It might not be flashy, but the Broncos have found a winning formula
Oct 14, 2019, 6:29 AM
Zzzz.
Wake up, Broncos Country.
Zzzz.
Seriously, wake up.
Zzzz.
Believe it or not, it’s about to get interesting.
Zzzz.
Don’t look now, but the Broncos are back in the AFC West race.
Eight days ago, they were 0-4 and four games behind the undefeated Chiefs. Now, they’re four days away from having the chance to cut Kansas City’s lead in the division to a single game.
On the heels of a road win in Los Angeles, followed by a victory at home over Tennessee, Denver has improved to 2-4. During that same time frame, Patrick Mahomes and Company have lost back-to-back games at Arrowhead Stadium, falling last Sunday night to Indianapolis and yesterday to Houston.
Which sets up a monster game on Thursday night when Kansas City comes to town.
If the Broncos can pull off the upset, they’ll have made up three games on the Chiefs in an 11-day span. Inexplicably, Denver will be right back in the playoff chase.
No one would’ve thought that was possible when the calendar turned to October. But lo and behold, the biggest regular season game ever played at Empower Field (albeit, it’ll only be the fourth overall) is about to go down.
Unfortunately, Broncos Country might miss out on the fun. Based on the response to Denver’s win over the Titans, the team’s fan base might be asleep at the wheel when the team takes the field on Thursday night.
To some degree, that’s understandable. After all, Vic Fangio’s team doesn’t play a very entertaining brand of football; yesterday’s 16-0 victory was evidence of that fact.
But complaining about style points is failing to see the progress that the first-year head coach’s squad has made since the start of the season. After a bumpy start, which included a pair of heartbreaking home losses on field goals at the final gun, the Broncos are finally starting to play like everyone expected.
During training camp and the preseason, the formula for success that almost every pundit outlined for Denver was the same. They needed to rely on their defense, get a few plays from Joe Flacco and the offense, and not beat themselves with turnovers, silly mistakes and dumb penalties.
Through the first four games of the season, the Broncos weren’t able to follow that road map. Their defense was more porous than expected, the offense was anemic at times and sloppy at others, and ill-timed fumbles, interceptions and roughing-the-passer flags derailed potential wins.
The past two weeks, however, Denver has been a different team. And it all starts with the defense.
Fangio was hired because he’s a guru on that side of the ball. That was the Broncos strength, so John Elway wanted to bring in a head coach who could get the most out of the team’s best players.
In the past eight quarters, Denver’s defense has not allowed a single touchdown. They held the Chargers to just six offensive points, an impressive achievement on the road against Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon and Keenan Allen. And yesterday, they blanked the Titans, pitching a shutout against Marcus Mariota, Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry.
Along the way, they’ve forced six turnovers and recorded seven sacks. They’ve become an opportunistic bunch, a group that is making plays all over the field.
It goes without saying that performances like that will give Denver a chance to win. All they need to do is put a few points on the board, especially at timely junctures in the game, and avoid putting the defense in a bad position. For the most part, they’ve done just that in posting consecutive victories.
Flacco hit Courtland Sutton for a 70-yard touchdown in L.A. that gave the Broncos a nice cushion. Phillip Lindsay turned a two-yard loss into a 30-yard gain by breaking a tackle, popping to the outside and outrunning the defense down the sideline. Diontae Spencer set Denver up with great field position by returning a punt 42 yards. And Brandon McManus has made five field goals in the two wins.
Great defense and just enough offense, that’s the recipe for success. And finally getting it right has salvaged the Broncos season, at least for now.
Should Thursday night not go Denver’s way, things will be spiraling down the drain once again. At 2-5, they’d be three games behind Kansas City and the conversation would return to trading away veteran players, getting Drew Lock on the field as soon as possible and other topics that are about 2020 and beyond.
That’s why the showdown with the Chiefs on national television is so big. The outcome completely transforms how the Broncos will handle the second half of the season.
Yet in some circles, there’s a sense that a win would actually be a negative thing. There’s a notion that getting back into the race would not be in the franchise’s best interests in the long run.
This argument suggests that being bad this season would provide the reality check that Denver needs. It would force them to make a change in the front office, replacing Elway as the team’s general manager. It would provide evidence that Flacco isn’t the answer at quarterback, making Lock or a draft pick the team’s future face of the franchise. And it would cause the team to move on from aging veterans like Von Miller, Emmanuel Sanders, Chris Harris Jr. and Derek Wolfe, turning the page to the next generation of Broncos.
That’s a bunch of balderdash.
First of all, there’s no evidence that a rebuilding project is going to be successful. It’s just as likely that the franchise would turn into a perennial loser, like the Dolphins, Redskins and other downtrodden teams, than they’d draft the future stars that would return them to glory.
A decade of losing doesn’t sound like much fun, but that’s a distinct possibility if known commodities are run out of town in favor of the potential that comes with draft picks. Going down the rebuilding road should be a last resort, when all other options have been exhausted, because no one knows just how long the trip will last.
Instead, Denver can win now. They have the horses to do it, as the last two weeks have proven. And they’re only two borderline penalties away from being 4-2.
The Broncos current game plans might not be exciting, but that’s beside the point. The NFL is about winning, not putting up video game statistics.
Indianapolis won in Kansas City by playing smashmouth football. The Patriots won last year’s Super Bowl by going old-school against the high-flying Rams. Grinding it out can still win in 2019.
So wake up, Denver. The Broncos are back in this thing, at least until Thursday night.
