Sean Payton calls it ‘a playoff game’ for Broncos even with Chargers benching QB
"The focus is really internal in our preparation," Broncos head coach Sean Payton said of the Chargers potentially sitting plenty of starters
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Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton didn’t have a strong reaction to the big news of the week.
On Monday, Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers announced his star QB Justin Herbert wouldn’t play in the season finale this weekend.
L.A. is locked into a wild card spot, so Harbaugh is playing it safe.
This, of course, is a huge advantage for the Broncos. They’ll face career backup QB Trey Lance and maybe dodge other Chargers’ starters.
At his press conference on Wednesday, Sean Payton was somewhat dismissive of the move from Harbaugh and is keeping the Broncos locked in on what they can control.
“Our focus, this is a playoff game. I just finished telling the team we have to focus on what are the strengths of Trey. So, that’s significant, they’re different style players. But our focus is on this game and winning this game,” Payton said.
In some senses, it is a playoff game for the Broncos. If they win, Denver is the No. 1 seed in the AFC. They would get a bye week and need to win two home games to go to the Super Bowl.
Sean Payton was then asked about what it’s like studying game film if the Chargers do indeed play a bunch of backups.
“We’re preparing for all of them. This is more about us. And they’re a real good football team, I mean, tremendous football team. Jim’s done a great job. This very quickly became a real good division. The focus is really internal in our preparation,” Payton said.
Sean Payton doesn’t need to create any bulletin board material, so these are the right answers. Still, the Broncos should win this game and win it convincingly.
It sounds like they’re locked in, now it’s about doing it on the field in a huge contest on Sunday.
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