Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - CRITICAL: Denver Broncos Must Fix One GLARING Problem to Make Super Bowl Run

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

If the Denver Broncos are going to make a Super Bowl run in the playoffs, they are going to need to fix one glaring issue. Sayre Bedinger and Cody Roark break down the Broncos' need to generate more t...akeaways, and the path to the #1 seed that is theirs for the taking on today's episode of Locked On Broncos. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to join -- https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/ Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!  FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So before tip-off, check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. A little basketball, a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy. PrizePicksDownload 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 GametimeDownload 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. 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Denver Broncos didn't even celebrate winning the AFC West together. They've got their sights set on much bigger things. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's up, Broncos country? We've got a lot to unpack on today's episode of Locked on Broncos. Week 18, according to Sean Payton is the unofficial start of the playoffs for this team. Got to take a look back at the state of the AFC.F.
Starting point is 00:00:35 after week 17 and what lies ahead here for this unofficial week of, I guess the first week of the playoffs, according to what Peyton said. And Sean Peyton talked about the number one thing this team is going to be focused on coming out of this little mini buy will be the turnover margin. But Broncos Country, welcome into today's episode of the show. My name is Sayre Bender I'm a site expert at predominantly orange alongside as always Cody Roark, the Broncos beat reporter at Mile High Sports. And Broncos Country, we appreciate all of you so much for making us your first listen of the day every single day right here on the locked on podcast network the number one sports podcast network cody we do have a lot to unpack on today's show of course sean peyton had his
Starting point is 00:01:17 media availability on monday via zoom conference call he seemed to be in pretty good spirits talking about the team accomplishing their first of his three big goals of this season right and i thought it was interesting you know he he mentioned that he had the equipment manager put the t-shirts in the players lockers and just otherwise kind of ignored the fact that the broncos won the afcc west but he talked about it there's bigger things ahead for this team being that this week 18 matchup against the chargers kind of marks the unofficial start of the postseason yeah it was funny because he had said essentially that uh he said i don't even think i even brought it up in the team meeting that we had that we won the a fc west he says i don't know if i should have or you know think it back on it you know if
Starting point is 00:02:00 that was the right thing to do but uh even throwing out that you know the shirts and the hat he felt like we're ugly. I mean, that just great. Peytonisms all across the board here. But you are right, Sarah. Plain and simple, the reality here for Denver is week 18 is a playoff game. So much at stake for them specifically. I don't know if there's much at stake for the charters as there are the Broncos. But win, that means that not only do you get a first round buy and you can watch the wild card playoffs from home. You get to see potentially who you're going to play the following week in the division around. But the road to the Super Bowl goes through the
Starting point is 00:02:33 mile high city, which I think right now home field advantage for Denver, that's a tough place to play. And we know Broncos country, they've been aching for a home playoff game and quite a's the time they're going to get one. But man, imagine having the divisional round. Imagine having the AFC championship back in the mile high city. They want to do that. It all starts with taking care of business this week. Now, theoretically speaking, if the Jaguars were to lose this week, if the Patriots were to lose this week, even if Denver would have lost, they would still lock up the number one seed. But I don't think that's going to happen, considering that the Jaguars are going to be playing the Tennessee Titans in Jacksonville, and the New England Patriots can be playing
Starting point is 00:03:07 the Miami Dolphins in New England. I don't think that's going to happen. So don't worry about that. Go out there, take care of business and win. Beat the Chargers. That seems to be the mindset this week here for this team. Now, I think there's a bigger question, though, Sarah. A lot of people are talking about this.
Starting point is 00:03:23 Do you think the Chargers this week will play their starters, specifically Justin Herbert, who's already banged up as he is? Yeah, that's a really big talk. point right now because we saw the early betting lines from our friends over there at Fan duel that opened up at a six and a half point favorite at home the Broncos did in this matchup, which by the way, we found out after Sunday night football that this game will be played on Sunday at 2.25 p.m. Mountain time. I know a few fans out there have been looking to make some travel arrangements. But look, I think that that is the fascinating dilemma that we face here.
Starting point is 00:03:58 And to me, Cody, it feels like it should be a no-brainer, right? If I'm the Chargers, I still want the highest seed possible, right? And obviously you want to get to the postseason as healthy as possible, but I think if you get that five seed, man, you've got a shot to play against the Steelers, which to me looks like the most vulnerable team in the entire AFC playoff race right now. Now, of course, all that stuff is outside the control of the charges.
Starting point is 00:04:22 They have to decide what's most important to them. Do they want the highest possible seed or do they want to get to the first round completely unscathed? And right now we know they've clinched their playoff spot. They could be as low as the seventh seed going to New England, Denver or Jacksonville, and they could be, I mean, that's going to be their opponent, almost undoubtedly, right? So that's the question for me is that I don't understand why you bench the starters in this game, because I would think you would want the highest seed possible, although I do get,
Starting point is 00:04:53 want to preserve the health of your best players. Yeah, and the reality of the situation, too, is that they have to have the Houston Texans lose in order to move up to that high spot because as it stands today, they're the 60. The Houston, Texan, and the fifth seat, Buffalo dropped to the seventh seat after losing the Philadelphia Eagles.
Starting point is 00:05:10 So for, I would say a team like the Chargers, they're going on the road regardless to start the playoffs, whether it's Jacksonville, whether it's New England. Worst case, it could be Denver. If Denver were to lose
Starting point is 00:05:22 and obviously Jacksonville, New England were to win, that would obviously be very bad for Denver this week. But I think that you want the starters for the Chargers to play. Certainly if you're the Broncos, and look, if they decide not, to play their stars they decide to rest them. Okay, fine. I mean, you still look at Trey Lance. Tray Lance is, he's
Starting point is 00:05:39 not a Chris Ola Doken, so to speak there, but you just want to take care of business. It doesn't matter who goes out there for the Broncos. They want to win this game, whether it's Justin Herbert, whether it is Trey Lance, whoever it may be, the goal is to beat the Chargers. And I found it interesting, too,
Starting point is 00:05:55 because John was asked during his conference call with, you know, with us, our good friend Mike Kliss asked about like Nick Benito and his sack numbers and things like that. And the first thing to interrupt him said, I don't care about sack numbers. We care about how we're rushing the quarterback in our game plan for rushing him. And he said, mentioned, you know, caging the quarterback. So they do cage rushes, which is a certain technique.
Starting point is 00:06:16 They do to keep guys from being able to extend plays with their legs, get outside the pocket, things like that. So I'm very, very curious to see what the Broncos game plan is this week here. But, Sarah, all of this is simple. Just saying it. When the game, you're the number one seed, you control your destiny. And then you know what? Everything else is fun along the way. And that's why Sean Payton said that this is the unofficial start of the postseason, right?
Starting point is 00:06:39 Because a win against the Chargers is effectively winning the next week, right? Because you get that week off. So that's kind of what he's saying there. It's not a, you know, lose and go home sort of situation. But it is another, you know, an extra game that maybe they don't necessarily want to play right now because they've got guys that could potentially be coming back from injury or you just want to have that extra time to be able to prepare. let everybody else beat each other up, right? I mean, that is a valuable thing for this team. And like we've mentioned, the parallels of history,
Starting point is 00:07:09 the 2015 Broncos close out the season against the Chargers to get the number one seed. It ended up being hugely, I think, advantageous to that team too, Cody, because that Broncos team was similar to this one in that they played a lot of one-score games, played a lot of tight games, made a lot of clutch plays, comeback wins, all those sorts of things. But I think that's why you want this by week is because you want those other teams to kind of beat each other up and let you kind of, okay, hey, welcome to Denver after you just had that really emotional, hard fought game the previous week. That's why winning this game is so important. And like you said, whether it's Justin Herbert, whether it's Trey Lance,
Starting point is 00:07:46 it doesn't really matter from the Denver Broncos perspective because they're going to be out there trying to get that number one seed no matter what. They don't care what seating the chargers will have in this game or in the postseason because that really, I don't think the Broncos necessarily, need to care about which team they would play in the AFC. Like that's neither here nor there at this point. It's not a pick your poison sort of thing in the AFC. I feel like everybody has proven this season at one point or another. They're all kind of on the same playing field.
Starting point is 00:08:16 Yeah. Look, and that's the thing I like about the AFC playoffs this year. It is just with the exception, the AFC North is such a terrible, in my opinion, terrible division. I think everybody else is like good. Everybody else, you know, it has double-digit wins at this point. And then you got the tiny little turd that is the Pittsburgh Steelers in Baltimore Ravens right now, just waiting for a winner to somebody just take that gutless division at this point,
Starting point is 00:08:42 which used to be one of the better divisions at football. I'm very excited to see, you know, like the faces. And I also think it's a changing of the guard. Like this is a playoff, you know, slate that's going to feature Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Stroud. I mean, like I said, I have thoughts on C.J. Stroud a little bit. I don't think he's necessarily, I don't know if he's got what it takes to be the guy for the Texans all the way long term. That might be a hot take.
Starting point is 00:09:09 Texans fans might come from me. But I didn't want anything I saw in that game from him on Saturday against the charges. Like, man, not really filling it. And then you might have a playoff series that, you know, you get either Aaron Rogers or Lamar Jackson kind of sneaking in at this standpoint. I just think that the AFC playoffs, there's new life and there's new quarterback. And obviously there's Drake May 2 at the number two seat. There's new faces of the NFL kind of leading the way, at least on the AFC side of things. And that to me, I think is a little exciting here going forward.
Starting point is 00:09:37 And I think that is kind of what evens out the playing field is that it is so many new faces. Of course, we know Josh Allen can put on the Superman Cape, but even Superman has his kryptonite. As we saw that Vic Fangio defense really getting after the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. So Broncos country, we got to talk about that. We got to talk about the state of the AFC heading into. to week 18. There's a ton at stake in this week all across the NFL, but certainly
Starting point is 00:10:03 in the AFC where the number one seat still available. The AFC North still available. We're going to break down what's all at stake in week 18 and the AFC coming off on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by Gusto. Let's be real. No one
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Starting point is 00:11:38 The number one seed still up for grabs. And there were a ton of playoff implications from week 17 that will impact week 18 now coming up. So Broncos country, we're going to break all that down on today's episode of the show. But really quickly want to say thank you once again to all you everyday listeners out there that make lockdown Broncos your first listen of the day every single day. And Cody and I would love to invite you join the Everyday All Access program. if you haven't done so already. When you sign up for that, you're going to get a ton of additional benefits like bonus episodes of the show. We're coming up on mock draft season after this playoff run is all over.
Starting point is 00:12:13 I'm going to be doing weekly mock drafts. Cody's doing all 22 breakdowns this season. We're hoping to do some co-led all 22 breakdowns, give some visual perspective on what we're seeing. And you're going to only get that stuff on the everyday or all access program. So the link will be in the show notes for you to sign up for that today. Cody, let's talk about the state of the AFC. we kind of touched on a little bit, teased it a little bit. It's a new era, right?
Starting point is 00:12:35 Mahomes, he's not playing. Lamar Jackson. He may not be playing in this postseason. It's going to be different, right? It's going to be a completely new group in there, or at least a group of mostly all young quarterbacks in this league, taking over this conference. What did you see in week 17 that you maybe feel like, okay, going forward,
Starting point is 00:12:56 this is kind of something that we're watching for in Broncos country with all the other teams that are battling. it out for playoff position right now. Yeah, who emerges, who, you know, who survives, who stays the healthiest. I think the competition level is certainly interesting. And to kind of even kick this thing off, I even wanted to ask you the question as to like is which team in the AFC playoffs right now is the one that gives you the most worries about Denver having to face. And like for me, as up and down as they are, for me, I would say the Buffalo Bills are just this team that like you never know what you're going to get. Like one week, they can look like the best team
Starting point is 00:13:29 football. The next week, it looks like they're struggling to get by against the Shadur-led Sanders led Cleveland Browns at one point. You know, you have a gutsy game against the Philadelphia Eagles where you come back after being down 13-0-0. You just don't get the two-point conversion. It's like Buffalo, I wouldn't say scares, but Buffalo, I'd say they're the most intriguing team that has the potential to be scary for anybody in the playoffs when that time comes around, but you never know which team you're going to get. So I'd say that with Buffalo, Houston defensively, sure. Look, I think Houston's defense, they're legit. And at one point, it was debatable about the Broncos and the Texans having the best defense.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Right now that clearly goes to the Houston Texans. And that's not shade against Denver's defense. That's just what they're able to do. They generate takeaways. They get out to the quarterback. Denver hasn't been able to generate the takeaways. I look at all that. And it's like, all right, those are probably the two most intimidating dynamics facing the postseason here right now. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, obviously I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jacksonville after what they did coming to Denver and the way that their offense has played. But then, I mean, you see them go up against the Colts and struggle to, I mean, I don't want to put those sorts of labels on wins because we've been doing that all year for the Broncos, right? Defending against, hey, a win is a win.
Starting point is 00:14:45 Doesn't have to look pretty. But I mean, Jacksonville did kind of struggle to get Philip Rivers. And that was with a lot at stake, right? I mean, their division is at stake right now. And so they came through in the end. But man, I just once again, I go back to the statement that I feel like everybody in the AFC is on a different plane right now, or on the same playing field, but a different plane than in years past where it felt like there was obvious tears in this conference, right? Oh, the Chiefs, the Ravens, the Bills, those guys are at the top.
Starting point is 00:15:15 And then it's everybody else kind of fighting for, you know, fourth place. I don't feel like it's that way. I do agree with you. Josh Allen has seven playoff wins up to this point. We know that he's struggled to get past Mahomes in the playoffs, but has he really struggled to get past anybody else? I mean, that's the big question right now. And for Josh Allen, he knows that that clock is ticking.
Starting point is 00:15:35 I think he understands that that window is closing up, and he could see that happening. And he's putting the team on his back, putting a lot of pressure on himself. You saw his frustration at the end of that game against the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, he knew he missed an opportunity there to win the game. And that was on him. And so I do feel like Buffalo,
Starting point is 00:15:54 is one of those teams, considering Josh Allen's experience in these big games. But I would say, Cody, the one team that not necessarily, you know, you want these matchups, right?
Starting point is 00:16:04 We want the Broncos to be playing in the high stakes games. The team that really, I think, is the most intimidating is Houston because of their defense. I think that that defense is a, we've seen it in Denver before, that championship caliber defense can carry a team through the postseason.
Starting point is 00:16:19 It doesn't matter if your offense is inconsistent. If you got a guy named Woody Marks, running the ball for you. All due respect to Woody. But I mean, my goodness, like the Texans don't necessarily look offensively like a Super Bowl champion team, but defensively, they're keeping them in every single game. And C.J. Stroud can make those clutch plays when he needs to. So I think Houston is that team right now along with Buffalo, like you said,
Starting point is 00:16:43 and then Jacksonville kind of close behind them, that you look at those teams and you say, all right, do the Broncos really match well against these teams? I think that they do. I really think that they do. do and so much is I think it's going to be matchup contingent on a week-to-week basis. The fact that Denver even went to Houston already and got to win, I mean, I always go back to that game and it's even more impressive. It doesn't matter if CJ was in that game or not.
Starting point is 00:17:05 I think that maybe that Texans' offense would even be better with Davis Mills right now than CJ. I mean, two terrible throw, two terrible interceptions they had this past week against the Chargers, man. It's just, I didn't feel that vibe from CJ. And I don't know if that's just like, you know, an off year for him. We talked about last year the sophomore slump. That's kind of continued on here into this year a little bit.
Starting point is 00:17:26 So we'll see. I just look at this and it's an opportunity. Like you and I have said it, I'd say even weeks ago, right now, the AFC is wide open for the Broncos to take it. If anyone wants to win a Super Bowl this year, the Broncos best chance I think right now is going to be in this very moment. It is wide open. And I'm curious to see which type of Broncos team we're going to get.
Starting point is 00:17:47 And look, yes, they're banged up a little bit. They got some guys that won't be back for the playoffs. That's going to be something they're going to have to navigate. but I'm just excited to see how this team responds this week. A win, put you in, a loss can drop you to the three seat potentially and then means that you're going to play in the wild card weekend, which is something that you don't want to have to have happen. But you know what, regardless,
Starting point is 00:18:08 they're going to get a home playoff game, you know, and hopefully they just answer the call this week, the mini by week. Hopefully it did them well. Yeah, and everybody, you know, everybody's talking about teams that limp into the playoffs, right? I think that's something that you kind of, that's maybe a big reason why you don't necessarily,
Starting point is 00:18:23 want to lose against the Chargers this weekend. Of course, the Broncos, they've already cemented a top three seed in the AFC. So they can't get any lower than number three. But do you want to come into the playoffs coming off of a loss against another team that you may face in the wild card round, right? I know it's tough to beat a team three times in the same year. So if the Broncos do draw the Chargers after a loss, then that may be advantage
Starting point is 00:18:45 Broncos in that regard. But yeah, a lot going on in the AFC, Cody. You mentioned guys on the comeback trail as well, not to deviate. back to the Texans for a minute, but I did see that Tank Dell posted on his Twitter page, a picture of him coming out of the tunnel, and, you know, he posted a picture of somebody climbing a mountain along with it. That would be an interesting wrinkle to add to the playoffs. But I also thought about this, too, and maybe you and I can talk about this as we close out the show today as well a little bit. But J.K. Dobbins, his situation, back in late November,
Starting point is 00:19:16 he was telling people inside the building that he felt like he could come back yet this season. I don't know if it was just for the Super Bowl, but then Sean Payton, a comment about it without even being asked. He was asked about Drew Sanders, made a comment about J.K. Dobbins potentially coming back, but wouldn't put a timeline to it. So that stuff all adds to the intrigue to me for this postseason. But beyond just personnel, Sean Payton acknowledged that it has press availability on Monday in the Zoom call. The Broncos in the turnover margin, they have to be better because historically speaking,
Starting point is 00:19:46 teams do not win the Super Bowl with their current turnover margin being in the red. So we're going to break down why the Broncos have to be better. to fix the turnover margin, why it's not the offense's fault on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. This episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by prize picks, whether you're starting a new routine or jumping into player projections for the first time, trying something new can feel like a challenge. But with prize picks, it always feels good to be right.
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Starting point is 00:21:26 And Sean Payton called that out as the number one area. this team needs to address here to close out the season. But Broncos Country, once again, just want to say thank you so much to every single one of you out there that are everyday listeners of the show. You make us your first listen of the day every single day. We appreciate you so much. Can't wait to be doing postseason podcasts and episodes of the show.
Starting point is 00:21:47 It's going to be a lot of fun. Cody, if the Broncos are going to do well, though, in the playoffs, Sean Payton talked about it. The number one thing coming out of this little mini buy, the number one thing he talked about that needs to get improved, or fixed or whatever you want to say is the turnover margin. And I tease this. It's not the offense's fault, right?
Starting point is 00:22:06 The Broncos have 17 giveaways this year as a team. And I say that because not all those giveaways came on offense. Remember, we've had a couple of muffed puns this year, one of them in Houston that set up a score for the Texans. We've had a number of other issues beyond just the offense, but they have only one more giveaway this season than the New England Patriots. The biggest problem in the turnover margin department right now for the Broncos is unfortunately their defense. Yeah, look, you have to get takeaways in today's game.
Starting point is 00:22:36 The fact that Denver has not turned the ball over as much, that's a great sign. That's clean football, right? They do a great job of protecting it. You know, Bo Nix, I think, has done a really good job of being methodical as of late of not throwing reckless interceptions. You know, I think we saw a tip one this past week against Kansas City. You know, he's an aggressive quarterback. He's got a gunslinger mentality. man, he's smart nine times out of ten with the football.
Starting point is 00:23:00 He's hard to sack. That obviously plays a factor into a lot of things. So when the defense isn't getting takeaways and you're not giving the football away, right? It makes like your room for error a little bit smaller offensively. It puts a lot more pressure, I'd say, on your offense. But the defense, that's going to be the tide, right? Because, Sarah, take a look at games where Denver has generated a takeaway. I'd say the first, what, takeaway of the season actually came against the Chargers.
Starting point is 00:23:23 A tip pass led to obviously a brand, Jones interception in that game and it gave the Broncos so momentum in a game where they were kind of teetering a little bit. They were struggling. And then let's go more recently to the Green Bay Packers game where the Broncos, they're down, they're struggling. The Packers are looking to busted wide open. And all of a sudden, Passertan comes up with an interception. What did that do to the offense? It gave them some life, gave them a possession. They go on and they score. Now, all of a sudden you have a different game. The momentum game in the NFL is such a real thing. and the Broncos defense, while they have been able at times this year to get stops,
Starting point is 00:23:57 they haven't necessarily gotten as much takeaways just yet. And that's so important. And here's the thing. I don't know what the rhyme or the reason is for it because every week, when I'm at practice, they're going through the defenses, a turnover circuit where they're working on tip drill. They're working on punching the football out and recovering it. They're doing all of these things, strip sack drills. We're just not seeing it necessarily translate onto the field the way that we have so far
Starting point is 00:24:21 at say in 2020, either way at times we saw in 2024 last year. That's been the surprise about the defense this year, but still a good defense. The hope is that they can buck that trend, though, once you, like beginning this week, hopefully week 18, but you have to find a way to do that in the playoffs. And if you get to the Super Bowl, you have to find a way to take away the football from the offense. Yeah, we know this Broncos defense is capable of doing that. It's like the quote from the Force Awakens, right? It's like something inside me has always been there, but now it's awake.
Starting point is 00:24:50 That's what we need to happen for this Denver Broncos defense when it comes to creating takeaways this year. It's like it's always been inside you. But man, eight games of this season, Cody, eight games. That's half the Broncos games. They don't have a single takeaway. And that's insane for a defense that has set a franchise record with 64 sacks, for a defense that has the reigning defensive player of the year. And I get it. Some of these guys have missed time.
Starting point is 00:25:14 I mean, teams are targeting Riley Moss consistently. And he's not necessarily picking off every other pass that's thrown his. direction, although I would love to see him go on a little run here in the postseason, Cody, because there's a lot of haters out there for Riley Moss, and I just, I know he's a better player than what we've seen this season at times. But I think that when you look at the Denver Broncos defense, the personnel, how many times has Tala Noah Hufanga come close to, I think two or three for sure, pick sixes or, you know, big plays that he could have made this year. Nick Bonito had another play just last week that you felt like, man, he batted that ball down. Last year, I thought
Starting point is 00:25:49 he might have jumped up and caught that ball. So that's just the tough luck aspect of creating takeaways. Jada Barron had a pick six wiped off the board because of a holding call or whatever that was, illegal contact on Riley Moss. So you have eight games this season where you don't have a single takeaway. And that's why the Broncos are near the bottom of the NFL with a minus five turnover differential right now. It's not because of the offense. It is not.
Starting point is 00:26:16 It's the defense. And how many times have we had discussions this year? where people are saying, hey, the Broncos defense is carrying the offense. I don't know. To me, you look at the big picture that defense needs to be creating more opportunities for the offense. And it's got to start in week 18 against the charges. Yeah, got to get back to the type of football you're playing in weeks one through 11 with a little bit more sprinkles of turnovers on the menu here for Denver defensively.
Starting point is 00:26:42 And I'm with you, Sarah. It's going to be key because you get those. I talk about it so much, like one thing when we were always in position meetings, one of our coaches always said, hey, we need to be plus two in the turnover battle. If we get two takeaways defensively, we have a higher percentage chance of winning the game. John Payton pays attention to all these little data and details that go into it. And against a team like the Chargers, if they make a mistake, like look what the Houston Texans did against them this past week. Like the Chargers were driving.
Starting point is 00:27:14 Al-Shayor comes up with an interception in the goal line. And then it just changes the momentum and it mitigates. It takes away opportunities for them to make plays. I think you can look at some games this season. And even though this was during the 11-game win streak where you're like, wow, the Broncos, yes, they got to stop, but they didn't get a takeaway. It puts more pressure on them inherently speaking, especially if the offense has to, let's say, there's a punt. And then that punt lands inside the five-yard line versus, you know, you get a takeaway and a stop. Now you're near midfield.
Starting point is 00:27:43 Like that momentum is different. But now the offense has a tougher task. Yes, the defense got to stop, but it wasn't necessarily the stop that you wanted, so to speak. And it seems kind of nitpicky, but that's how crazy this game is. There are so many elements in all three phases that are just little mini details that could make a huge difference down the line. And I think that the offense, they've been playing much better as we've seen.
Starting point is 00:28:06 Obviously, the time of possession battle we've seen so far since the buy. We've seen them have two games where they're, what, 39, 38 minutes time of possession. essentially dominating and control in the narrative. And it's like you need the score to represent that. Because if the offense is scoring and the defense is letting guys keep things close, then it's a little problematic here. So hopefully, hopefully the Broncos adjust and hopefully beginning now,
Starting point is 00:28:29 the Broncos can go on a four-game win streak, which would mean that they win the Super Bowl 60. That is the hope. I would love to see that, especially watching the 49ers play against the Bears, Cody on Sunday night football in Santa Clara. You just start to kind of visualize, Hey, get the Broncos to Santa Clara, right?
Starting point is 00:28:46 Get them back to Levi's Stadium. We want history to continue repeating itself all the way to a Super Bowl 60 win here for the Denver Broncos. And hopefully there will be some reinforcements on the way. Obviously, as the week progresses, we'll get more information about the Broncos that are coming back onto the practice field. But that's kind of something that Cody and I are going to discuss. Maybe coming up this week, we'll talk about why Evan Ingram needs a non-negotiable increased role in the offense. feels like we talk about that all the time, doesn't it, Broncos Country? But also, maybe we'll continue to discuss the potential of J.K. Dobbins returning.
Starting point is 00:29:18 Pat Bryant, what's his status going forward? Who else for the Denver Broncos could really help during this stretch run? Alex Forsyth's stepping up. Alex Forsyth played a big game. We'll talk about that as well. But Broncos Country, once again, we just can't thank you enough for rocking with us every single day here on the show. And we'll catch you on the next one.

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