Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Welcome in Broncos Country tonight. Bree maistis Nick Ferguson
and I am sambushed in between the legendary Steve Atwater
and the legendary Nick Ferguson. We got number twenty seven,
number twenty five. Guys, Can I honorarily give myself number
twenty six just to be I'm not as fast as
(00:22):
Clinton Portis, but I mean I can make it work.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You don't have to be fast. Hey, you gotta be cool.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I think I'm pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
There we go, There we go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Once upon a time you did compliment my red hair
on our first meeting, and I was like, I can
never dye my hair ever again. It's going to continue
to be this shade of red. Welcome in, really excited
to be here, and if you're excited to be listening,
I want you to call in or text us three
h three seven one three eighty five eighty five or
on the KOA Common Spirit Health text Line five sixty
(00:50):
six nine zero. You can also stream the show on
the iHeartRadio app, leave us a message by clicking the
little microphone, or you can tweet at us at KOA
Colorado Remas.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
History or three.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If you phill Oblige Nick ferguson Underscore twenty five.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm really excited to be in here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Today because we've got a lot of conversation going on.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But I wanted to open up with something maybe.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
A little bit different, because there's a lot of convos surrounding,
you know, pregame music and rituals and how you get
hyped up to be game ready on Sundays. I'm curious
for the both of you. I'm gonna start with you, Steve, though,
how to get into the mindset to go out there
and throw bodies around, including your own.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I used to listen to rap music and used
to get me hyped.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I would actually start the process after I left either
the hotel or home wherever I was headed to wherever
I was leaving from prior to the game, in my car,
just you know, jamming, and then we'll get to the
get to the stadium, I get in, you know, get
into my game gear, not necessarily my you know, shoulder
(01:54):
pads and all that, but get into my game gear
and then throw the headphone headsets and so on, and
just you know, just vibe out to to some some
serious rap music. I'm talking about, Uh, some of the
stuff that they don't play on the radios can't play
on the radio on radio is too violent, explicit content.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The most gracious you are, just like, yep, exactly what
you're talking about, Steve, I want to know yours, or Nick,
I want to know yours.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
For me, I start off a little different, even though
I would get to h the hip hop music. Mine
started on the drive in and like everyone has these
rich rules that they do, and for me, like if
if the song is not playing as I'm pulling in
to the parking lot, it throws me off.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
And the same song playing every time that you pull
into the parking lot, Yes, it's.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Got to be the same song. And it's a it's a,
it's a it's it's not this type of song that
you would think that would get one hype for a game.
And the song was Michael Jackson Baby Be Mine. Let
me explain before you guys go, The idea was the
calm before the storm.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So I had to calm my mind.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
First, right as I'm processing the plays as I'm driving in,
because I'm visualizing the plays I intend to make during
the game.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Now, once I got inside.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
Changed my gear and got out from my pregame warm
up run. Now it was changed. Now we're talking Vane Halan,
we're talking a little jay Z. That's when things change
for me. But I knew that you guys were gonna
look at me sideways when I said babyb minds like
horn the hell listen to baby to mind before they
(03:41):
play a physical.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Contact Listen here, I'm not here to yuck. Anybody's young.
If that's what you want.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
I'm sure some guys. Hey, they've listened to slow jams before.
It's just different for everyone, I think. I know everyone
doesn't have the same routine. So and everyone has on handsets.
You never know what they do. They may be listening
to the news talking. You just never never, you never know.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
M PR rolling. I mean, you need your news and information.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Why not just stream KOA while you're getting ready for
the game.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Because look at it this way.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
If someone's listening to UH sports talk before they played
the game, who was to say that that was a
brilliant tactic to pick up on. Maybe who's going to
be out doubtful. I know they tell you before the game.
Some guys maybe a game time decision, So maybe you
listen to make see if you pick up something, so
I'm not gonna knock it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You're gonna cueue up the Ryan Edwards there on the
pregame show.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yes, yes, I will rather listen listen to his music
rather than listen to him talk.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What do you know that? Right now? That's how that's
how Steve gets pumped for things. He just starts roasting people.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, ran he as I said when he was
in here. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Ryan used to be confident, used to be No, no,
he's always been confident, right since he's lost a few pounds.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh no, I mean pound says he lost. He lost.
He looks, he looks it looks good, looks good.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Is he on that soda weight loss?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't know what it is. I don't think so,
I don't know. But he's cocky now, man, he's cocky.
You see it in his eyes.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
I saw when he before he walked out, you kind
of turned to him and say, oh you know you
look cocky right now?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah? He is, man, he is. But I love it
he's feeling himself. I like it.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I like it. I like when we're all feeling it ourselves, right,
And then I got to watch both of you feeling
yourselves at halftime at the game on Sunday, doing what
y'all do best, hyping up the crowd.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right, how important is it for the home opener?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I know his disappointing results, but to have that sort
of vibe going inside of my high stadium? What's it
mean for the home crowd to have that type of
energy and to be able to facilitate that from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I think.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
It's always important to have the support of the home crowd. Now,
some home crowds, after they've been losing game after game
after game throughout the season, they get they get get
tired of it, and sometimes they boom.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And some people have a problem with this. I don't.
I don't. I love the feedback. I loved it.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Even when we played we got booed every now and then.
It didn't happen much, but hey, sometimes we needed that.
It's it's feedback. And if they can pat us on
our back and.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Root for us, pay hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
For tickets, say you know they can, they can give
us the feedback. I think it's I think it's honest,
and you know, I welcome to me personally. Now, there
are some people who don't care how bad they're planning.
They don't want to get booed, and I don't. I
don't agree with that. If you plan bad, get booed.
I'll say this.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
I know it may sound strange, but I agree with
Steve because to a certain extent, because we've seen fans say, well,
I pay good money for this seat, so I should
be able to say whatever I want to say. No,
no hurling exactly now. If you want to boot, yes,
(07:25):
I totally understand that. If your team, your player that
you root for, the jersey that you're wearing, they're not
playing well, you can boo them. There was a game
when I was playing in my five years, we only
got bood once. And it was a game we were
playing the Miami Dolphins here and we were not playing well.
It's a it's a famous game for a couple of things.
One we were not playing well, and two the camera
(07:48):
might have caught Jake Plumber saying you number one to
a fan sitting behind him.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
And do what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
It wasn't that one, but it's that thing that we
all know you you're number one. And I was okay
with that because Steve is right when you go in
the locker room and being here playing for Denver Broncos,
usually you don't get booed. But if they're booing you,
that means that you're not playing well. And up to
that point, our offense wasn't playing well. The guys ticket
(08:17):
as a sign of you know what, we're not doing
the best that we can for our fans, right, so
we need to go out there and we turn things around.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And that's exactly what we did.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And on Sunday, I happened to be sitting walked into
the stands. I was standing by a couple of fans
and I asked them, I said, well, do you think
that the fans on the verge of booing? And I
was sold yep. Five seconds later the fans start booing.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Man. You know, the only thing with that is with
the young quarterback, it's a little bit different story, just
because he's got to get into the swing of things.
And obviously it was a little bit more difficult in
Seattle with all the crowd noise, and the crowd they
were nice and quiet when he went onto the field,
(09:04):
but still it's still you know, you got to work
out the jitters and I got to be honest, we
hadn't seen this out of boat Knicks all throughout the preseason.
So I think at some point he's going to kick
back in. He's gonna be right back locked in, and
he's gonna be that great quarterback that we saw in
the preseason. But I'll tell you this really quickly.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Agree.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
See, yes, the fans were booing, and the obvious observation
is they're booing him. And what I got from a
couple of fans, they were not booing bo Obviously you
want him to make a couple of better throws, but
they were booing some of the drop passes.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That's what they were doing.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Yes, yes, it was the execution, and to talking to
some of the fans, it's the play calling too. They
just thought that there could have been a little more.
So it's not just the fans of just booing one
person and booing both. No no, no, no, no, that's not
how some fans are looking at it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Well, I think it's the same when you're covering the
team too.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I we were just talking about finger pointing in the
hallway there Steve where there's a lot of that going around.
But ultimately it's the entire formula and the result from
what the Dunver Broncs are doing, whether it be play
calling or scheme or is it is it rookie QB play.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
And the fans we're looking for something right, but as
a team, you can't give it to them.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
You know, you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
You can't, uh, you know, let loose what you may think.
But but you may think inside like ah, man, our office,
they're not moving the ball, were playing good on defense,
but you can't say that. You can't say, hey, we're
a team. We'll get it together. Hopefully you guys keep
supporting us. Man, we're still working, and you got to
keep that team you're together, because once somebody says something
(10:52):
that uh, and it may not be that bad of
a comment, but something that kind.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Of splits offense, defense, special teams.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Now that brings in more scrutiny from the outside. So
you know, hopefully guys can stay together, stay on the
united front.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Steve, you mentioned something about fans looking for crumbs, and
that's what happens when you get a very frustrated fan base,
as this fan base has been.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Now.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I put a video up today responding to some conversation
and dialogue that I've been having over the past couple
of days, and it's aimed in the direction of the defense.
And when you think about okay, well, when you look
at the team as a whole, you say, if there's
one side of the ball that's playing well, it is
obviously the defense. But when you're looking for crumbs, everyone
(11:41):
is a suspect.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Absolutely, everyone is culpable.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
So it's like, okay, well, the defense can't get off
the field, they can't create turnovers.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, they need to be better against the run. And
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
Hold on, let's not do that because the defense is
doing their job defending and keeping the team in games.
There hasn't been an opponent yet to score thirty points
on the Broncos. Yes, Seattle score twenty six, But for
the most part, the defense has played well. So I
just say, look, man, you can miss me with this
conversation negatively talking about the defense.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Advance Joseph, I mean, don't do that. But when you're looking.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
For crumb, sometimes you find anything that you can bring up.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Absolutely, And now obviously it hasn't been perfect for the defense,
but I think that as teammates that's what you had
to do in the meeting rooms, right, that's not something
to you know, put out in the street. Now us
we break down the film and we see, okay, man, wow,
this could have been better. This guy, you know, the
(12:42):
safety cracked and the corner didn't replace and you know,
so we know we can see a few things that
we're some improvements can be made. I'm sure there's a
lot of other people that aren't an NFL they can
do the same thing, right. I can see, Oh, man,
this guy didn't feel on this player, this guy.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Didn't rush hard.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
H and uh find different different holes in what the
team has been doing.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
You know what.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
You know what I would say to those people, get
your ass out there and try it right, Because it's
easy to sit at home and play armchair quarterback and say, well,
he should have did this. I would have done that.
He wouldn't have done the damn thing. That's why you're
sitting on that central right now.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
So shut up.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
But do you think the fans can tell when players
are giving great effort or not?
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yes, you can say, yes, you can see that.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Yeah, And I think Broncos country is keen on that
as well.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And I think when you give.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
A good effort.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Broncos Country, Hey we all right, all right, we lose
a game. You gave good effort.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
It was close game and we lost that when he good,
good job, guys. Now if the.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Effort isn't there, oh man, they coming down listen.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
I think Broncos Country, they're getting to the point where
they not only could recognize when effort is not there,
but they're getting sick and tired of just saying, you
know what, we'll get him next game. It's early in
the season, no, they because they want to see signs
of improvement.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Right.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
It's like anytime you see signs of improvement, that gives
you confidence and encourage you that, you know what, maybe
things would be better next game or the next possession.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
But when you.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Don't give fans that and none, you're talking about a
fan base that they're thirsty the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
They're thirsty for their quarterback of the future.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well, and it's been that way for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Nick, I think you have to also consider the sum
of all parts. Is this is season after season of well,
we'll figure it out, we'll put a quarterback into play,
we'll get the play calling right, we'll get the timing down.
It's always something I think that kind of lends to it.
And Steve, you were talking about it with maybe the
confidence factor. Also with bo getting him back on track.
The preseason looked a lot different than the regular season.
We know that because it's a different kind of game.
(14:53):
It's like comparing apples to oranges. But you got to
get more confidence in that rookie, QB. But also you
said something about effort, and I wanted to know, is
that from lack of buying?
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Is that coaching from your from your expert opinion, In.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
My expert opinion, it's it's personal. And some guys may
think that they're given one hundred and ten percent and
when they get to look at the film, like, ah, man,
I only gave eighty percent on that play, you know,
and they look at the film and the great players
will look at it and say, Okay, I'm going to
(15:28):
get better. The average players will look at it and say, oh,
I'm all good.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It's good. You know, I didn't make the play with
us all right.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Oh, But Steve said, and.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
That's my opinion, but it's true because the way I
look at it, in my experience coaching and playing there
are guys. There are guys who play football, and then
they are football players. They sound the same, but they're
entirely different because you have guys on a roster who.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Just happy makes to see which one is with exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I'm happy to be here. They give me a uniform.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
I get a chance to tell my mom and my dad,
I'm playing on Sundays. But those guys playing football, yes,
those guys who are playing football. But when we talk
football players, football players hate losing.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
They hate it so much that they're going to.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Go out and if they have to snatch some collars,
there's gonna be some furniture moving in this place to
make sure that we when we get on the field,
we actually produce. Now, are the Broncos to that point
where they need to do that? No?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Could they if they would?
Speaker 6 (16:36):
Yes, And I've been in situations watching film with Mike
Shanahan where we lost.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
There's no individual meetings, no, no, no.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Everyone's going to watch the meeting together and he's going
to ask the coach what you're doing and he's gonna
ask you, what are you doing? Is that what we teach?
And someone better answer that question or it's gonna be
firing brimstone. I'm just telling you that's what it was
like on the Mike Shanahea and that's why we got
the ship.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Could the Broncos use a little of that?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Yes, yes, yes, indeed you as a ship, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yes, looking over to could you know the sales boat?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I don't know yet, yeship, So you keep doing it
catching me off hard now too. I'm not quite certain
what I'm hearing over here, but you're telling me it's
not a tiered system, right. We're not looking for the
players to see what the coaches are asking them to do.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
It.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's like self motivating, self perpetuating, right. It has to
come from within from a lot of different indiviewes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I think so.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
And but also they have to really understand what their
responsibilities are and what the coaches are asking of them.
And the coaches have to be blatantly clear on what
they expect you to do on certain plays, and if
they're not, then it may not happen.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It may not happen.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
We have to complete with the glittering smile of these
two in studio tonights, We've got questions for Nick and
Steve text Us five sixty six nine zero. What's the
bright spot of the Denver Broncos moving forward? This is
Broncos Country Tonight KOA eight fifty AM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Welcome back Broncos Country Tonight.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Bremasedist Nick Ferguson Steve Atwater in the house listen. I
was waiting for a different drop with that song to
happen before I jumped.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I was waiting as well. But it didn't drop.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It didn't, and so I feel like there's this part
of me that uh didn't die inside.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
But I'm just like, ah, there was a precipice that
I was waiting for and it didn't happen. To nobody's
fault of their own. I just assumed incorrectly, cause.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Do you know do you do? You know the group?
Speaker 6 (18:58):
Wait, you know Steve, Steve, I know you don't do
a lot of movies, but I know you do music
though that that was.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
But there's different genres of music, and I don't listen
to the genre.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, we learned it's explicitly violent, That's right.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
What we learned espeically.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was that was queen Okay, yes, doesn't.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Mean nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Try Nick, though Queen Elizabeth oh yeah, yeah, relatively. No,
not Queen Elizabeth, but I guess she was probably a
musician at one point too.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Right, Royalty get to practice to be totally.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
Honest really quickly about the Royalty in London, Like they
have no power. Really, they're just like a figurehead, just
like a group of people that the whole idea of
what they do as far as monarch just kind of
died long ago.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They got a little but they got.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
To make part of it.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Has a little more power than them to my understanding,
but they're like a figurehead. Like everyone goes to London
because they want to see bucking in Palace.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Right, that's why to like when Nick shows up next
time in Great Britain, he's going to be like surrounded
by the mounted.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I don't think it's like the mafia.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Said I'm not going to plan to take any trips
over to the UK and time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So well you heard it, hear your first Nick Ferguson
is not crossing the pond to go on vacation. I'm
talking a little bit about you know, mindset of going
into games.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We were talking off the air and I wanted to
bring that conversation on and uh, Steve, I want you
to put your coach hat on. With the defense playing well,
there's still the opportunity for penalties to sort of be.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The ugly bear that rears its head.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We were talking about PJ Locke and the unnecessary roughness
call that was accompanied by you know, laundry as it us,
but the frustration after the fact.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Can you walk me through how you would talk to PJ,
the advice you would give him for a circumstance like that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Well, just first off, love, no hate.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
We don't want the penalty, and I'm sure PJ didn't
want the penalty either, but it happened. Now, let's not
compound that. Let's hey realize that we made a mistake
and next time try to do it a little bit
differently and move on from that.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
All right, Let's not make a big big deal out
of it.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
And I think that PJ will be fine next time
and hopefully this doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
But he we back in the day that that it
would have been legal, Yeah, exactly, not today. And you know,
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I loved it. You know, I'm sure Nick loved it too.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But you can't do that nowadays.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
See now, John running in the league. Off is going
to give you that fresh FedEx packet. It's gonna cost
you a couple of grand but usually that's what happened.
But it's different now as far as the elevated finds
that guys received.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
But I understand why PJ. Lot was upset.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
I also understand why coach Sean Payton was upset as well,
because once again, the ideas putting your team in a
good position to win. You want guys to be play fast,
you want them to play physical, and you want them
to play aggressive.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
But the key thing is smart. I want you to
make smart decisions.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
And knowing how things are officiated now in the league,
you have to be consciously aware of it and keep
this in mind too as well. There was once a
guy who donned the Broncos uniform last season that became
the eye of the league office and was fined frequently.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
So the one thing is you do not want to
walk in those shoes because I can easily see this
happening when you go into a game. The next game,
the Bronco is going to play against Tampa Bay. I
wouldn't be surprised if a coach for Tampa Bay went
to an offishal and say, hey, you want to watch
number six.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
I don't know, because he hasn't historically been that type
of player need to He's not that. But what I
can say on the positive side is he's always been
very ball conscious of you know, punching balls out, getting
his helmet on football is causing turnovers and.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I don't want that to stop.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
I don't want that to stop.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I just want him to just know that, hey, every
now and then, it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
It's a mistake. Hey, no big deal, No big deal,
keep playing the way you play.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Well, that's my worry too, with the penalties of mounting insurmounting,
because you recall Kareem Jackson having to have that mark
over his head, there's an idea of well he'll have
to change the way that he plays. Well, we didn't
see that happen, and I think Steve Aphutter and Nick
Ferguson would agree, you're not.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Changing the way that you play. You're going to continue
to play at that speed.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah. Absolutely, And again he all the last year. I
don't I don't think he had a.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
A uns fenalty.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
You know, again, he's very bad conscious, he's trying to
make create turnovers and get the ball back for the offense,
and he'll get back to that. He I don't think
it'll be I don't think this would be an ongoing problem.
I don't have a problem with the effort.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
It's just, you know, the reaction afterwards, based on where
the team was offensively and what they were trying to do.
That's the only thing that makes you upset as a coach.
And now when you know your offense is struggling, you
don't want to compound things and make things worse. But
also too, you don't want to take the aggressiveness away
from defensive players. To me, you never want to do
(24:50):
They just hey, man, let's look at the play. What
could we have done better, And let's just try to
go out there and do it better next time.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I don't think I don't think it'll be a problem.
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I don't think it'll be a problem either. I'm looking
forward to it. The defense have done so well, the
secondary has been performing and producing quite well. How have
the young guns been doing?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Locke Brandon Jones about coming in and sort of having
to make up the difference with the loss of the
old guard.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Well, I would say they've done quite well thus far,
and having given up many big plays. We had the
one play a week ago where the receivers was kind
of over I'm not sure whose responsibility that was. I'm
not sure if that was on Alex Singleton or what.
I couldn't I didn't really see it from the whole
(25:40):
twenty two view, but I think they're doing a really
good job. I think that they've picked up where the team.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Left off last year.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
I think the leadership is great now. I think Pastor
Tan is one of those leaders. He's had to become
a little bit more vocal because he's the playmaker. Playmakers
you're assume leaders, and he and Alex single And I
think are the guys who are kind of leading that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And I think PJ.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Lock may be up in that conversation as well because
he's playing well and I think the guys will look
up to him, especially the younger guys.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Well, I've enjoy watching them play collectively because you got
to think about this other than PS two, the entire
secondary is they're all new guys. And even though PJ.
Locke had some opportunity to play last year after Kareem
Jackson had those suspensions. This is still him stepping too
that role as a full time starter. You bring in
(26:32):
Jones to as well and add Riley Moss. I think
they have played well. Is can they play better as coaches?
And you always look at it that way. They they
can play much better.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
I thought Brandon Jones first game he was off a
little bit, but that's to be expected because first time.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
He didn't play well exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Now he played well.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I thought he played well, really well this last game.
Well I did.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
There was one point when he came down on Justin
Fields when Fields kind of escaped the pocket, and I
thought it was going to be a hit pointer for
Justin Field. Is the way that you know Jones came
down and hit him, but you know Fields continued to play.
But this is what you want your safety to be
able to tackle in the open field. Now. The one
thing that we have not seen that we saw last year,
(27:16):
if you want to make that comparison. Last year, Justice
Simmons made a lot of key plays to far as
takeaways to kind of help spark some kind of offensive play.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Right now, they're not having that now.
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Maybe somewhere down the line, I'm going to say it
may happen this week, then that may be something to
kind of turn things around for the defense as well.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
On that end, So Nick is predicting a couple of turnovers,
maybe some pick sixes, so anything to spur the offense
and some points will react to that. Afterwards from the
KWA Traffic Center, here's Dave O'Brien Welcome back Broncos Country
Tonight freemaistist Nick Ferguson Steve Atwater.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Nick, I thought you're going to unmute, and like.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
What I was going to do that.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
I think this was r EM and I don't know
the name of the song, but they go really fast
with the lyrics, and I wasn't gonna mess them up
because I still don't know the lyrics of the song.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So you could just hum really quickly and vigorously.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
It was gonna work.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Okay, well that's fine, it wasn't gonna work. You already
sold yourself short. But next time, I challenge you, see
whatever you want, play, call whatever you want, so that
we all stand around looking very confused at each other
inside the huddle here at the studio, I think is
going on.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (28:33):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Why is this thirty words long? I digress, though. That
was just a nice little punch there that I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Take before I moved into the next conversation that I
wanted to have because I wanted to ask two of
the most talented defensive backs I've ever seen play. If
you're a buccaneer's a dB watching Bonux last two weeks,
how are you attacking this offense this upcoming Sunday.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Well, I think.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
They'll probably who the same thing that the Seattle Seahawks did.
That's give a myriad of different looks and pressures, and
then they you bring pressure. Sometimes sometimes you don't. But
I think they'll show him multiple looks and mostly pressure looks.
I'm sorry, not multiple a lot of pressure. You're gonna
(29:20):
show a lot of pressure, but sometimes you're bringing sometimes
they won't.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Well, I'll say this.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Todd Bows was my DV coach with the Jets, and
the one thing that he learned being around Bill Parcells
it was pressure. And the pressure doesn't always come in
the form of Okay, well we're gonna bring an extra linebacker.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
You don't really have to do that. The Broncos have
struggled to run the ball.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
So if I'm Todd, he's probably telling this team, look,
we're not going to concern ourselves with the Broncos running
the ball. I want you to get up feel on
every single play like it's third and ten, right, because.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Idea is to get after bow Nicks.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
He is still a rookie, so make his life as
miserable as you can possibly make it.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I like it, and I want to switch it to
the other side now, right, what is the Broncos defense.
We were talking about how well they've been performing. What
about those pressures from the Bronco's edge. You got Jonah Ellis,
you know, has one sack, but Jonathan Cooper has two.
You start combining those together, giving a little bit of
a I don't know, momentum towards the quarterback. You teach
Baker Mayfield a lesson this Sunday and the Broncos have
(30:27):
a chance at winning. How important is applying pressure to
the quarterback going to be?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well?
Speaker 5 (30:32):
I think every game at certain points that it's important.
But I think solid defense is first thing you got
to do is stop the run. And I know that
bo Nicks will be seeing the running back that he
used to hand the ball off too at Oregon on
(30:54):
the other side of the ball. Oh, Bucky, Bucky Irving. Amen,
he's a ball player. He's a ballplayer. So I would
say the first thing we got to do is stop
the run. And VJ already he puts pressure on people
who gives us give them various looks as well, and
I think we'll have to do the same thing because
(31:16):
you know, Baker Mayfield, he's been throwing the ball well.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But you know we can change that.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Yeah, absolutely, Well, I'll say this about Baker. I mean
week one, Baker was you know, I would say vintage Baker.
But week two against the Detroit Lions, they were able
to do a lot against the Bucks. When you look
at Baker one inception one touchdown, twelve and nineteen. And
I was telling you guys just before the break, this
(31:43):
is where I believe the Broncos could get their first
win of the season, because against the Detroit Lions, the
Bucks were two for ten on third down and they
were one for two inside the red zone. Now, does
that mean that the Broncos will have to play exactly
at the Detroit Lions played ats Freko loutely can they
do that. They do have the ability to do that,
(32:06):
but they have to believe inside the building that they
can go down in Tampa and get their first w.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Of the season.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Yeah, and it's it's gonna be a partner that they
have the right mindset too. You can't worry about if
you're on the road or at home, you're wherever it is.
You gotta have that mindset that, hey, we're fighters, and
uh we can fight wherever. We can fight in the backyard,
we can fight an alley.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Oh well, I love it. Knockout, drag out fights. Right,
No throwing helmets, but throwing something.
Speaker 6 (32:35):
But here's the bigger thing that hopefully the Broncos defensive
players are looking at. The Bucks gave up five sacks
against the Detroit Lions. Yeah, if I'm them, I'm licking
my chops and I'm saying, well, I'm challenging the group.
Who's going to be the first guy to get the
first one, the first gut to get the first one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I put money on some Zach Allen action just because
I like what I've been seeing from him.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, Zach's been bawling.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
I'm gonna put my money on joan Ellis if he starts,
I put my money on j joon elis.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Such a talented young man, so talented.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That was one of the guys I picked it earlier
in the season to have a great year.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, absolutely, as your you know, as your pre off
season m v P stellar And he can only just
go up from there, guys, real quickly before we go
to break Bonnicks leading rusher third week in a row,
seems pretty can't have.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Our quarterback as as our leading rusher.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
And I'm sure you know Javonte he wants to, wants to,
wants to get that ball even more. I'm thinking Javant
is gonna gonna look like he's looked in the past
this week, uh and have a good game. I'm looking
forward to him hopefully having a hundred one hundred plus
yards Russian.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I'm looking forward to it too.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
It's gonna be tough, it's not gonna be up there.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
And nothing worth happening is easy at that. But we'll
we'll talk about how Nicks, how Nicks gets.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
His bojo back here on Broncos Country Tonight a KA
eight fifty AM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah,
Well, Welcome in Broncos Country tonight. Bree maistis Nick Ferguson
and I am sambushed in between the legendary Steve Atwater
and the legendary Nick Ferguson. We got number twenty seven,
number twenty five. Guys, Can I honorarily give myself number
twenty six just to be I'm not as fast as
(00:22):
Clinton Portis, but I mean I can make it work.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You don't have to be fast. Hey, you gotta be cool.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I think I'm pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
There we go, There we go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Once upon a time you did compliment my red hair
on our first meeting, and I was like, I can
never dye my hair ever again. It's going to continue
to be this shade of red. Welcome in, really excited
to be here, and if you're excited to be listening,
I want you to call in or text us three
h three seven one three eighty five eighty five or
on the KOA Common Spirit Health text Line five sixty
(00:50):
six nine zero. You can also stream the show on
the iHeartRadio app, leave us a message by clicking the
little microphone, or you can tweet at us at KOA
Colorado Remas.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
History or three.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If you phill Oblige Nick ferguson Underscore twenty five.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm really excited to be in here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Today because we've got a lot of conversation going on.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But I wanted to open up with something maybe.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
A little bit different, because there's a lot of convos surrounding,
you know, pregame music and rituals and how you get
hyped up to be game ready on Sundays. I'm curious
for the both of you. I'm gonna start with you, Steve, though,
how to get into the mindset to go out there
and throw bodies around, including your own.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I used to listen to rap music and used
to get me hyped.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I would actually start the process after I left either
the hotel or home wherever I was headed to wherever
I was leaving from prior to the game, in my car,
just you know, jamming, and then we'll get to the
get to the stadium, I get in, you know, get
into my game gear, not necessarily my you know, shoulder
(01:54):
pads and all that, but get into my game gear
and then throw the headphone headsets and so on, and
just you know, just vibe out to to some some
serious rap music. I'm talking about, Uh, some of the
stuff that they don't play on the radios can't play
on the radio on radio is too violent, explicit content.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The most gracious you are, just like, yep, exactly what
you're talking about, Steve, I want to know yours, or Nick,
I want to know yours.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
For me, I start off a little different, even though
I would get to h the hip hop music. Mine
started on the drive in and like everyone has these
rich rules that they do, and for me, like if
if the song is not playing as I'm pulling in
to the parking lot, it throws me off.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
And the same song playing every time that you pull
into the parking lot, Yes, it's.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Got to be the same song. And it's a it's a,
it's a it's it's not this type of song that
you would think that would get one hype for a game.
And the song was Michael Jackson Baby Be Mine. Let
me explain before you guys go, The idea was the
calm before the storm.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So I had to calm my mind.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
First, right as I'm processing the plays as I'm driving in,
because I'm visualizing the plays I intend to make during
the game.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Now, once I got inside.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
Changed my gear and got out from my pregame warm
up run. Now it was changed. Now we're talking Vane Halan,
we're talking a little jay Z. That's when things change
for me. But I knew that you guys were gonna
look at me sideways when I said babyb minds like
horn the hell listen to baby to mind before they
(03:41):
play a physical.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Contact Listen here, I'm not here to yuck. Anybody's young.
If that's what you want.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
I'm sure some guys. Hey, they've listened to slow jams before.
It's just different for everyone, I think. I know everyone
doesn't have the same routine. So and everyone has on handsets.
You never know what they do. They may be listening
to the news talking. You just never never, you never know.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
M PR rolling. I mean, you need your news and information.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Why not just stream KOA while you're getting ready for
the game.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Because look at it this way.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
If someone's listening to UH sports talk before they played
the game, who was to say that that was a
brilliant tactic to pick up on. Maybe who's going to
be out doubtful. I know they tell you before the game.
Some guys maybe a game time decision, So maybe you
listen to make see if you pick up something, so
I'm not gonna knock it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You're gonna cueue up the Ryan Edwards there on the
pregame show.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yes, yes, I will rather listen listen to his music
rather than listen to him talk.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What do you know that? Right now? That's how that's
how Steve gets pumped for things. He just starts roasting people.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, ran he as I said when he was
in here. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Ryan used to be confident, used to be No, no,
he's always been confident, right since he's lost a few pounds.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh no, I mean pound says he lost. He lost.
He looks, he looks it looks good, looks good.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Is he on that soda weight loss?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't know what it is. I don't think so,
I don't know. But he's cocky now, man, he's cocky.
You see it in his eyes.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
I saw when he before he walked out, you kind
of turned to him and say, oh you know you
look cocky right now?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah? He is, man, he is. But I love it
he's feeling himself. I like it.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I like it. I like when we're all feeling it ourselves, right,
And then I got to watch both of you feeling
yourselves at halftime at the game on Sunday, doing what
y'all do best, hyping up the crowd.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right, how important is it for the home opener?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I know his disappointing results, but to have that sort
of vibe going inside of my high stadium? What's it
mean for the home crowd to have that type of
energy and to be able to facilitate that from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I think.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
It's always important to have the support of the home crowd. Now,
some home crowds, after they've been losing game after game
after game throughout the season, they get they get get
tired of it, and sometimes they boom.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And some people have a problem with this. I don't.
I don't. I love the feedback. I loved it.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Even when we played we got booed every now and then.
It didn't happen much, but hey, sometimes we needed that.
It's it's feedback. And if they can pat us on
our back and.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Root for us, pay hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
For tickets, say you know they can, they can give
us the feedback. I think it's I think it's honest,
and you know, I welcome to me personally. Now, there
are some people who don't care how bad they're planning.
They don't want to get booed, and I don't. I
don't agree with that. If you plan bad, get booed.
I'll say this.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
I know it may sound strange, but I agree with
Steve because to a certain extent, because we've seen fans say, well,
I pay good money for this seat, so I should
be able to say whatever I want to say. No,
no hurling exactly now. If you want to boot, yes,
(07:25):
I totally understand that. If your team, your player that
you root for, the jersey that you're wearing, they're not
playing well, you can boo them. There was a game
when I was playing in my five years, we only
got bood once. And it was a game we were
playing the Miami Dolphins here and we were not playing well.
It's a it's a famous game for a couple of things.
One we were not playing well, and two the camera
(07:48):
might have caught Jake Plumber saying you number one to
a fan sitting behind him.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
And do what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
It wasn't that one, but it's that thing that we
all know you you're number one. And I was okay
with that because Steve is right when you go in
the locker room and being here playing for Denver Broncos,
usually you don't get booed. But if they're booing you,
that means that you're not playing well. And up to
that point, our offense wasn't playing well. The guys ticket
(08:17):
as a sign of you know what, we're not doing
the best that we can for our fans, right, so
we need to go out there and we turn things around.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And that's exactly what we did.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And on Sunday, I happened to be sitting walked into
the stands. I was standing by a couple of fans
and I asked them, I said, well, do you think
that the fans on the verge of booing? And I
was sold yep. Five seconds later the fans start booing.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Man. You know, the only thing with that is with
the young quarterback, it's a little bit different story, just
because he's got to get into the swing of things.
And obviously it was a little bit more difficult in
Seattle with all the crowd noise, and the crowd they
were nice and quiet when he went onto the field,
(09:04):
but still it's still you know, you got to work
out the jitters and I got to be honest, we
hadn't seen this out of boat Knicks all throughout the preseason.
So I think at some point he's going to kick
back in. He's gonna be right back locked in, and
he's gonna be that great quarterback that we saw in
the preseason. But I'll tell you this really quickly.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Agree.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
See, yes, the fans were booing, and the obvious observation
is they're booing him. And what I got from a
couple of fans, they were not booing bo Obviously you
want him to make a couple of better throws, but
they were booing some of the drop passes.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That's what they were doing.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Yes, yes, it was the execution, and to talking to
some of the fans, it's the play calling too. They
just thought that there could have been a little more.
So it's not just the fans of just booing one
person and booing both. No no, no, no, no, that's not
how some fans are looking at it.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Well, I think it's the same when you're covering the
team too.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I we were just talking about finger pointing in the
hallway there Steve where there's a lot of that going around.
But ultimately it's the entire formula and the result from
what the Dunver Broncs are doing, whether it be play
calling or scheme or is it is it rookie QB play.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
And the fans we're looking for something right, but as
a team, you can't give it to them.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
You know, you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
You can't, uh, you know, let loose what you may think.
But but you may think inside like ah, man, our office,
they're not moving the ball, were playing good on defense,
but you can't say that. You can't say, hey, we're
a team. We'll get it together. Hopefully you guys keep
supporting us. Man, we're still working, and you got to
keep that team you're together, because once somebody says something
(10:52):
that uh, and it may not be that bad of
a comment, but something that kind.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Of splits offense, defense, special teams.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Now that brings in more scrutiny from the outside. So
you know, hopefully guys can stay together, stay on the
united front.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Steve, you mentioned something about fans looking for crumbs, and
that's what happens when you get a very frustrated fan base,
as this fan base has been.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Now.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I put a video up today responding to some conversation
and dialogue that I've been having over the past couple
of days, and it's aimed in the direction of the defense.
And when you think about okay, well, when you look
at the team as a whole, you say, if there's
one side of the ball that's playing well, it is
obviously the defense. But when you're looking for crumbs, everyone
(11:41):
is a suspect.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Absolutely, everyone is culpable.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
So it's like, okay, well, the defense can't get off
the field, they can't create turnovers.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, they need to be better against the run. And
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
Hold on, let's not do that because the defense is
doing their job defending and keeping the team in games.
There hasn't been an opponent yet to score thirty points
on the Broncos. Yes, Seattle score twenty six, But for
the most part, the defense has played well. So I
just say, look, man, you can miss me with this
conversation negatively talking about the defense.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Advance Joseph, I mean, don't do that. But when you're looking.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
For crumb, sometimes you find anything that you can bring up.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Absolutely, And now obviously it hasn't been perfect for the defense,
but I think that as teammates that's what you had
to do in the meeting rooms, right, that's not something
to you know, put out in the street. Now us
we break down the film and we see, okay, man, wow,
this could have been better. This guy, you know, the
(12:42):
safety cracked and the corner didn't replace and you know,
so we know we can see a few things that
we're some improvements can be made. I'm sure there's a
lot of other people that aren't an NFL they can
do the same thing, right. I can see, Oh, man,
this guy didn't feel on this player, this guy.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Didn't rush hard.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
H and uh find different different holes in what the
team has been doing.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
You know what.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
You know what I would say to those people, get
your ass out there and try it right, Because it's
easy to sit at home and play armchair quarterback and say, well,
he should have did this. I would have done that.
He wouldn't have done the damn thing. That's why you're
sitting on that central right now.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
So shut up.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
But do you think the fans can tell when players
are giving great effort or not?
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yes, you can say, yes, you can see that.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Yeah, And I think Broncos country is keen on that
as well.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And I think when you give.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
A good effort.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Broncos Country, Hey we all right, all right, we lose
a game. You gave good effort.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
It was close game and we lost that when he good,
good job, guys. Now if the.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Effort isn't there, oh man, they coming down listen.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
I think Broncos Country, they're getting to the point where
they not only could recognize when effort is not there,
but they're getting sick and tired of just saying, you
know what, we'll get him next game. It's early in
the season, no, they because they want to see signs
of improvement.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Right.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
It's like anytime you see signs of improvement, that gives
you confidence and encourage you that, you know what, maybe
things would be better next game or the next possession.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
But when you.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Don't give fans that and none, you're talking about a
fan base that they're thirsty the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
They're thirsty for their quarterback of the future.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well, and it's been that way for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Nick, I think you have to also consider the sum
of all parts. Is this is season after season of well,
we'll figure it out, we'll put a quarterback into play,
we'll get the play calling right, we'll get the timing down.
It's always something I think that kind of lends to it.
And Steve, you were talking about it with maybe the
confidence factor. Also with bo getting him back on track.
The preseason looked a lot different than the regular season.
We know that because it's a different kind of game.
(14:53):
It's like comparing apples to oranges. But you got to
get more confidence in that rookie, QB. But also you
said something about effort, and I wanted to know, is
that from lack of buying?
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Is that coaching from your from your expert opinion, In.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
My expert opinion, it's it's personal. And some guys may
think that they're given one hundred and ten percent and
when they get to look at the film, like, ah, man,
I only gave eighty percent on that play, you know,
and they look at the film and the great players
will look at it and say, Okay, I'm going to
(15:28):
get better. The average players will look at it and say, oh,
I'm all good.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It's good. You know, I didn't make the play with
us all right.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Oh, But Steve said, and.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
That's my opinion, but it's true because the way I
look at it, in my experience coaching and playing there
are guys. There are guys who play football, and then
they are football players. They sound the same, but they're
entirely different because you have guys on a roster who.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Just happy makes to see which one is with exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I'm happy to be here. They give me a uniform.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
I get a chance to tell my mom and my dad,
I'm playing on Sundays. But those guys playing football, yes,
those guys who are playing football. But when we talk
football players, football players hate losing.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
They hate it so much that they're going to.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Go out and if they have to snatch some collars,
there's gonna be some furniture moving in this place to
make sure that we when we get on the field,
we actually produce. Now, are the Broncos to that point
where they need to do that? No?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Could they if they would?
Speaker 6 (16:36):
Yes, And I've been in situations watching film with Mike
Shanahan where we lost.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
There's no individual meetings, no, no, no.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Everyone's going to watch the meeting together and he's going
to ask the coach what you're doing and he's gonna
ask you, what are you doing? Is that what we teach?
And someone better answer that question or it's gonna be
firing brimstone. I'm just telling you that's what it was
like on the Mike Shanahea and that's why we got
the ship.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Could the Broncos use a little of that?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Yes, yes, yes, indeed you as a ship, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yes, looking over to could you know the sales boat?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I don't know yet, yeship, So you keep doing it
catching me off hard now too. I'm not quite certain
what I'm hearing over here, but you're telling me it's
not a tiered system, right. We're not looking for the
players to see what the coaches are asking them to do.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
It.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's like self motivating, self perpetuating, right. It has to
come from within from a lot of different indiviewes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I think so.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
And but also they have to really understand what their
responsibilities are and what the coaches are asking of them.
And the coaches have to be blatantly clear on what
they expect you to do on certain plays, and if
they're not, then it may not happen.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It may not happen.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
We have to complete with the glittering smile of these
two in studio tonights, We've got questions for Nick and
Steve text Us five sixty six nine zero. What's the
bright spot of the Denver Broncos moving forward? This is
Broncos Country Tonight KOA eight fifty AM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Welcome back Broncos Country Tonight.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Bremasedist Nick Ferguson Steve Atwater in the house listen. I
was waiting for a different drop with that song to
happen before I jumped.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I was waiting as well. But it didn't drop.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It didn't, and so I feel like there's this part
of me that uh didn't die inside.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
But I'm just like, ah, there was a precipice that
I was waiting for and it didn't happen. To nobody's
fault of their own. I just assumed incorrectly, cause.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Do you know do you do? You know the group?
Speaker 6 (18:58):
Wait, you know Steve, Steve, I know you don't do
a lot of movies, but I know you do music
though that that was.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
But there's different genres of music, and I don't listen
to the genre.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, we learned it's explicitly violent, That's right.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
What we learned espeically.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was that was queen Okay, yes, doesn't.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Mean nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Try Nick, though Queen Elizabeth oh yeah, yeah, relatively. No,
not Queen Elizabeth, but I guess she was probably a
musician at one point too.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Right, Royalty get to practice to be totally.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
Honest really quickly about the Royalty in London, Like they
have no power. Really, they're just like a figurehead, just
like a group of people that the whole idea of
what they do as far as monarch just kind of
died long ago.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They got a little but they got.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
To make part of it.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Has a little more power than them to my understanding,
but they're like a figurehead. Like everyone goes to London
because they want to see bucking in Palace.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Right, that's why to like when Nick shows up next
time in Great Britain, he's going to be like surrounded
by the mounted.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I don't think it's like the mafia.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Said I'm not going to plan to take any trips
over to the UK and time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So well you heard it, hear your first Nick Ferguson
is not crossing the pond to go on vacation. I'm
talking a little bit about you know, mindset of going
into games.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We were talking off the air and I wanted to
bring that conversation on and uh, Steve, I want you
to put your coach hat on. With the defense playing well,
there's still the opportunity for penalties to sort of be.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The ugly bear that rears its head.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We were talking about PJ Locke and the unnecessary roughness
call that was accompanied by you know, laundry as it us,
but the frustration after the fact.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Can you walk me through how you would talk to PJ,
the advice you would give him for a circumstance like that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Well, just first off, love, no hate.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
We don't want the penalty, and I'm sure PJ didn't
want the penalty either, but it happened. Now, let's not
compound that. Let's hey realize that we made a mistake
and next time try to do it a little bit
differently and move on from that.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
All right, Let's not make a big big deal out
of it.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
And I think that PJ will be fine next time
and hopefully this doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
But he we back in the day that that it
would have been legal, Yeah, exactly, not today. And you know,
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I loved it. You know, I'm sure Nick loved it too.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But you can't do that nowadays.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
See now, John running in the league. Off is going
to give you that fresh FedEx packet. It's gonna cost
you a couple of grand but usually that's what happened.
But it's different now as far as the elevated finds
that guys received.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
But I understand why PJ. Lot was upset.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
I also understand why coach Sean Payton was upset as well,
because once again, the ideas putting your team in a
good position to win. You want guys to be play fast,
you want them to play physical, and you want them
to play aggressive.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
But the key thing is smart. I want you to
make smart decisions.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
And knowing how things are officiated now in the league,
you have to be consciously aware of it and keep
this in mind too as well. There was once a
guy who donned the Broncos uniform last season that became
the eye of the league office and was fined frequently.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
So the one thing is you do not want to
walk in those shoes because I can easily see this
happening when you go into a game. The next game,
the Bronco is going to play against Tampa Bay. I
wouldn't be surprised if a coach for Tampa Bay went
to an offishal and say, hey, you want to watch
number six.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
I don't know, because he hasn't historically been that type
of player need to He's not that. But what I
can say on the positive side is he's always been
very ball conscious of you know, punching balls out, getting
his helmet on football is causing turnovers and.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I don't want that to stop.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
I don't want that to stop.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I just want him to just know that, hey, every
now and then, it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
It's a mistake. Hey, no big deal, No big deal,
keep playing the way you play.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Well, that's my worry too, with the penalties of mounting insurmounting,
because you recall Kareem Jackson having to have that mark
over his head, there's an idea of well he'll have
to change the way that he plays. Well, we didn't
see that happen, and I think Steve Aphutter and Nick
Ferguson would agree, you're not.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Changing the way that you play. You're going to continue
to play at that speed.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah. Absolutely, And again he all the last year. I
don't I don't think he had a.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
A uns fenalty.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
You know, again, he's very bad conscious, he's trying to
make create turnovers and get the ball back for the offense,
and he'll get back to that. He I don't think
it'll be I don't think this would be an ongoing problem.
I don't have a problem with the effort.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
It's just, you know, the reaction afterwards, based on where
the team was offensively and what they were trying to do.
That's the only thing that makes you upset as a coach.
And now when you know your offense is struggling, you
don't want to compound things and make things worse. But
also too, you don't want to take the aggressiveness away
from defensive players. To me, you never want to do
(24:50):
They just hey, man, let's look at the play. What
could we have done better, And let's just try to
go out there and do it better next time.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I don't think I don't think it'll be a problem.
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I don't think it'll be a problem either. I'm looking
forward to it. The defense have done so well, the
secondary has been performing and producing quite well. How have
the young guns been doing?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Locke Brandon Jones about coming in and sort of having
to make up the difference with the loss of the
old guard.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Well, I would say they've done quite well thus far,
and having given up many big plays. We had the
one play a week ago where the receivers was kind
of over I'm not sure whose responsibility that was. I'm
not sure if that was on Alex Singleton or what.
I couldn't I didn't really see it from the whole
(25:40):
twenty two view, but I think they're doing a really
good job. I think that they've picked up where the team.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Left off last year.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
I think the leadership is great now. I think Pastor
Tan is one of those leaders. He's had to become
a little bit more vocal because he's the playmaker. Playmakers
you're assume leaders, and he and Alex single And I
think are the guys who are kind of leading that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And I think PJ.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Lock may be up in that conversation as well because
he's playing well and I think the guys will look
up to him, especially the younger guys.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Well, I've enjoy watching them play collectively because you got
to think about this other than PS two, the entire
secondary is they're all new guys. And even though PJ.
Locke had some opportunity to play last year after Kareem
Jackson had those suspensions. This is still him stepping too
that role as a full time starter. You bring in
(26:32):
Jones to as well and add Riley Moss. I think
they have played well. Is can they play better as coaches?
And you always look at it that way. They they
can play much better.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
I thought Brandon Jones first game he was off a
little bit, but that's to be expected because first time.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
He didn't play well exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Now he played well.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I thought he played well, really well this last game.
Well I did.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
There was one point when he came down on Justin
Fields when Fields kind of escaped the pocket, and I
thought it was going to be a hit pointer for
Justin Field. Is the way that you know Jones came
down and hit him, but you know Fields continued to play.
But this is what you want your safety to be
able to tackle in the open field. Now. The one
thing that we have not seen that we saw last year,
(27:16):
if you want to make that comparison. Last year, Justice
Simmons made a lot of key plays to far as
takeaways to kind of help spark some kind of offensive play.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Right now, they're not having that now.
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Maybe somewhere down the line, I'm going to say it
may happen this week, then that may be something to
kind of turn things around for the defense as well.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
On that end, So Nick is predicting a couple of turnovers,
maybe some pick sixes, so anything to spur the offense
and some points will react to that. Afterwards from the
KWA Traffic Center, here's Dave O'Brien Welcome back Broncos Country
Tonight freemaistist Nick Ferguson Steve Atwater.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Nick, I thought you're going to unmute, and like.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
What I was going to do that.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
I think this was r EM and I don't know
the name of the song, but they go really fast
with the lyrics, and I wasn't gonna mess them up
because I still don't know the lyrics of the song.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So you could just hum really quickly and vigorously.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
It was gonna work.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Okay, well that's fine, it wasn't gonna work. You already
sold yourself short. But next time, I challenge you, see
whatever you want, play, call whatever you want, so that
we all stand around looking very confused at each other
inside the huddle here at the studio, I think is
going on.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (28:33):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Why is this thirty words long? I digress, though. That
was just a nice little punch there that I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Take before I moved into the next conversation that I
wanted to have because I wanted to ask two of
the most talented defensive backs I've ever seen play. If
you're a buccaneer's a dB watching Bonux last two weeks,
how are you attacking this offense this upcoming Sunday.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Well, I think.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
They'll probably who the same thing that the Seattle Seahawks did.
That's give a myriad of different looks and pressures, and
then they you bring pressure. Sometimes sometimes you don't. But
I think they'll show him multiple looks and mostly pressure looks.
I'm sorry, not multiple a lot of pressure. You're gonna
(29:20):
show a lot of pressure, but sometimes you're bringing sometimes
they won't.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Well, I'll say this.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Todd Bows was my DV coach with the Jets, and
the one thing that he learned being around Bill Parcells
it was pressure. And the pressure doesn't always come in
the form of Okay, well we're gonna bring an extra linebacker.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
You don't really have to do that. The Broncos have
struggled to run the ball.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
So if I'm Todd, he's probably telling this team, look,
we're not going to concern ourselves with the Broncos running
the ball. I want you to get up feel on
every single play like it's third and ten, right, because.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Idea is to get after bow Nicks.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
He is still a rookie, so make his life as
miserable as you can possibly make it.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I like it, and I want to switch it to
the other side now, right, what is the Broncos defense.
We were talking about how well they've been performing. What
about those pressures from the Bronco's edge. You got Jonah Ellis,
you know, has one sack, but Jonathan Cooper has two.
You start combining those together, giving a little bit of
a I don't know, momentum towards the quarterback. You teach
Baker Mayfield a lesson this Sunday and the Broncos have
(30:27):
a chance at winning. How important is applying pressure to
the quarterback going to be?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well?
Speaker 5 (30:32):
I think every game at certain points that it's important.
But I think solid defense is first thing you got
to do is stop the run. And I know that
bo Nicks will be seeing the running back that he
used to hand the ball off too at Oregon on
(30:54):
the other side of the ball. Oh, Bucky, Bucky Irving. Amen,
he's a ball player. He's a ballplayer. So I would
say the first thing we got to do is stop
the run. And VJ already he puts pressure on people
who gives us give them various looks as well, and
I think we'll have to do the same thing because
(31:16):
you know, Baker Mayfield, he's been throwing the ball well.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But you know we can change that.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Yeah, absolutely, Well, I'll say this about Baker. I mean
week one, Baker was you know, I would say vintage Baker.
But week two against the Detroit Lions, they were able
to do a lot against the Bucks. When you look
at Baker one inception one touchdown, twelve and nineteen. And
I was telling you guys just before the break, this
(31:43):
is where I believe the Broncos could get their first
win of the season, because against the Detroit Lions, the
Bucks were two for ten on third down and they
were one for two inside the red zone. Now, does
that mean that the Broncos will have to play exactly
at the Detroit Lions played ats Freko loutely can they
do that. They do have the ability to do that,
(32:06):
but they have to believe inside the building that they
can go down in Tampa and get their first w.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Of the season.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Yeah, and it's it's gonna be a partner that they
have the right mindset too. You can't worry about if
you're on the road or at home, you're wherever it is.
You gotta have that mindset that, hey, we're fighters, and
uh we can fight wherever. We can fight in the backyard,
we can fight an alley.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Oh well, I love it. Knockout, drag out fights. Right,
No throwing helmets, but throwing something.
Speaker 6 (32:35):
But here's the bigger thing that hopefully the Broncos defensive
players are looking at. The Bucks gave up five sacks
against the Detroit Lions. Yeah, if I'm them, I'm licking
my chops and I'm saying, well, I'm challenging the group.
Who's going to be the first guy to get the
first one, the first gut to get the first one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I put money on some Zach Allen action just because
I like what I've been seeing from him.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, Zach's been bawling.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
I'm gonna put my money on joan Ellis if he starts,
I put my money on j joon elis.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Such a talented young man, so talented.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That was one of the guys I picked it earlier
in the season to have a great year.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, absolutely, as your you know, as your pre off
season m v P stellar And he can only just
go up from there, guys, real quickly before we go
to break Bonnicks leading rusher third week in a row,
seems pretty can't have.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Our quarterback as as our leading rusher.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
And I'm sure you know Javonte he wants to, wants to,
wants to get that ball even more. I'm thinking Javant
is gonna gonna look like he's looked in the past
this week, uh and have a good game. I'm looking
forward to him hopefully having a hundred one hundred plus
yards Russian.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I'm looking forward to it too.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
It's gonna be tough, it's not gonna be up there.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
And nothing worth happening is easy at that. But we'll
we'll talk about how Nicks, how Nicks gets.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
His bojo back here on Broncos Country Tonight a KA
eight fifty AM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah,
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