Life in the NFL
2 catches, 2 drops,
but still winningTHERE is a pattern developing in our play. We're 3-0 and all three games have been similar.
We've been excellent on defense, and our offense has pulled through when it had to, but all three were close games.
The good thing about it is we're not playing our best ball and are still winning. We know we can play a whole lot better.
In Sunday's win over Buffalo, I made two catches, both on third-down plays.
On the first one, the play was designed for me to go deep over the middle on third down and 20-something. I was supposed to catch the ball and outrun the back of the coverage, but it didn't work out that way and we didn't get a first down.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Denver rookie wide receiver Ashley Lelie couldn't come up with the diving catch against Buffalo on Sunday. The former Hawaii star has three catches for 47 yards on the season.
The second one was a big catch, it kept the drive going and we scored in the third quarter to go up 21-10 and it boosted the team up a little bit. On that catch, I went down about 18 yards and ran straight back towards the quarterback.
I also had two drops on balls that were a little bit out of my reach. The same exact thing happened both times -- I dove and got my hands on the ball, but as soon as it hit the ground, it popped out.
Yeah, as you can imagine, it was frustrating, but neither one was easy and both would have been highlights if I had gotten them.
For the second week in a row, I was out there with the hands team for onside-kick coverage. Two weeks ago against San Francisco, I made the recovery to put the finishing touches on the victory. This week, I went out there thinking, 'OK catch the ball and the game's over,' and, once again, I was a little nervous. This time, the ball went the opposite way, so I was thinking 'OK, whew, now I can watch what the other guys do and help out if needed.' "
I feel I've got to keep working on gaining the confidence of the coaches and make good on my opportunities. If I had made those two catches, you would definitely see more of me next week. That's not to say I won't be getting in there, it's just that they're looking for guys that can make those big plays --catches on balls that look uncatchable or doing the things that some other guys can't do. I've got to work on being the best.
Our quarterback, Brian Griese, is a cool guy. He helps me out on routes and patterns and stuff like that, not really any major advice. He's kind of quiet, not the outspoken type or the kind of guy who yells or talks a lot.
He has really good leadership ability and he knows how to calm us down in the huddle.
This week, we'll be preparing for Baltimore in the next Monday Night Football game. This will be a fun contest, and we'll be playing against some big-name people. Everybody in the country will be watching, and not just football fans, because everybody, even if they don't like football, always checks out Monday Night Football.
We haven't really gotten together as a team to talk about the game against the Ravens, but we'll start game-planning for them on Wednesday. I'm sure Shannon Sharpe, who played for Baltimore last year, will have a lot to tell us about them.
Our coaches are happy that we won, and I'm sure they're going to get mad at some of the things we did when they look at the film because there's still a lot of things to clean up.
As for me and the rest of the receivers, we've got some little technique things to work on, but overall we're doing pretty well now. We've just got to keep working on getting to know the game plans each week.
I see that both St. Louis and Kahuku lost in the high school games at Aloha Stadium on Saturday. They played some really good teams, and that just shows you how good mainland football is.
My dad came from South Carolina and my brother came from Okinawa to watch us beat Buffalo. Dr. Reynolds, an optometrist involved with University of Hawaii sports, and some of his fellow doctors also came. I got them some tickets and they brought some candy and treats from Hawaii.
Me and my girlfriend, Jenny Gross, want to say aloha to everybody in Hawaii --especially to the Gross family.
