Broncos know the way they’re getting wins isn’t sustainable

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos’ locker room didn’t feel like the den of a team riding the wave of a four-game winning streak into sole possession of first place in the AFC West, a spot the team hadn’t previously held in a little over nine full years.

Instead, it seemed more like the home of a team chastened — or at least, one that certainly knows that its recent winning streak hasn’t exactly come in a manner that lends itself to a sustainable championship run.

“Yeah, no, I think everybody knows that. I think everybody has a good sense and feel of that,” Broncos edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said.

“It doesn’t keep going like this, you know? You gotta either clean up the mistakes or the mistakes are gonna come back and bite you on your ass. And we’re fortunate enough that it hasn’t happened yet, so, we still got time to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

The offense was in the spotlight — understandably so, given the extremes of its recent form. Its 33-point fourth quarter last Sunday represented the highest one-quarter output in Broncos history; its three consecutive scoreless second and third quarters is also unprecedented in club annals.

“Yeah, I don’t think an offense should be able to score 33 points in a quarter and zero for the previous 45 minutes,” Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “Those two things should be pretty mutually exclusive. But they haven’t been.

“And the reason [is] … the details need to be cleaned up. It’s not like we’re having a ton of negative plays. …Iit’s an incomplete pass here, a 1-yard run that should have been a 5-yard run, it’s a little bit more time for Bo (Nix) to deliver a more accurate ball, right?

“It’s such small little details that we need to get cleaned up and the urgency needs to be higher, day in and day out to make sure we start fast and make sure that that continues throughout the football game.”

 

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IT STARTED FOR THE BRONCOS IN PRACTICE WEDNESDAY

Cleaning up those details began Wednesday, with what McGlinchey described as “making the urgency a little bit higher” during the on-field work to try and spur a quicker start than the slow lurches from the blocks that put the team in deep holes against the Eagles and Giants this month.

“This week, Coach (Sean Payton) is really pushing us like practice harder, whatever it takes to go out there, have that fast start,” Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant said. “Because you see when we in our groove, we’re a great team.

“So just focusing on that, everybody doing their job, we’ll be perfectly fine.”

The difference Wednesday was palpable.

“Energy was up,” Bryant said. “Everybody was ready to go.

“… Coach know what he doing, man. Just getting on my behind, man, and just pushing us to be great is what’s going to make us a good team.”

But being that type of team means being it for four quarters, not just one. And practice repetitions can only take the Broncos so far; doing it at game time means getting their minds right.

PERHAPS THEY NEED TO RELAX AND “LET IT FLY”

McGlinchey offered a hypothesis for the Broncos’ offensive woes in the first three quarters of games: They’re thinking too much.

“I think it’s a mentality when you go in on Sunday that, hey, sometimes you just gotta let it fly. Don’t overthink it. Just call the play, run the play and do it like you did in the fourth quarter when we didn’t have a choice.

“And so, when your back’s against the wall, all of a sudden that, ‘I don’t have an option, another option kind of takes over.’ And I think that’s a mentality we need to play with all the time.”

And even with Payton cranking up the pressure, this, too, can be honed in practice.

“It’s all practice. The idea is to take practice and use the reps that we get in practice to rehearse what you’re going to see on the game,” McGlinchey said.

“Now, every play doesn’t work out as smoothly as, ‘Hey, I got this carded look at practice this week, and this is exactly what they’re going to do.’ This is the NFL; that doesn’t happen all the time. But you have an idea of what your plan is.”

And if you do, McGlinchey says, then you don’t have to think. And that’s when you can “let it fly,” as he suggests.

“I’m a big golfer. So, the more you think about your swing, the more you think about where you want the club in your backswing, where you want your hands in the downswing, more likely the ball is either going to go way left or way right,” McGlinchey said.

“And if you can just pick a target and let it fly at it — at least in my golf game, it does a little bit better. And I think it translates to the same way in football. Right? And so pick your target, whatever, whatever position you’re playing, pick exactly what you’re supposed to do and commit to it as hard as you can.”

In other words — to borrow a line from “Tin Cup” — the Broncos’ brains are getting in the way.

So far this month, dominating one quarter in each game has been good enough for three wins that will prove valuable; no one’s taking away those notches in the win column.

But to be more than just a mid-season flash? The Broncos have to be their best selves for more than just a few minutes — and finding a way to take hesitation out of the equation and treat every moment like they’re behind by three scores.

Maybe it means thinking less. Perhaps it could mean going up-tempo more often, removing complications like a slew of substitutions from the mix.

Either way, at least the Broncos have the first step down: They know they have a problem, they’re not in denial — and if they don’t fix the glitch, they’re headed for a crash.

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