Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - PROVE IT: Denver Broncos Must AVOID Letdown Against Winless Jets in Week 6

Starting point is 00:00:00 Two teams moving in very opposite directions, meeting in London on Sunday. The Broncos, perhaps coming off the biggest win any NFL team has had in the 2025 season, the Jets just looking for their first win. We're breaking down week six action in London on today's Lockdown NFL crossover. You are Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in Jets fans and Broncos fans. I'm John Bucco, the host of Lockdown Jets, alongside.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Sayer Bedinger, the co-host of Lockdown Broncos. We're here to get you ready for week six action in London when the Jets take on the Denver Broncos. Sunday morning on today's show. We're going to talk about the key matchups. We're going to talk about keys to victory. We'll talk about the big stories around each of these teams. But before we get to that, you should know crossover Thursday is presented by price picks. Download the price picks app today and use code Locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Well, Sayer, great to be with you as always. and a matchup that is almost like half a divisional game at this point. These teams play every year. This is the eighth time in the last nine years. The Jets and Broncos have played a game. That's crazy to me. I feel like you and I are kind of just honorary co-hosts at this point. I think we make some kind of jokes about that every year when these two teams play.

Starting point is 00:01:24 But it's also funny how these teams continue to stay so connected, right? Because before it was the Nathaniel Hackett connection and, you know, the Aaron Rogers drama with Denver. And now you guys have a GM who spent a long time. with the Denver Broncos organization was there with John Elway. He was there with George Payton. I mean, he's been there for a long time. And now he's leading you guys. And then, of course, the connection with Aaron Glenn and Sean Payton.

Starting point is 00:01:49 It's just really, it's really interesting the ties that bind between these two teams. Thank you for not mentioning Tebow. We, Jets fans appreciate that. Yes. Yes. Broncos fans would have loved to have kept Tebow at that point. Like, they couldn't coexist with Peyton Manning or what? I mean, I don't understand that.

Starting point is 00:02:05 Put him out there for some gimmick plays. I would have made 2012 even more fun than it was. But you know what? Yeah, those are those are the days. Man, that was almost that was over 10, 12 years ago at this point. My goodness. Time flies. So say here, let's talk about the current Denver Broncos, who of course are coming up a great

Starting point is 00:02:23 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. You know, as I said, as we opened this show, that may have been the best win. Any NFL team has had all season. So talk a little bit more about what's going on in Denver these days. Yeah, I think that's the biggest storyline is not only, getting that win, but how do you build off of that? Or how do you not let that? Somebody asked a great question to Sean Payton and his first media availability of the

Starting point is 00:02:44 week on Wednesday. And they were asking like, of course, you know, coming off of a loss, it's clear that you're motivated. You know, you have a chip on your shoulder. You want to prove that, hey, we shouldn't have lost that game or, yeah, we understand we blew late in that game. We blew it. But when you're coming off of a big win like this, this is another bit of uncharted territory

Starting point is 00:03:03 for this Denver Broncos team because they have failed. against the Kansas City Chiefs when they had all their starters out there, even though it was a blocked field goal, you still failed to seal the deal. Then you got blown out by Baltimore in Baltimore last year. You got blown out by the bills in Buffalo last year. The storyline is you can't close one score games. You can't win against great teams. Well, now you've done that.

Starting point is 00:03:25 So how do you follow it up? That's going to be another test mentally, I think, for this team and the biggest story going into this game. Yeah. And, you know, from the jet side, we're almost entering this from an opposite angle. where this is a team that's 0 and 5 and it's a team that's not been a particularly competitive 0 and 5. They played a really good game on offense, week one against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ever since then, they've been beaten pretty soundly by the following four opponents.

Starting point is 00:03:52 I mean, they did lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the last second field goal, but they were down 20 in that game in the fourth quarter. And, you know, I think heading into the season, expectations were low. Nobody thought this was a playoff team. Nobody really thought this was going to be a team with a winning record. Everybody knew this was going to be year one of a reset, first year head coach, first year GM. I don't think anybody anticipated how difficult this would be, though. This is a team that really has not shown a lot on either side of the ball since that week one lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Starting point is 00:04:25 And before we started recording, you know, I said something to say here that if you go back a year, the Jets played the Broncos week four. And that heading into that game was probably the high water mark of the Aaron Rogers era in New York because the Jets were two and one. And the fact, you know, the Jets being two and one was the high water mark of the Aaron Rogers era. It says a lot about the Aaron Rogers era. But the Jets season kind of unraveled in this two-week stretch that followed. They lose to the Broncos to fall to two and two. Then the next week they go to London, they lose to the Minnesota Vikings.

Starting point is 00:04:57 The owner kind of panics. He fires the coach. The season then goes completely off the rails. and there's some degree of symmetry here because a year ago it was Denver and it was London that through the jet season off course. So I think for the Jets, the hope is that maybe the Broncos in London can be the thing that turns things around in a more positive direction this year. Right. And I think that when you look at some of these different things that have gone on in recent weeks,

Starting point is 00:05:20 including the Eagles losing this past week or I guess every undefeated team now being wiped off the board after both the bills and the Eagles loss, is you kind of just wonder at some point like when is, when are they just due? right? You're due for a win. You're 0 for 5 so far to start the season. So at some point, I mean, we've seen a winless team in the NFL before, but we don't think the Jets or anybody else is going to be winless anytime soon again. So like at some point, when is that win going to happen? And like, why not this week? That's kind of what I think Broncos country is approaching this sort of, okay, we, we want to have high expectations now that we've beat the Eagles, but you've got to come back out and prove that you can beat a team that you should

Starting point is 00:06:02 beat because ultimately everybody's like, well, is this a trap game? Is this a game that, hey, the Jets are just due or they're going to, you know, they don't have any turnovers that they've forced so far this season. So is this going to be the week that it just comes in bunches? Like, that's what the Broncos want to try to avoid is being the streak stopper in a number of different ways for this Jets team. Yeah, the Jets optimist in me. And that's one of the most dangerous phrases in the English language, the Jets

Starting point is 00:06:28 optimist in me because Jets, whenever there's Jets optimist. optimism, it's typically not justified, but the Jets' optimist in me sees a couple of potential equalizers in this game. I think whenever the teams are traveling across the Atlantic to London, there's always a bit of uncertainty of how the teams are going to react to that trip. So that could be an equalizer. And then, you know, it is the classic question, you know, is it a trap game? Is it a letdown game? The Broncos had such a huge win over the Eagles. The Jets have looked lost this year. The Jets have, you know, the Jets are not. a team that has looked very competitive. And is there perhaps a tendency to kind of look past

Starting point is 00:07:08 the Jets right now? I'm not sure I believe that. I'll be honest with you. The way the Jets have played this year, I'm not sure it even matters because the Jets are the Jets have essentially gotten to a point. I said this on my show on Monday and I wasn't joking. It sounds like I'm trying to be like make some like joke. The most surprising play of the game against Dallas for me was this third down play where the Jets forced to dump off like 10 yards short of the sticks. And I was surprised when the Jets didn't miss five tackles and allowed the Cowboys to convert. Because it's been that kind of season where it's like even when the Jets are in a great position down in distance, you know something bad's going to happen.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Someone's going to commit a penalty. Someone's going to miss a tackle. I don't remember if the Jets are capable of playing a good game right now. But any given Sunday, I mean, look, I've covered a lot of bad Jets teams through the years. And I've seen situations where maybe the opponent looks past them. in the NFL, it is a league where any team can, in theory, beat any other team on any given Sunday. But I think that's all you can really hope for right now from a Jets perspective. Yeah, and that's the fear from the Broncos perspective or from the fans anyway, is that, hey, any

Starting point is 00:08:17 given Sunday, I think that right now you've proven that you can beat a top tier team finally after all this time. And now what everybody's kind of worried about is the pressure of being a good team and how much of that actually weighs on this young roster because ultimately it is a lot of young players on this team. So the Broncos, they're going to be leaning heavily on, of course, the young leaders on the team, but also these veterans like Talanoa Hufanga, Mike McClinti, these guys who have actually been to the pinnacle before and saying, hey, your experience in these situations, they're going to be leaning heavily on Sean Payton and his experience in the situations to be able to coach them through a time where, okay, the ex-expertain,

Starting point is 00:08:57 is that you're supposed to go out and beat this team by what's the line, seven points right now, right? From our friends over there at Fanduil. So you're expected to win by seven. It's not that you have to meet everybody's expectations, but you do have to prove that you are a great team now. And you have to win these games where you've already dropped two AFC matchups already this season to the Colts and the Chargers.

Starting point is 00:09:20 You can't really afford to lose any of the quote unquote gimmee games that you get on your schedule. And Sean Payton said it. He's like, there's no Division 1 AA teams that you get to play after you play a powerhouse, right? You're going up against guys that get paid to play every single week. And the Jets have personnel that, man, Brees Hall has killed the Broncos in the past. I mean, this Jets interior pass rush has been a problem. We saw a defensive battle between these two teams.

Starting point is 00:09:45 And last year, the only reason the Jets lost is because of a missed field goal. So how do you really take the bowl by the horns in this sort of a game and prove like we are this team that is. is as good as people are saying we are. All right. Well, Sarah and I seem to have a consensus here. Denver is the favorite in this game. A lot of this will come down to how they responds to being the favorite. But ahead here on our crossover Thursday edition of Lockdown Jets and Lockdown Broncos. We're going to look at some of the key matchups that will decide this game.

Starting point is 00:10:15 I have one returning Jett in particular who could make a big difference. Stay tuned for more key matchups ahead on our Lockdown Crossover show. Our Lockdown Crossover today is brought to you by Mazda. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. Mazda delivers confidence with every ride with more I-IHS top safety pick plus awards than anyone else as of August 2025. From footwork to breathwork, athletes sweat all the details. While Mazda brings the same intention to how they craft every model,

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Starting point is 00:11:12 It's across over Thursday here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. I'm John the host of Lockdown Jets alongside Sayer, the co-host of Lockdown Broncos, getting you ready for week six action. Jets and Broncos playing in London Sunday morning. Matchup that's been pretty frequent. on the eighth time in the last nine years, these teams are meeting. As I said earlier, maybe like half a divisional game at this point. Sayer, as we look at these two teams that are sort of rivals,

Starting point is 00:11:38 what's one match if you have your eye on? Yeah, offensively for the Broncos, there's going to be a pretty massive absence on the offensive line. Ben Powers suffered a biceps injury on the, I guess late in the game against Philadelphia. It wasn't the last play of the game or anything like that, but he did play through a bit of a biceps. injury. Sounds like he's going to be out for a couple of months here. So the Broncos,

Starting point is 00:12:01 they'll be breaking in a new left guard for this game. And of course, going up against the Jets defensive front that has as much talent as they do and against a defensive coordinator like Aaron Glenn, who I think you're going to be as aggressive as you possibly can to try and exploit that weakness. It's whoever's going up against the Broncos' interior offensive line because Ben Powers is a quality player. And whoever they replace him with is obviously not going to be as good. So they've got to find a way to keep that floor high on the offensive line. But also Senator Luke Wattenberg has struggled at times this year. Got five penalties called on him against the Cincinnati Bengals a couple weeks ago,

Starting point is 00:12:36 has had some errant snaps to Bo Nix as well. So how those guys respond to the absence of Ben Powers on the offensive line, I think is going to be crucial going up against that Jets defensive front. You know, I think that's a great point. And it's been very frustrating watching this Jets defense this year. I guess the Dallas Cowboys, as a team that was missing four of its five starters, they allowed 37 points. You know, this defensive line, it has good players on it.

Starting point is 00:13:01 Quinn and Williams, Will McDonald, who had double-digit sacks in the second year last season, but it hasn't really played at the level we've been expecting them. Now, there's not a lot of depth, and one of the issues is that one of their best defensive lineman Jermaine Johnson has been out. Germain Johnson is traveling with the Jets to England. Indications are he's ready to return from an ankle injury. and Johnson has been injured a lot. Unfortunately, he suffered an Achilles injury, week two against the Tennessee Titan.

Starting point is 00:13:29 So he missed last year's game against Denver. He missed most of last season. It sounds like he's ready to return, though. So I'm keeping an eye on him against Mike McClintchy. Jets need to generate a pass rush. The secondary has been an issue for this team. Sauce Gardner is not having a vintage Sauce Gardner season. The number two corner Brandon Stevens, who they signed from Baltimore, has not delivered.

Starting point is 00:13:51 The safety play has been ugly between Tony Adams and Andre Sisko in the slot Michael Carter the 2nd's not having a good season. And I think it's a lot to ask for all these guys who are playing poorly in the secondary to step up. So I think we know there are two ways you can slow down the opponent's passing attack. One is to cover really well. I don't have a lot of faith in the Jets to do that. The other is make life easier for the guys in the secondary.

Starting point is 00:14:13 Get to the quarterback. Jets have not done a great job of that so far this year. I think the addition of Jermaine Johnson could be a focal point. It could be the type of thing that helps breathe some life into the past rush. So that's why I have an eye on that matchup. What other matchups are you looking at? Yeah, I think that's a great one. I look at, you know, Jets versus Broncos.

Starting point is 00:14:34 We mentioned the ties that bind, right, of course. And so John Franklin Myers in a sort of another sequel to the revenge, right? Last year he got his first shot at the Jets. And this year he'll get another shot. This year, though, John is in a contract year with Denver Broncos. and he's been pretty vocal about wanting to get paid. And not necessarily in a negative way, not in a distracting way, but a couple of offseason posts on Twitter here and there,

Starting point is 00:14:58 kind of just making it known that he's ready to get that bag whenever the time comes. This is a great opportunity for him going up against his former team. What Sean Payton said about John Franklin Myers earlier this week is the guy dents the pocket, right? So that space between the quarterback and the center, he said John Franklin Myers consistently is denting. that space and making it difficult for quarterbacks to step up. He's getting consistent pressure. And he's just been kind of a steady force, as you know. I mean, he's pretty much posted the same statistical production over the course of his entire career every single year. I mean, the guy is

Starting point is 00:15:33 as consistent as it gets. And I think this is a game right here where you really want to see John Franklin Myers step up against his former team, making plays especially against the run. As we know, Brees Hall has had a lot of success against Denver in his career, averaging over seven yards of carry. It's going to be important for John Franklin Myers to prove himself as that next big money contract player against his old team. All right, Jets fans, I like Sayer. So you know I want to go on a rant about the Jets giving John Franklin Myers away to Denver,

Starting point is 00:16:02 but I'm going to be polite. Sayer, I was very upset with that trade when it happened because John Franklin Myers was a really good player for the Jets, and they just gave him away, and I didn't understand it when they did it. And Broncos fans, I'm sure were very happy that they did because solid guns. I saw a locker room guy too. Everybody loved him in New York. So I'll behave.

Starting point is 00:16:22 We'll move on. That was a good matchup. I think it was a good choice. John Franklin Myers is a good player. I liked him a lot when he was in New York. My second matchup is going to be Nick Benito versus Olu Faschunu. Jets have two young tackles starting. Armand Lembou, who was their first round pick this year on the right side,

Starting point is 00:16:40 Olu Fashnu, their first round pick last year on the left side. And I think that these two young guys both have a lot of potential. I think that there has been a difference in quality so far this season. Memboo is off to a very good start to his career. I think he's ahead of schedule. He had a rough game last week against Dallas, but overall, I was not expecting him to look this good this fast. He's a guy who I thought was going to have ups and downs this season.

Starting point is 00:17:06 But he looks like a credible starter right now, and he has the chance to grow into something better. For Faschano, it's been a bit of a struggle so far this season. He played well two weeks ago against Miami, but other than that, I mean, he has been vulnerable, particularly in past protection. And part of this is I think they're probably giving Mbbu the rookie a little bit more help than they're giving to Fashtonu. But this is a player who finished his rookie season pretty strong. Now, he missed the last couple of games with an injury, but he was a guy who entered the season with a lot of people feeling good about him. And it hasn't been a disaster.

Starting point is 00:17:43 Look, I don't want to make him out to be the worst left tackle in the league. But I think a lot of us were expecting more from him this year. Nick Bonito is a very good, very good edge guy for the Broncos. This is going to be a real test. And gets have to protect Justin Fields because Justin Fields is a guy who's not a natural pocket passer right now. And last week against the Dallas Cowboys took a couple bad sacks. Bad sacks he should not have taken. Even when Fields is getting good protection, he's not playing great in the podcast.

Starting point is 00:18:13 pocket, you can't allow early pressure, though. So I think that that's, that's, that's, that's the matchup I have. And again, I won't rant about John Franklin Myers. I'll be polite for you in your, your Broncos audience there. Yeah, we understand that type of stuff when that goes down. I mean, obviously, you kind of want to go back in time and get a mulligan on those types of trades, obviously. But yeah, the Broncos are happy to have him.

Starting point is 00:18:35 But with Nick Benito, I'm glad you mentioned that matchup, too, because those two guys coming off the edge, Benito and Cooper, have been arguably. the best pass rush duo in the NFL. I know Nick Benito already has seven sacks so far this season. And he's gunning for defensive player of the year. This year he wants to take that award away from Pat Sertan, his teammate. So he's playing with a major chip on his shoulder. He got the big money contract right before the start of the season. And oftentimes you'll see guys kind of mail it in after that, you know, but with Nick Benito, it seems like it's added that chip on his shoulder where I always think back to Peyton Manning and the quote that he had after he was drafted by the

Starting point is 00:19:13 the Colts and somebody's like, what are you going to do with all that money, blah, blah, and he's like, I'm going to go earn it. You know, that's kind of the mentality that we're seeing from Nick Benito is what are you, what are you going to do now that you've got the big money contract? He's like, I'm going to go out there and win defensive player of the year. And that's, that is what we're seeing from him week after week. He's whipped up on Joe Alt. He whipped up on the Bengals.

Starting point is 00:19:32 He whipped up on obviously this past weekend in the Broncos, went against the Eagles going up up against Lane Johnson and Jordan Milata. I mean, to get two and a half sacks against those two guys. So he's playing kind of possessed at this point. And that is another matchup to circle this week because if Justin Fields holds onto the ball a little too long, Nick Benito is going to be coming there. And the Broncos, just like the Jets, defensively, these two teams have struggled to force a lot of turnovers this season. And I know that for the Jets, it's been a little bit more pronounced.

Starting point is 00:20:01 But same for the Broncos. Honestly, we expect it a lot more than four through five games. So that's going to be a huge focus, I think on both sides for this game is that edge battle for these two teams. All right, well, you've heard the biggest stories around these two teams. You've heard about the big matchups. Ahead here on our crossover Thursday show, we're going to talk keys to victory, and we may make a prediction or two. That's ahead here on lockdown on our lockdown NFL crossover.

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Starting point is 00:22:08 playing in London. Technically, a Jets home game, although, let's be honest, it's really a neutral site game. Broncos seven-point favorites. If you watch the Jets this season, that might seem low to you. But you want to get in on the action game. A Fandual is the place to do it. All right.

Starting point is 00:22:23 So what are you waiting for? Visit Fanduel.com to download the Fanduel app today and get started. Again, it's Fandual.com to download the Fandual app. Crossover Thursday here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. I'm John the host of Lockdown Jets alongside Sayer, the co-host of Lockdown. Broncos getting you ready for week six action. Jets looking for their first win.

Starting point is 00:22:42 against the Denver Broncos, a team coming off a huge one over the Philadelphia Eagles. Sayer, give me a key to victory for the Denver Broncos in this one. Yeah, I think the Broncos can win this game if they get to their season average in rushing yards per game, which is 140 roughly. So if you get to 140 in the rushing department, I think the Broncos can win this game. Just when the Broncos are running the ball well, that feeds into everything that they do offensively. Last year, they did not have much of a running game at all.

Starting point is 00:23:11 so they were reliant heavily on Bo Nix and the passing attack, especially the quick passing game to kind of create those chunk plays on early downs. And now with J.K. Dobbins and R.J. Harvey coming on a couple of games this season, you've got a pair of players out there in the backfield that can really help you get things going offensively and get into favorable down and distance situations on second and third down. And that's where the Broncos have struggled the most. When they're not running the ball well, they're getting into third and long situations. against the chargers.

Starting point is 00:23:43 They were average a third and 11 plus. I mean, it was rough out there for them in that particular game. So that early down success with the running game and sustaining it throughout the game, it allows you to get play action for Bo Nix. It allows you to manipulate with misdirection, run pass option, which we've seen a few more of those this season for the Broncos. So I think everything is hinging on them hitting their season average of 140 rushing yards per game.

Starting point is 00:24:09 And I think if they do that, I think they can win this game. All right. My first key for the Jets is that in their game script, they have to design easy completions for Justin Fields to get him into the flow of the game early. Fields has started four of the five games for the Jets. He missed the week three game against Tampa Bay with a concussion. I would say that in his four starts, there's been one where he was excellent throwing the football against Pittsburgh, one where he was pretty decent against Miami and two games where it was ugly. And I think last week against Dallas was ugly. The Cowboys entered that game with a defense, that was on a historically bad pace. They were averaging 8.5 net yards per attempt. So that includes yards you take away from sacks. And during that game, they were averaging 8.5 net yards per attempt. Jets had 43 net passing yards in the entire first half. Fields is stat line for the game looks respectable,

Starting point is 00:24:57 but there was a lot of stat padding against prevent defenses. Look, the Jets are going to be a run first team, particularly with fields at quarterback, but they have to get something out of their passing game. And there have been two of the four field starts where they haven't. And there's only so much you could do in the first couple series. But I think what the Jets want to do is make sure it feels gets in the flow of the game. Get him feeling comfortable and try and design some easy completions for him. So he can at least start to build some confidence at the start of this game.

Starting point is 00:25:24 So here, give me another key. Yeah, I think what you just mentioned is critical because the Broncos have given up a lot of big plays through the air this season, whether it's been breakdowns and coverage, somebody not covering a running back, whether it's been penalties deep downfield or whether it's just been perfectly placed ball on a deep pass that Broncos, even if they had perfect coverage, they can't do anything about it. They got burned by that a number of times against the Colts, against the Chargers. And then obviously this past weekend against the Eagles, I mean, like a third and 17 situation, you're giving up a 50-yard passing play to Devante Smith because you decided to play press coverage instead of

Starting point is 00:26:00 off-man coverage. So I think that's an area that we will see the Jets try to attack. and one of the keys for the Broncos is not giving up big plays, not allowing the jets to flip the field and controlling field position, because that's something that you want to bury this team deep. I mean, even if Justin Fields is getting into a rhythm of a game, this Broncos defense believes that they can bend and not break. They're one of the best red zone defenses in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:26:25 So if they create longer fields, no pun intended, they are believing that they can absolutely, okay, even if we give up a chunk here and there, we can kind of limit the amount of points that they're going to score because we'll tighten up in the red zone. It's allowing those big plays and kind of allowing teams like the Jets or anybody else to reset once they get inside the 40, inside the 30, to have sort of a new set of downs and momentum on their side. That's where the Broncos have really struggled this season defensively. My second key for the Jets is getting Justin Fields more involved in the run game.

Starting point is 00:26:58 Since week one, Fields has not had more than seven rushing attempts in the game. And there are two elements to this. So your number one, I think, is building design runs for Fields. Gets have been pretty effective running zone read concepts with Fields, a quarterback. They just haven't really run a whole lot of them. But I think Fields also needs to be more willing to scramble on dropback passes. Fields is like a very odd mobile quarterback because, say you're like a lot of times, like you'll see a quarterback who's a running quarterback, and they just try and run too frequently.

Starting point is 00:27:30 It's like they take off at the first sign that like their first read isn't open. If anything, Fields is a little too hesitant to use his legs. He's a guy who has the ability to brick, rip off a 15, 20 yard run. And Fields has had his best when he's running, both in terms of designed runs and scrambles. This is a Jets offense that has to be run first. And again, this is not, you know, college football where you're running the wishbone or the triple option. You have to be able to throw the ball. But this is a jet team that's going to lean on the run more frequently than the most of the league.

Starting point is 00:28:03 And that involves the quarterback being a key component in the run game. So I think Jets need to get me to make it a focus to get fields more involved in the run. Do you have a third key for us? Yeah, I think really for the Broncos in this game. And it stems from what we've talked about earlier as well. But you don't want to be the team that is the streak ender for the Jets, especially when it comes to their not having turned or force any turnovers defensively. You don't want to be the team that not only gets their first takeaway of the season,

Starting point is 00:28:31 but maybe multiple. Like you can't have that happen in a game like this where you've taken care of the ball, two straight games now. You had some trouble with that against the Chargers, against the, you know, earlier in the season, you've had some trouble with giveaways. So make sure you're taking care of the football in a game like this. And if you're Bo Nix, that means staying with who you are,

Starting point is 00:28:51 but also not being reckless, right? You don't need to be reckless in a game like this. And you need to trust the process over the course. course of four quarters, the Broncos need to make sure that they are getting those big chunks, like we mentioned in early down. So they can avoid having to press on the third and long situations and get themselves into tough situations where they may give the ball away to this Jets defense. Great minds think of like. My third key for the Jets is they got to force a turnover, at least one. It's unbelievable that this team's gone five weeks without forcing a turnover. Look, there's been

Starting point is 00:29:22 some bad luck. I mean, if you watched other teams play offense, when they fumble the ball, it's like there's always three of their guys around it and no Jets. So, I mean, the Jets have had some really bad fumble luck. But this has been a defense that has not taken advantage of opportunities. In week one, there were two interceptions dropped, one by Michael Carter the second, one by Brandon Stevens off Aaron Rogers. And if either one of those interceptions is made, the Jets probably win that game and Jets are not entering this game as the only winless team in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:29:51 You know, I hate to bring it down to something as generic as somebody's got to make a play, but somebody's got to make a play for the Jets on defense. Fats, whether it's, you know, Jermaine Johnson getting to Bo Nixon, you know, creating a strip sack, whether it's somebody getting the ball out and hopefully you have better fumble luck, whether it's a corner jumping around. Somebody's got to make a play. And part of this is that the Jets are the less talented of these two teams. And when you're the underman team, you need big plays to win the game.

Starting point is 00:30:15 Still, say, I'm going to close out by asking for a prediction. What do you think the Broncos need to do to win this game? If the Broncos win, what will happen? Yeah, I think if the Broncos win this game, what's going to happen is that they, dominated on the ground and they didn't turn the ball over, right? That's the identity of this team is playing clean football that they need to be that way. They need to limit penalties. They had 12 penalties against the Philadelphia Eagles and still managed to find a way to win. I think it was 10 or 12, one of the two. Either way, egregious. They've had way too many penalties this season. So they've got to

Starting point is 00:30:48 limit those penalties while still being physical and winning the line of scrimmage. That's where this team struggles is that they get beat at the line of scrimmage. They struggle against good teams. They struggle against anybody. So that's where I think the Jets may have, you know, an opportunity is with that injury to the left guard position is can you establish early on that you're not going to allow the Broncos to dictate the pace of this game with the running game. That's where the Broncos have to be effective right away to start this game. And my prediction is that if the Jets win this game, it's going to be a combination of this team finally putting together a good game. I think the Jets need to be at their best. And the Broncos need

Starting point is 00:31:25 to make mistakes. And that might be a combination of, you know, the long London trip playing a factor. It may be Broncos, it may be that this is actually a trap game. But I think we both agree that if these two teams both play their A game, Broncos are going to win. Jets need the Broncos to be a little bit off and the Jets need to play their best game. And I think that's really the only path to victory for the New York Jets in this one. Well, Sayer, as always, great to chat with you.

Starting point is 00:31:51 Feel as like we do this every year. So maybe we'll do it again next year. Right. All right. Well, good luck the rest of the way. I hope it's a good game. Hopefully no injuries on Sunday. Jets fans, I am John Butchko, the host of Lockdown Jets, Broncos fans. He is Sayer Vendinger, the co-host of Lockdown Broncos. Here at the Lockdown Podcast Network, our motto is your team every day. So we'll be back tomorrow. Lockdown, Jeth, Lockdown, Broncos to get you ready for Week 6 action in London. Sayer and I will chat with you then.

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