Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - SURVIVE: Denver Broncos Defense SAVES Offense on Thursday Night Football
Episode Date: November 7, 2025The Denver Broncos defense saved the day for Bo Nix, Sean Payton and the Broncos offense on Thursday Night Football vs. the Las Vegas Raiders. Led by Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper, the Broncos defen...se continues their historic pace in the sack department. How concerning is Bo Nix's regression and Payton's playcalling that has the Broncos offense looking entirely ineffective? 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! BILTTurn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to https://joinbilt.com/lockedonnfl. Supply HouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit https://SupplyHouse.com to sign up for free and use promo code SHNFL5 for 5% off your first order. 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.
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The Denver Broncos are 8 and 2 after a win on Thursday night football.
They barely survive the Las Vegas Raiders, but some bigger concerns are coming out of the victory.
We'll break it all down here and more on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.
You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast.
Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.
The Denver Broncos survive on Thursday night football to improve to 8 and 2 right now, the best record in the NFL.
Welcome to another episode.
Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,
where you know it's your team every day.
I'm Cody Rourke. Broncos reporter, four mile high sports here.
Thanks to all the every there's out there in Broncos country.
Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen.
However you choose to do so, we appreciate you so much here.
As we're going to go through our Broncos post game recap, we'll take you inside the locker room.
Well, you hear from players like Alex Singleton, Jonathan Cooper, Mike McGlinchie, and J.K.
Dobbins, as the Broncos survive on Thursday night.
We'll talk about the Broncos defense coming up.
up big again. Once again, the story of this team has been the defense's success so far this season.
Plus, we'll dive deeper in some of the issues here. Instant reaction after Thursday night on the
Broncos offense and Bo Nix and some of the concerns that are now rearing its head after week
10 of play. Where is the blame to be placed? We'll go through all that and more here on today's
episode of the show brought to you by our friends over there at game time. Download the game time
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Wow, Broncos country Thursday night football.
Typically always go into these matchups knowing, hey, short week,
you never know what you're going to get.
The Broncos coming into this game,
they were heavily favored against the Raiders,
but it didn't matter because the Broncos came out flat to start this game.
And the Raiders, they came out with energy,
despite the fact that they went to overtime last week.
It nearly took them all the way to the final seconds of overtime
against the Jaguars.
And typically the records don't tend to favor those teams coming off of overtime,
then going to play a Thursday night game.
game and the Broncos almost suffered a letdown. One of the stories we've been talking about
all season with this team has been the offense, the slow starts, the inconsistencies, the lack of
cohesiveness from this unit, penalties. Once again, that almost sunk the Broncos at home on Thursday
night in an AFC West divisional game here, but it's the defense that comes up big as the Broncos
hold on for a 10-7 victory here. And I always say this, there is this identity problem that we're
still trying to figure out with this Broncos team.
And look, folks, let's be real.
Yes, this is a post-game victory podcast, but we can't ignore the issues that we are seeing
right now.
And we're going to obviously dive a lot deeper into it as things go about here.
But the Broncos offense has some question marks, has some big concerns.
And a lot of it is related to Sean Payton.
Some of it's related to play calling.
Bo Nix is struggling.
Bo Nix has had two really rough weeks in a row.
And folks, I'm not hating on Bo Nix.
I want Bo Nix to succeed more than anybody.
I like being around Bo.
I think Bo has a lot of great traits that are going to make him,
I think, a very valuable player.
But the Broncos have to do more.
And Bo has to do better if this Broncos team is going to go far.
If they're going to make a postseason run, it is on Bo.
And Bo didn't have his best performance.
He looked shaky.
He didn't look confident here in Thursday's game.
He had a couple of moments.
But this is not the standard here for this Broncos offense.
And what I would deem as their worst offensive performance that we have seen since
a Nathaniel Hackett era.
And there were even times where the Hackett era offense was better than what we saw on Thursday night football here.
And I don't know where the reality of this is.
I don't know where the blame is to be placed mostly because I think you can talk about Bo Nixon,
the blame that he certainly has from playing the quarterback position, some of his decision making.
And obviously, we talk about mechanics.
Bo has taken a step back in his mechanics from what we saw as a rookie.
And look, he's a developing still.
He's not a finished product.
And I want to be very clear about that.
While I'm criticizing Bo Nix right now,
I still think Bo can be the franchise quarterback here for this team.
But a performance like what we saw on Thursday night football is certainly it hasn't
and isn't inspiring confidence in the fan base in what they're seeing.
And Bo has his share of blame to go with that as does Sean Payton,
as does the personnel around Bo on the offensive side of the ball.
This is a young football team.
They're still developing here.
But let's get into some of the key stories here.
The Broncos third down offense, really it was the end of the game.
The Broncos picked up, I think, two or three big third downs to really just kind of ice the game when the Raiders had no timeouts.
They finished five of 15 on third down.
Before that, it was abysmal.
On seven of their first 11 drives, they had three and outs.
Think about how crazy that is.
Three plays off the field, and they put the defense in rough position all game long, as did special teams.
We'll talk about that here in a little bit.
But for the Broncos offense, we see them go away consistently from the run.
Once again, another game for the second consecutive week in a row where the Broncos go into halftime
with more passing attempts than rushing attempts.
At one point in the first half, the Broncos had more penalties.
I think it was seven penalties compared to just three first downs alone.
That right there is not going to win you an AFC championship.
That right there could sink you if you start to lose some games and you fall behind inside the
AFC West. Now you've got a tough matchup coming up against the Chiefs next week. We understand that.
But the problem here for this offense is they don't have an identity. They're far too inconsistent.
Bow Nix looks like he has lost his confidence. And Sean Payton at times seems like he goes one step
forward, two steps back. There is equal blame to be placed on the offensive operation that we are
seeing. And we are 10 weeks into the season, Broncos country. This isn't just like, oh, we hope they're
going to buck the trend. Right now, this is the trend for them.
And I don't think they're bucking it anytime soon unless they go back to keeping things simple.
We had a chance to catch it with Broncos offensive tackle Mike McGlinchie in the locker room after the game.
And look, yes, it was a short week, not using that as an excuse, but the Broncos have some issues that they got to correct.
And Mike McGint, Mike McClintchy is in agreement.
It is. It's a lot.
It's because it feels like you're cramming for a test in, you know, two days, right?
So, you know, it's a little bit more of, you don't get as many details, you don't get as many reps, you don't get to see all the film that you like to see throughout the week.
But there is a nice payoff at the back end of this versus three days, a mini buy or whatever we call it now to get our heads right and get our, you know, obviously everybody's going to heal up physically.
Everybody's a professional and I don't expect anything less than that.
But, you know, we played a lot of football in the last, you know, six weeks, seven weeks.
and it'll be good to get away from it, clear our heads.
Sometimes when you're looking at it for so much for so long,
you start seeing ghosts a little bit,
and we've got to clear our heads
and make sure we come back with a great game plan
against Kansas City to come in next week.
They have to get rid of those ghosts,
exercise those demons, you name it.
The offense cannot play like this against Kansas City.
You cannot play like this in the second half part of your schedule
because it can sink you quicker than I think we realize.
And look, the Broncos have had some heroics.
Oics this season. We're not trying to discount that.
Bo Nicks in the fourth quarter at very big moments this season has come up so big for the Broncos.
And yeah, there were some moments here in this game where he did that as well.
But the offense, the trend in which they're playing is very concerning.
This is going to impact him if they can't figure it out.
It almost sunk them on Thursday night at home against a Las Vegas Raiders team.
And quite frankly, a bad Las Vegas Raiders defense, quite frankly, the Broncos offense was worse than how bad the defense was for the
Raiders. They came out with her hair on fire here on Thursday night and Denver almost suffered a
letdown at home. We caught up with Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins, who even echoes the same
sentiment that the fan base has. We cannot keep playing this way. That's what he had to say in the locker
room. I haven't been a part of like a losing team, right? So all I know is me, college, high school,
NFL. And this is probably the best team I've been on. Right? And,
we owe it to the fan base and we owe it to ourselves to stop playing like how we're playing.
We got to do better.
Like we just have to do better because eventually it's going to bite us in the butt.
And that's not what I want.
And that's not what my teammates want.
So we're going to get it fixed.
That's the hope is that they do get it fixed.
And look, J.K. Dobbins has been a big part of the solution.
And I think going forward, J.K. Dobbins can be a bigger part of the solution.
He is the energizer bunny for the Broncos offense.
We talk about identity.
The run game is the identity.
there were times here in Thursday night's game. Yes, we're complaining a little bit on a victory.
We have to talk about these issues. The Broncos abandoned the run, specifically on one drive where they
were running it really well with J.K. Dobbins. You get a third and one situation. Sean Payton calls
a trick play where he has Bow Nicks throw it to Cortland Sutton, who goes five yards backwards to
try to throw a weird flea flicker type of play, and he loses yards there. You go back five.
When you just needed one yard to keep the drive alive, when you were running the ball well, that is
And look, in the press box, fans were booing so loud.
It was shaking the press box a little bit.
So this was certainly a concern here for the Broncos.
I hate to sound like I'm nitpicking, but Bo Nix has to play better, folks.
Bo absolutely does.
Nobody wants Bo to succeed more than myself, Sarah.
And I know you, the fan base, you want Bo to succeed.
When he plays bad, we have to talk about what happens.
Shaking mechanics looks like he doesn't have that confidence that we saw from him last year.
And Sean Payton's got to help him out.
Sean Payne's got to help this offense out too.
All of these things can be true without it being negative
or without it being hateful Broncos country.
It's constructive criticism and the Broncos offense simply can't play the way that they have
or else it will sink their season.
Coming up next, we're going to talk about the Broncos defensive
and carrying the water all year.
But on Thursday night football, they came up big once again
and they are on a historic pace.
We'll break it all down here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
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Sean Payton is thanking his lucky stars.
Advanced Joseph has this Broncos defense playing at a historic rate right now.
And the Broncos defense, they're cognizant of some of the offensive's struggles.
We'll break it all down here on today's lockdown Broncos post game show here on Friday.
A little bit of an extra for you here.
As you're going to go back behind the locker room, we had our squad show last night.
So make sure you go check that out.
Nick Ferguson and Nillopiro, myself here, the Broncos squad show every Tuesdays.
And after games, when the Broncos do play here.
Let's go through the Broncos defense.
We've been saying it all season long.
They've been carrying the water for this football team.
And they've had moments, too, where they haven't looked their best.
But you know what?
When you need them to come up big, they find a way to do just that.
And against the Las Vegas Raiders, who obviously put up 29 points last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
They got their top premier weapon back in Brock Bowers.
Yes, they traded away Jacobi Myers.
But they also had Ashton Genti.
The Broncos had some moments in this game where not only did the offense put them in bad positions,
but special teams did as well.
Jeremy Croshaw had a rough game, his first handful of punts, was able to iron things out down the stretch
as the Broncos were able to hang on for a 10-7 win on Thursday night football against the Las Vegas Raiders.
But it's this Broncos defense, the contagious energy that this unit certainly has,
whereas you see them backed up into some high-pressure situations.
they never blink, they never waver.
And I think that's one of those things you have to look at
to say, okay, what is the identity and the foundation of your team?
I think for the Broncos defensively, this is their team.
Now, you carry that water for so long, eventually you're going to get tired.
Your arms are going to get a little bit heavy.
How do you progress into the next step here?
This is where the offense has to find a way to reward them.
Because in this game specifically, the Broncos,
they had a block punt on special teams that gave the offense to ball,
outside the red zone. The offense, they went backwards, negative yards, ended up settling for a
field goal, luckily, but they couldn't do anything with it. Don Dre Tillman comes up with an interception.
By the way, he leads the team in I&Ts right now, has a great return, sets the Broncos up in
great field position, and yet the offense cannot capitalize. So when you look at what this team is doing
defensively, they are doing their job. They're doing it to a T, and they are doing it well,
and they are getting big stops. I mean, you talk about the historic pace that I was alluding to early on
here in this show. This Broncos defense right now, folks, coming into this game, they had 40 sacks,
which was 40 sacks through nine games, crazy. They had 63 total last year. They finished this game
with six total sacks, and now they have 46. The next closest team to them is the Detroit Lions
who have 28 sacks. So you have a massive advantage in terms of what your production is doing,
and you want your offense to showcase something for it, right? And that's why I think we have to
teeter on the conversation here about the Broncos. Yes, they have an eight and two record right now,
best in the NFL as it stands here today. But is this team a true contender? In my opinion,
they have the tools to be a contender. They have a contending defense, but the offense,
if the offense cannot find a way to reward them to play complimentary football, they will not
be a Super Bowl contender. And that has nothing to do with the defense. That has everything to do with
the offense. And I think it's a sobering conversation that we certainly must have.
here. This is a defense that got to Gino Smith six times on Thursday night, one of them being a huge
play by Talanoa Hufanga on fourth down, which gave the Broncos offense their best starting field
position of the evening. And that obviously played a factor in some of the offensive struggles
because AJ Cole almost became the MVP of the game for the Las Vegas Raiders, pinning the
Broncos inside their own five-yard line a couple of times. Denver had their work cut out for them
in those situations specifically.
But the defense, at times,
especially with Jeremy Crosho's shanked punts that he had in this game,
the defense started inside their own 50-yard line three times in this game,
and they were able to hold off, right?
Because initially after one of those plays, the Broncos defense,
they got God on a third and 10 play where they're able to get the ball to the running back,
and then Ashton Jente ended up punching it in from five yards out.
That was the only touchdown of the game for the Raiders.
And that was it for the Raiders.
The Broncos defense tightened the grip a little bit.
And that, I think, showcases just how resilient this unit is.
Six sacks on the evening.
Nick Benito, Jonathan Cooper, In Yoma Ozzarika,
Talanoa Hufanga, John Franklin Myers, and Malcolm Roach,
all contributing and chipping in on the action that has the Broncos with 46 sacks right now.
They are on pace to shatter that record sent by the 1984 Chicago Bears.
And look, no Pat Sertan in this game.
I thought the Broncos had a pretty good game plan coming out.
They just relied on their coverage of communication inside out,
mixing it up between zone and man against Brock Bowers and company.
You had tip passes that led the picks.
The Broncos capitalized defensively on so many opportunities,
and they ended up changing the field position game
because they were getting after Gino Smith here,
holding the Raiders offense to 415 on third down,
holding them to 10 total first downs.
I mean, the Broncos offense, the Raiders offense,
they match 10 total first downs in this game.
Both teams, actually, you want to know the stat of the game,
of the game, both teams had 11 penalties and they had 10 total first downs.
So they had more penalties than first downs in this game.
Unbelievable.
That's wild.
But major tip of the cap here to the Broncos defense.
And we caught up with Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton after the game.
When talking about like the level of stress, this defense seems to thrive when the pressure
is on them the most to make a play, especially when the offense is struggling.
Here's what Alex Singleton had to say about the Broncos defense.
We're good.
I mean, we got the best defense.
in the league. We don't care. We're going to just, you know, keep going on the field doing our thing,
give the offense as many opportunities as we can. But, yeah, we know we have, we just all enjoy playing
football. You can tell that this unit loves playing football. I mean, they're energetic to
flying around. They trust one another to do each other, like to do their job defensively.
They're the most cohesive unit, I think, that we have seen on this team. The offense so out of
sync, special teams, so out of sync. The defense is the glue that's holding this whole thing.
together right now for this Broncos team.
And look, I'd say like,
Alex Singleton is very relaxed. I think that
there's this sobering reality from Broncos
players inside that locker room to
understand that the offense. I mean, offensive players
said that we can't keep playing this way.
But now like defensive players are starting to say,
this isn't sustainable.
Jonathan Cooper, we caught up with him after the Broncos
victory on Thursday night.
You know, I think for right now it's sustainable,
but we do have to figure it out before we can't be in these
back and forward.
four quarter comebacks, stuff like that.
We really have to figure it out.
Cleaner details, got to minimize opportunities, minimize the mistakes and stuff like that,
and just execute even better because, I mean, we should have no knock on the ratings at all.
We just, we know we can play better, you know, on both sides of the ball.
And, yeah, we just have.
And I know we will.
We're just going to have to pick it up and clean it up in the playoffs.
That's the one thing, too, is if you play like this when you get to the postseason,
you're going to get bounced in the first round here.
And I think that the players in the locker room,
that's the defense right now.
Look, everything's good with the defense.
But if the offense, if those struggles continue,
I look, I know the offensive players are frustrated.
I know fans are frustrated.
It's frustrating covering an offense like that.
It's offensive football what we were watching here on Thursday night.
But this is something I think you can't let get in between,
like what you have built inside that locker room inside from the chemistry and the culture that you have.
Because at one point, it's like, you ever see the.
departed Mark Wahlberg.
You know, something's going wrong in their operation that they have against Frank Costello.
He says, who are you?
He says, I'm the guy who's doing his job.
You must be the other guy.
You don't want that to be the situation here in the Broncos block room.
And look, it's nothing like that.
The defensive guys, look, I think at times get frustrated as the game's going on.
It's an emotional thing.
But they support the offensive guys.
The offensive guys are just as frustrated.
But they got to find a way to figure it out.
And look, there are a lot of words here.
We highlighted some here, Broncos country.
But as the team goes forward, as they prepare now for Kansas City,
in a matchup next week here,
what are some of the biggest words here for this team
that must get cleaned up or go through that and more
here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.
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The Denver Broncos may be 8 and 2, but there are some warts that need some cosmetic removal.
Once again, thank you to everyone in Broncos country.
All the everydayers out there for tuning in making us your first list and however you choose to do so.
We talk about warts in a sense of where there's some ugly portions of this team that need to get corrected,
certainly before you get to the postseason.
I think one of those things we've talked about is the offense's inconsistency being so far up and down.
I think the Broncos have to find a way to step back, simplify the offense, and figure out that their identity.
And I don't know.
Look, if I'm seeing it, if Broncos fans are seen, I know Sean Payton sees it.
And I understand Sean wants to prove still that he's,
He's got it as a play caller.
When you have a third and one and you do this fancy play call where you're trying to get it to your receiver who's trying to get depth to drop back to throw a trick play here because Cortland Sutton certainly can't throw it.
And you lose five or six yards on that play.
It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the fan base to say like, hey, Sean, we trust you as a play caller.
That was a valid concern, I think, on Thursday night football.
And certainly it doesn't help Bow Nix, who was already struggling.
But the thing here with this team, and this is how you cosmetically remove.
you focus on the run game. Look, J.K. Dobbins is the one guy who's getting things going in the run game.
18 carries for 77 yards for him in this game. He was able to wear out the Raiders defense late.
RJ Harvey, four carries for nine yards. We're not seeing a lot of usage from Harvey as a rusher.
So anytime that JK's in, I mean, JK brings, I think, valuable pass protection to the mix.
There was a lot of Tyler Badee in this game here on Thursday night football for the Broncos.
And I'll say this respectfully, I'm not sure that is going to be the move that's going to help the Broncos offense find a way to piece together some things.
And obviously, we're recording this moments after the game has ended here.
We got some post locker room footage for you.
This is airing on Friday morning for everyone in Broncos country.
If you missed our squad show last night, Nick Ferguson and Neil O'Piro, myself, we sat down and we did just that.
But Tyler Badegh, he's in because, look, obviously the Broncos trust him in past protection, passing down situations.
I understand that it hasn't amounted to anything here for Denver.
He had one target, zero catches in this game.
RJ Harvey, certainly three targets on the evening, two catches for nine yards.
RJ can offer so much more than just being a pass catch out of the backfield.
You've got to find a way to feed him the Rockmore where it's got to be, I think,
J.K. Dobbins, 20 carries in the game.
RJ Harvey, 14 to 15.
There is a world where I think that is the identity of this team.
And when that is working, it opens everything up here for Bo and the offense.
Look, the number one thing I'll say about Bo and the cosmetics, like the warts we talk about with Bo,
his decision making has been pretty erratic, especially on deep balls.
I mean, his one interception that he certainly had that was truly his fault in this game,
he's rolling out.
Yes, he's trying to evade pressure.
He's chucking a, hey, Troy Franklin's down there somewhere into double coverage.
It's intercepted by the safety.
That's obviously problematic.
And look, I understand like, Bo's got this.
chemistry, this connection with Troy, I like that. I think there's value to it. Obviously,
they capitalize on a touchdown here on Thursday night. But there's got to be a concerted effort
to try to find a way to get Cortland Sutton the ball more besides the trick play that we saw here.
Cortland Sutton, your number one receiver, four targets on the day, three catches for 24 yards.
Troy Franklin, nine targets in this game. The next guy who was heavily targeted more than anybody
was Evan Ingram. He had five targets, two catches, 12 yards. And obviously, Pat Bryant had one
catch for 43 yards where Bow made a great play rolling out, using his legs to extend play to
to evade pressure and finding Pat Bryan on that scramble drill there that moved them down
into the red zone that ultimately set up the touchdown to Troy Franklin.
This team is just trying to do too much offensively and you got to scale it back.
You can get warts removed, but you don't want permanent scarring.
And I think for this Broncos offense, they are playing with fire here to the point where
they have been struggling.
the defense has been carrying the water, but at some point, the defense's arms are going to get tired from carrying those buckets of water, and then it's going to spill and it's going to collapse.
And you need the offense at times.
There's going to be games, and it could be in the second half schedule.
It could be next week against Kansas City.
There's going to be games where the defense might struggle, and you need the offense to reward you.
And certainly you need special teams.
That's another ward here that's got to be addressed from this team.
Jeremy Crozier, yes, he adjusted late in the game.
You cannot afford to play like that on special teams where you have.
have two line drive shanks that go 25 yards, 30 yards, and all of a sudden the offense,
the opposing offense is starting inside the own 50 yard line. And now your defense has their backs
against the wall. That's not complimentary football. Special teams and the coaching on the special
teams, I will say, is still an issue right now. And the fact that we're sitting here with the
Broncos at eight and two folks, and we're talking about issues. We're talking about warts.
It's bittersweet because certainly this team can
play better. I am still firm on the stance that this Broncos team has not yet played their best football,
at least on offense and special teams. Defensively, that's the standard. They are playing elite
level on the defensive side of the ball. This has to change here beginning next week against
Kansas City. You have a buy week. And then obviously you have your second half schedule.
This cannot be the trend for the next four or five weeks here or else it's going to pile on. And you
don't want this to happen, especially towards the end of the season.
The Broncos are in a great position right now.
It's like we're complaining about being spoiled here with an eight and two team, a winning
record, seven straight games in a world this team is one.
And I don't mean to sound negative.
Broncos Scotch, you know me.
I'm never a negative person.
I feel like I'm trying to be as realistic as possible here.
It's great that they're winning, but you don't want that to be the illusion of saying,
hey, an eight and two team, when you're winning, it covers up all your issues, you're okay
with it.
These issues are going to prevent the Broncos for,
reaching their ultimate goal, and that is winning a Super Bowl.
Plain and simple, they have the talent.
If this offense can play to the standard in which we know that it can,
if Bow Nix can go back and find his confidence, reset his mechanics a little bit,
and go back to playing like the guy that we saw last year as a rookie,
that level of confidence, this team is going to be dangerous.
This team is going to be scary.
They have a running back in J.K. Dobbins that can open things up.
They have talented players.
It's just about piecing things together.
They haven't found a way to do that.
consistently, and that has been their problem.
If they can overcome that,
this team is going to be in a very good spot here,
especially when the postseason comes around.
But there's a lot of things between now and then
that must get cleaned up and look, Broncos Country.
8 and 2 is great.
Victory podcast is great,
but we have to bring these issues to the forefront here,
and hopefully that is what the Broncos can do going forward.
But with that said, Broncos Country,
that'll wrap up our Friday episode here,
Lockdown Broncos, some really cool stuff coming up, though,
is the Broncos.
They're now replacing their field surface
for the Kansas City game
in record time. Stay tuned over there at milehighsports.com. I've written features up on that,
but a big week ahead. It is Chiefs Week. Will we see some Broncos key players return to the
mix this week? Denver banged up coming out of Thursday night football. Jonah Ellis, hamstring injury,
Quinn Miner's illness. We'll have you covered all throughout next week here on lockdown Broncos.
We'll see you then.
