Editor's note: Rookie running back Montee Ball will contribute blog entries on DenverBroncos.com thoughout the 2013 season. The new No. 28 checks in this week with his thoughts on the running backs' performance, his first NFL game and going on the road.

Well first let me start by saying how good it feels to get my old college number -- 28 -- back. With us football players, we're just really picky about numbers. It's all about feeling comfortable out there. I'm more familiar with the number and it just feels good to have it.

It also felt good to get on the field in my first NFL game. It felt really good. It's a lot faster than preseason, like they said it would be. But it felt great. It's been my dream and I'm glad that I'm with this organization.

As far as the running backs, we know we can do better, but Peyton said it right -- the Ravens are the defending champs for a reason. You've got Elvis Dumervil and Terrell Suggs contributing to that front line. I think our backs did a great job of going against a great team. Obviously, we've got some stuff to improve upon, but we've been doing some great things this week in practice getting ready for New York.

Speaking of Peyton, it really didn't hit me until after the game that I realized how many touchdowns he threw. The game was going so fast. But he's Peyton Manning and needless to say that was fun to watch. He does a great job in practice of getting us ready. Obviously, we do a great job of getting ourselves ready, too. But he brought what he does in practice to the game.

We'll need that focus this week on the road, because we know there will be a lot of crowd noise. It's a great Giants team. We've got to play our game, play inside of our shoes and I think we'll be fine.

In college, we would call ourselves "The Road Warriors." Here, I'm not sure what we'll call ourselves yet, but it's a different mindset, for sure. It's a hostile environment. You have everybody against you. You have go in there on different turf, a different field, and you've just got to play your game. That's what we're planning on doing.

And of course the Giants, they just lost a game and they're coming back home so we know they'll have that mindset not to go 0-2. That's how it should be. When a team loses a game, they come back even hungrier the next week. That's what we're expecting. We expect them to play hard to play hard, play fast and play with high motors. First and foremost, though, we're expecting to play our game. That's what we've got to do. That's the only thing we can control.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you next week.