Broncos have a chance against battered Panthers to show why this year’s team is different

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — These Denver Broncos appear different than their immediate forebears of the past seven seasons.

They’re resilient. Their defense is enjoying its best run of form since Wade Phillips had the “No-Fly Zone” at his disposal. The offensive line has clicked despite injuries and Bo Nix has the league’s fourth-best sack rate among 32 quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts while accounting for 7 total touchdowns — including runs — and just one turnover in the last five games.

But the tests of just how different aren’t limited to the weeks in which they battle foes regarded to camp near the NFL’s summit — opponents like the ones the Broncos will face in the first fortnight of November when they visit Baltimore and Kansas City.
Sunday itself is a test, because in recent years, such games have been banana peels.

Last year, the Broncos’ effort to climb out of their 1-5 hole ultimately sank in a game with plenty of similarities to the matchup that lurks Sunday. Facing the reeling New England Patriots, Denver fumbled its way into a 23-7 hole that proved to be too great to overcome in the final quarter despite a furious rally, falling 26-23.

In 2021, the Broncos appeared to be surging after a two-game, season-reviving winning streak that included perhaps their most comprehensive performance since Super Bowl 50, when they took a 30-0 lead at 6-1 Dallas before allowing two window-dressing touchdowns late. An Eagles side that had dropped 6 of its previous 8 games visited Denver seven days later and never trailed, dealing the Broncos a 30-13 drubbing.

And in 2017, when the Broncos opened Vance Joseph’s head-coaching stint with a 3-1 mark, Denver faced an 0-5 New York Giants team lacking eight starters, including its top three wide receivers. The Giants cruised to a 23-10 win, sending the Broncos on an 8-game losing streak.

Now, the Carolina Panthers arrive. They sit at the foot of the NFC South, battered by injuries and beset by lingering woes that go all the way to the top of their organization. They are 3-21 since the start of the 2023 season. They’ve had five different head coaches in their last 37 games.

And they will play Sunday without their top two wide receivers — Diontae Johnson and Adam Thielen — and with Bryce Young, benched after two games this season, back at quarterback in the wake of Andy Dalton being banged up in a Tuesday traffic collision.

The Broncos should have their way with Carolina. But they should have done the same with New England last year, Philadelphia in 2021 and the Giants in 2017.

So, how do you avoid the fate of past teams?

For the Broncos, it’s about focusing on themselves, not the shortcomings of an opponent that appears to be overmatched.

“Well, just because it’s just our job, right? It’s our job to hold ourselves to a standard,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “it doesn’t matter what’s going on around us. You got to perform to the best of your ability, no matter what, and that’s how you make it in this league.

“It doesn’t matter who’s lining up across from you, what the other team’s situation is. We still have a lot to prove here.”

One sentiment seemed clear in the Denver locker room this week: Don’t feel good about a 4-1 mark in the last five weeks with an eminently beatable opponent on the docket. Instead, focus on the matters at hand: Sunday’s game, and doing your job better.

“We’re definitely hard on ourselves, and that’s not going to change for anything, either,” edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said. “Even with everything that’s going on and people playing well across the board is, ‘How can we get better? How can we get better?’ Every time.”

The Panthers are battered and buried at the bottom of the NFC South, but Zach Allen says the Broncos are focused not on Carolina’s struggles, but on their own task at hand.

“It’s the NFL. Everybody gets paid … We’re a mature team, and guys are handling it the right way, and I… pic.twitter.com/WWXtSUcfH1

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 25, 2024

Added defensive end Zach Allen: “We’re a mature team, and guys are handling it the right way, and I don’t think we get too high or get too low. We just do our thing, and we take practice every day seriously and just want to work on being consistent and playing up to our standard.”

The Broncos are saying the right things. They’re doing the right things in practice, too. But all that is meaningless without actually finishing the task of Week 8.

“I don’t care who, what the opponent is, what their situation is, what’s going on on the other side,” McGlinchey said. “Our standard has to be our standard, and we don’t change that for anybody.
Sunday will offer perhaps the truest examination of whether the stated standards for the Broncos can be met with actual results.

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