There are more questions to be answered there. Denver has questions on the corners, with first-round pick Willie Middlebrooks nursing a sprained MCL, and the Giants have injury problems at wide receiver.
For me, these questions offer a lot of things to look at and chart throughout the ballgame.
The big question in my mind is, Which Giant team will we see? The team that rolled through the playoffs and shut out the Vikings in the NFC championship game, or the team that looked inept against the Ravens in the Super Bowl?
These teams have plenty of history, both on and off the field, from Super Bowl XXI to their last meeting in 1998, when the Giants snapped the Broncos' 13-0 start.
And the coaching staffs of both teams are familiar with each other. The head coaches, Shanahan of the Broncos and Jim Fassel of the Giants, both worked in Denver prior to their current positions. Fassel, as an assistant at Stanford in 1979, was responsible for recruiting John Elway, and later worked with him when he was the Broncos' offensive coordinator from 1993-94.
Shanahan was an assistant under Dan Reeves in Denver from 1984-87, served as offensive coordinator from '85-'87, and returned as quarterbacks coach in 1989 after a head coaching stint with the Raiders.
Shanahan was long regarded as an offensive genius, but he is much more than that now. He has won two Super Bowls. He has more control of the franchise, doubling as vice president of football operations. He is the new age coach who has his hands all over the franchise and has done a great job with it.
He has a way of keeping an element of surprise among his team, which is a good thing. It keeps them competing for their jobs each game. He is fair and yet has a firm hand with the ball club.
What Jim Fassel did last year with the infamous guarantee was courageous, cunning and intelligent. He's been around enough to know how difficult the season can be and just how fragile the line is between winning and losing.
He proved a lot last year because he delivered on his word. He'll be remembered forever for guaranteeing his team would make the playoffs. And they not only made the playoffs, they made the Super Bowl. That's the stuff of NFL lore, what stories are made of.
But Shanahan and Fassel aren't the only coaches with ties to each other. More directly, Giants offensive coordinator Sean Payton's first job in the NFL was quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The head coach? Ray Rhodes, now the Broncos' defensive coordinator.
Regarding Xs and Os, the advantage comes to which team can control the ball better. And both coaches stress that above all else. The Giants thrive on takeaways, and Denver causes a lot of turnovers at home.
Whenever you have two evenly matched teams, as these teams appear to be, turnovers tell the story.
Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts is an analyst on Monday Night Football and is a regular contributor to ABC Sports Online.
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