Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Suffer GUT-WRENCHING Loss vs. Indianapolis Colts

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

The Denver Broncos suffered a gut wrenching loss on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts after being in control for a large portion of the game. The Broncos defense struggled to stop Daniel Jones, which leads to plenty of questions at inside linebacker. Plus, Bo Nix and the Broncos offense scored 28 points in a game that Denver should have won, but is Sean Payton overthinking his approach as the game goes on? 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 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today.     DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at https://monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year. UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2F SquareTo learn more, go support your favorite neighborhood spot and see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods. And then if you have extra time, check out https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. 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. FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. 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.

The Denver Broncos collapsed late against the Indianapolis Colts and time is ticking because the schedule gets harder. The Broncos are up against the gauntlet. We'll break down the recap of the loss and more 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. The Denver Broncos off to a one-in-one start, not off to the hot start that Sean Payton, one of them, especially as they began the first of a two-game road trip,

Denver falling late against the Indianapolis Colts here. We'll go through it on our post game report here on Lockdown Broncos. Welcome in Broncos country to a brand new episode. Thanks to all the everydayers out there. Thanks for making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so. I'm Cody Roark. Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports.

joined, as always, by Sarah Bedinger, site expert over there, predominantly orange.com. We're going to go through all of it. It was a clunker of a game here for the Denver Broncos in week two. We'll talk about how the defense let everybody down in this game, giving up over 400 plus yards of offense. to Daniel Jones and the Colts. We'll talk about the Broncos offense bouncing back after week one,

but sputtering late when it mattered and mistakes proved to be costly for the Broncos once again. They can't seem to get away from all of these self-inflicted wounds that plagued them late in this game here. Sarah, once again, man, this was an exciting game at times for the Broncos because they were able to jump up to a lead. The offense at some point was clicking on all cylinders, but really the story that we got to kick these off we're with, The Broncos defense, which coming off of an impressive performance in week one was a massive letdown here in week two, they couldn't stop a nosebleed. They couldn't. They were the story in week one because they kind of put their collective cape on and dominated that game against the Titans, giving up the fewest yards of NFL.

And here they were against the Indianapolis Colts, 476 yards of offense for the Colts in this game. The Broncos did not do anything out there. Cody, no pass rush. the past defense in coverage, not good. Sean Payton talked about it after the game. Way too many missed assignments in this one. I mean, you can pick wherever you want to start with this Denver defense. They were weak in the middle on the defensive line.

They were weak up the middle at linebacker. Way too many plays being made by Talano Hufanga and Brandon Jones downfield, the running game for the Colts. It was there all day. Daniel Jones had whatever he wanted in the passing game. I mean, it was just an abysmal performance by a defense that they want to, believe that they're the number one defense in the NFL, Cody. They want to believe that they might be as good as that 2015 defense, but this was kind of

a little moment here where you kind of got to say, hey, sit down, son, like you got a long way to go. They've got to prove themselves and bounce back next week, but right now it just kind of stinks. You said it best. They got a long way to go. They can get there. They can be a great defense. Look, and I think we probably, everybody should probably stop, us included, of trying to

say they, they could be better than the Super Bowl 50 defense. That right there, that was a pinnacle defense. And so this defense has a lot of room to grow and they have a lot to improve before they could ever get into that conversation. But they can be a great defense. They can be an elite defense. And I still believe within their structure, I think that they are. But games like Sunday against the Colts is an example of why you can't get too caught up on the hype train here. Because the NFL is a game of ebbs and flows here, Sarah.

And you and I talked about this last week after the Titans game is, okay, hey, thank goodness. You had the Broncos defense here when the offense is struggling to kind of carry you a lot. little bit. This was the game where the Broncos offense was carrying a little bit of the defense, this game for a large portion of it, and the defense couldn't stop them, couldn't get rewards for them. So there's a little bit of balance, but I will say at the end of the day, to kind of kick off the show, there is blamed to go around in all three phases, offense, defense, special teams, but we got to focus on this right here. You mentioned it, 473 plus yards of offense given up to Daniel Jones. And our pregame preview that we did here, we talked to

about, okay, the challenge about this is Daniel Jones has a wide variety of weapons. Who's the number one guy of the office to have to key on? Tyler Warren. He made an impact early on in this game. And I really believe that right now, there is a second level issue that the Broncos have an inside linebacker. And as much as I hate to say, as much of a great guy as he is, Alex Singleton had a rough day in coverage against Tyler Warren and against Jonathan Taylor.

And on the Jonathan Taylor one, he ended up getting downfield for a big game and set up a score. And so for me, too many collective bus and brats and breakdowns. And unfortunately, it happened a little bit at the inside linebacker position. And it wasn't necessarily Justin Sternod. No, it's true. I mean, we just got to call the spade the spade at this point. I mean, obviously there were like Sean Payton talked about after the game, the missed assignments. Well, what were those missed assignments? Well, when Tyler Warren is running wide open and

when Jonathan Taylor is not even sneaking out of the back field and running wide open to his side of the field, not once, but two times. I mean, you've at some point, you've got to look at yourself in the mirror and say, okay, hey, what's going on here? I think I saw Chris Harris Jr. posts on Twitter after the game. Cody's saying, hey, when does Dre Greenlaw come back? I mean, his arrival to this Denver Broncos team cannot come soon enough. And I know it's just the devil you know versus the devil you don't because right now, Drea Greenlaw is still a big question mark for this team. We don't know what he's going to look like out there. We don't know how long he's going to be able to play. We just hope that he can play for an elongated period of time,

because at this point, man, you're just getting manhandled and you're getting misdirection is confusing. You've got no idea where to go or where guys are going. I mean, it took until late in the game. I think Dandre Tillman made a play in coverage on Jonathan Taylor. Cody, that was that that was where we were at. That was the state of this whole situation for the Denver defense. Just breakdown after breakdown in coverage. Yeah, starting at the second level.

But also, you could trace it back. If we're doing detective work right now, you could. traced it back to the fact that Daniel Jones was sacked one time in this game, right? One sack for the Denver defense that had six sacks from six different guys last week. Where was that pass rush in this game against the Colts? Yeah, that's a great question. And look, we even talked about something the Colts would try to do against this pass rush that Denver had.

And that would be to try to get the ball out of his hands quickly. I'd say for the most part, he did a really good job of that. You know, there was that one play where obviously Justin Sternod got the sack. Nick Benito drew the holding call there. But it just seemed like Daniel Jones knew exactly where he was going with the football. I mean, nine times out of ten on every drop back there, he knew where the pressure was coming from. He did a good job of hanging firm in the pocket. And then when you mention that, you know, you're dicing people up with, you know, receivers with explosive plays downfield.

You know, you got your tight ends working in space. Jonathan Taylor's catching passes in the flat. Then all of a sudden the defense is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Who do we focus on? Who do we adjust to? I thought at times they did a better job on certain drives. wasn't necessarily on consecutive drives. There's one drive.

They give up a really bad drive on the next one that would allow a field goal. Luckily, you could buckle up in your red zone defense. That's fine. But you're giving up points. And then you're just giving up big plays and inopportune moments late in the game here. And I think it was the frustrating part. And it ultimately culminates off the Broncos losing this on a walkoff field goal. Defense did a really good job.

That Jonathan Cooper on a third down play was able to come up and stuff Jonathan Taylor for a minus three yards. it made it a 60-yard field goal. Their kicker missed the first attempt, but there was a flag for leverage. It was initially called on field on Ennio Mo Zarrique, but it comes out, I guess it was on Dandre Tillman, and then you get a, it's a 15-hour penalty. It's just a chip shot at that point here.

And look, it's not, yes, this loss is on the defense, but it's also on the offense and the special teams. The defense is going to hold a larger share of blame because of the yards and the production they gave up. I mean, third down, they were six of 13, setter on third down. They couldn't get on. I mean, they couldn't find a way to stop the Colts to get off the field defensively.

And they kept the Colts offense on there. Just too many big plays on first down as well. This was just, it was an ugly loss all across the board, dirty hands to blame on all three phases of this game. But man, the defense, Sarah, they're going to have to figure out this quickly. They're going to figure out to stop the bleeding because you allowed 473 yards to Daniel Jones and the Colts. What happens when you face Justin Herbert and Los Angeles charters who look like they

have an offense that can hum with the ball carriers that they got. But on top of that, with all the past catching weapons, now Justin Herbert seemingly has at his disposal. Yeah, you really have to not only have a short memory, but you've also got to take this one personal, right? I think for the Denver defense, anytime they've given up clunkers like this, which we know has been pretty rare over the past two years. But late last season, they had a number of games like this, Cody, where Sean

Peyton talked about free runners. He talked about missed assignments. That was the case here against the cold. So that Denver defense, they've got to take it personal and they've got to have a short memory at the same time. You mentioned there's a lot of dirty hands in a game like this. Absolutely. Your offense still scores 28 points. I mean, you've got to win that game.

If you're the Denver defense, you've got to go out there and do enough so that they get 27 or less. I mean, 28 points should be enough to win a game. And we talked about the chip shot field goal there from the Colts kicker. I don't know, Cody. Will Lutz, where was that? I mean, we'll talk about it as the show goes along. But you mentioned a chip shot for the Colts kicker there. Will Lutz had a chip shot right before that.

And once again, it's just, it's so frustrating when we have to talk about this kind of bull on postgame shows. That could have been avoided during games if everybody just does their job. 100%. And you can look at a couple of things that went negative. And you say, well, if they execute that, this probably turns into a win here for the Denver Broncos. Now, while the offense put up 28 points, that was good. But as coach Eric Taylor says, not good enough. We'll break down the Broncos offensive performance coming up next.

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we got to bounce back from the offense. It just wasn't enough for the Denver Broncos in a 28 to 29 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Cody, it's still a tough pill to swallow here. I know for all the listeners out there, absolutely brutal to watch the team lose like this, especially after what we all went through last year with the Chiefs game and the overtime loss to the Bengals, all those sorts of things. Can this be enough? Can we just be done with this kind of stuff?

You know what I'm saying? I think we had more fun in our 72 to whatever it was. post game after the Dolphins game, but we appreciate you rocking with us Broncos country. No matter how big the margin of defeat is, especially after a loss, we appreciate you so much for tuning in. Let us know your thoughts on this game for the Broncos. What has to change? What has to be better? What did you like? We liked a lot from the offense. I wish, Cody, I wish we were talking about the offense and Troy Franklin and J.K. Dobbins with the way that he closed out the game. I wish that was how we were leading off this show. It should be how we're leading

off this show that the Broncos, sure, they escape with a win. Sure, we got to talk about the defense, but the offense, man, I wish that's what this show was. Unfortunately, we're talking about it as a secondary thing. Let's start here. Bo Nix needed to bounce back. He did in a big way with a very efficient first half, three touchdown passes in the first half.

That was a good performance from this offense and balanced as well with the run and pass. I felt like Bo was pretty good with his decision-making, you know, majority of the afternoon. And of course, he threw the interception there. And I think if you go back and you watch the replay there, you got to understand when you're going to press, right? And I think there's so many different ways we can debate this. Because on that play specifically, he's looking for Cortland. He obviously sails him a little bit.

You watch the replay. There's a defensive lineman that's running into bow or running towards bow with his hand up. It looks like he tries to alter his throat trajectory. He doesn't follow through on it. And so it sales leads to a pick. That was costly. 100%.

We're not going to deny it. That was definitely impactful because at worst. scenario, you're in better field positionary. You can at least kick a field goal and take three points. And then at that juncture, you can go up. What is it? 31 to 26. And you know, hope that your defense can continue to hold up in the red zone and force the Colts to settle for field goals.

Sure, there's that. Sure. Will Lutz had a 42-yard field goal that should have been a chip shot for him. Should have made it. I mean, Sarah, the first drive of that, it looked like it was going. And then all of a sudden, it just had this weird, no-air wobble that doinked off the upright. To me, that was obviously disappointing. a missed opportunity once again.

So you have two drives right there that you have a chance to come away with points that you sputter out in the second half there. I thought Denver did a great job coming out of the half with a momentum-filled drive where they're moving the ball. And all of a sudden it's like, all right, hey, you get a touchdown. It's 2820. You should lose games like this. And what have we been talking about and harping on for this Broncos offense since Sean Payton came in? Can you find an offense that can put up at least 25 points per game? well, you had an offensive performance where you put up 28.

Yes, you didn't make the most of a couple of drives late in this game. But man, it just once again missed opportunities. And I want to go to this as well. I'm curious for your thoughts. Because on Bow's interception, it was third and three. It seemed like Denver started to get away from the run a little bit on that specific drive when it was working. And obviously, J.K. Dobbins ran a little wild in the fourth quarter there. But just once again, is it, is Sean Payton getting a little too pass happy here?

or this offense. Yeah, I think so. And I think that in that situation, go for something that's super, super high percentage. Like there was a, I can't remember if it was that same sequence, Cody,

where J.K. Dobbins was clamoring for an off sides call to be called, and it wasn't called. It kind of forced a busted play by the Broncos. There was just so much going on there that's just like, just call a dang running play. Just call your easiest screen. Like the screens to Troy Franklin that had been working. We barely saw Marvin Mims getting involved at all in this game.

The short passing game, as we know, has been a great extension of the running game for the Denver Broncos. They are effective at calling those short wide receiver pass plays. Do something like that. Do something that just don't do all these long developing, let the Colts react, get into scramble drill, force a delinement, or whatever it is. You know, I'm sick of that stuff. I want to see the easy stuff on third and short. Why was it so easy for Daniel Jones? Because your play callers calling plays that are easy button plays.

I just, that stuff I cannot stand. Let's talk about J.K. Dobbins, really being a catalyst for this Broncos offense, but also the boneheaded mistake of spiking the ball that sets you back, first and 15, very next player, whatever it was, two plays later, a face mask on the offensive. I mean, this is just dumb stuff that first in the Broncos. Broncos to, they should have gone, they were at 28 points at that point. They should have gone to 35.

That was a touchdown drive that he killed. It's stupid spike. Do the first down point. Do the thing where you drag both your fingers and you point them both forward. I don't care what you do. Do a different celebration than spiking the ball. It's so dumb. Like I just, Cody, this stuff ticks me off because this is the difference between winning and

losing in a game. Well, and it's those little things too. It's those little mistakes that you look. look back when you lose and it haunts you because he made a terrific play on that run that he had. It was a 23-yard scamper and all of a sudden the Broncos had life. They had some energy and momentum. It's like, wow, there's like four minutes left here in the fourth quarter. The Broncos are going to do this.

And then you just go backwards. You know, luckily, I mean, you're able to get yards back on Troy's screen. But I mean, Will Lutz goes and misses the field goal. It's just like, my goodness. Anything it can go wrong, did go wrong here. You mentioned Marvin Mims. Sarah, he got this game going for Denver offensively with a 23-yard touchdown. It was a beautiful play and a beautiful performance by Bow,

but then he only gets one target the rest of the game. I don't understand. You know, you even talk about Cortland Sutton. He saw some targets in this game, but only four of them. He had one catch for six yards on four targets. Troy Franklin was heavily featured there. But look at this, Sarah. This number is staggering here.

You look at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine players. had targets besides Troy Franklin. Troy had nine total targets that everybody else had two or three targets total. So you talk about balance. You didn't spread the ball around necessarily as much as you would have liked. And I know that leads to another conversation we're going to have here later on this game about Evan Ingram and the Joker position. I love the fact that you featured Troy here.

But you have to spread the ball around collectively. When your number one receiver in Corland only has four targets and isn't getting the ball in space, and it's a little problematic too. Yeah, it is. And the one catch that Cortland did have was kind of just like a starter play. It was just a quick, hey, let's get the ball out quickly. Let's try to gain a chunk here on first down. It wasn't even a big deal. I know he drew a penalty flag and things like that.

But yeah, the targets that went to Cortland, there was the one inside the red zone, I believe that was like a, you know, bow kind of just like nonchalantly almost threw the ball off his back foot. That, you know, for a touchdown. It was not a touchdown, obviously, but then had another play, too, on a third and short. This is to our point about third downs and the play calling on third downs where you threw like a, it seemed like a 50-50 ball deep down field. Cortland was in contact with the defensive back. And it was just ultimately, it was way over everybody's head.

And it just looked like a wasted play. It looked like miscommunication. That kind of stuff cannot be happening right now. And you've got to get Marvin more involved. I mean, the guy may have some of the best hands on the team. Pat Bryant started off this game, too. Nice couple of catches there, specifically on that first drive. So, yeah, why do the Broncos keep going away from stuff that's working?

Why do they keep on getting, like, they're trying to be too cute? Are they trying to, it doesn't, obviously they're not trying to pat stats. The stat is being patted at this point. I don't know what they're trying to do when they're getting away from stuff that's working. Well, here's the crazy thing. When you look at it in comparison, the Indianapolis Colts, Daniel Jones on that offense, they had five different receivers, at least 40 plus yards,

five different pass catchers of 40 plus yards in this game. They also had five different pass catchers who had four or more targets in this game, whereas the Broncos had like four or five guys who each had two targets each, and you had one guy having the larger volume there. And Troy, I've got to find a way to get it going. But even this as well, I say, you know,

you're getting too pass happy, but you're spreading the ball out to a whole bunch of different guys, but it's not coming at opportune times. Like, it's not isolating specific, matchups, whereas you look at the Colts schematically, it looked like they were trying to isolate the best matchup on a play-to-play basis, whereas the Broncos, we're just going to go out there and we're just going to throw it. We're just going to throw it. I'm not opposed to that. I thought Bo Nix had a really good game here today. Yes, you want the pick back, but Bo's not a reason that

they lost. The offense certainly can be better, but 28 points should have won you this game. Unfortunately, it didn't. And it raises some questions. Now the Broncos have to shift their sights to prepare for Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles target and the Lowe, and the Los Angeles Chargers. We're going to go through some of the other bigger questions looming from this game, carrying over here in a week three on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. We all turn to some funny places for advice.

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Go to upside.com for terms and conditions. A loss for the Denver Broncos here on Sunday. It stinks. Broncos country, you can process it for 24 hours, but then you got to flush the pity potty and move on here. And that's what the Broncos need to do because There are a lot of questions looming ahead of week three as they have to prepare to face the Los Angeles Charters on the road. And hey, a win in week three can set things back on course here after a little bit of a rocky start after week two.

Thank you so much all the everydayers first listeners out there in Broncos country here. Sarah, as we're still in this 24-hour rule of the pity potty being relevant, and then we're going to flush it tomorrow here. Questions that linger a little bit after this game, I think probably the biggest one, if we're going to focus on the offensive side of the ball, how come the Indianapolis Colts can find a way to utilize their Joker, but Sean Payton still seemingly hasn't figured out how to utilize his in Evan Ingram for a large portion of this game. We were all sitting there saying, how can we haven't seen to Evan Eagle?

Where is Evan? His first play he gets in. There's a penalty to backs him up. Tyler Bidde, bells the Broncos out. And then he has a 12-yard catch. But for me, it's like you brought in Evan Ingram to utilize him as this chess piece. And yet you are not doing it. To me, it's one of the more mind-boggling things is Sean Peyton

in his own way. He might be. I mean, we've mentioned it during the off season as well, but like Sean hasn't had a tight end joker for a long time, long enough that it's basically being rewritten into the offense. And while that was an exciting proposition on paper to say, hmm, hey, the Broncos could have a weapon this year that wasn't even part of their offense last year at all.

Like nobody was playing this role. It felt like something they could really add a wrinkle to keep defenses on their heels. Unfortunately, like you mentioned, It's just been way too slow going. We haven't seen any opportunities really for Evan to get going after the catch like we saw in the preseason where we thought, man, okay, if that's the type of stuff he's going to be bringing to the table here in the regular season, man, the Broncos might be cooking with some gas offensively, but we need to see more from Evan Ingram.

We need to see more deliberate involvement because you're right. I mean, Shane Stuyken kind of put on a master class of how to manipulate all of his chest pieces there offensively. If it wasn't Josh Downs, it was Alec Pierce. We're getting Alec Pierce the deep shots. We're getting Michael Pittman opportunities. We're going right at Pat Certan. We're going to Tyler Warren.

We're sneaking Jonathan Taylor out. Or at least the Broncos are making it look like we're sneaking him out because nobody's covering him. I mean, they just got everybody involved in their offensive game plan. And that's the type of stuff that you want to see from Denver Broncos. You feel like you have talent to go out there and do that. It may not be as much talent as what the Colts have, but you still feel like you have guys that can do that, specifically Ingram who's getting paid a lot of money. 100%.

And I think another thing, too, we have to look at here is just the balance. We talk about play calling, but, you know, where is it? And certainly as the game is going on, I've been a coach on the sideline for a game. And there's a million things going on, a million miles an hour. But if we're at the point now, or even Sean Payton said last week after the Titans game, that he could have called a better game and he could have done, you know, better things as a play caller to establish flow and rhythm here, at what point, if you're Sean, do you say like, all right, I need to figure out, like, I need to listen

to maybe the people upstairs more, you know, based on what they're seeing because Sean is really just kind of shooting from the hip almost every single time that he's getting a play in, you know, a play is going out there. You're seeing he and Bo communicate after every drive or possession, which is great. But it just seems like for at least the first three years of Sean's tenure here in Denver, granted, you didn't have the meshed relationship there with Russell Wilson. And last year, Bo was a rookie. You know, this year, it just seems like, once again, like the Sean's second guess himself or second guess the process, whereas like last week, you know, he trusted the defense. This is the week. I would not have trusted the defense

with how they were playing in this game. So all that factors into it. It's frustrating, though, but Evan Ingram, through two games, we've hardly seen him. And he was this big chess piece edition in the offseason. Sean's going to have to find a way to use him if this Broncos team is hoping to sustain and take the next step because you can't just keep rolling out the same stuff that you're doing right now. You have to continue to find ways to evolve or teams are going to game plan for you relatively easily down the stretch here. So I just think that's something that stood out to me defensively question marks here. When will Dre Greenlaw return? I know this is something that Broncos country is very eager about. And Sarah, you know, what I'll tell you is he upgraded on

Friday to limited participation. I'm trying to set the expectation here. Don't be surprised if he's limited all week long this week, Broncos country and still doesn't play against the chargers. I think the idea is to ramp him up fully this week to limited, not play him against the Chargers, though he could play. I want to preface it, he could play. I would expect my personal expectation would be limited this week, limited all of next week, ready to go for Monday night football against the Cincinnati Bengals. I think that's best case scenario here.

But what are the Broncos doing in the meantime? Because I know Justin Herbert and them, the last time these two teams played, what do they do? They attacked the middle of the field. They attacked the linebackers, just like the Colts did here in week two. They've got to have a better plan. They've got to have better communication. You've got to be able to stick with your guys. And I don't know if the Broncos go with more dime looks, if they utilize other defensive backs a bit more.

I know the Chargers are capable of being physical too. So it's going to be an interesting matchup to see. I want to see how the Chargers do against the Raiders as well. Find out we'll watch that game and see if maybe anything comes up that we're like, maybe the Broncos can get back on track this week. But of course, after what we saw against the Chiefs, what the Chargers were able to do, just picking apart that defense, man, it doesn't seem like a very good matchup for Denver based on the way they just played against the Colts.

But again, they've got to play ticked off. They've got to play offended at what they just saw. They've got to watch this film session, Cody, from this game and be as upset, more upset than any of us watching as fans of the team or analysts of the team. They've got to be way more upset than even we are. So I think to me, what's most frustrating about this game, Cody, is the lack of complimentary football by the Denver Broncos, right? Obviously in week one, the offense not playing well, the defense playing dominant. And you sit there and you wonder, man, if the team could just play

better offense, they would dominate every team that stands in their path. Here comes week two. Your offense scores 21 points in the first half. Looks awesome. They played great football, efficient, balance, all those sorts of things. And the defense can't do anything. They couldn't stop like you said, a noseble. They couldn't do anything out there against the Colts. Why is it that we can't have both? Why do we always have to have one along with the other? If the offense is playing well, the defense is stinking it up. If the defense is dominating, the offense is turning the ball over and making it a tight game,

where's the complementary football? And is that a coaching issue? I just wish that we could see that here, Cody, especially perfect timing against the Chargers who swept you last year. Good teams find a way to do it consistently in the Broncos. They have the potential to be a good team. they got to prove it. And that's going to be a big test for them here this week against the charters.

One more thing, too. Sarah, I know it's emotional. I know it's social media. It's instant reaction. I get it. That's why we have the 24-hour rule here. I've already seen Broncos fans.

And the season's over, like, just why? Why do we got to get to that level of toxicity and negativity? Once again, Stu, have a 24-hour rule, get on the pity potty,

flush it and move on. That's what the Broncos are going to have to do here after they process the film on Monday. But with us, Broncos, country that I'll wrap up today's episode of the show. Sarah and I will have you covered with a bonus episode tomorrow. And do we hear from head coach Sean Payton? That is Monday, Zoom conference call. What is the aftermath here of this game?

What can we learn? We'll go through all that and more. On tomorrow's episode, Locked on, Broncos. We'll see you next time.