Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Must GET RIGHT vs. Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football

Starting point is 00:00:00 Monday night football against the Cincinnati Bengals is the perfect opportunity for the Denver Broncos to get right. How can they do it? We'll break it down here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. 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, welcome to a brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network where you know it's your team every day. Thanks to all the everydayers out there. Thanks for tuning in, making us your first listen.

Starting point is 00:00:36 However, you choose to do so. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Beninger, site expert over there, predominantly orange.com. And here's what you're going to get on today's episode of the show. We'll take a little bit of an early scouting report preview here of Denver's Monday night football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. And we're going to take a look at why the Broncos defense, they must send heat and pressure after Jake Browning left and right on Monday night.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Football will also go through while the offense, they need to treat. this game as a get-right game for them against the Bengals defense. And then we'll talk about how the Broncos can finish the month of September strong after starting off one and two. Plus, some matchups with some familiar faces that used to be members of Broncos country. You get all on today's episode of show brought to you by our friends over there at Fan Dual. And right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets that you can use all throughout the app. Sarah, look, going back and watching the Bengals game this past, week against the Minnesota Vikings.

Starting point is 00:01:35 They got wham blasted, you name it. Insert any kind of dominant adjective that can describe that game there. The ugliest loss, I would say, and maybe Cincinnati Bengals history, and granted, there was no Joe Burrow. There are a lot of things I was looking at during that game. I was thinking, wow, the Broncos, they need to replicate some of the stuff that Brian Flores and that Vikings defense was sending after that offense there. And the number one thing here, they must send the house after Jake Browning

Starting point is 00:02:01 and make his life a little bit miserable. Absolutely, Cody. A little spoiler for our crossover Thursday, but yes, it was the worst loss in Bengals history, which is kind of crazy to think about when, I mean, that franchise obviously hasn't been great forever. They've had a lot of struggles. They've had the number one pick multiple times in my lifetime. I know that for a fact. So they've had some really bad teams and some really bad seasons and to get blown out the way that they did. Well, it's kind of one of those situations like everything that can go wrong will go wrong and did go wrong. and you almost kind of wish that that would happen for the Denver Broncos. You're almost kind of annoyed that it happened for the Vikings instead of on Monday night football because now the Bengals have a chance to go back, refocus, reload, kind of get a new mindset and mentality

Starting point is 00:02:45 and play with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. But in my opinion here, Cody, midfield has to be treated like the end zone for the Denver Broncos defense in this game against the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, if they're crossing midfield, this has to be you've got to treat this like you did, the Chiefs game at the end of last season. the Saints game last season where they were breaking in Spencer Rattler. I know that Jake Browning has played quite a bit more than a guy like Rattler. I know that necessarily the Bengals are not hurt. They're not benching all their starters, things like that.

Starting point is 00:03:14 So circumstances are different than those two games, obviously. But for the Denver defense, you've got to be thinking yourself, man, we have put this team in tough positions by too much bend, don't break. With a 50 has to be our drop dead spot for this. If the Bengals offense crosses the 50, man, that's. We're going to count those and we're going to run, you know, gassers or whatever it is at practice and say, hey, how many gaskers do we have? They let them pass midfield three times.

Starting point is 00:03:40 So that's what I think. That's what I think when you talk about putting heat on the quarterback, don't let them get to midfield in this game. Yeah, it's going to be tough too. I mean, even though there's no Joe Burrell, right, they're still T. Higgins. There's still Jamar Chase. There's still Yosevosh, Chase Brown. Mike Keseki is still part of the team, but also former familiar face, Noah Phant was a key addition for them in the offseason as well. This is still a dangerous Bengals team here.

Starting point is 00:04:04 And Jake Browning, I mean, look, he's no, it's no secret for him of having experience with this offense, with being the starting quarterback in 2023 after Joe Burrow had yet another injury there. He finished that year as four and three as the starter, you know, in that same system. And I argue they probably have a little bit more better playmakers across the board for him right now. But they haven't looked like that so far. They're trying to navigate what life is like without Joe Burrow right now, which is tough. When you lose your franchise quarterback to a. injury. It's tough to overcome that. So let's take a look here at the scouting report here on Jake

Starting point is 00:04:37 Browning. Now, obviously, we talked about his four and three record in 2023, but man, can we talk about his performance here in just two games? It is brutal if you're looking at it from a numbers perspective in two games appearing as the QB. Jake Browning has been sacked four times. He has been picked off, Sarah, five times in two games. This is the perfect opportunity for the Broncos to not only add to their sack numbers this season. I think, if they were able to get after Justin Herbert and sack him five times, imagine what they can do to this Cincinnati Bengals team and a guy like Jake Browning, but at the same time, you speed up that clock a little bit,

Starting point is 00:05:12 more opportunities for takeaways. If it wasn't for Riley Moss tipping that pick to Brandon Jones, the Broncos could have lost that game on Sunday pretty bad. Yeah, and I think when you're looking at a situation like this, if you're Jake Browning, you might be thinking to yourself, hey, I've thrown five interceptions in less than seven quarters or about seven quarters of action here. I mean, I might be willing to take a few more sacks in this game so that I'm not throwing the ball into harm's way.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And so the Broncos can use that to their advantage to say, hey, we know that he's throwing the ball up and putting it in bad spots. He might eat that ball. He might sit on it a little bit more in this game to eliminate those turnovers. I know sacks oftentimes they obviously, they're not a turnover, but eventually you can turn that field position battle into something that's very much in your favor in a game like this. where if you're pinning the Bengals deep consistently, you're giving Jake Browning long fields to work with consistently, man, that works very much into your favor as a defense. And how much more important is it going to be now for the offense

Starting point is 00:06:13 to get off to a hot start, Cody? Because if they can get a quick two-score lead in this game, you force the Bengals to have to throw the ball. You force Jake Browning to have to drop back. You force them to have to kind of play at your pace. And that's when your pass rush can really tee off. Oh, and you think Jake Browning's going to look PS2's way, probably not much this week, but I still imagine PS2 versus Jamar Chase is going to be the primetime

Starting point is 00:06:35 matchup that we'll focus on a little bit later on as the week progresses here. Let's go through who their leading rushers. Chase Brown, who, I mean, is a springy explosive guy, had a couple of big plays against Denver last year. He's their leading rusher, but he hasn't had the success that he's necessarily wanted so far this season. 43 carries this year so far, only 93 yards. That's not very good rushing efficiency there. You talk about leading receivers. Obviously, Jamar Chase is leading the pack right there.

Starting point is 00:07:00 21 catches for 241 yards, one touchdown, but of his 21 catches, 12 of them are chain movers for first down, followed by T. Higgins with seven catches for 104. And surprisingly, former Bronco Noel Fant, the third leading receiver with 12 catches for 80 yards on 14 targets. But this week, he is going through concussion protocol. So you can't worry. I mean, you got to worry about Mike Yoseki, who almost, I mean, had eight catches, almost 100 yards last year against Denver.

Starting point is 00:07:26 So even though that right now the Bengals are down, this is a game where the Broncos simply can't overlook this Bengals team. Because look, Denver's not playing up to their standard. Neither are the Bengals, despite the injury there to Joe Burrow. Yeah. And keep in mind last year, the Broncos pass rush got to Joe Burrow quite a bit. I mean, that was a big reason why they were in the game in the first place. They sacked him a bunch of times.

Starting point is 00:07:47 And ultimately seven times. So, yeah, that was one of their best games of the season in terms of getting to the quarterback. So at this point, that's why we talk about the fact that you have to now keep them, you know, in front of midfield. That was the problem against Joe Burrough is you're constantly letting them pass midfield big play after big play and you're doing this whole bend don't break thing. I'm sick of that play, Cody.

Starting point is 00:08:09 I'm sick of that. I don't want to see any sort of Monday night primetime version of the Ben don't break defense. I don't want to see a matinee on Sunday. I'm done with the Ben don't break stuff. Don't let these guys pass midfield. Let this be, like you said, a get right confidence booster in all phases of the game because the Broncos have not played a complimentary game of football at this point. They should be embarrassed about that.

Starting point is 00:08:31 They should be embarrassed about the Colts having two guys win weekly awards. They should be embarrassed about blowing a late lead against the Los Angeles Chargers. This has to be the opportunity that they take, that they say, hey, we're going to prove to everybody that we can play complimentary football, and we're not going to let these guys pass midfield. Like I remember the Titans sort of a drama situation. I don't want them to gain another yard. You know what I'm saying? Like the coach does right there.

Starting point is 00:08:54 So that's what this defense needs to take that mentality going into this game against the Bengals. When you said that I thought about sunshine pointing at the coach, just giving him like the pointed index finger right there, man. Sir should give locker room speeches here at this point. But I agree with you. The Broncos, they got to just bring it this week, no excuses, play complimentary football for the first time this season. And that could give you a little bit of life to work out some things because you got a short week. Monday night, then you got to turn around to go play in 11 a.m. Mountain time kickoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Starting point is 00:09:26 Okay, that's going to be a tough matchup. So don't go into that game saying, oh, we missed out on yet another opportunity. Seize the moment here. Broncos country, we still got a lot to break down. Hopefully the defense can get right. But can the offense find a way to get things going against this Bengals defense that is struggling right now to find their identity? We'll break that down and more here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

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Starting point is 00:10:17 impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. The Denver Broncos offense has to be locked in from the very start on Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals. How can they do it? well, we're going to tell you exactly how they can do it on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. But Broncos Country, want to say quickly, thank you to all of you everyday listeners out there of lockdown Broncos. We appreciate you so much.

Starting point is 00:10:38 If you haven't done so, take a couple seconds, hit subscribe if you wouldn't do so. We really appreciate you being part of the community here. Cody, let's talk about how the offense has to get right on Monday. I mean, they have scored 20 plus points in each game. I mean, if we grade on a little bit of a curve based on last year, right, I mean, the, the, The status at this point last season was dismal. I mean, they had the Buccaneers game, but other than that, they had really no success in the passing game.

Starting point is 00:11:07 At this point a year ago, Bo Nix hadn't even thrown a touchdown pass. It's really, it's tough when you wanted to get off to a fast start that we haven't seen that. But I think that there's been a little bit more meat on the bone there or meat that the Broncos have been able to take off the bone compared to last season. But you don't necessarily want to grade off that curve. you want to be showing that progress immediately, and that's what they have to do against the Bengals. Yeah, and this is the game to do it, not to overlook the Bengals in any way, shape, or form.

Starting point is 00:11:35 This is the National Football League. You are always going to get everybody's best. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't have expected the Browns to beat the Green Bay Packers, who the Packers through the first couple of weeks, looked like Super Bowl contenders, legitimate ones, and then they play down to obviously the Browns. We know the Browns have a really good defense,

Starting point is 00:11:51 but the Broncos offensively have not lived up to the potential in which we know that they can. right. I think they have the pieces around them. I do think they have the quarterback here and Bo Nix that can get them to where they want to be, but it hasn't all formulated here. And once again, the run game has been a huge issue. I think early on here, look, and I've had some people tell me, you know, Broncos run game is getting there.

Starting point is 00:12:14 They really, it's really hasn't been at this point, Sarah. We're talking about an anomaly like RJ Harvey Harvey's 50-yard run was, was a fantastic play that he had, obviously in week one. JK had a 19-yard touchdown run in that same exact game. And then you have this J.K. Dobbins run this past week against the Chargers. Aside from that, Sarah, the Broncos run game has kind of been non-existent. I mean, we go back to week one. They're averaging 3.3 yards per carry collectively as an offense before RJ's 50-yard run that he had there.

Starting point is 00:12:42 So the numbers skew that a little bit. They have to find a way to get it going here. And obviously, thanks to our friends over there at True Media. When we look at this scouting report here, this is, I think, a week where the Broncos need to figure out how to get the run game going. And maybe Julio McLaughlin can. get into the mix a little bit this week after Tyler Badegh only played two offensive snaps last week. But last year against the Bengals, Jalil, he broke off some runs. Granted, that was against

Starting point is 00:13:05 Lou Anarumo's coach defense. But right now, this Bengals defense is still just as bad as they were last year. They're allowing 119 yards on the ground, Sarah. And I think for, for me looking at this matchup, if I'm Sean Payton's, we need to just say, you know what? Okay, if we come out there on the first play and it's first and 10, we run. And let's say when they get two yards, we need to stick with the run again. What did he tell us a couple weeks ago? He said, the Plan against the Colts was to come out and run it three straight times to get a first down. He said, luckily, you got a first down on our first rushing carry there. That needs to be the mentality and the attitude this week against this Bengals defense.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Yeah, it does because you want to impose your will at the line of scrimmage. You want to dictate this game from the very start, just like they did last year against the New Orleans Saints, where I mean, you built in a little bit of margin for error for your quarterback in those instances, when you're able to dominate on the ground, when you're able to gain chunk after chunk. And so, yeah, let's ride J.K. Dobbins in this game. see like you and I have called for. Let's see more R.J. Harvey, right? I mean, as much as we want that spark to come from anywhere, could be Jalil, could be Tyler Biday, I'd like to see it be R.J. Harvey. I want to see him go out there. Let's give him 10 carries or something in this game and see

Starting point is 00:14:11 what he can do with the additional, I guess, sort of workload. And just put that on him. Say, put the pressure on these young guys that you decided were the ones that you wanted to build around and give the targets to Troy Franklin again. I don't know why he, why wasn't he targeted, Cody in week three. I don't, I don't understand it. So there's, there's really no rhyme or reason at this point to why things are happening the way that they are, other than the fact that the Broncos don't have the amount of plays that they would need to get everybody involved. That's the only right now that conclusion that you can draw is that there's just not enough plays to spread the ball around like we want to do. So you've got to play discipline in this game

Starting point is 00:14:48 first and foremost. Before even you think about imposing your will at the line of scrimmage, you've got to come into this game saying, we're going to play a, a clean game. We're not going to get overheated. We're not going to be the one to make the mistake. We're going to force the other team to make mistakes. And we're going to play clean football all the way through. And that's what's going to be the thing that gets this team to the next level offensively is not having stupid boneheaded penalties that back you up after you get to the seven yard line on a great fourth down conversion or not having bad penalties when you have a first down run to the outside, a drive starter, something that gets you going. Like it's just so frustrating that.

Starting point is 00:15:25 this team is doing this to themselves. They've got to get out of their own way before they can start pushing people out of the way. Yeah, no, I agree with you as well. And one thing that worked for the Minnesota Vikings last week, they obviously controlled. I mean, I wouldn't say it was a dominant time of possession. There was one minute of difference between. But you talk about efficiency in the run game. It was there for the Vikings in a 48 to 10 lopsided victory.

Starting point is 00:15:46 You'd almost look at the time of possession between the two teams. And you'd say, wow, like this should have been a closer game. No, not really. I mean, they allowed over a buck, 63 on the ground. I mean, the dynamic too as well with this is, okay, where can the Broncos attack some of these matchups? I think the C gap, I think even some outside runs this week are where you can get some things going. I love some of the creativity that we saw. I mean, even on that touchdown play that Sean Payton dialed up from Bo Nix to Cortland Sutton on fourth and two, you know what they did?

Starting point is 00:16:16 They put Nate Adkins at left tackle and they moved Garrett Bowles offset to the right side. Why not do that? If you want to run, and I understand like doing that gives a tendency. may over commit and cheat to that. But I liked what we saw from the Broncos run game when they were actually pulling guys more against the Colts. We didn't see too much of that this week against the charters in that front that they played defensively.

Starting point is 00:16:37 So I think that is something to keep an eye. And when we talk about maybe a scouting report as well as we continue to look at what the Broncos offense needs to do to attack the Cincinnati defense here, I mean, I think big explosive plays can be a factor here. They struggle with stopping the run, but they allow explosives as well, 359.7 yards per game allowed by the Bengals defensively so far through the first three weeks of the season. I'm sure if you look at the Broncos in comparison for the last couple of weeks, it probably doesn't measure up well there.

Starting point is 00:17:06 But here's where I think the Broncos, if they can find themselves in a better position on first down and second down, and let's say they face favorable third down situations. According to true media, the Cincinnati Bengals are allowing teams to convert on 46.3% of their third down attempts. And what's even more exciting is if the Broncos can get to. to the red zone, the Bengals defense, they are allowing teams to score on 64.3% of their red zone attempts, stats courtesy of our friends over there at True Media. So it's really simple. Get to the end zone and punch it in. That's what the Broncos need to do this week.

Starting point is 00:17:40 I know it's cliche, but they have everything in front of them to attack this Bengals defense this week. And of course, who do you have to account for? You have to account for Trey Hendrickson, who's obviously got two sacks on the year in three games. Jordan battled their safety. I think is one guy you're going to have to watch out for if you are, Bo Nix. But who do you think they're going to try to keep an eye on in this game in particular after last year's game, Sarah? You know, I think that everything is going to be hinged on Marvin Mims. Really, in my opinion, after last year's game against the Bengals, right, he had all those big plays and was really a, I don't know, defining moment for his career where not only were they big plays, but they were clutch plays.

Starting point is 00:18:18 I mean, they were huge for Marvin Mims to build his confidence as well. So that was a big game for him last year. I would love to see the Broncos. I know that we talk about the plays and this and that and the other. I want to see the playmakers getting opportunities. That's what we want to see. And I know that Bo missed some throws. Marvin could have had two touchdowns against the Charters.

Starting point is 00:18:36 So we could have been talking about Marvin already having his huge breakout game this season going into the Bengals game. So I think you need to kind of treat this against the Bengals as though Marvin did make those plays because he was there. I mean, he did his job. I know we've had he was called out for not. running fast enough back in week one, interception thrown by Bo Nix, didn't do his job on that play. He did his job against the Chargers. And

Starting point is 00:19:00 you know what? You got to treat it like he made those plays because you have to build that confidence. Go back to that well because the plays were there to be made. Yeah. I mean, once again, the distribution offensively has been too focused on week to week. One player getting the larger volume share of the

Starting point is 00:19:15 overall target snaps and yards. You have to open this up a lot more here if the Broncos offense is ever going going to take off. You mean, you can't just have it where you have one guy with 100 yards, one week, and your next leading receiver has 14. You're not going to win many games doing that. So can Sean Payton in the offense get on track this week on Monday night football? That is the big, big question here. But look, obviously Monday night is a very important game here for this Broncos team, and they must finish the month of September strong. And they have to face a former few familiar

Starting point is 00:19:44 faces if they hope to do just that. We'll break it all down here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. Today's episode Lockdown Broncos is brought to our friends over there at Fanduil, America's number one sports book. And look, Broncos country, your team plays on Monday night football this week. And Fandu wants to make sure that you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Because right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets that you can use all throughout the app. And when it comes to Monday night football, the Broncos, they open up this week as seven and a half point home

Starting point is 00:20:16 favorites, which means that they should take care of business against this Bengals team. If you think the Broncos are going to win outright. You can put that $5 on the money line. And if you win, you'll get $300 in bonus bets that you can use all throughout the rest of the app where you can make picks on a week to week basis all across the NFL inside of the Fandual app. So are you ready to play? Download the Fandu app right now by visiting Fanduil.com to get started. That's Fanduil.com to place your first $5 bet. We're on the fourth quarter of today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

Starting point is 00:20:47 In Denver might see a few familiar faces. There's some interesting storylines to keep an eye on. the Broncos hope to finish strong in the month of September. Thank you once again to all the everydayers out there on Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. Sarah and I, we appreciate you so much here for all that you do to make lockdown Broncos the best Broncos podcast that is out there. We got you covered every day all year long.

Starting point is 00:21:12 Sarah, September is obviously going to be a month that we even talked about before it even came. Like in August, we said the Broncos, they must start fast here in September. That has not been the case. They had to find a way to obviously, I think, finish it strong and then go into October and take care of business there because the months of meaningful football coming up, it's paramount. And look, Denver could have gotten off to a hot start in September. That would have been great, but you have to sustain that throughout the season.

Starting point is 00:21:40 Now you kind of find yourselves in a position at one and two where your backs against the wall a little bit. You haven't lived up to the expectations that certainly Sean Payton has painted, the national media and ourselves too, in talking about the team. So now this team is going to have to find a way to get back on track. I find it very, very important that they take care of business on Monday night. A third straight loss in general would be detrimental. But a third AFC loss already at this point in the season gives you no margin for error late in the year.

Starting point is 00:22:08 We know that it's early in the year. We know that a lot can happen as the season goes along. But yeah, this is a when you talk about must win games, I hope I guess after seeing the quote on Sunday, Cody, I hope Alex Singleton's rally in the troops here for a must win. game for the Denver Broncos because this is a must win game. They have to win. They just do. There's no question. You can't have a third AFC loss already. You cannot lose at home under the lights against a backup quarterback. I don't care how many games Browning has played. I don't care who's still healthy besides him for the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a game that you absolutely have to

Starting point is 00:22:42 win or else there should be some serious questions about how hot Sean Payton's seat is. Cody, I know that's knee-jerk reaction. I'll still have all my teeth. after this show is done because my knee's not going to hit my face that hard. But look, I do think that if you lose to the Bengals on Monday night football with their backup quarterback in the game after they just suffered the worst loss in franchise history, you have to take a serious look in the mirror. You're going to have to still play out the rest of the games this season. But I think at that point, you start to question, do we have the right leadership in place?

Starting point is 00:23:13 Do we have the right this? Do we have the right that? This is a game that you have to go out there and absolutely be the better team. What do good teams do when their backs are against the wall? They find a way to win. And I think you've got to win pretty in this one too, because ultimately how you win this game, how you perform in this game against a backup quarterback

Starting point is 00:23:30 is going to be indicative of exactly how this team responds under adversity. Well, even that too, I mean, could that pressure essentially, or could that perennial hot seat essentially be Sean giving up play calling responsibilities, right? We see it all the time. We get it in our comments. We get it in emails. We get it in social media post from fans that he should hand it off to Davis Webb.

Starting point is 00:23:53 And look, I would say, like, I don't think there will ever be a situation in the near future where Broncos ownership ever is like, ah, we're going to move on from Sean. I don't think that'll be the case. But we just saw Brian Callahan pass up play call in responsibilities, you know, to maybe kind of save his job. Not saying that Sean would save his job, but I don't know if Sean could ever relinquish that type of control, right? Just being around him. he's a great play caller can scheme some things up. But I think there are some valid questions as to,

Starting point is 00:24:23 okay, is he continuing to adapt with the game? It wouldn't necessarily hurt. I'm not going to call for that right now, but I think that there is some interesting points there. Let's say the offense is struggling against the Bengals and the Broncos lose on Monday night. I think there are some probable questions that you should ask because the Bengals without Joe Burrow aren't a good team.

Starting point is 00:24:42 Joe Burrow was the reason that team stayed afloat last year with how porous that historically bad defense. was in Cincinnati, and not much has changed on that side. So if you can't get anything going against this Bengals defense of all defenses, then you might have to start looking at, are we doing too much? What is happening? Is there a tunnel vision? I think these are all valid questions to ask at this point here.

Starting point is 00:25:02 But also I think maybe some things we should pay attention to in this game. Sarah, there's going to be this dynamic of several familiar faces facing off against their former teams. Dalton Reisner, who signed late with the Bengals. They're obviously spent some time here in the Mile High City. He suffered a calf injury in the game against the Vikings. So we don't know what his status is going to be until Monday. But that's the thing like they have until Monday to kind of get right to get to where they need to be for that game here.

Starting point is 00:25:29 I find that interesting. But I also find the Noah Phant dynamic interesting. We know he's in concussion protocol. But if Jake Browning is putting together a little bit of a clunker here, we could see Brett Rippin step in a quarterback for the Bengals, which would just be a wild, full circle turn of events. Yeah, what's the movie with? Isn't it Matthew McConaughey in it where it's like the ghost of girlfriends past or something like that? I think that's what it's called.

Starting point is 00:25:53 You know, that's kind of what it's like here for the Broncos. Anytime, you know, Dalton Reisner and Noah Fant being on the same team, Cody, reminds me of that photo of the Broncos against the Houston Texans back in 2019. I mean, we thought we had found the nucleus of this franchise going forward in that game against Houston. The Broncos, nobody thought they were going to win that game. They go on the road. They absolutely dominate that game. Drew Locke, great performance overall. Noah Fant had a big touchdown.

Starting point is 00:26:19 Dalton Reisner looked like he's going to be that 10-year starter that everybody thought that he could be. Those were simpler times, I guess, right? At that point, right there where we went into the offseason feeling like they had something to build on going forward. So it's always interesting when former Broncos come back to Denver, obviously. But more, that's a, I mean, that's more than just a homecoming for the Broncos for Dalton because he's a Colorado native as well.

Starting point is 00:26:43 So and with Noah Fant, I mean, that's, that might be the, the best tight end the Broncos have had post Super Bowl 50 at this point, right? I mean, I think that's maybe fair to say. Yeah. We've seen so far. So the Broncos traded him in the Russell Wilson deal. Russell's been benched by the New York Giants, Cody. We won't see him starting against the team barring injury. I mean, there's a lot going on right now with former Broncos.

Starting point is 00:27:06 Obviously, they've gutted the roster. So they're all, they're scattered everywhere, right? But Russell, the news is interesting. Lots going on. here in the NFL early in the season. Well, it's interesting, too, because even Brett Rippin, as we mentioned, is on that team. And we know all about the Christmas Day debacle between he and Dalton Reisner there. And Dalton was in the wrong completely in that whole situation there.

Starting point is 00:27:26 So I always loved Rip, man. Rip was always one of my guys in the locker room, just a great human being, very, very smart football mind. Probably he's going to have a tremendous coaching future. You know, when he decides to step away, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up one day coaching under Kevin O'Connell or any other bright mind that's kind of. kind of with that Shanahan tree a little bit here. But yeah, I just think a lot of dynamics to follow in this game here.

Starting point is 00:27:49 You know, I think the biggest thing, Sarah, we got to talk about is the get right, right? So if the Broncos are going to get right, what does that look like for them here on Monday night? Well, I think you've got to have a clean offensive operation, right? That's what we want to see. You don't want to be the exception to the rule for those stats that you mentioned about the Bengals, not only on third downs,

Starting point is 00:28:08 but also once you get into the red zone, I mean, if they're allowing over 35 percent or nearly, 35% or all but 35% of those red zone appearances to result in touchdowns, you don't want to be part of the 35% right? You want to be part of the 65% and increase that percentage overall. So the offensive operation has to be clean. And then I think ultimately you treat the 50, like I said earlier, to circle it all back. You treat the 50 like that's the end zone.

Starting point is 00:28:33 They cross the 50. Man, you're running gasser's at practice, right? So that's what the Broncos have to. The mentality is you got to come in and dominate. We need a 2018 Von Miller type quote. this week, Cody, remember when they grow up against the Arizona Cardinals and he's like, we're going to kick there, you know what? That's the kind of mentality that you need to have if you're the Broncos right now because

Starting point is 00:28:51 the AFC is kind of wide open. I mean, chiefs are one and two, Ravens are one and two. Like, there's a lot of weird stuff going on right now. So you've got to be able to take advantage. Get out of September with a win. Get to October with a two and two record and see what happens from there. If you would have said that the chargers and the Colts would be undefeated and that the Ravens would have one win and two losses.

Starting point is 00:29:15 The Chiefs would be one and two as well. I think if we would have said that was going to be on the, what we looked in terms of the script initially at the beginning of the season, we'd have been like, no, you're crazy. That's absolutely ridiculous. No, I agree with you here. You don't want to be the exception to the rule here. Defensively, you need to just go out there and dominate.

Starting point is 00:29:31 The goal last week against the charges was for the Broncos defensively to be better on first down. Simply they were in a lot of those situations here. But third down was a little bit of an issue. They allowed the charges to convert on 8 of 17 third down attempts. That's ridiculous efficiency for Justin Herbert and that offense. And you will let some of those penalties kind of extend drives. This needs to be the cleanest game of football.

Starting point is 00:29:53 The Broncos have played, but it needs to be the most aggressive one we've seen from them defensively yet against this team. Jake Browning, it doesn't matter. Joe Burrow, let it go. Send the heat after him and make it one of those games where it's like, hey, you can't stop us. We're coming after you. There's nothing you can do to stop it. I want to see that. The Broncos get right if they can do that on Monday night football.

Starting point is 00:30:14 Broncos country, we want to hear from you as well. What do the Broncos need to do on Monday in order to get right against the Cincinnati Bengals in a primetime game where we don't know the uniforms yet, but there's a rumor about a potential white helmet in blue jersey making its debut in this game specifically. We're excited for that. Broncos country, make sure you stay locked in all week long. Tomorrow's episode of the show, Sarah sits down with locked on Bengals for crossover Thursday, and they preview everything that you need to know about this game. the biggest story, the matchups that will define the game,

Starting point is 00:30:42 and ultimately what the Broncos need to do to win at home in a primetime game against an AFC conference opponent. You'll get that on tomorrow's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Broncos country, we'll see you then.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Must GET RIGHT vs. Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football

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