Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - GUT PUNCH: Denver Broncos SUFFER Disappointing Loss vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Denver Broncos winning streak ended at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars, but players in the locker room, they're not hanging their heads. They're ready to get back to work. We'll break 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 country? Welcome into another episode, Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast,

Starting point is 00:00:31 part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network in the country. every day or is out there. Thanks for tuning in, making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. The Broncos, they drop a game. They suffer their third loss of the season in disappointing fashion at home to the Jacksonville Jaggers. We'll go through all that here on today's show. I'm Cody Roark, credential Broncos reporter from Ohio Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Bedinger, site expert of predominantly orange.com. We'll go through the Broncos 11-game win streak being snapped.

Starting point is 00:00:58 What was the biggest standout? And why is the Broncos defense suddenly falling off a little bit towards the end of the season? And can that concerning trend be bucked? that and plus we'll tell you why the Broncos must have a short memory on a short week against a banged up Kansas City Chiefs team on Christmas Day. You're going to get all that here on today's episode of the show brought to you by our friends over there at Fandu. And if you want to be right in the middle of the action of the season, visit Fanduil.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Sarah, Sunday's game, frustrating here as the Broncos drop to the Jacksonville Jaguars and what I think at first was an exciting game,

Starting point is 00:01:32 a little bit of back and forth in the first half, but then in the second half, things got away from Broncos, the story of this game, as it has been coming out of the by week, the Broncos defense getting gashed too often and for too many chunk yards early on and third down situations. It was brutal for the Broncos in this game, Cody, especially in those situations where they've been so great all year long, right? You just mentioned it. Third down, they were eight of 15 giving up to the Jaguars offense in this game. They allowed four out of five red zone opportunities for the Jaguars to be converted into touchdown. So all the things that the Broncos defense has not been doing this season or not

Starting point is 00:02:11 been allowing, I guess is maybe a better way to put it. They were allowing in mass against the Jaguars offense, right? And when you're compounding that with the fact that they're not turning the ball over, I mean, you're not creating takeaways and then you get beat in the red zone. You get beat on third down. I mean, you just can't overcome that. And look, that is the story of the game, like you mentioned, to where this Broncos offense, that we're going to talk.

Starting point is 00:02:34 about later in the show, they just couldn't overcome it. I mean, when you're giving up that much defensively, and it wasn't like the Broncos gave up 500 yards of offense in this game. It's just the Jaguars kind of just had their way from the start of the game to the end in terms of moving the ball offensively. The Broncos really couldn't do anything about it, although I will say they did get three and out to start the game, the defense did two, I think back to back three and out. So it was really a rough go for them after that point where Jacksonville kind of just had whatever they wanted. So the defense has got to be the primary concern since the by week, Cody. I mean, they've been a bit porous on that side of the ball. Yeah. And it's a multitude of things.

Starting point is 00:03:12 You mentioned it. You know, they were for a large portion of the season, the number one third down D, the number one red zone D, Sunday's game and really since coming out of the buy, that's kind of been the inverse for this team. I mean, to allow Jacksonville to convert eight of 15 third down situations. I mean, Sarah, we've looked at some of Denver's losses this season. You go back to that Chargers game early on in the year. You go back to the Colts game early on in the year. Denver's third down numbers were pretty rough. And on top of that, look, that's not even factor in. They don't even keep track of first down numbers in a sense of what happens. But far too many chunk plays early on with the Jaguars winning that early down

Starting point is 00:03:46 battle, sometimes gaining six or seven yards. And then all of a sudden, Trevor Lawrence using his legs. And I want to say, tip of the cap here to the Jacksonville Jaguar, Sarah, that is a good football team. Denver's a good football team. I don't think Denver played anywhere close to what we have seen them play like this season. You know, at times, this year when they've had their back against the wall. I mean, they were down what, 17 to 10 at halftime? They come out and answer with a really nice scoring drive, but they just couldn't get the stops necessary.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And it just felt like there were several moments, like ripple effect moments in this game that really kind of highlighted that, right? And look, I think for both sides in this game, I felt like officiating was really poor. And I'm not going to say the Broncos lost because of officiating. But what I'm trying to say is that there were a few moments, a few plays and a few drives that certainly let, to scores for Jacksonville that maybe should have been stopped because Denver would have gotten

Starting point is 00:04:36 a stop essentially, right? There's a PJ lock being whistled for unnecessary roughness where it's so loud they call a false start. The refs aren't moving. We certainly can't hear the whistle. P.J. doesn't hear the whistle. He hits Trevor Lawrence thinking he has a strip sack fumble and it's 15 yards. Malcolm Roach gets hit with a late hit of putting his weight on the quarterback, whereas the replay certainly suggests that that was not the case. And then there's several times where the clocks hit double zero and then they go on and convert on a big time play. I mean, bottom line like yes, officiating was terrible. And you can definitely say it impacted momentum. The Jaguars unfortunately made more plays than Denver's defense did and certainly talking to

Starting point is 00:05:16 guys in the locker room, Zach Allen, John Franklin Myers, Malcolm Roach, Pat Sertan, the vibe in the locker room was very much. We made so many mistakes. We didn't execute the way that we should have. But there's not a lot of dwelling going on right now, Sarah. And I'd say that's a positive thing. And I mean, I don't know how you feel about this. because I know the fan base feels a certain way. Like, yeah, a loss is never fun. How do you feel about this team suffering a loss like right here, right now? Because I feel like that's been a talking point about, oh, yeah, you know, maybe they're due for a loss.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Maybe a loss would be good. I personally, I don't agree with that mentality. I'd say, hey, the goal is to keep winning. You play to win the game. Unfortunately, Denver fell short tonight to a very good Jacksonville team. And, I mean, that's the story. Yeah, it is. I think that you want to win every game.

Starting point is 00:06:00 There's no question about it. but I think that a loss can wake you up in ways that maybe just kind of squeaking by with wins can't necessarily, right? I mean, you could squeak by with wins all the way to the Super Bowl if you want to and win a Super Bowl. But what I do believe is that, look, in terms of at least the last time the Broncos won a Super Bowl, right, I think it was about the exact same time of year. They suffered a loss that Super Bowl 50 defense got absolutely shredded by the Pittsburgh Steelers late in the year, right? And it was one of Brock Osweiler's best games. Like it felt like the Broncos might actually, you know, be taking a step forward

Starting point is 00:06:35 offensively in that situation. Ultimately, the defense let them down. And I think the defense took that personally. And when you have games where, okay, yeah, you made these mistakes, but you still win, like obviously you still go watch the tape. You still have to make corrections. You still have to do things better week to week. You're still, you know, not satisfied, all that sort of stuff.

Starting point is 00:06:55 But I think getting punched in the mouth, getting punched in the gut, I think that kind of stuff can really wake a team like this up. Now, you have to avoid the backslide as well, right? You can't let this get into your head and let this be something that, hey, we look back on this moment against the Jaguars. That was kind of the moment that it all started unraveling for the Broncos. I don't think it's going to be that. I think they're going to respond really well.

Starting point is 00:07:16 Sometimes you do need that wake up call, right? I mean, it's not like you want to lose games. It's not like you say, hey, pencil in a loss here so that we can get our moment, our mojo going, or we need to have our backs put against the wall. again. I think when you have a wake-up call like this, it really illuminates a lot of things that, you know, we've been talking about during this win streak that don't necessarily get shoved under the rug, but it brings them to such a point to where now you're like, okay, the stakes are different. We just lost a game. We'd won 11 straight. I think this will wake up the Broncos in a good way.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Yeah. And look, the stakes coming into this game were big. I think we talked about that all week long in the buildup that these are two playoff teams that are vying for seating. And you don't want to rely on other teams having to win or lose so far just to earn your claim. You want to go out there and take it. And so far in the locker room going back and talking to guys, Alex Singleton told us after the game, he said, we win two games, we win the division, we win the number one seat, plain and simple, right? Denver's got two games remaining short week against Kansas City who's banged up, can't

Starting point is 00:08:12 overlook them. But Denver coming off of a short week, Sarah, we've seen the situation before. Last time they're in a situation like this, they didn't play well on Thursday night football against the Las Vegas Raiders. Can't overlook a dangerous banged up, chip. Chiefs team that, you know, is just seemingly suffering losses left and right. I mean, this could be, you know, storylines early on. I'm sure we can look at this early on in the week, but it could be Travis Kelsey's last game at Arrowhead, so to speak, Chris Jones potentially,

Starting point is 00:08:38 I mean, where the Chiefs are at. So the Bronco is the one thing that they said is, hey, we're going to embrace the 24-hour rule. We're going to watch this together. Like we said, we're not going to watch it with the coaches. The coaches are now on a Kansas City. And obviously, they're going to watch a little bit of some of the issues that happen here in this game. But players said, we're going to get together tomorrow, and we're all going to watch the film together as a defensive unit because they have to figure out something bad tackling poor conversion on third down giving up plays in the red zone i mean it's some of the things that they've been so good at that have suddenly become the inverse for them overall and uh certainly that it's

Starting point is 00:09:09 frustrating and that's what led to them losing this game here but look broncos countries now it's not a time to panic i mean a loss happened it's the NFL this broncos team has already clinched the playoff spot but now they got to take care of business in these next two weeks we've covered every step of the way here but broncos country coming up next we're going to talk about Bo Nix and the Broncos offense. They got off to a little bit of a hot start, but fizzled out in the second half. What is the story here with Denver's offense coming out of the Jacksonville game?

Starting point is 00:09:33 We'll go through that more here on today's episode of the show. Today's postgame show is brought to you of our friends over there at car gurus. And car shopping, you should feel exciting, not confusing. And with car gurus, you get the confidence that you deserve. They cut through all the noise so you can actually see the best deals on the cars that you want. Because when it comes to a big purchase, you deserve the best deal. And car gurus, they make that process simple by giving you real information. information, real deal ratings, and more listings than anyone else so you can shop the way that you want.

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Starting point is 00:10:48 The Denver Broncos offense could not get it together in the second half after a great opening drive with a big-time run by RJ Harvey. We're going to break down what exactly went wrong for the defense or the Broncos' offense, excuse me in the second half of this game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But Broncos Country, want to say quickly, thank you to every single one of you out there that makes Lockdown Broncos, your first listen of the day, every single day part of the lockdown podcast. Network, the number one sports podcast network. And you know what?

Starting point is 00:11:16 Cody and I have additional things that are available to members of the everyday All Access Club that you get exclusively content throughout the week. Bonus episodes of the show, a discount on lockdown merch, all 22 breakdown. from Cody himself. And we got plenty of other stuff in the works that we're planning for all of you. So make sure you sign up for that today. If you haven't done so already, the link will be in the show notes for you. Cody, let's talk about the offensive breakdown in the second half. I think that obviously you get the big time run by RJ.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Harvey ties up the game. You kind of feel like, all right, the Broncos defense, they're going to step up here. I think that's really continuing from what we just talked about in the first segment, like the defense being unable to get a stop. after the offense got something going. I mean, whether it was 10 to 7 or whether it was 17 to 17 or when it was 10 to 10, like the defense just could not figure it out.

Starting point is 00:12:11 I mean, it was so frustrating to me to watch this because you look at what the offense was able to do early in this game. It felt like they were in a groove once again. It felt like Bo Nix was kind of dialed in in the first half. And then all of a sudden, the second half, man, things kind of went off the rails for everybody. Yeah, and I would say it was a little bit of back and forth because that RJ Harvey run that you were mentioning, that made the score 1717. And all of a sudden is like, all right, hey, Denver's got the momentum. All the defense needs to do is get a stop. And unfortunately, they allowed a, I think it was a nine play drive after that, 75 yards. It took five minutes off the clock and then they punched it in for a score to make it 2417. It's like, all right, now it's a one score game. But then, I mean, you had a multitude of different plays. Like we talk about the butterfly effect or the ripple effect so far, right? The Rockos, they dial up what I felt like was a nicely designed trick play, which you know how I feel about trick plays at times.

Starting point is 00:13:04 You don't like to see them bust it out at times where it doesn't make sense. This one, it seemed to make sense. And, you know, Beau throws it to Cortland. Cortland goes up. He catches it. But once he lands on the ground with his elbow, the ground forces him to lose possession, which falls incomplete. That would have put them inside the 10-yard line at that point. And you never know what could have happened from there.

Starting point is 00:13:24 But instead, it leads to the Broncos on the next play going backwards, four yards, And then once again, you have to punt. Jeremy Crosho's punt kind of almost lands perfectly where it almost goes on the one-yard line, but it just touches the back part of the end zone at the front, leads to a touchback. And then Denver's defense gives up another big drive. I mean, it was just they did not play complimentary football in this game. And Sarah, what's crazy to me is if you look at it, okay, the Broncos,

Starting point is 00:13:47 we talked about the defense, their struggles on third down. The Broncos offense certainly struggled on third down as well. They were five of 14, but they had 445 net yards of offense in this game. And when you think of that, Sarah, like, oh, the Broncos had 445 yards offense and they still lost. And the Jaguars, they only had 346 yards. You would have thought that Denver would have won this game by two plus scores. If you look at that without seeing the score, Denver had some chunk plays, but then it was just the negative plays. Penalties at an opportune times.

Starting point is 00:14:16 And just once again, a couple of turnovers that really kind of changed the course of this game. You have a botched fumble exchange between Bo Nix and Jolilil Loflin. It's on a read play. That leads to points for the Jaguars. point. And then fourth down, you're trying to make a play. You throw an interception on fourth and two. Denver had opportunities in this game. Sarah, here's my thing. The offense is not the reason they lost. Certainly the offense could have played better and executed, but when your defense gives up 34 points to what they are and you can't get off the field, makes things very difficult,

Starting point is 00:14:44 considering that this was at one point a 17-17 ball game. And it allowed the Jacksonville Jaguars to pin their ears back in the second half. And I thought that they did a great job of getting pressure on Bo Nix. Like, that was a huge, huge deal in the second. second half was getting him off of his spot, making him continually make plays off platform, which we know that he can do. But there's a difference when you're playing from behind, you're kind of having to press. It's different coverage, things like that. I think that obviously, you know, Bo kind of was a little bit rattled there in the second

Starting point is 00:15:13 half. There's no question. The accuracy kind of faltered a little bit. I thought in the second half, Cody, but you're right. I mean, ultimately dropped passes as well in this game, came back to haunt the Broncos. And it wasn't just the Sutton play that you mentioned, which, look, a play like that, it might go either way, right? When you have a defender all over a guy, ball hits him in the hands, he gets to the ground. The ground causes him to lose control of the ball.

Starting point is 00:15:37 But it was a number of other missed opportunities in terms of dropped passes that you're sitting there. And you're just like, man, I kind of hoped we were zooming right on past that, you know? And it's just, that's the unfortunate thing is that those things that have just really, really been tough for the Broncos to over. come penalties, dropped passes, not playing complimentary football. When you play against a team that's as hot as the Jaguars, I mean, that kind of stuff is going to come back to bite you. And we saw that in this game. So that, to me, was the biggest issue in terms of offensively, just an inefficient

Starting point is 00:16:10 overall operation. When you already had, I mean, you had the big place, didn't you? I mean, you mentioned a couple of them already. The RJ Harvey run, I mean, both of the top two ball carriers averaging over seven yards per carry in this game. I know it was a limited number of carries, but you were still effective on the ground and just could not overcome the defensive ineptitude in this game. It was too much for the offense to bear that weight on their shoulders. It simply was.

Starting point is 00:16:36 And once again, I think what, six plus penalties, you know, going against Denver, I think we can argue some of them were some bad calls. But ultimately, I don't think define the outcome of this game. You know, certainly you want to get stops defensively. You want to be able to keep drives alive offensively. You can't have the key drops in those situations, especially on second. down, especially on third down as we saw in a few of those instances. And so when you are down and you're desperate a little bit, look, and I think this year we've seen the Broncos play well in this role of being, you know, playing from behind,

Starting point is 00:17:06 having to press a little bit. Jacksonville is a good team. And I, and I want to, you know, provide credit that because now some people are going to say, well, you know, look what happened when they finally faced a real good team. I think that's such a knee jerk, emotionally dumb take for anybody to have. The Broncos, they weren't 12 and two going into this game by fluke standards. They won 12 games. They lost two games.

Starting point is 00:17:27 They won 11 straight games in a row. That's not a fluke. This is the NFL. So it is very much along the lines of talking to guys. They said, hey, it's a 24-hour rule. We have to flush it. Sean Payton said, hey, we have to flush it. We can't spit it out.

Starting point is 00:17:41 We've got to swallow this. We've got to embrace it because now you've got a Christmas day game where you're on the road in hostile territory. I don't know what the other's going to be like this week. But I imagine this time of the year, it's probably cold as heck. in Kansas City, Missouri. But Denver's going to have to bring their A game. I felt like they could have done a little bit more in the run game, right?

Starting point is 00:17:57 Especially with Jalilu McLaughlin. Sean Payton said earlier on the week, hey, we need to get Jal more touches. Sarah, he finishes the game here with five carries for 37 yards. He had two carries to start this game for 25 yards there. And then they just kind of, you know, a couple here and there. I just think that R.J. Harvey and Jalil, in my opinion, Sarah, and I don't know, I want your thoughts on this. These guys should be on the field primarily a lot more.

Starting point is 00:18:18 No offense to Tyler Bade, but I feel like when Tyler Bade, but I feel like when Tyler Bade comes, on. There's just something that happens with the offensive momentum where it just kind of goes away in situations where he's in versus Jil and RJ who have the potential to be game-changing players for you offensively, whereas we have not seen that from Badegh. And RJ has proven he can play on third down. I mean, he had a great, let's pick up multiple times in this game. So he's proven that he can play in that situation. I agree. I don't think the Broncos need to mess around with that anymore. No offense either to Bade, who's made some place throughout the course of his career. But as we mentioned both of those running backs averaging over seven yards of carry r j harvey had a hundred

Starting point is 00:18:54 twenty one yards from scrimmage in this game and a touchdown obviously that big run that was just incredible stuff for his 11th total td this season i mean he's playing really well and mclaughlin is somebody that they highlighted as wanting to get him more touches and so i'm i'm game for that i don't want r j harvey off the field no to be honest with you i think you have to have somebody to spell him over the course of a game but r j harvey belongs on the field getting the lions share the majority of touches. He is a game-changing player when you can get him that volume. Right now, I trust RJ, Jalil, and Adam Prentice on the field in some of those situations a lot more right now.

Starting point is 00:19:33 No disrespect once again. I feel like it may seem like I'm being, you know, singling him out. I just, I feel like when Tyler Bade is on the field, you know he's just a decoy in a sense. He's not getting the ball or he's not running it either. Like he's just involved in the play for a past pro standpoint, whereas I think R.J. Jalil and at least even Adam as a fullback, there's a threat for them to touch the football, so to speak, right? So we'll see what the Broncos decided to do,

Starting point is 00:19:57 but ultimately they didn't play a good enough game to win on Sunday, and now they have a short week, and it comes with some bad circumstances as well as they get ready to face a banged-up chief's team. Broncos banged up, down a few players in this game. We'll break that down a more here on today's episode, locked on Broncos. Today's episode of the show is brought to you about friends over there at Fanduon,

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Starting point is 00:21:12 As we jump in the fourth core action on today's episode, lockdown Broncos real quick, Broncos country. If you have not yet signed up for the everydayer club, the all-axis tier, you got post-game locker room interviews from players like Evan Ingram, John Franklin Myers and more. So make sure if you haven't gotten that and you want to get on that train today. Plus access to all 22, becoming every day or today. All access to here at locked on broncos.

Starting point is 00:21:32 Dot supercast.com or in the link in our show notes below. Sir, I mean, look, obviously a loss is never good news here. But on top of that, there were some negative things that happened here, unfortunately to the Broncos late in this game when it was kind of out of reach. And first and foremost, let's start off with Pat Bryant, leaves the field on a stretcher and goes into an ambulance. and obviously he was taken to a hospital to be evaluated here from what we know what Sean Payton told us right after the game.

Starting point is 00:21:58 The good news is that he does have movement in his extremities and his arms and his legs. That's obviously a great sign. He was taken to the hospital for concussion-like symptoms. Just unfortunate. I think for Bow Nix and that situation as well in the post game, he even said, I feel responsible for that because I was the one who threw it. That's a tough spot to be in. And look, I mean, yeah, do you want to be in that situation letting the game know,

Starting point is 00:22:20 especially when it's out of reach? You're trying to make place happen. and I understand that. Just an unfortunate situation to happen here in the game of football. And more than likely, Pat Bryan is not going to be available here for the Broncos this week. But more importantly, movement in his extremities. That's a positive thing I can say here. That's the best possible news at this point, right?

Starting point is 00:22:39 It is obviously that he's going to be okay, it sounds like. And you just hope that he can obviously get back at his regular, you know, doing what he loves to do, doing what he does best as quickly as possible, right? out there making plays on the football field. And I'm hopeful that we'll see that. So, yeah, our thoughts and our prayers are obviously with Pat Bryant to make a full recovery and that he's obviously able to get back to football activities this season yet. But scary situation there for the Broncos.

Starting point is 00:23:05 And you mentioned it, Cody. I mean, injuries in this game started to kind of pile up, right? And over the last couple of weeks, they've kind of started to pile up for the Broncos. Nate Adkins, once again, knee injury had him in the blue tent. I don't know if the Broncos need to kind of maybe just proceed. with caution when it comes to Nate, but that's been a recurring issue since before the start of the season, right? So that one's tough.

Starting point is 00:23:26 Drey Greenlaw, kind of, you know, another situation there with him right before he was morning. So it's just, it's not what you want. It's not what you want. I was Justin Sernod going down last week as well and no sign of Drew Sanders even possibly coming back. I mean, you're down a bunch of guys at that position right now. That's tough for the Broncos.

Starting point is 00:23:47 And I would say also, too, Cody, you really felt the loss of. Brandon Jones in this game. I mean, way too many guys coming free in coverage with number six on the back end. And again, you ought to look at the tape and see kind of what was the situation there. But I felt like too many guys getting open on the back end of this defense, too many free runners,

Starting point is 00:24:05 too many, too many plays where you're missing tackles at the second and third level. So that's going to be tough for this Broncos team, I think, to overcome long term as opposed to just this game against Kansas City coming up on Thursday. Yeah, look, the pressure's on.

Starting point is 00:24:18 Denver's got some pressure on them right now, because of this loss. I mean, they could very well. I mean, I don't like looking too far ahead, but from a realistic outlook standpoint, Denver could end up as the five seat, potentially, not this week, but if they are to falter and stumble a little bit like they did on Sunday,

Starting point is 00:24:33 that's certainly a realm of possibility for them, which is not where you certainly want to be. And look, like I said, I've been around this locker room all season, Sarah. I think there is something different about this group. I think that they will respond well. Certainly the guys in the locker room believe that. But, I mean,

Starting point is 00:24:48 It is tough to look at, like, potentially not having Drey Greenlaw this week. You know, I think the idea is that it's a hamstring injury. You know, we saw them in the locker room after the game. We didn't talk to them. We didn't talk to them because usually we don't get to talk to injured players, so to speak. So because it's a short week, it's very much a concern right now. You mentioned it. You already down Justin Sternad, who's probably not going to play this week either.

Starting point is 00:25:09 You may not have Drey Greenlaw, which means you got Alex Singleton and Jordan Turner right now. And you're going to get Corinne Reed back. But it's like now at linebacker, you're really putting a tough spot. spot where the defense has given up plays over the middle of the field, not only against linebackers, but the safeties as well. So for me, I look at all of this and some just the worst timing. Nate Atkins going out, I mean, he was ruled out relatively quickly, too, after the injury. So maybe he lands on IR.

Starting point is 00:25:34 Maybe that brings Mercedes-Lews back up to the 53-man roster at this point. You know, and then you lose Delarian Turner, Yale. He suffers an knee injury again in his first game back, you know, in his two-year journey coming back from an ACL, just you talk about the snowball effect. this was one where it got bad and then it got worse quick. And I think we're very curious to see how this team is going to respond going forward. 100%. And it's going to be one of those situations where you just have to buckle down and get the job done.

Starting point is 00:26:03 Your guys have to go out there and do what their job is to do, right? So it's not that we've talked about this on our squad shows as well. It's one of those things that may be a bit concerning because oftentimes it's not just the best team in the NFL, you know, during the regular season that makes it to and wins the Super Bowl. It's the healthiest teams that get there, right? And obviously, you're going to be putting a lot more pressure on Bo Nix going forward. If the defense is that banged up and they're still giving up a lot of points and giving up a lot of yards, it puts a lot of pressure on the offense as well.

Starting point is 00:26:35 So that's going to be the interesting thing to see, Cody, and how they respond with injuries, the war on attrition, taking its toll, pressure on the offense, pressure on, obviously, those replacement players as well. and the guys who are being called upon to step up in a big, big situation where the number one seed is at stake. The AFC West is at stake. I mean, we know the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be playing their third option at the quarterback position for this game. And that's not to be taken lightly either because you know what? You never know what can happen in these crazy, these short weeks, Thursday night games.

Starting point is 00:27:08 I'm not trying to speak negatively. I'm not trying to be a fearmonger or anything like that. But I'm just saying that the Broncos have to figure out a way to, like you said, flush this one and have a short memory going against Kansas City right away on Thursday. Yeah, that's what you want. You've got to find a way to flush you because look, I mean, even with this loss, Denver's still the number one seed right now in the AFC. They sit at 12 and 3, New England's at 11 and 3.

Starting point is 00:27:31 And even if New England and Denver finished with the same record, let's say Denver wins out these next two and New England wins the remaining games that they have and they finish with the same record. Denver owns the tiebreaker over them based on common opponents. Jacksonville is one game behind out of the one seat right now. And obviously if you were to lose, they were to win next week, that pops them up to the top spot, potentially, you know, depending on New England as well. That might push the Broncos to potentially third overall in that sense. So just you don't want to do a lot of scoreboard watching. That's up to us.

Starting point is 00:28:01 That's our job to do a lot of that. And looking at the snares, like if this team wins, this team wins, then this is going to happen. But Denver very much win these next two games there. And they're not only win the AFC West, but they also win, take home the number. one see they get a first round by and might have a chance to get some guys back healthy. But it's going to be two weeks of a tough test. And now you go on the road to face Kansas City on a short week, Christmas day, a team in Kansas City has got their back against the wall a little bit, banged up, hurt.

Starting point is 00:28:30 And I don't know, like that's just one of those things on a short week who can never overlook, even if it's a third string quarterback, so to speak. I'm very curious to see how this Broncos team responds this week. Thursday's game now, Sarah, it really does become a must win. And I think that's the thing that this team, that has to be the driving force for them is that it's a must win game divisional game it has huge implications regardless of who kansas city puts out there because we've seen i mean they're ruling guys out left and right there i think they're preserving a lot of these guys for the future as well kind of keeping one eye on 2026 with you know

Starting point is 00:29:02 certain players who are banged up they're like you know what we saw what happened to mohomes now we've seen what happened to gardiner minchu we're not letting that happen to guys that we want to continue building around going forward and that does that mean that nobody's going to play obviously not they have to have players out You know, they have to put a team out there, but I do believe they're approaching it with that one eye on the future. So very similar to last season, like the Broncos got the Chiefs backups in a crucial game that mattered just hugely for the franchise just to get back to the playoffs. But now you have the opportunity to get that 13th victory in short order. So you can wipe away the taste of this Jaguars game real quick. If you go out there, it doesn't matter who you're going up against with Kansas City, who they put out there.

Starting point is 00:29:45 If you can get that 13th win on Christmas night, Broncos country is going to be very excited to hate watch on Sunday afternoon and Saturday afternoon and Monday, right, as everybody else kind of jockeys for positioning, and you're sitting comfortable with 13 wins. So that's what matters right now. Get that number 13. Yeah, and on top of that,

Starting point is 00:30:04 spinn a while since the Broncos have won on a holiday like that. So can Christmas House of Horrors that used to be the Broncos history, can that finally turn over a new leaf? Can the Broncos find a way to win on Christmas Day? That's the hope here. And look, Sarah and I, we're going to have you covered every step. Well, we know it's Christmas week and you're going to be there with your families. We're going to be there with our families, but we promise we're going to bring you everyday content here.

Starting point is 00:30:24 Locked-on Broncos, including post-game shows, crossover Thursday, and more. You can get so much here on Lockdown Broncos. With us at Broncos Country, let us know your thoughts in the comments down below on Sunday's game against the Jaguars, how you're feeling about it. Let it out. We'll see you tomorrow for a brand new episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - GUT PUNCH: Denver Broncos SUFFER Disappointing Loss vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

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