Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Can Denver UPSET Patriots in AFC Championship Game?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

The Denver Broncos are preparing to take on the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Due to Bo Nix being out, the Broncos are once again underdogs for this matchup, a scenario where they have thrived this season. Jarrett Stidham is set to play QB for Denver against the team that drafted him. The Broncos defense, led by Vance Joseph, will need to be on point in order for the Broncos to win the game. Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson as they preview the AFC Championship between the Broncos and Patriots. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. DripDrop Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to http://dripdrop.com and use promo code lockedonnfl. Ultimate QB Ultimate QB is totally free to play, has no ads, and works 100% offline — perfect for when you want to sneak in a quick game or two on the go. Just head over to http://ULTIMATE-QB.COM. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is officially in Playoff Mode. Every game day during the NFL playoffs, FanDuel is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action. Visit Fanduel.com to get started. PrizePicks Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Robinhood Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm an I'm a little Piro, and it's time for Stitty to put on for the city. I'm Cody Rourke. Look, the Denver Broncos have been slept on all season long. It's not a secret to being slept on this week. Now it's time for Jared Sidem of the Broncos to punch the Patriots in the mouth. I'm Sarah Bedinger. Stitty up Broncos Country. Let's go win this AFC championship.

I'm Nick Ferguson. And as always, we know why the team is here. And we'll break that down for you. Let's get into it on today's Lockdown Broncos squad show. From the South stands, it's the Broncos squad. Everything Denver Broncos every week. Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Mile High City, the way only the Lockdown Podcast Network can.

Gear up and squad up. The Broncos Squad show starts now. It is your Locked on Blocko Squad show right here on Your Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. Hope everyone in Broncos country is doing well out there as we get ready to preview an AFC championship game between your beloved Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots. The whole crew here today, Anilo Piro, Cody Roak, Sarah Bedinger,

and Nick Ferguson, do us a favor. If you are on YouTube, hit that like button, smash that subscribe button. It really helps us out here on the channel. But we've had a couple of days to digest the win, of course, over the Buffalo Bills, but also the unfortunate news that Bo Nix will be out for the remainder of the playoffs. So we've had a little while now to process what will be the Denver Broncos moving forward with Jared Stidham at the helm for this Denver Broncos team. I think we all have varying degrees in confidence with Jared Stidham as the backup quarterback, stepping into the

starting role for the Broncos here on Sunday. But Cody, I'll start with you. We will be at practice this week. We'll hear from Stiddy a couple of times. Obviously, excited to see what Sean Pateen has to say the other players have to say. But here we go. It is game week now, my friend. Yeah, it is. Once again, it's still do or die at this point. And look, you don't need the Broncos to go out there and change the recipe, so to speak.

You know, might have to adjust a couple of ingredients here and there, but you don't got to change ultimately how things are made this week. And I'm very curiously what the approach is. I know the mindset in the locker room. I've already talked to a few players in the buildup this week. They have complete confidence in Jared Stidham. There's things that obviously we'll get into here in today's show that kind of go through the layers of what that looks like, especially with him being the number two quarterback all year.

What role has Jared had for the Broncos this season behind the scenes as it pertains to making the defense better, challenging them? There's so many different things we'll break down. But as Sarah said earlier, it's time to Stiddy up. I love it. You know, Sarah, you were mentioning the profile pictures that are going around on social media right now of Stitty with the sunglasses on. And Broncos country, I think, is really rallying around Jared Stidham as the quarterback.

And I haven't really got your full opinion on the Bo Nick situation. So if you want to touch on that as well and kind of feed into your comments about Jared Stiddle, I mean, where's kind of your head at this week heading into this AFC championship game? Yeah, my head is right. I'm almost finished with this. I'm not quite done yet. I've got to finish it. I'm trying to finish it off camera here.

I'm just drawing it down here. I don't judge my drawing. That was great. That's better than anything I could ever draw on life. Not done yet. I'm not done. But look, yeah, I mean, you got to put the full confidence behind Jared Stiddle.

Like this dude is, he's been paid as one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league for a reason. I think, you know, we don't talk a ton about it throughout the course of a season. But, you know, at times, like Cody and I had talked about on the show, like you feel really good. If Bo Nix ever had to miss time, you feel good about Jared Stidom being able to keep the ship afloat. And as we continue to talk about history repeating itself, when's the last time the Broncos won a Super Bowl that they didn't need the backup quarterback to step in at some point now, obviously not this late in the season. But I think, you know, Jared Stidham's got a great opportunity before him. And yeah, the Bo Nick stuff sucks.

Anybody who watched our postgame show knows that I was beside myself at a loss for words. Because I think what I got texted this multiple times, guys, from people that I know and love, people that are in my life. I'm so happy for you that the Broncos won, but I feel bad for Josh Allen. I could give a crap about feeling bad for Josh Allen. I feel bad for Bo Nix, who doesn't get to play in the AFC championship game after he won in the divisional round. Like, spare me the sob story for Josh Allen and the bills. I feel bad for Bo Nix.

I feel great for Jared Stidham. I'm confident in Jared Stidham. I'm not just rallying behind the backup quarterback because we have no other reason. I feel like he's shown, like this dude's got some serious chops and he can play. And I think he can run the Sean Payton offense. extremely well. Yeah, I forget the name of the guy that tweeted it out, but you mentioned backup quarterback Super Bowls, all that kind of stuff for the Broncos. But I saw a tweet yesterday that the Broncos have never won a Super Bowl without a quarterback on the roster that was drafted

by the Colts. So shout out Sam Allen, the backup to Jared Stead of this week. You got that kind of feeding into the formula a little bit as well. But it's an interesting scenario here, Nick. And Bo Nix was so good for this Broncos team for basically the entirety of the season, really leveled up in my opinion for this season as well. But now you turn to Jared Stidham, right? A guy that has been adamant throughout the course of his career that he believes he can start in this league. It's going to be a bit of baptism by fire for him going into this AFC championship match.

I've obviously started games previously with the Raiders and whatnot. But a lot of pressure, the way to the world, or should I say the way to Broncos country, is resting on Stidham's shoulders. Yeah, the most important part of playing in the NFL is belief. You have to believe in yourself. Because you don't believe in yourself, no one else will. So that is something that Jarrett Stedham kind of carries with him. A certain level of confidence that he should be a starting quarterback in the league.

That has never happened for him in his time in the league. But we get a chance to see it. He gets his moment. Now, it's probably not how he, you know, dream. But it is here. Now, this is a moment that he can really set himself apart. And I know during the preseason, there was a lot of, conversation on social media about,

oh, wow, you know, we saw Jared Stidham play great against the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe the Broncos now have a quarterback controversy. I'm like, there's no damn controversy. Oh, Nix is the God.

But now Stidham gets a chance to really stand up and show his ability. And I know going into this game, I know the mindset, and I saw something on Twitter yesterday, well, hey, I guess the Pils of them swing towards the Broncos

because the Patriots, they don't really have that much fun. film on him. And I'm like, pump your damn breaks. You know why? They were the team that drafted him in 2019. Josh McDaniels was a guy who was calling plays. And oh, by the way, Gerald Stidham got in the game as a young player throwing to who? Demirious Thomas of the Denver Broncos in the preseason game. When Josh McDaniels jumped to the Raiders, guess who he brought along with him? Stitty, right? So they know Stiddy. And Braybill said it himself earlier this week. I mean, they have been watching film on Stidham because they were thinking about adding him to their quarterback room.

So we know he is a competent and capable backup. But he will now have to go out there and really prove it. But the one thing he has, the one thing that he has going for him, that Bo Nix had going for him, that Sean Payton had going for him. Hell, Broncos country had going for him. For them, rather, it was Van Gogh in the damn defense. If that defense comes out and plays the same way this Sunday as they played against the Patriots, oh man, sign me up. Let's just walk into Levi Stadium and kiss the ground and say,

2015, we back, dog. But you're going to need the Broncos defense to do that. Yeah, I mean, let's call a spade a spate a spate. C.J. Stroud was the MVP for the New England Patriots in their game they played over the weekend. I mean, C.J. Stroud was an absolute disaster in that game. And look, you know, Drake May did some nice stuff and we'll kind of get into that matchup between the Broncos defense and the Patriots offense moving forward throughout the course of the program. But I think the Broncos are a live team to win this game.

I understand that it stinks that Bo Nix is out there. I was talking about it yesterday at the radio station with some friends and some colleagues. I think the one glaring thing that you're missing, I don't even want to say missing, that we just don't know if Jared Stidham has it in them, that Bo Nix did, is that hero ball at the end of the games. I think if Jared Stidham goes out there and plays a clear, game doesn't make mistakes, doesn't turn the ball over. And to Nick's point, if the Broncos are able to rally on defense and get some

turnovers, Cody, I think the Broncos have an absolutely pretty good chance to win this game. I do too. And the fact that this is in Denver, I think, is also indicative of the advantage, you know, the altitude advantage that certainly that the Broncos do have. And the stadium is louder in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. It's loud as hell in the regular season. But it's next level.

You know, instead of the water bottle test in the press box, we did like the paper sitting on top of, you know, some sort of object and the paper was rattling. That's how loud it was against the Buffalo Bills. But here's the thing, you know, the Broncos don't need Jared to come in and play hero ball. They just need him to make the necessary throws. But here's the biggest thing. I don't think it's about Jared.

I think it's about the Broncos. And Sarah and I, we talk about this as well. It's about Broncos playmakers stepping up. You need Cortland Sutton to haul in some of these tougher passes. You need Troy Franklin, well, probably not going to actually play this week. That's another subject for another. But you need little Jordan Humble. free to haul in passes.

You need Marvin Mims to have a little bit more of the feature role where I say you can argue he's wide receiver one or wide receiver two, take him off a kick return, just put him on offense. And now I think there's this underrated element that I also brought up, the fact that he's been on the, like scout team. He's been running a scout team all season long against this very Broncos defense that has been at times, one of the best units in the league. Yes, they give up.

They've been, but don't break. But Jarrett has also tested them a little bit to where advanced. Sean Baiton was telling us, there's times this year he's looking over Vince Joseph getting pissed off because Stidham is making the defense look bad. There's that dynamic, plus the fact that I think an underrated weapon that probably will get activated this week,

Elijah Moore, who came over, signed off of, obviously he's on the practice squad, was activated, but inactive last week. Who has Jared Stidham been throwing to in these scout team sessions? Elijah Moore. That connection, that chemistry has been building up there. I'm excited about it, but they don't need Jared to be hero. They just need him out there and make the throws.

They need other guys to step up and actually help him. Yeah, again, I think it's just playing a clean game and rallying around him and the defense doing their part and just sticking to the plan, right? And I think the Broncos have a really good chance to do that. I'll go back to the press conference that Sean Payton gave after the game on Saturday night where he announced that Bo Nix, you know, was going to be out for the rest of the playoffs, complete confidence in Jared Stidima, a very strong boat of confidence towards Steady from Sean Payton. I mean, there's a reason why the Broncos gave him the contract extension. There's a reason why Jared

Sidham is one of, if not the highest paid backup in the NFL. Obviously, you never want to be in this situation. Ideally, Bo Nix is out there. The holding in the end zone is called and we don't even have to have this situation. But here we are. But Sarah, I think this is about as confident as you could be

having to throw a backup quarterback into the fire here in the AFC championship game. Yeah, because you have one of the best teams in the NFL, right? And I do have to just quickly show you guys, you know, I finish up. That's legit. Oh, yeah. I love it.

We got the Jared Sidham face all ready to go. But look, I think it's because you have one of the best teams in the NFL. And I don't think the Broncos could have played one of their most complimentary games at a better time. And I know that everybody, you know, we've talked all season long. Is the defense dragging the offense? Did the offense, you know, can they do this? Can they step up in this situation? I know that it wasn't necessarily a dominant game.

But I think that against the Buffalo bills, we saw one of the most complimentary games from the Broncos, the offense, stepping up in big situations, the defense coming through with takeaways, special teams, pinning the bills deep late in the game, obviously, three special teams tackles from Devin Key, big time stuff from Will Lutz, obviously. So it was one of the most complimentary games at the best possible time. And I think they can build on that, right? And that's what helps your backup quarterback is when everybody else is doing their part. is to say, all right, you step in here.

You do your job, Jared. Go, go run the offense. Go hit spots because we know you can throw. We know you can put the ball on a spot. We know you can be accurate with the ball. We know that he can make plays under pressure. We know that he's a little bit underrated running with the football. We saw that in the preseason as well.

Not that you're going to ask him to do design quarterback runs by any means. But I think Jared, it has the ability to be the type of player to go out there. And if he's, if he's locked in, I mean, there's no overlooking the Patriots whatsoever. This would be for any opponent the Broncos would go up against. But if Jarrett is locked in, do we really think they can't score 30 plus points? I think everybody's assuming that they're going to have to win an old school-style Big 10 game. And it may end up being like that, right?

Like Iowa, Wisconsin from 2009 type stuff. But I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Jarrett could go out there and light it up. And that's what I'm hoping for. obviously, I'm not necessarily expecting it, but that's what I'm hoping for from him is to say, all right, this is my chance. This is my opportunity. I'm about to go lock in and win the AFC championship game for my team.

Thank you, thoughts. That's a lot. That's a lot of damn hopes there. Not to. Hope you. Listen, I get it. No, I want the Broncos to get back to the Super Bowl. I really do.

And I know all of us want that to happen. For me, I just can't overlook some of the glaring things that I've seen. And I know you say, okay, well, you think about complimentary football. In that game against Buffalo, for me, that was anything but complimentary. The run game, 22 carries for 70 yards and bowl for the second week in the row led the team in rushing. Where is the balance? I trust Stiddy from the standpoint of his competency level. He's been in this offense for three years.

so he should know it like the back of his hand. I have no reservations on that. For me, it is about balance. You're going to need balance against this team. And albeit we saw, we've seen Drake May inclement weather, both quarterback struggle holding on to the ball. When I look at what the Patriots bring into the game on Sunday, Remandre Stevens and Trevionn Henderson,

they can tote the rock, right? In some games where Drake May wasn't on, those guys were the killers for the opponent's defense. We just watched James Cook go for 117, right? So in order to keep Drake May on the sideline, you have to run the ball. The idea of the Broncos scoring 30 points, to me, I love that idea.

Can they do it? I don't know, right? And if they do do it, they have to be assisted by the defense as we saw in the game against Buffalo. So if you're telling me, And we've been talking about this all season long. When it comes to the Broncos, they have not had any balance.

They have not been able to run the ball. J.K. Dobbins had two games over 100 yards. One of those games were against the loaful Cincinnati Bengals. Still 100 yards, I give it to them, right? But at the same time, what have we seen? We haven't seen a steady commitment to the run game from head coach, officer coordinator. Now, every week we say, well, today,

might be the day like the damn lotto. If you're telling me that on Sunday, he's going to pull out all these plays and he's going to stink to it, say, I'll buy it. But up to this point, we've been saying it every single week, but we haven't really seen it. So if you want to tell me that he's going to do it,

hell, man, I'm right there with you. But I can't believe in it until I actually see it. I think it's fair. Quick point. Quick point here. And counter argument to that. Who averages more than 4.4 yards per carry between the Broncos and the Patriots this year.

Neither. They both average 4.4 yards per carry. Who has the better red zone offense between the Broncos and the Patriots this year? It's the Denver Broncos. The Patriots have lived and died on the deep passing ball. And I know that we want to talk about balance offensively being essential, but that's exactly what we talked about going into the bills game. They didn't have balance offensively.

They scored 33 points and won the game. And I realize that you need the defense to come through. I know, I realize. But that's what we've been talking about. The defense also needed the offense to come through when the defense blew the lead in the second half. And then Bo Nix has to come and play hero ball. It required a miraculous interception on a perfectly thrown pass from Josh Allen. This is why I say it's complimentary football.

It's everybody coming through for each other. The defense didn't bail the offense out in the divisional round. The offense had them a lead that was substantial going into the half. And they blew it. They did. They blew the lead and the offense got it back. And the special teams helped get it back. I mean, you force turnovers.

That's your job. You get to the quarterback. You're the best pass rushing team in the NFL. If you're not creating takeaways, that's not the offense's problem. Like the defense has Sean Peyton, Nick Benito said it. Sean's been mad at us all week for not creating turnovers. You want to be the best defense in the NFL. Stop making excuses when the offense is putting up the points.

The offense did their job in that game in the first half. There's no question. Just because they didn't have 300 passing yards, 200 rushing yards. The defense is able to pin its ears back. Like, I don't like that. I don't like, I don't think that's indicative of not complimentary. I think it's a proof of complimentary. The offense, you know, they have no margin for error because otherwise the defense has to

dominate in order for it to be a complimentary performance. I just don't, I don't get that. I don't like that. I think that what we see from the Patriots is the same exact thing. They don't run the ball extremely well. They don't, like, dominate on the ground unless they have these gigantic leads, which are given to them by who? It's given to them by their defense and special teams.

How many games of the Patriots have this year? Offensive struggling. Oh, Marcus Jones to the rescue. Oh, Christian Gonzalez to the rescue. I don't understand how it's, it's complimentary for them, but not for the Broncos. That's my big problem with that. Well, the reason why is that way is that you look at the Patriots and they do have more balance. The Broncos in the game against the Buffalo Bills, they got dominated on time of possession.

Inside the red zone, the bills were three for five. The Broncos were one for four. The turnover that you said before the halftime, it allowed from Nick Benito when Josh Allen rushed out, was running till on the left side, he knocked the ball out of his hands. That allowed Will Lutz to kick a field goal for three points. So the offense, the defense has been setting up the office. There were two turnovers in that game where the Broncos offense were put on a short field, not once but twice.

They came away with field goals. The week before against the Chargers, when everyone said that, hey, listen, it was a vanilla offense. It was the same thing. Look, I love this team just as though as much as everyone else. And I have relationships with guys in that locker room. But once again, for me, what I'm seeing cannot continue to exist or as, going to present problems because once again, this is not mistaken.

Those five turnovers were pivotal for the offense. They gave the offense opportunities. This offense still has been struggling over the past couple of weeks to kind of establish some kind of momentum, but they're going to need all hands on deck because the guy who once again has led the team in rushing for the past two weeks, he will not be playing in this game. Is it fair to say that both units, offense and defense this season, they've had their moments of struggles, plain and simple.

I think so much of the conversation gets to be like, well, it's the offense's fault or it's fault. And I think the simple reality is that both of these units at times this season have had their own bouts and spells with struggling where one unit's had to step up while the other has struggled. I mean, that I think is where you want to have at least some balance, so to speak. I mean, we've seen that with this team. but now it's like this is it.

You have two games left. One's guaranteed it's do or die. This has to be your best game plan. This has to be your best effort. I think that Denver's going to do that. But, you know, I think so much of the conversation this year has been like, ah, it's the offense's fault. It's the defense's fault.

When the reality is it's a long season, everybody else has had their struggles. There's things that certainly the offense can be better at. There's things certainly the defense can be better at. Heck, even special teams, which special teams at one point of the season was a huge issue for the Broncos early on. And then now they've read. It's just about balance. It's not always going to be pretty.

It's not going to be perfectly complimentary where the offense plays perfect. The defense plays perfect. And then special teams plays perfect. It's, hey, the offense may make plays when they need to. Same with the defense. It may not be pretty. But that is what the balance has to be, especially when you're in the playoffs. Well, I think at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is with the inconsistencies,

which I agree with. And I think Cody, Nick and Sarah also make some great points is they're finding ways to win football games. At the end of the day, to use it. So use the Dom Torretto line. Don't matter if you went by an inch or a mile, right? Winning's winning. And that's what the Denver Broncos are doing right now. Okay, let's hit a quick break.

When we come back, let's continue along with the conversation. I like the hood, Cody, getting into the element there a little bit. Let's hone in on this defense because I think there's some real opportunities for this Broncos defense to potentially wreck this game plan for the New England Patriots with a young Drake May coming into in Powerfield. So we'll do that right after this commercial break right here on your locked-down Broncos. Squat show. All right, you guys, real quick, let me tell you about our friends over at Indeed. If you've ever hired someone who looked good on paper

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the conversation as we get ready to preview or continue to preview rather the denver broncos getting ready to take on the new Patriots. Let's hone in on this defense. Sarah, I wish that you were in the press box with us because I would have loved to have seen your reaction to not one, but five turnovers from this Denver Broncos defense in that game against the Buffalo Bills. Nick Benito, Shades of Von Miller, Alex Singleton laying it out on the line, J-Quann-McMillan with one of the craziest interceptions that I've ever seen that shouldn't be controversial, but it turned into be controversial. So I think the other thing, going back to the point that I made earlier, right? Like, C.J. Stroud was the MVP of that game for the New England Patriots when they played the Houston Texans.

I believe Drake May has six fumbles in the playoffs. He's only lost three of them. Drake May, that is, excuse me. Two interceptions, too. Two interceptions as well. So the main point that I'm trying to drive home here is drag me has been a bit shaky with arguably the most important aspect of what the quarterback needs to be in the playoffs, which is protecting the football. I mean, look at what happened with C.J. Strat. Look at what happened to Aaron Rogers at the end of that game with the Steelers.

You know, the Steelers had a chance to win that game against the Houston Texans if they were able to capitalize on some turnovers from the Texans offense. So, Cody, I'll dish it out to you first, man. If the Broncos defense is able to get home like we've seen, the leading team in the NFL these season with sacks, if they're able to force a couple of turnovers, because I don't expect them to generate five, that'd be incredible. But if they're able to get an interception here, a fumble there,

that is going to be a real key for the Broncos winning this game. Yeah, 100%. If you look at the last two games, the Newland of Patriots have played, Drake May has been sacked 10 times in two games, five against the Chargers, five against the Houston Texans, four fumbles, Patriots had last week against Houston, one interception, obviously that Drake May through, Drake threw an interception against the Chargers as well.

And there were also two fumbles that the Patriots had in that game against L.A. The key here for Denver's defense is ramping up that pressure on, obviously, Drake May. You got guys like Nick Panetto, look, Nick Benito is channeling the inner Von Miller playoff arch. I said it last week. I think he's going to do it again. Those two plays he had against the bills were huge for Denver specifically,

at least coming away with at least six points off of those two takeaways that Denver certainly had there. You want to see a little bit more of that, right? But it's also marrying that pass rush with your secondary. This is a Patriots offense that loves to test downfield where I imagine we're going to see PS2 line up against Stefan Diggs. We're going to see Rodley Moss against Kishon Booty. And look, they love to go downfield of these guys.

But then they got obviously they have Austin Hooper and Hunter Henry a tight end. We've already talked about Ramandre Stevenson and Trevionn Henderson. Henderson's electrifying. He's going to be a dangerous kick return option for Denver to have to go against Marcus Jones. Dangerous punt returner there. But for me, it's also the standpoint that Ramondre Stevenson has been a player who typically puts the football on the ground. He's had a history of big fumbles in big time games. This is where Denver can continue to ramp up those takeaways by,

punching the ball out. And I think they have the past rush that certainly against Drake May. You don't want to overlook his ability to extend plays with his legs. He can do that, but he could throw well on the run. This is going to be, I think, a very interesting game plan this week. I think that Denver's defense matches up really well against Drake May and this Patriots offense. Sarah, your thoughts. The New England Patriots played the easiest schedule in the NFL this season, excuse me, fellas, in terms of opponent win percentage, correct? They had 16 giveaways as an offense, which was top 10 best in the NFL. Ninth, in fact, in the NFL.

Since the playoffs began, they've played two of the toughest defenses in the entire NFL, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Houston Texans. They have five giveaways in two playoff games after having 16 in 17 regular season games. Now they're going on the road. Now you're taking on a Denver Broncos defense that just lost its quarterback on the other side. and they understand how much more pressure is on them now in this game to create extra opportunities, as if it wasn't already there before, as Nick and I have discussed on today's show already. The pressure is on that defense to go make those plays.

You've got a second year quarterback coming to the Mile High City who has had struggles in the last couple of games with ball security. I'm just throwing this out there, guys, that I think that if it was me on that defense, I'd be looking my chops already. I'd be thinking to myself like, we're going to ruin this guy's life. Like we're going to make sure that he never forgets coming to the Mile High City and how much he hated playing against the Denver Broncos

in his second year. Like this is going to be a landmark moment in the career of Drake May. This is my mentality, if I'm on the Broncos defense, to break him like they did Cam Newton in the Super Bowl back in Super Bowl 50 to absolutely demoral.

to the point that he doesn't know up from down by the time this game is over. That's the type of mentality that I think this Denver defense is going to take into this game because what we've seen them do this season now against Buffalo forcing takeaways, even though they're moving the ball a little bit, right? James Cook had his. Josh Allen had his. They forced the takeaways. You get five of them in the game against the New England Patriots. Now they're going to do what we've seen them do quite a bit more this season, which is the 50 is

the end zone. Like the defense is going to take that sort of mentality against Drake May and a young quarterback coming to their house and saying like any any movement for their offense is offensive to us. And I think it's going to be one of those types of performances of legacy type performance from this defense. Well, Nick, I think you can obviously speak to that to a certain extent having just played for the Denver Broncos played in playoff games in that stadium, of course. And I think the big stat that's being floated around there is I know it's not Tom Brady anymore, but this New England. Patriots team is un they've, the Broncos are undefeated hosting the New England Patriots at Empower Field at mile high. Tom Brady never won here in the playoffs, right? I'm sure there's some regular season games and whatnot. But when it comes to the playoffs, this Denver Broncos team has been a thorn

in the Patriots side, Nick. Absolutely. And it just kind of takes me back to my days playing against Tom Brady, a fierce competitor. And this is kind of, we've seen this movie before. Several games over the years, the past 15, 20 years, have come down to the Broncos against the Patriots. And fortunately, leave for the Broncos, you're hosting here at home. So the atmosphere is going to be ridiculous once again. And to Sarah's point, when you look at Drake May in his offensive line,

just like Justin Herbert's offensive line with the Chargers, they are banged up. I think they have two young guys on their offensive line. And if you look at the end of the regular season, 47 sacks surrendered by the Patriots offensive line. So far in the postseason, they have surrendered 10 sacks. So that's going to be obviously on the mindset or should be on the mindset of not just Vance Joseph, but those guys on the defensive side of the ball for the Denver Broncos.

But Josh McDaniels, albeit not really welcomed and liked here in Denver, he's going to have a pretty decent game plan. And here's what I mean. When you know that you have some young guys on the offensive line and it's going to be loud, you cannot give the Denver Broncos the advantage. You're going to look at what Joe Brady and James Cook did last week in running the ball. This is how you slowed down edge rushers. And even if it wasn't Denver Broncos, even if it wasn't Houston, Texas, the same game

plan will apply. You run the ball, you slow them down, you make them think, is it a run or is it a pass, and you try to stay out of third and long situations. This could be a game where we don't see Drake May do a lot in the passing game, because because if they're able to get Ramandre Stevens and Trevion Henderson going, to me, you just shorten the game, right? You just eat up clock, you move the sticks, you kind of nullify Jonathan Cooper, Zach Allen,

John Franklin Myers, you know, and Nick Benito. Because now those guys are, now you want them to be in a position where they're pressing. They're frustrated. They can't get to the quarterback. They can't make plays. That's what a run game would do for you. And that was, that's the thing that has me so frustrated by,

the Broncos and not having balance because you could have taken the pressure off of Bo Nix. You could have done the same thing for Jared Stidham, but you don't have that, right? It's now we're hoping, we're wishing, and we're crossing our fingers that maybe there's a commitment, maybe they will be effective in the run game. But I can tell you right now, that is going to be Josh's game plan. If the Patriots run the ball and they have success, it's going to be a problem because now Hunter Henry now becomes a threat. Austin Hooper now becomes a threat

because now they got you to think about the run, now they're going to take shots and play action. Yeah, no, I think it's good points, and it kind of bridges the gap of what this Broncos' offense needs to do to win this game. Obviously a different game plan than with Jared Stidham than you would have if Bo Nix were the quarterback. So let's hit a quick break.

We'll come back, transition to the offense here. What do the Broncos need to do offensively to win this game? We'll break it down. Next, right here on your. Lockdown Bronco squad show. All right, you guys, real quick, let me tell you about our friends over at drip drop because kicking off the new year feels good in the goal, right? And honestly, hydration is the easiest win. When I stay on top of it, my energy focus and mood levels are all up, but let's be real. Plain water doesn't always cut it, especially when you're grinding through

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If you're watching on YouTube, we appreciate each and every one of you. Do as a favor, though, hit that like button, smash that subscribe button really helps us out here. And also for all of our audio listeners, we love you guys as well. Thank you guys for being a part of the Broncos country audience here on your lockdown Broncos squad show. Okay, good conversation there about the defense. Let's move it over to the offense here real quick. And like we've talked about Jared Stedom, we opened up the show talking about him and our confidence level, but let's talk about Sean Payton a little bit too.

And I believe Sean came out and it was in that, it was either in his conference call or in the press conference where he announced that Bo Nix was going to be out for the remainder of the playoffs, right? He knows he's going to have to tailor his play calling a little bit. He knows that he's going to have to play to the strengths of Jared Stidham, which are different strengths than that of Bo Nix. And I think one thing that Broncos country has going for them is not only as Sean Peyton one of the best head coaches in the NFL,

he also has a pretty impeccable record of winning games with backup quarterbacks. You think about Teddy Bridgewater went 5 and 0 when he was the backup quarterback there for the New Orleans Saints in the games that he had to start. Javis Winston got some wins under Sean Payton as well. And so I think Sean Peyton, Cody, he's going to dial up a pretty solid game plan for Jared Stidham in this matchup. Yeah, I think he is as well. And I think just maybe understanding what that game plan may look like.

You know, for me, I've been spending a lot of time going back and forth on preseason tape. What does Stidham do well? You know, what did Sean Payton have him do when he was in there with some of the guys? I mean, he's throwing a guys like Michael Bandy. You know, he's building great chemistry with Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin, two guys who may or may not be able to go this week. he's not getting those premier guys, so to speak, that he's throwing to, but he's making the right decisions. You're seeing a healthy blend of stidum operating under center really well. You're seeing him operate out of the shotgun really well. He's good at navigating, stepping up, climbing into the pocket,

being able to use his legs. Now, here's the thing. He doesn't have the athleticism or foot speed that Bo Nick certainly does, but he is smart in terms of knowing when to get rid of the football. You can see him look comfortable despite times where he was facing pressure. He stays true to his mechanics, and he's patient. You know, the Broncos, they played a lot of zone defense this year. And the preseason, they saw a lot of zone looks. Jarrett knows where to go, where to identify. He knows where those soft spots are.

But it's just all about making sure everything else kind of comes into play. The Broncos didn't really have a successful run game in the preseason either. If I might add that, they didn't have, you know, consistency or efficiency there. Jarrett can operate these things that Sean wants. But it's like, hey, what can Jared do that, you know, you, well, I wouldn't even say that because I think everything Bo can do, Bo can probably do a lot of things a lot better than Jared, just from an athleticism standpoint.

I don't think that there's anything necessarily that Jarrett can do that Bo can't, if you get what I'm saying there. But what can't Jarrett do that Bo can? It's not putting Jarrett in the same type of shoes, right? Maybe you change a couple of those ingredients, right? We're cooking something. We're cooking the meal. We might have to change a couple of the ingredients,

but the recipe overall is not going to change, but we can't have Jarrett. doing these design QB runs where we're pulling Garrett Bulls and the tackle to the outside edge and he's following. That's just simply not his game. John is going to put together a good game plan, I think, in place for Jarrett. And I'm very curious to see how he adjust to what the Patriots do. They do a great job of disguising and also generating pressures. We'll see what the cornerback situation looks like. But I very much think that we're going to see something along the lines of, hey, I know what Jarrett can do. I know what he can't do. I'm not going to ask him to do

anything that certainly he can't do. Sarah, what do you think about this potential game plan? What do we need to see from Sean Pay think to set Jared sit him up for success? Don't hold him back. Go run the offense. He knows the offense better than any quarterback in the room, including Bo Nix. He's been there for longer than anybody. And so to me, I think that what you don't do is say, all right, we're going to really restrict

him here. We're going to run a predictable run, run pass sort of style of. offense. It's going to be extremely conservative. We're going to go with a short passing game only until we're going to try to play a low scoring game with the Patriots. I'm not saying be aggressive to the point of being reckless, but don't hold anything back. I mean, the Patriots understand who Jarrett Stidham is, having had him in the building, coaches knowing him as a player, but there's nothing out there other than preseason tape and back to 2023 that season of Jared operating this offense at its fullest capacity. So there's nothing out there. There's like,

There's nothing out there that says like, oh, we know Jared Stidham's tendencies in running Sean Payton's offense. Absolutely 100%. I think Jared is what he showed in the preseason. Ball distribution, he can figure that out. He knows how to get the ball to every level of the field and to find the open receivers. There's tons of, you know, long, long developing route concepts that you see when you watch the preseason tape of Jared pushing the ball to all three levels of the field and letting route concepts develop. He's not a first read and fire quarterback. he's not a oh well i'm a first read and run style of quarterback he's a pocket passer who's got a little bit

of pocket presence to him and can get out and make plays on the move he's not a statue back there i think he'd be i think honestly i hate to even say this because it's going to sound like such a hot take after the game on sunday i think the texans are going to wish that they had jarrott stid him on their team to be able to have beaten the patriots because i think that jarratt is that type of quarterback who is going to make good decisions. He's accurate. He has a strong arm. And I feel like the playmakers are going to come through for him.

When we talk about complimentary football, that's what it is to me. I think the defense is going to come out with a dominate mentality. I don't think Sean is going to hold back the reins. There's a reason why he said, hey, just watch, right? Just watch. He's ready. Yeah, I think the receivers are going to really have to step up in this game as well, right? Like you saw Cortland Sutton kind of redeem himself later in the game,

but there was a couple of drops early in that matchup against the ball. Buffalo Bills. Little Jordan Humphrey, same thing, drops that touchdown pass on the opening drive for Denver and redeemed himself with a touchdown reception later on in the game. And Nick, I know that's something that you've been harping on with guys like Cortland. I don't think Troy Franklin's going to play. Sounds like Pat Bryant has a chance to play in this game. Remember, he left early in that matchup against Buffalo, but it's going to have to be all hands on deck, no pun intended for these Broncos wide receivers.

Absolutely. Let me give it to you from the evaluation standpoint. if I am scouting the Denver Broncos. I'm taking all of the things that Sayer said into consideration. And now I'm trying to mirror two things together. Now, you look at all the plays and all the games, the preseason games, rugby season games that Stidham has played in. And then you go back and say, well,

Josh McDaniel knows Stidham pretty well. He knows Stidham probably better than Sean Payton knows him. Even that might sound ridiculous. So what you try to do, you try to mirror it. And you say, well, there's not a lot of. lot of tape out there with Stidham. So the parts that you're trying to mirror is that what's, what's his skill set, what he's bringing to the table. You mirror that with what kind of offense that we've seen Sean run thus far. Now, you just mentioned something. Well,

what Troy Franklin play, if he doesn't play, that takes a receiver off the board. If Pat Brian doesn't play, that takes another receiver off the board. So now the Broncos essentially are playing with one hand tie behind their back because now you're going into game with Corlinson. with Jordan Humphrey, Elijah Moore. Now this is where your tight ends come into the equation. Now, we've seen going back to the preseason game against Arizona, and I was even shocked that Evan Ingram was even playing in the game at that time, but he was.

And we saw Jared Stidham connect with him. Now, that may be an opportunity offensively to kind of get steady in the rhythm with those short quick passes and allow Evan Ingram to get up the field. Now, that comes back to what's the game plan? is Sean willing to call plays that he didn't call all season long, and he's going to call them now because it's Stitty with Ingram. That's a strong possibility. If that happens, that gives Stiddy an opportunity.

But if it doesn't happen, it puts him behind the gun. Once again, Stiddy is a very competent player. And sometimes from an evaluation standpoint, if you don't have enough film on the guy, you just study the system. because some coordinators can't break who they are. They are who they are. And they have a tendency to run same formations.

They have a tendency to do the same things. They have a tendency to make the same play calls at certain points on the field based on personal groupings. So that is what you prepare for from the evaluation standpoint. Now, with that being said, Sean has to know the same things as well. You have to know yourself because now you have to overcome those things and break your tendencies, right? And that becomes the biggest question. Can he break his tendencies?

Can he put maybe his coaching mindset aside to say, you know what? I don't have both. I don't have a guy that I trust in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. He's going to use his legs to extend plays. I don't have that guy. So pay attention on Sunday to see if we see. Jared Stidham under center more than we saw Bo Nix. And if I see that, that is going to say to me, was there concern with Bo Nix

in some part of his game where you didn't put him under center more often than we actually saw it? Yeah. No, I think that's a tremendous breakdown of the situation. And I think we've been waiting to go back to Evan Ingram for just a moment. Like we've been waiting for like a true Evan Ingram game. Now would be the absolute optimal time to see that. and Cortland Sutton's been a guy who's been there and done that, but you need him to continue to thrive and up the ante on what he can do

as a true number one ride receiver for this Denver Broncos team. So it is going to be a fascinating matchup, man. I know there's some Patriots fans in national media that don't give the Broncos a chance in this game. I think we all agree that is not the case. Again, I go back to the point of Sean Payton's record with backup quarterbacks, Bridgewater 5-0, won some games with James Winston. This is where Sean Peyton gets into his bag.

And historically, that bag is a pretty good one. So I think the Broncos have a chance to win this game for sure. Okay, let's hear our final break. When we come back, we'll wrap it up. We'll get into some keys to victory here for the Denver Broncos. And also there's another narrative floating around out there that I actually think really bodes well for the Broncos because it's worked out the other two times this season.

We'll break that down next right here on your locked on Broncos squad show. Back in just a moment, folks. All right, you guys, real quick, let me tell you about our friends over at Fandual, because Fandual is officially in playoff mode. Every game during the NFL playoffs, Fan Duel is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action. Because right now, every NFL playoff game day,

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And I wanted to save this for after I did the fan duly. This one's not surprising. The Broncos are underdogs once again. They're sitting at five and a half point dogs right now. I know Cody doesn't like the betting lines, blah, blah, blah. But it is interesting because I texted a buddy of mine that works in Vegas. and works in this industry for a living. And I asked him, if Bo Nix were healthy,

what was the line on the game going to be? And he got back to me and said it would have been Denver minus three. So they would have been three-point favorites for this game. So you're talking about a massive flip from a field goal favorite to an over-fuelgo underdog. And I say that to say this. I understand Bo Nix isn't here. But the Broncos, and I believe they close as a favorite against the Buffalo Bills,

but they opened up as an underdog. And against the Green Bay Packers, they close as an underdog. That's where the overdog's line was born from Bo Nix. So this is typically where the Broncos, maybe it's a little fuel to the fire, whatever it might be. But again, going back to the points that we made about Jared Stidham, the points that we made about this defense, which I completely agree with you guys on. If the Broncos come out and Stidham takes care of the ball, Sean Payton gets into his bag with the plate calling and the Broncos defense forces some turnovers, to me, those are the three keys to victory for this Broncos team, Cody. Yeah, I mean, that's, we talk about the trend of everything you're saying and saying. Like, you don't have to reinvent the wheel here.

It's what happened last time that these two teams faced granted 10 years ago. Very similar circumstances, though, we talked about the AFC championship. It was what made a difference in that game. Look, the Broncos, they got off to a hot start offensively. We all remember Peyton Manning, you know, firing back and forth. I think it was, what, 14 to 6. I think the Patriots missed an extra point on one of those. But Owen Daniels got things going on early on for this team.

But then it was the defense really. kind of pinning their ears back, sacking Tom Brady, generating an interception, right? The takeaways. I mean, I think they had multiple interceptions in the game. I think David Bruton had one, Von Miller had one, Bradley Robey had one, so to speak, and, you know, he was a two-point conversion. But that's going to have to be the key. Forced the takeaways here and find a way to capitalize an offense.

Heck, this could even be a great opportunity for Marvin Minutes to return a punt for a touchdown in this game. I think that Denver, I think they're going to come out on fire. I think the key is simple. You don't have to overcomplicate things. Don't let the moment get too. big for you. I think you can look at this Broncos team this season AP and Nick and Sarah and say, hey, look, they've been in big moments. They haven't flinched, right? In moments where they needed to

strike, they found a way to do it any way that they have. That's why they won 14 games. It's why they won against the Buffalo Bills. They're opportunistic. They're hungry. I think that's going to play well into their favor here against New England, where you're going to have the support of the home team on your side this week. I think that Denver's going to win this one. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about it a couple of times, though. Empowerfield is absolutely electric for all these games. And even more, I can't even lie. I wasn't like anxious, but like I'm standing up for like the national anthem before that game against the Buffalo Bills. I'm like, I just like felt the energy. I was like looking around and I was like, oh my gosh, like here we go. Playoff football is back at Empower

Field. And so on top of everything that I said and Cody said, Sarah, the fact that you have one of, if not the best home field advantage, right? Seattle's got a very good one as well, but they're in the NFC. That bodes well for Denver in this situation going up against a young quarterback and Drake May making his first road playoff start. Yeah, you got to rattle him early on, keep the crowd in the game, right? I mean, obviously for a young quarterback like that, who doesn't not have very many fourth quarter comebacks on his resume at this point, doesn't have a lot of testing in that regard. I mean, played with a lot of big leads this year. Let's just be honest about it. I feel like it's an opportunity for you to really rattle this guy early. And again,

I don't want to sell Drake May short because he's a great player and obviously fully capable of winning a game like this. However, playing in Denver, as you guys know, is a different beast. It's, it's complete. I mean, if it can rattle the likes of Tom Brady, it can rattle somebody like Drake May. And so I feel like this, that's the opportunity before the Broncos here is to take advantage of the situation that you're in. A second year quarterback who is relatively untested has obviously played great. this season, but it's coming to a hostile environment as, as hostile as he's been in. I mean, obviously he went to Buffalo and played and played well.

And so he's proven he could do it, but can you do it in Denver in the playoffs with a winner go home at stake? And here's another thing I want to see guys. I want to see the Broncos bring Peyton Hillis back for this game. I want to see them bring Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler, if old Paul crew is out of prison at this point. I want to see them bring those guys back. I want to see Tony Schephler at the game.

I want to see everybody who was going to cause Josh McDaniels to lose his focus for a second, be like, hey, wait, I know who that is. Hey, I know who that guy is. I ruined that team. That's what I want to see the Broncos do this weekend is play a little mind game with the Patriots. Bring back the ghosts of girlfriends past for Josh McDaniels. And I can't take credit for that because that was my friend Brandon's idea. But I want to see it happen.

I want to see the ghosts of girlfriends past for Josh McDaniels. of what he ruined in Denver, play the mind games with this guy. Bring back some, you know, we love to bring back the alumni, bring back some of the alumni from the Josh McDaniels era that should have been and, you know, wreck his psyche a little bit.

I like it, Nick, your thoughts. Well, I think we all know that Josh McDaniels did not depart to Broncos on good terms. And there's a lot of vitriol that's still rest in the city for him and what he did to the team. What he wants to do, he wants to come in, he wants to win that game. Because he wins that game, he will be the guy on a mountaintop. And saying, no matter what you say about me, I emerge victorious and I sent you home packing.

Now, listening to you guys, you know, what I heard and what it translated to me was, once again, just the way that I started this out, there's a lot of pressure on this Broncos defense. And you go back, even before the charges game. What was the narrative coming out of the Broncos facility from Coach Payton? He needs to get more turnovers. And that put more pressure on the defense to go out there and secure those turnovers. And the reason why, guys, yes, you want to say that you want your defense to kind of hit

a stride, hit a groove because we know what turnovers can do, not just for the defense, for the crowd in the stadium, but also for the offense. And that's why it was being pushed. as much as it was. Like when Coach Payton told the fans, hey, go out there and yell and scream and make sure you do it when they're in the huddle so they can't hear, right?

Excellent strategy. I totally understand it. I'm spot on with him in that regard because that is going to give the defense somewhat of an edge because if the defense has an edge, they can create turnovers. No, when you create those turnovers, that means the team that you plan against,

they're not scoring. They're kicking field goes, if that. What that means is though your defense is now handing a ball back over to your offense. And that's what this is about, gentlemen. Yes, the Broncos are where they are. I celebrate that too. But I still go back to the fact, right, that this defense is the heart and soul of this team. Right.

If you're looking at a hard and you're looking at the left and right ventricle, hell, they're both the left and right ventricle. Right, because if they don't show up in the games that they've shown up all season long, the outcomes of a lot of games are entirely different. And rightfully so, we've seen Bo Nicks lead a lot of fourth quarter comebacks and make the plays when necessary, right? And that is part of the cohesiveness of a team. They don't have Bo now.

Some of those spectacular plays we saw him make getting outside the pocket and rolling out and design questions. quarterback runs, he's not here for that. So now every single guy, defense, offense, special teams, they now all have to stand tall because the guy who was carrying the offense, he's no longer in the game. And Jared Stidham now has been handed the keys to the car. We're asking him, hey, listen, we just wax this baby. We just put armor all on the tires.

We need you to go out there and play fast and furious and just don't wreck the damn car, right? That's what we're asking him to do. If he can do that, the Broncos win this game hands down. How I interpreted that was Nick's saying the defense is the ventricles, the left and the right. So Bo Nix is the heart and they're the ventricle. So maybe a heart transplant, heart transplant. Those ventricles feed the blood and oxygen. The blood's coming in one way and it's pumping out the other. Once again, that is a metaphor for team. That, that's what this is. It's not and I know I don't want to divide or think anyone that that I was dividing a team between office and defense, but to me, I think that's the perfect metaphor, right? Bow is the heart.

You need the left and the right ventricle to make sure that that heart actually survive, right? Right now, heart isn't there. There's a transplant. There's a transplant, right? There's a transplant, but we still need to see the heart pumping, pumping, pumping. And if that heart continues to pump, we pump our way right into Levi Stadium. Let's go. I love it. I love it. Do it.

I'm pumped up. All right, Cody, any closing thoughts before we get out of here, my friend. Do your job. To coin a phrase from Bill Belichick in the hoodie, do your job. That's going to be what Denver does this week. I think that they're going to be very well prepared. I think we're going to see a very hungry Broncos team. And look, let the Patriots fans troll.

Let them do that. I can't wait to come back on Sunday. And, you know, if it's on the wrong side of, you know, losing here at this point, we have the ability to be humble enough to give credit what credit is due. Can the other people say the same? Probably not. Amen. Sarah, your closing thoughts.

You mentioned the folks in Vegas, and I can't help but feel like in this game, the Broncos are playing with some house money. I mean, obviously, there's a lot at stake. Obviously, you want to say. step up. You want to win the game. You want to punch your ticket to Levi Stadium. But at the same time, it's like, all right, you're going to brag about beating up your kid brother to your friends. You know what I'm saying? Like the Patriots are the Patriots are the ones with everything to lose. The Patriots are the ones who have to have the pressure on them to go on the road and beat Jared

Stidham. Oh, that's all you got to do is you got to go beat Jared Stidham. All the pressure is on the Patriots. Oh, yeah, Josh McDaniels coming back to Denver. or Mike Grable are going to cement coach of the year. The path to the Super Bowl is going to be so much easier now without Bo Nix. Broncos, I mean, they're under pressure, obviously. They want to win, but they're not under anything comparison to the Patriots. I want to see the Patriots crumble under that pressure, and the Broncos laugh all the way to Levi Stadium.

So that's what I feel like. You're playing with House Money in this game. You win. Holy crap, you just won the AFC championship game with Jared Stidham. You lose. Ah, shoot, you didn't have Bo Nix for the game. Every ounce of pressure for this game is on the Patriots, and the Broncos still have a good enough team to make them crumble underneath it.

Nick, talk to me. It's just, man, this is easy money at this point. It's sweep everything else under the rug. You played all season long, no matter how you won the game to get to this point. And I can tell you, and I said it to you guys last week, as a guy that's been in a situation before, that's lost a game of this magnitude, You don't get it back.

You're not as fortunate to get back to this point because you don't know what next year brings. The departure of players, departure of coaches, players get injured. You don't know if you're going to have a blessed run like this. So you have to make the most out of this opportunity. And this is what Jared Stidham has to think about. You know, from the time he was a small child, you know, we all had that basketball shot where the ball is in your hand is three, two, one. shoot, it goes in. He is now in his moment, right?

And his inner trial should be screaming to the rooftop. This is what we've been waiting for. You said that you deserve to be a start in this league. We're freaking go out and show it. I love it. And I just, I can't wait for this matchup on Sunday afternoon, man. It's going to be awesome. I believe in the Broncos.

I believe in Jared Sidiman. I think this defense, and Sarah was talking about earlier, will hopefully take them home. punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. So don't forget your orange badges tomorrow going to practice, boys. I got mine. I'm ready to go, baby. All right.

That is going to do it for us on today's Locktown Broncos Squad Show. Broncos Country. I appreciate. We appreciate each and every one of you tap it in with us. One more looksie there at the lovely drawing from Sarah. You know what that looks like a police, uh, Bolo report. Be able to look out for it. It kind of looks like drafted Dion Sanders, honestly.

Bronti. Not John Sanders, man. Sarah, Sarah's good. Have you seen that man? Dion. I love it. Awesome job today, fellow. Sarah, good stuff with the artistic creativity.

Love to see that. But I will be back after the game Sunday evening at some time. Until then, hit like, hit subscribe. Enjoy the channel. Enjoy the ride. And we'll talk to you guys on Sunday evening.