The Broncos can finally wash away Week 1, but the gauntlet is far from over

There’s a difference between having a bad game and being a bad team. The Denver Broncos spent an entire week living in the space between those two realities after their 31-10 dismantling at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The questions were everywhere. Is Davis Webb in over his head? Is Bo Nix the same quarterback after the ankle injury? Are the Super Bowl aspirations already dead? Sunday’s 20-13 comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t answer every question. But it answered the one that mattered most.

On a recent edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, the hosts processed the significance of what the Broncos showed us against a Jaguars team that’s no one’s idea of an easy opponent, the same team that handed Denver its only regular-season home loss a year ago.

Cecil Lammey led with the declaration the fan base had been waiting to hear.

“Week 1, you just wash it away,” Lammey said.

Josh Dover added the qualifier that makes the statement credible.

“You can now, because you’ve learned from it,” Dover said.

Lammey then explained why Sunday’s result gave the Broncos permission to move on from the Chiefs debacle.

“You can now, because you showed that you’re different. If they came out and they looked like they did against Kansas City, we’d be saying there’s some large problems, there’s some major problems. Like the identity crisis for the Broncos would be there,” Lammey said.

The Broncos responded. Bo Nix was sharper. Jonah Coleman carried a significant share of the rushing workload and gave the ground game a physicality it lacked in Week 1. Davis Webb cleaned up his play calling and dialed up the kind of fourth-quarter sequence, 14 unanswered points, that demonstrated genuine growth from his disastrous debut.

Lammey gave the performance the credit it deserved.

“They came out and won. They came out and beat a quality opponent. They came out and beat a fellow Super Bowl contender, and I think that’s very good,” Lammey said.

Then he pivoted to what comes next.

“Now, you gotta do it again,” Lammey said. “Guess what? You’ve got four more weeks of this gauntlet schedule, where you play some quality teams.”

That’s the reality check that prevents anyone from getting too comfortable. The Rams, the 49ers, the Chargers, and the Seahawks are all still on the schedule before the opening stretch is complete. Sunday was a statement. But a single statement doesn’t define a season, a sustained body of work does. The Broncos proved they aren’t the team that showed up at Arrowhead. Now they have to prove it three or four more times before anyone can exhale.

The gears are starting to turn. The identity is taking shape. And Dover and Lammey are cautiously optimistic that the version of the Broncos that showed up Sunday is the real one. But caution is the operative word, because the gauntlet doesn’t care about moral victories, and the next four weeks are going to demand the same kind of response the Broncos just delivered against Jacksonville. Only more of it. And better.

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