Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - GROWTH: Denver Broncos Biggest SURPRISES of First Half Season
Episode Date: November 20, 2025The Denver Broncos' first-half season surprises include the emergence of Troy Franklin as the team's leading target share receiver, Garett Bolles becoming a top candidate for the Protector of the Year... award. Plus, Denver's ability to flip the script in one-score games this year and the clutch play of Bo Nix have become some of the biggest surprise developments, and Denver's dominance on defense in two key areas is one of the better surprises of the season. 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! PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com. 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. 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Denver Broncos are 9 and 2 at their by week here.
We're going to highlight some of the biggest first half surprises of this season.
We'll break it all down here on today's episode of the show.
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?
Happy Thursday and welcome into another episode.
Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast.
Part of the Lockdown podcast network.
Now the number one sports podcast network in the,
country. Thank you so much to all the everydayers out there. Thanks for tuning in making us your
first listen, however you choose to do so for all your Broncos news, content coverage, analysis,
and more. I'm Cody Rourke, credential Broncos reporter. You can check out my daily written work over there
at Milehysports.com. I cover the team in person daily in the Valley, and I'm joined as always by
by Sarah Bedinger, the long time, 10 plus year site expert over there at predominantly orange.com.
We appreciate you so much of Broncos country. We've got a lot to break down here. The Broncos may be on the
by week, but we certainly are not.
We're going to highlight our first half surprises from the 2025 NFL season.
We're going to talk about some of the most surprising players who emerged in this first
half stretch with Denver at 9 and 2.
Plus, we're going to go through and talk about maybe some of the biggest surprise developments,
including the Broncos and their record at this juncture.
We'll go through that.
Plus, we'll also talk about maybe a team trend that was a biggest surprise to us in the
first half of the season.
You'll get on today's episode of show brought to you of our friends over there at
prize picks.
Download the prize picks app today.
Use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first,
a $5 lineup.
Sir, I would be remissed if I said at any point that, hey, when the Broncos are at the
buy week, they're going to be here at 9 and 2.
If you and I said that before the season, would anybody have believed us?
I don't think so, right?
I think that a lot of times we go through the schedule and we make our predictions,
and you want to be as optimistic as possible, right?
You want to be 17 and 0 until you ain't.
You want to run the table until you don't, right?
And of course, we go into every single week thinking like,
hey, the Broncos could, they can win this game.
They could win these, like there's no reason why they can't go out
and win on an individual week-to-week basis, right?
But when you look at the whole picture, you just kind of understand that doesn't
happen for teams, right?
Nobody's been undefeated.
Teams have gotten close.
I think the Chiefs, right, they lost one game before we played,
we played their backups last year.
But yeah, even the most optimistic predictions, I think, have been surpassed up to this point.
And what's crazy is, is that the Broncos are not far off from being even better than this 9 and 2 record, right?
I mean, a leverage penalty against the Colts.
And then obviously a blown fourth quarter lead against the Chargers, those two games right there would have you at 11 and 0.
So, yeah, there's been a lot surprising about this team this season.
But I think undoubtedly when you look at individuals,
players, that's where I feel like, okay, we start to get into the nitty gritty of the why
behind the what, which is that they've been surprisingly awesome all year.
Yeah, and I think the one thing we always go into like the season, like, okay, which
player is going to break out, right?
We always go through breakout candidates.
The one guy felt like last year, we asked a lot of say, hey, can he make that really big
jump going into another season?
We all talked about, can Troy Franklin do that?
because Troy was at training camp, he was the talk in the preseason.
Troy was the talk of, this guy's really, really having a good offseason program.
He's having a really good training camp.
Can that translate into the regular season?
And I would say for the most part for Troy, that has been the case.
He has probably been the biggest surprise emergence here for the Broncos in the first half stretch here.
And yes, look, that comes with plenty of good.
It comes with plenty of room to grow.
I think the tracking of the football, catching, you know, some drops that he's had,
certainly are things that can be overcome here.
But to say that Troy Franklin hasn't been impactful, especially when you talk about his willingness to be a blocker,
despite being undersized in comparison to some of the bigger safeties or linebackers,
Troy has been a nice addition here to this Broncos team.
And he's been a big reason why they are in a position that they're at.
And the game winning catch is set up Will Lutz's field goal essentially this past week against Kansas City.
Cody, you know me.
You know I love a good baseball analogy, right?
So, I mean, Troy Franklin to me is a guy who's not hitting for average, but he's hitting for.
for some serious power and he's driving in runs, right?
That's the thing that you're seeing from him right now is he's getting a ton of targets.
He's not necessarily capitalizing on every target, right?
And there's some that have been overthrown.
There's some that he's just let go through his hands.
There's been some tough potential catches downfield where you sit there and you can argue with
people on Twitter all day.
Well, should he have caught that?
He's an NFL wide receiver.
No, that would have been a really tough catch.
It was a really just perfectly thrown ball.
I mean, there's discussions that are being had like that every week almost about Troy Franklin right now at this point, right?
So that's kind of the way that I view him is a young player who's maybe not yet hitting for average, right?
And that's okay because every player in the NFL deserves time to grow.
And I'm as guilty as anybody.
I've deleted tweets that I've put out there because, number one, I don't want Troy Franklin seeing the stuff that I post and being discouraged by it.
So I got to take ownership of, hey, don't be emotional stupid during a game.
But I think, look, at this stage of his career, he's one of the youngest players on this team.
He deserves time to grow.
Very clearly, does this coaching staff believe that he is worthy of these chances?
He's getting opportunities despite the flaws.
They believe in his skill set.
And I think that we're seeing the reasons why when he does make those plays.
81 targets in 11 games.
It leads the entire team right now.
And Troy's got three games this season of 80.
plus yards. And I think the fact that one thing that is getting ignored, Sarah, he's got five
receiving touchdowns on the year. I mean, I think if we would have said in the beginning of the
year, Troy Franklin's going to have five touchdowns at, you know, at the buy week here for the
Broncos, I think you and I, if we would have known that, we'd have been like, okay, that's really good.
Obviously, a lot of room still for Troy to continue to grow and develop, but obviously the Duck
dynasty is, I've seen some listeners of locked on Broncos, coined that as the duo between
Bo Nicks and Troy Franklin. You know what? Give credit to Broncos country there. That's going to be
something we'll run with anytime that those guys make a big play.
I mean, like I said, when, when Bow was drafted, the cold open for the show after the
draft, I said, get ready to speak quack.
Little did we know that Troy Franklin will be joining him in the Mile High City, not
too long after the fact.
So love that here for these guys.
Sarah, who is your surprise player that you would have to highlight here for the Broncos in
the first half stretch?
I'm going to tell you exactly who it is.
I just really quickly want to point out, too, Cody, that Troy also has three
two point conversions this season.
So not only does he have five touchdowns,
but he's got three, two point plays.
So that's pretty big.
He's averaging three point three points per game.
When you're winning a lot of one score games,
while his contributions are looming large for this team.
So,
but my surprise player this season and really,
I think when we were putting this script together, Cody,
I was trying to think about it.
You look at this Broncos roster,
all the continuity in the world, right?
There's so many holdovers,
the most continuity of any roster in the NFL,
right,
in terms of players that are coming back.
So not many guys are surprising me,
but I would say that I am continually in awe and shocked by Garrett Bowles being as great
as he is, right?
When we look back at Garrett Bowles' career, especially early on,
I remember I was in Kansas City back in 2017, 2018.
I can't remember exactly which year it was.
But I remember being there,
and I remember he had a horrible game.
He was getting called for holding.
and it was just the pinnacle of fandom in Broncos country, right?
Garrett Bulls needs to be cut.
Garrett Bulls is a first round bust.
Garrett Bulls can't block.
Garrett Bulls can't do this.
He'll never get better at this.
The steady progression from him to becoming what he is today,
which I think you could make an argument, Cody,
that Garrett Bulls is the best left tackle in the NFL right now.
And that may seem like hyperbole to a lot of people.
That may seem like orange Kool-Aid or,
orange colored glasses to a lot of people.
I think he's proven, and we don't talk about it a lot because the O line really only gets
attention when they're playing poorly or as a unit.
But Garrett Bowles individually, he might be the most surprising player in terms of
where he was early in his career to hear where we are now with him as maybe the best left
tackle in the game.
I think he's got a strong argument as well for that protector of the year award that the NFL
is bringing forth.
I wish the NFL would do more awards kind of like that from a position.
standpoint, right? Because there are so many good
offensive players in the NFL, and there's only one
offensive player of the year. Understandably so.
Defensive player, I get it. There should be like a DB award,
kind of how you go with the college game. There should be
position specific awards that these guys get, because there are
MVP guys at almost every level. I feel like if there was a
just wrecker of worlds, you know, Miles Garrett from the Cleveland
Browns will probably get that almost every single year.
But I just feel like there's so much talent in the NFL to water it down
to just one position, I mean, just to one award specifically is tough.
But for him to be, I'd say right now, one of the, I'd say top five favorite right now.
I don't know what the lines for some of the things have right now, but I would say that
Garrett is, should be heavily considered for that protector of the year award based on what he's
been able to do against this year's crop of edge rushers.
And certainly we're going to face some more here down the second half part of the schedule.
So if he can continue to play the way he is, guarantee you some things are going to go nicely
here for him.
And that once again, another notch under the bell for a guy who was, you know,
being written out of town after his first year in the Mile High City here.
Just goes to show, folks, player development is very important.
The Broncos, I feel like right now with their roster, with the organization regime in place,
I feel like they have a really, really good foundation for developing players.
And there's so many guys across the board that exemplify that.
But Broncos country, that's not a surprise to see how good Garrett Bowles is playing here.
But one thing we got to talk about on today's episode show,
What was one of the bigger surprise developments of the first half of the season?
I'll give you a little bit of a teaser.
I don't think anybody had the Broncos where they're at right now, and that's a nice thing.
We'll break it all down.
You're on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
Today's episode with Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by friends over there at prize picks.
And you and I, we make decisions every single day.
But on prize picks, being right can get you paid.
Don't miss any of the excitement of this sports season, whether you're following the NFL, the NBA, or both.
There's no better time to jump in on the action than right now.
with all the NFL games that are going on,
with all the NBA games that are just starting here at the beginning part of the season.
If you haven't tried it yet,
prize picks,
they are the simplest way to play.
You just pick more or less on at least two player stats.
And if you get them right,
you win.
It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup.
And you can play anywhere that prize picks operates,
including California,
Texas, and Georgia.
I'll be using prize picks for football Sundays here when it comes to the NFL.
And of course, there's always an NBA game on every other day.
And prize picks is the perfect way to jump in and have some fun with more,
or less player stats.
Download the Price Pix app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups
after you play your first $5 lineup that's code locked on NFL for $50 in lineups
after your first $5 lineup prize picks is good to be right.
The Denver Broncos have not only exceeded expectations this season,
but they flip the script while doing so.
Cody and I are going to tell you two of the most surprising developments with this Denver
Broncos team here in 2025.
But before we do that,
I want to quickly say thank you to every single one of you,
everyday listeners out there that makes lockdown Broncos what it is.
And you know what?
The lockdown podcast network,
the number one sports podcast network in the world.
We appreciate every single one of you so, so much for being part of this show.
However you choose to do so,
listening on your favorite podcast platform or watching on YouTube or both.
And hit subscribe if you haven't done so already.
Cody, let's talk about how surprising this team has been this season.
Obviously, we expected the Broncos.
to be good. We expected them to be in the mix for the playoffs. But I think even the loftiest
predictions would have not had them at two games above the next best team in the AFC West here
heading into the by week, certainly not four and a half games above the Kansas City Chiefs
going into the buy week. So let's talk about that. The Broncos at nine and two. Is this the most
surprising development for this team in 2025 and why? I feel like there's a good argument
for it. Certainly, that's my pick here because I think before the season, I was at 10 or 11 wins total,
which isn't bad. I think, you know, going to the season where the Broncos had last year,
they got to 10 wins, they got back to the playoffs, saying, okay, now you got to do it again, right?
Because there was a lot of talk after that Buffalo game where you and I sat down, like,
all right, you made the playoffs. But now you got to do it again next year because you're here,
you set the standard. You've changed the expectation. Now the Broncos have kind of kicked down the door on the
expectations because here they are at 9 and 2.
We talked about earlier a player two away for being undefeated here in the first half of
the schedule, which is crazy.
I don't think anybody had it on their bingo card that the Broncos were going to be
atop the AFC, the best record right now in the NFL, and they are sitting comfortably
here beating the Kansas City Chiefs going into their by week, and now they have a second
half schedule where they can just continue to go even further.
They're already a couple of games off of that 10 win, 11.
and win trajectory that, you know, maybe we talked about in the off season, certainly what I had
predicted. So for me, them being top dog right now in the NFL, I didn't see it, but I'll take it.
I like it. To me, that was the biggest surprise development.
Well, isn't it interesting, too, that you and I had talked to last season, like, okay,
the Broncos won nine games by nine or more points last year, right? So they were one in six or
one in five, whatever it was in one score games. So we're sitting there saying, hey, this team is
10 and seven, they could easily have won 13 or 14 games last year.
And so when we go into the 2025 season, you see the improvements that are made on
the roster, you see the continuity, you see the hopeful progression of your quarterback, right?
We're sitting there saying, hey, just kind of a general idea, this team should be better
than the 10 wins that we saw last year.
So that's where kind of you and I, I think, came up with an over under set at 10 and a
And you and I are both hitting the over, maybe kind of just like cautiously, optimistically projecting 11 or 12 wins for this team.
But they're currently on pace to kind of blow that away if they keep things going here after the buy.
And they're getting healthy at the right time.
So this is this is the scary thing is that this team has what my biggest surprise this season is flipping the script on those one score games.
When you look at last year, you're one and six in one score games.
you got blown out by Baltimore, right?
That was the one blowout loss from last season.
But the defense has been so good to keep this team in every game that you believe,
hey, what Vance Joseph told Peter Schrager that Bo Nix, our guy, can make a play at any point in time.
So we got to do our job to keep this game tight.
The Broncos have won situationally.
They have won in terms of overcoming mistakes.
They have won in clutch moments.
They have totally flipped the script on what last year's team struggled with,
most. You know what's crazy, too, is that they're also the most penalized team in the league.
You would think that being the most heavily penalized team leading the NFL in penalty yards,
penalties thrown, you feel like that would be something that maybe is an indicative, I'd say,
point of reference for if you had a bad record, you could say like, wow, you know, they're the
most penalized team. Maybe this is why, like in these one score games, they couldn't just flip the script
a little bit. The fact that they're still overcoming those mistakes, and sometimes I feel like
at times they overcome bad officiating, that they're still.
still in this position to make these types of plays and to be nine and two to come up clutch when
you need them to that experience i think last year served what you were referencing of them going
through and losing those heartbreakers or not finding the way to just get over the hump i think that
was motivation i think that there's just this different level of buy-in from the team mental
fortitude what sean peyton talks about it all the time with them is we have a very mentally resilient
group and so you can say that coaches can say that we hear it all the time we're seeing
it here with this Broncos team. I love that here. Did you have them as well? Like if we were to go back
at the beginning of the season, look at the schedule and say, okay, the Broncos, they're going to face the
Eagles. They're going to face the Chiefs. The Broncos are going to beat the Eagles and the Chiefs.
How optimistic were you, you know, at the beginning of the year that, hey, maybe that could be
the case. I felt like I felt like you're always going to win one of those games against Kansas City.
I felt like Denver was going to do that. But this big game that we just saw more recently,
And also the Philadelphia Eagles, on a short week, Monday night football, to me, and that was impressive.
That's probably the most impressive part of the season, I would say.
I think so.
I mean, going into Philadelphia, you're going up against the Vic Fangio defense.
You're playing on a short week, right?
I mean, everybody, I don't want to say everybody.
Like, we obviously go, like we said earlier, we go into every single game believing that there's a way the Broncos can win.
We break it down on the show every single week.
But when the schedule comes out and you're looking at everything from a bird's eye view,
that's where you kind of sit there and say, okay, you can pencil in some of these losses
because you're not going to necessarily go 17 and 0, right?
I mean, so you pencil that game in as a loss because you're going to Philadelphia where they've been dominant.
I think going into that game, they had won 20 of their previous 21 or something,
something like that.
I don't remember the exact number, but they had been dominant at home.
obviously the drop off in talent for that team,
even losing some pieces after the Super Bowl,
was not that great.
So you're going into that game,
believing that you could win,
but understanding the reality that,
hey,
that's,
it just kind of what happens.
You know,
like in the NFL,
you go to places like Philly,
you go to Baltimore,
you go to certain cities,
and you just like,
okay,
yeah,
I get it.
You tend to lose in those cities
when you're playing as the road team.
But for the Broncos to do that,
Cody,
I mean,
that was the signature win at the time.
It's crazy that it's already been maybe topped since then.
That was the fuel for the comeback, though.
That was what led to this comeback streak here for Denver.
That epic fourth quarter that Bo Nicks put together led by the defense,
what they were able to do, we were starting to think like, wow.
And once again, you saw the national media opponents trying to move the goalpost.
Well, the Eagles aren't as good as what they were last year.
It's like that defense is still pretty dang good as we've seen as the season has gone on,
as they just beat the Detroit Lions.
that defense is very, very good there.
That Eagles offense, even though they've been not what they were in the Super Bowl,
they still have Sequin Barclay, J. Brown, Devantus Smith, Jalen Hertz,
they got the players all across the board.
And Denver overcame that to come back and win in the fourth quarter.
And then you go and you beat the Jets and you come back.
You score 33 in the fourth quarter against the New York Giants.
Then you face off against one of the best top two offenses right now in the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys.
And you do that without Pat Sertan in the second half.
and then you just go on the straight
eight straight games.
You beat the Kansas City Chiefs, Sarah.
This Broncos team is for real,
and they're not even playing their best football yet.
And when they can do that,
when the offense can just piece together what they can be,
it's scary.
The Broncos, they are contenders.
They have a chance,
but they got to grab that momentum,
they got to run with it.
They can't get complacent.
I'm excited about that.
Broncos country,
make sure you let us know what your surprise development
of the first half of the season was here on today's episode of the show.
Coming up next, Sarah and I,
we're going to talk about maybe a team,
specific trend, whether it be offense, defense, special teams.
That was the most surprising coming into the first half of the season.
We'll break it all down on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
Today's episode, Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by friends over there at Fanduel.
The NBA is back.
The NFL season is ongoing and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fanduel,
the official sports betting partner of the NBA.
Even if you missed the start of tip off of a certain game there, if you want to ride the
hot hand in the second half or in a fourth quarter, fan duel, they have.
live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks to triple doubles.
And on the NFL side, anytime touchdown scores, you can put together same game parlays.
You can put together big time parlays where you just pick the money line on every single game that is going on,
either in the morning slate, the afternoon slate, or you can do that for the primetime games.
Plus, you can combine your live bets into one of those same game parlays for a shot at a bigger payout.
It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team's making that late push, the Broncos,
their fourth quarter darlings, Broncos country.
And right now, Fanduil is given new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins.
So head to Fandul.com to sign up and play your game with Fanduil, the official sports betting partner of the NBA.
The Denver Broncos offense, defense, special teams unit,
they've been going through this wave of growth, setbacks, overcoming adversity to bring them to nine and two.
We're going to talk about maybe the biggest surprise development or a trend from this team in the first half of the season.
you share yours with us here on today's episode show.
Once again, I want to say thanks to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country.
Thanks for tuning in, making us your first listen to making the Lockdown Podcast Network,
the number one sports podcast network in the country.
We appreciate you so much here.
Sarah, I want to ask you this, offense, defense, special teams, a trend.
It could be just, you know, something that summarizes where this team is at.
What has been one of the bigger team trends that have surprised you the most so far this season?
Cody, I completely spoiled this earlier because I talked about flipping the
script on one score games in the previous segment.
And that was my thing for this segment of the show.
So funny enough, we're flipping the literal script right here.
But flipping the script in one games, that's really been it.
You and I got to talk about the situational against teams like the Eagles and the chiefs
and things like that.
But really, when you come down to most games in the NFL are going to be one score games,
right?
The Broncos, they won nine games last year by nine or more points.
That's rare.
It's rare to have that many sort of blowout wins or wins where you're kind of taking it easy.
And that's to be understood.
But when it comes to the nail biters, when it comes to the games that, hey, you got to either hold on to a lead or you got to find a way to come through in a clutch situation,
that to me is the one thing that you see from this team that championship medal, right?
That's the secret sauce to being able to win in January is coming through in these clutch moments.
it's not just looking dominant every single week, right?
I mean, the Carolina Panthers were the most dominant team in the 2015 season.
And then we saw a team that was way better situationally and better defensively
beat them by two scores in the Super Bowl.
So that's how the Broncos are this year.
I feel like the ceiling for what they can be, like you mentioned,
is so high because of how good the offense has shown itself to be capable of being.
But situationally, in one score games,
that clutch factor, Will Lutz coming through,
Bowdox making throws, guys like J.K. Dobbins and R.J. Harvey
coming through with big time runs, players making plays in clutch moments.
That's the biggest surprise, I think, based on what we saw last year.
I like that theme, right? You mentioned clutch.
We talked about mental fortitude, resilient, how this team really is.
I would even say, as well, they just don't blink.
Like when the moment gets big, right, sometimes you see it with certain teams.
sometimes you see it with certain quarterbacks.
That's why the Broncos have so much belief in Bo Nix
because in these tough situations, he doesn't blink.
Third and 15, and you need a big play to really keep the drive alive
or else you risk losing this game to Kansas City at home,
you fire a shot to Cortland Sutton.
You stay patient.
You trust your reads.
You see the scramble drill.
You know that Cortland's going to break to a certain spot
and you just hit him perfectly there.
Troy Franklin, you kind of throw a little of an adjustment,
back shoulder, body adjustment catch only where Troy could get it
against the DB that's playing underneath him.
Bow is clutch.
Bo makes these big time plays.
We've seen that so far this season through 28 games,
eight career game winning drives for Bo Nix.
That to me is huge.
You talk about that clutch factor.
It's certainly there.
But the ability to not blink when times get tough,
when they're facing adversity,
that's what I'm loving about this team.
And that's what I think will ultimately help them.
You get to the postseason.
You find yourself in a situation.
You can certainly claw your way out of it.
That's what I trust about this team.
I would say maybe like a statistical trend that is something that I don't want to say this is like the biggest surprise necessarily.
But because of how hard it is to have both, we are not surprised at how good the Broncos defense is.
We knew how good they were last year.
I think the fact that they are even better this year than they were last year is a surprise development.
It's exciting, especially with the pace that they're on when it comes to the sack department.
But for me in today's game, Sarah, it is so hard to have the number one,
third down defense in the NFL and the number one red zone defense in the entire league.
It is so hard to do that because sometimes those numbers go hand in hand.
Sometimes teams we see it all across the league.
They score on third down quite a bit.
They score on third down in the red zone.
The Broncos are not giving up plays in the red zone.
They are tightening up.
They're being stingy.
And also on third down,
they are getting off the field,
which was an issue at times last year said that we had talked about,
even though the Denver third down wise in 2024,
they were good.
They were one of the top units in the league to be number one.
And not even by, I mean, it's by a wide margin.
29% of teams are converting on third down against Denver.
That right there means that they're doing good on first down,
second down, especially with some of the earlier trends that we saw against the
Colts where they're giving up like nine yards per play on first down.
Denver has adjusted to become this top unit red zone third down.
This is why they're winning football games and it's because of their defense.
That to me is a surprise trend because of how.
hard it is to be just that.
Well, and that's an area where based on the end of last season, they need to keep things going
after the buy, right?
Because late last season, down the stretch, it feels like this is an area, third down and
red zone, where the Broncos went from being great to totally collapsing.
And we saw it against the chargers.
We saw it against the Bengals.
We saw it in a number of games late last season where, hey, you have a great red zone
defense. You have a great third down defense on paper, but remember the injuries at linebacker
were really adding up and the Broncos secondary issues like they were struggling against the
Colts. They were struggling against the Browns. It wasn't just the better teams like the
Chargers and Bengals that they were struggling against. So that's an area that they have to absolutely
keep things rolling here in the post by portion of the season. But to your point, Cody,
number one in yards per drive defensively at 23.4 yards per drive on average this season.
Number two in the NFL in points allowed per drive at 1.5 points allowed per drive this season.
The Broncos have only allowed nine passing touchdowns and eight rushing touchdowns this season.
So 17 total TDs.
I think I saw a statistic recently that said they have five games this season where they haven't allowed a touchdown at all.
when people come into our comments section and we talk about this on Twitter and things like that about,
hey, you're not going to be able to beat Team X with only kicking field goals or you're not going to be able to beat Team X if you can't score touchdowns.
This Denver defense is once again shocking a lot of people by proving, no, we actually can beat these teams without scoring a lot of touchdowns or, you know, getting just field goals here because we're not going to allow touchdowns.
That's just, they've been doing it for 11 straight games.
So that's not necessarily what you want to have all season long is to have to scrape and claw offensively for points.
But the point is this defense has the ability to give you that luxury and that margin of error.
They are a Super Bowl caliber defense.
And 10 years after Super Bowl 50,
the Broncos could find themselves back in Santa Clara if they play their cards, right?
The offense starts to play a little bit better.
The way the defense is playing,
they could get back to the big game.
That's our hope.
And man, that would be so big for everyone here in Broncos Country.
But with that said, Broncos Country that I wrap up today's episode of the show,
we appreciate you so much.
All the Every Dayers out there if you brand new viewer or listener and you like the show,
hey, make sure you do a favor.
Subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube so you never miss out
on what's going on with your favorite team.
Sarah Bedinger and myself, we got you covered every single day, folks, all year long.
Nobody does it like us.
Everybody can try, but there's only one lockdown Broncos.
But with that said, we'll be back tomorrow for another episode of the show.
Sarah and I, we're going to talk about maybe some of the more disappointing trends from the first half of the season where the Broncos can get better in the second half.
We'll highlight all that and more on tomorrow's episode of the show.
We'll see you then.
