09-19-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with Zach Segars

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Broncos Country, and welcome in for some more post
Rockies Late Night Broncos Country. Tonight Rockies on the quest
to avoid history, fingers crossed for them that they could,
you know, add some more wins to that total, make
it look a little better before season's and got a

(00:22):
lot of exciting NFL action happening this week. Broncos in
a battle for AFC West supremacy, got the Colorado Buffalo's
playing a bunch of a great college football slate all
up and down, honestly, And we'll get to that in
a second. First, though, I want to start with the
Broncos and some of the doom and gloom stuff I'm

(00:43):
seeing around Broncos Country right now. And I'm I'm I'm
normally fairly pessimistic myself, you know. I've I was on
the Drew lock Isn't good and good bandwagon, I was
on the Russell Wilson should be cut early bandwagon, I
was on the Hey I'll say I was wrong, and
I was on the fire George Payton bandwagon. Right Like,

(01:06):
I tend to be a little pessimistic about things, but
there's no need to be freaking out at this point
with the Denver Broncos. I see I heard our very
own Ben all Bright, and I think he was joking.
It was a little to tongue in cheek. But T
mentioned the other day on Koe Sports how people might

(01:27):
feel differently about this team if they go six and
eleven this year. I think that's such a far cry
from where this team is and what to expect from
this season. And we're early on, so you know, the
sample size is small, but I think there's still some
very very promising signs with this team that keep me

(01:47):
from being concerned for starters they've been. This isn't new
for the Sean Payton Broncos. They've been here each of
the last two seasons, and in each of the last
two seasons. It was even worse. In twenty twenty three, right,

(02:09):
they not only do they have the seventy to twenty
loss to the Dolphins, which really is probably the worst
loss or worst defensive performance excuse me in NFL history,
you have a bad, painful loss to the Jimmy Garoppolo
and Josh McDaniel's Raiders, that marriage that blew up halfway
through the season and had Raiders players celebrating smoking cigars

(02:32):
in the locker room. The Broncos lost at home to
that team lost at home to the Sam Howell Commanders
because they choked away a massive lead. Right, you have
the Dolphins game. They barely beat a very bad Bears team,
barely beat them. They get smoked by the Zach Wilson
Jets at home thirty one to twenty one, lose to

(02:53):
the Chiefs by multiple possessions nineteen to eight. I mean,
they were one and five and their only win was
a nail bider, again a bad Bears team, and at
one in five they have a pretty solid Packers team
coming to town. That that's the spot they were in
two years ago. They wind up getting red hot, winning

(03:13):
a lot of games in a row, beating great teams
like the Bills up on the road in prime time,
and almost making the playoffs. They collapsed a bit down
the stretch that the Russell Wilson thing didn't last. The
balloon popped, but they were in the playoff hunt in
late December after a one in five start with the

(03:35):
Packers come into town last year. Instead of being one
in one going to an undefeated team in Week three,
they were zero to two going to an undefeated team
in Week three and an undefeated team that actually had
some pelts on the wall. The Bucks had just taken
down the Lions in Detroit. The Bucks also actually have
a home field advantage for bo Nicks also had looked

(03:57):
completely lost. He looked like maybe he did not belong
in the NFL. It was awful those first two weeks.
For all the reasons you might feel down about the Broncos. Now,
there were a million more to think the season was
cooked this time last year they wind up making the playoffs,
and I would say the outlook for this team, like

(04:17):
what's coming down the pipe is not that concerning. This
Chargers game is tough, absolutely, but even Vegas will tell
you in LA, where the Chargers probably have a one
point or so home field advantage, this is a two
and a half point spread. There's only three games this
weekend that Vegas thinks is closer. After that, you get
the Jake Browning Bengals at home. I think, I mean,

(04:41):
I know, we just saw what David Duds did. I
think the defense feasts in that game. You get the
Eagles on the road. That's very tough, but the Eagles
offense doesn't look overly impressive, right now I would pick
the Eagles in that game. I probably will pick the
Eagles in that game. But it's not an unsurmountable task
for the Broncos to win that. You get the Jets,

(05:02):
who look deeply troubled right now, to say the least,
you get the Giants, you get the Cowboys after that.
I mean, as long as you let's say you lose
to the Chargers, you lose to the Eagles, you lose
those hard games coming up, we'll just mark them down
as losses. But say you beat the Bengals, you beat
the Justin Fields Jets, you beat the Russell Wilson Giants.

(05:24):
I don't think any of these are reaches. You're looking
at a three and three team through six weeks. That's fine.
With a game against the Cowboys coming up. You win that.
With before and three, you got the zero to two Texans,
You've got the Raiders. This is not a difficult hole
to climb out of. You know, even if they sit

(05:45):
at one and four they lose, the worst case scenario happens,
they lose to the Chargers, they lose to the Bengals,
they lose to the Eagles, they can still climb out
of that hole pretty quickly with games against the Jets, Giants,
and Cowboys all in a row. I mean, none of
those teams look legit right now. And the Texans that'll
be a slugfest with how good that Texans defense looks.

(06:08):
But that offense looks just as bad as it was
last year, if not worse. They don't have the run game,
frankly that they had last year, somehow worse. That's a
winnable game. Raiders at home, super winnable, Chiefs at home.
After that, super winnable Commanders, Raiders again, Packers, Jaguars, Chiefs, Chargers.

(06:29):
I mean, that's the whole schedule. Where are the games
in there? Probably the Chargers and the Packers, and I
guess the Eagles that you go ooh, that's really tough.
And even still the Chargers being one of the very
toughest teams left on that slate, why can't the Broncos
beat them early? Split that series with them? You know,
Vegas is telling you it's darn near a coin flip

(06:51):
with that line. Packers at home is gonna be tough,
Eagles on the road gonna be very tough. But there's
a wide path here for the Broncos to come back.
And it's not like this is a bad team either.
I feel like people were acting like like that. That
Colts game was really sucky to watch. But if you
look at the numbers, they would tell you this Broncos

(07:14):
defense is actually still an elite unit in terms of
EPA per play they ranked sixth. Teams ahead of them
the Cardinals, who've played the Saints and Panthers, you know,
and then a post a good defenses, the Rams, the Packers,
the forty nine ers all looked great this year. Broncos

(07:34):
are third in success rate, meaning they're putting opponents behind
the sticks on one of the highest rates of anybody
in the league. They're allowing a thirty seven percent success rate.
Two out of three plays against this defense, star near
are unsuccessful against the passing game. They're a top ten
defense still, even after they just got flayed by Daniel Jones,

(07:57):
and part of that's because of how dominant their Week
one is against the rush. There's still a top five
defense even with Jonathan Taylor running all over them and
dicing them up. And some of that is, you know
the old adage, the tapes never you know when you
go in after a game, you watch the tape the
next day. It's never as bad as you think it's
going to be. It's never as good as you think

(08:18):
it's going to be. Always always kind of finds its
way towards the middle. You think you had a great performance,
you find some flaws, some things that were ugly, that
didn't go well, that that were kind of muted during
the game, and vice versa. And I think for his
pain was that game was as ugly as the defense looked.
You know, they still pressure Daniel Jones at one of

(08:38):
the highest rates of anybody in the league. You go
back and look, there's tight coverage on a lot of
those completions. Linebackers got picked on a lot, but a
lot of the stuff to the outside there was good coverage,
Like probably Moss said, good coverage on a lot of
those plays downfield. One was bad, but you saw ja
Jade Barron, you know, still has yet to allow a
completion win targeted. I think the defense is better than

(09:04):
people feel it is right now, in part because I
think the Colts are just a good offense and kind
of a matchup nightmare with all the athleticism they have
at tight end and running back. In the Broncos beat
up linebacker room right now, and also because of recency bias.
But by no means is this a bad defense. Maybe
it's not going to be best defense in the league

(09:24):
like many hoped. The linebacker problem again, it's a real one.
But this is a very good top ten to top
five caliber defense, and I think they're going to be
a problem for almost any team they go up against.
And on the flip side, I think their offense is
promising this run game with a lot of new pieces.

(09:48):
I think this is a run game that probably goes
better as the season goes on. RJ. Harvey gets more incorporated,
game slows down for him a bit, he the hit
rate for him gets better and better. They're still an
above average run game anyway you look at it. They're
fifteenth in terms of VPA, I think the thirteenth in
terms of success ray, so they're a solid down to

(10:10):
down run game. They're also leading the league in terms
of explosive carries right now that was not present at
all last year. A lot of that's JK. Dobbins. He's
been a great find through the first two weeks. And RJ. Harvey,
you know, he did not have a great game against
the Colts, but so many of his carries against the

(10:30):
Titans were great, like just excellent, and the Titans are
a better run defending front than the Colts. I think
if he did that against the Titans, there's no reason
to think he can't do it again against lesser competition.
And I think the Colts qualify as that. I think
the Chargers qualify as that, and certainly the Bengals next

(10:52):
week will so I would not be selling my RJ.
Harvey stock. And most importantly, the passing game last week
looked fan fantastic. I think, you know, we can pick
knits about how we'd like it to be better, then
there's some fairness to that. But by again, any metric
you want, oh, I shouldn't say any metric is pff.

(11:13):
Somehow graded bo Nicks is the worst quarterback in the
league last week, which is beyond baffling. I don't I
can't even begin to understand how you arrive at that conclusion.
I don't watch every snap of every quarterback, but I'll
watch the primetime games. I'll watch the early slate before
the Broncos are on, and I saw quarterbacks play with
JJ McCarthy for example, just off the top of my head,

(11:35):
but undeniably I think worse and like just about every
facet of quarterbacking how I mean, just so puzzle Caleb
Williams throwing Drew Locke interceptions out there into like quadruple coverage.
What are we doing here? Bo Nicks's only interception was
deflected at the line of scrimmage. Just again beyond baffling

(11:55):
to me, but by any I guess objective measure, because
PFF grading is objective, any objective measure you want to
look at. Bo Nix was great last week, you know,
one of the best. I think he's sixth in EPA
per dropback, had a drop back success rate over fifty percent,
which is remarkable. I mean, that's like flamethrower stuff, and

(12:18):
people will throw out the passing chart and highlight the
low A dot and that stuff's true. Like, it wasn't
a lot of high difficulty throws outside the bomb downfield.
To Franklin, it was a lot of fairly easy throws.
That's fine, right, Like you don't need bo Knicks doing
trick shots out there yet, Like we saw a little
too much of that in Week one. Franklin and it's

(12:39):
why it was so bad. Just take what Sean Payton
dials up for this offense. It's going to be there.
And I think look no further than last week. It
was all underneath stuff, and the offense was wildly explosive
and productive, and it would have been even more so.
I think if Nix was a little more aggressive, held
the ball a little longer in some points where you know,

(13:00):
some receivers got open downfield, you know, second after he
throws the check down, or they're open down field and
he doesn't see them. He's you know, maybe he already
passed them in the progression or whatever else. But but
there are some open, explosive opportunities downfield. I think that
is one thing for him to start exploiting. But again

(13:20):
we're picking knits. He was wildly productive, and I think
it's important to not lose sight of the productivity. You know,
the quarterback rankings and you know who is he a
top five guy? Is he a top ten guy? That
stuff's important and it's fun to debate. But at the

(13:40):
end of the day, if you're producing like a top
five quarterback, top three quarterback, who cares if you're labeled
a system guy. You know, it's not going to change
anything for the Broncos until maybe, like really late in
the playoffs, when people are throwing some crazy game plans out,
and then you know, can Nick's pivot to do stuff

(14:01):
beyond the system? Like again down the road, it can
become part of the conversation. But week to week at
this point, Week two, week three, if you're producing at
a very high level, if you're one of the most
productive quarterbacks in the league, I mean, who cares? Who
cares how fancy it looks. I just I don't think
it matters, And especially after a week one that I

(14:22):
think brought up a lot of anxiety. Seeing that bounce
back performance from him was huge before we hit the brake.
I want to talk about this SeeU game tomorrow. I
have an article up on the website right now, make
sure you check it out. Big thing I want to
see from the Buffs to try and bounce back against Wyoming,
and they should bounce back. They have the talent. I

(14:45):
don't love them to cover that two touchdown spread, but
I do think they will win the game. I just
think Pat Shermer and Deon Sanders have to embrace the
cadence Salter offense. He's by far the best quarterback on
that roster right now, and the only reason it's a
debate is because the other two guys are better fits
for what Pat Shermer wants to do Stobb and Julian Lewis.

(15:07):
And that's great, but the talent disparity is so great now, Like,
it's not on the quarterbacks to be more ready for
Pat Shermer at this point, they are way behind stob Is.
I just don't think he's good enough. And Juju is
not even eighteen yet, you know, he's not ready for

(15:28):
this spot. And all of that is okay. Caden Salter
is the Buff's best option right now to win football games,
and he really hasn't looked bad. You know. He kept
the Buffs against the in it against the Georgia Tech
team that took down Clemson. He led scoring drives against
Delaware and then was benched and stop just caught fired

(15:49):
and he didn't get to re enter the game. But
when they have embraced the quarterback run game around Caden
Salter rather than trying to make him play like Shador Sanders,
that's when this offense has looked at its best this season.
You know, you can't just air it out. You're gonna
have to commit to the run game. But it's going
to be effective when you commit to it. With this
quarterback run game, We've already seen it in flashes. It's

(16:12):
on to Pat Shermer to make that adjustment. That's my
parting thoughts as we enter maybe a potential trap game
for CU if they do get trapped, Pat Shermer is
going to be sitting on a very, very very hot seat.
Now that we got that Buffs preview out of the way,
I'm gonna hit you with some Broncos Chargers preview coming

(16:33):
up in the next segment. Stick around for that right
here on Broncos Country Tonight on KOA. Welcome back to
another late night fill in edition of Broncos Country Tonight,
once again filling in for Nick Ferguson and Benjamin Albright.

(16:55):
It's Sacks Seegers excited for this weekend's game. I know
there's a lot of doom and gloom and Broncos Country,
I think surprisingly so I definitely want to dive into that,
but I'm excited for this week in of football. I
think the Broncos matchup fairly well with the Chargers. I
think that'll be a solid game, and the rest of
the NFL slate's pretty good. Buffs have a big game

(17:17):
against Wyoming. I think they are almost two touchdown betting favorites.
I would not feel that confident in them, but it's
nice to see Vegas has that confidence. I think it's good.
It seems they're returning to Caden Salter, but we'll talk
more about that in the next segment. Along with I

(17:38):
think this great slate of college football games, as we've
got three ranked matchups again this week, we're really getting
into the thick of things. We've got conference matchups starting up.
Excited to watch that, but starting with the battle for
AFC West supremacy Broncos at the Chargers, I think that's
a great place to start. And this really put the

(18:00):
Broncos in the driver's seat of the AFC, not only
giving them the tiebreaker over the Chargers, but you know
this would be them winning their road game against the Chargers.
When the Chiefs lost their opportunity to play the Chargers
on the road, even though it was down in Brazil,
that qualified as a Chargers home game, and frankly, from
what I've heard, the Chargers might have had more of

(18:20):
a home field advantage there than they typically do in
Los Angeles. The Chiefs had to take a two or
three hour bus ride from their hotel to this stadium,
as opposed to the Chargers, who had much simpler accommodations
as part of their home field advantage. The Chargers will
not have that home field advantage this Sunday. Of course,
the Broncos will have to travel, but so far not

(18:45):
known for getting filled with Chargers fans or being a
noise advantage. It might even have a lot of orange,
but that doesn't mean the Broncos will be able to
pull the upset this week. They're going to be down,
at least it seems they'll be down. Evan Ingram, who
didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday, and then Drake Greenlaw. You know,
Sean Payne's been coy about his injury, very very close

(19:08):
to the vest, and maybe there's a reason for that,
and maybe he could surprise and play on Sunday. I'd
be concerned if they weren't having him practice all week,
and with you know, with this quad injury and then
going zero to sixty, I mean that's a way to
potentially re agg faith injury or set him back even more,
and I get wanting him back for this one. I

(19:30):
think it's going to be a key matchup for this
game is how do those linebackers bounce back after an
ugly game against the Colts, because Jim Harbaugh's offense really
targets those linebackers and goes after him. Last year in
that final game, the Chargers win at those linebackers either
than the run game or in the pass game relentlessly,
and when they went to them in the past game,

(19:52):
they only had a single incompletion. So I think that's
going to be a huge matchup. Get why you want
Drake Greenlae in it for this one, but I think
it's more important you get him back healthy, you get
him back right, and you have him for hopefully a
long stretch of games, you know, over the last few
months of the season, as opposed to rushing him back
and then you know, all of a sudden, it's another

(20:14):
multi week setback. Hopefully he is ready to go, though,
because that would be a game changer, I think, especially
as it relates to the passing game. I mean, he's
a much better coverage player, a rangy player than Alex
Singleton or Justin ster Not. Speaking of those linebackers, it

(20:35):
looks like Alex Singleton will be fully ready to go.
Justine star Not is trending towards playing with his foot injury,
but you know, we'll have to continue to monitor that situation.
And then some good news for the Broncos is the
return of Nate Adkins. You know, I think it's easy
to overlook him. He's been fairly low on the depth chart,

(20:56):
but he is the best blocker in that tight end room,
and in this game where the Broncos need to establish
the run early, having that presence is going to be valuable.
Sean Payton loves deploying him and using him as this
little know mismatched player that this offensive Swiss Army knife,
and I think having him back will be a surprisingly

(21:16):
valuable boost to the offense. And again, they need it.
This is a huge game. On the Chargers end of things.
It looks like they'll be down Will Disley and Elijah Moulden,
who are you know, not star players, but in Moulden
is pretty important to their defense, and Will Disley plays

(21:38):
a role on their offense. Not that dissimilar to what
I was just talking about with Nate Adkins. Cam Hart,
another one of their cornerbacks. We'll see it seems like
he might play, but that'll we'll have a better idea
on Sunday. I know there was some hope in Broncos
country that they wouldn't have to deal with burgeoning superstars
Dione Henley and lad McConkey. It looks like that's not

(22:00):
going to happen. Henley's dealing with the illness. He managed
to play on Monday night after not practicing at all
in Week two. I doubt he would miss Week three,
and we've already seen him start to come back to practice.
You figure he's close to fully healthy come that Broncos game,
which will make him a real concern. He is one

(22:21):
of the best linebackers in the league already, and then
you know mconkie goes without saying he's their best receiver
without him, I don't know how much pressure they can
put on the Broncos, but McConkey is going to be
a problem. You know, he's going to Hopefully Sirtan can
bounce back from that Colts game and take mconkey out
of the game plan. That would be big for the Broncos.

(22:44):
Getting that injury talk out of the way, let's talk
about some of the big keys to the game. I
think there's three that I want to highlight. First off,
you need a slow justin Herbert's hot streak down because
right now, the man is a human flame thrower. He
is by far the most efficient quarterback in the league.

(23:06):
If you want to look at EPA per play, the
Chargers passing game is the best in the league. They're
creating explosive plays, They're great down to down there. Their
down to down success rate right now is an absolutely
ridiculous fifty eight percent, fifty eight point nine percent. The
Colts are second in the NFL at fifty six point nine,

(23:28):
you know, and we just saw what they did to
the Broncos. So the Broncos can't allow Herbert to do
what Daniel Jones just did to him. And you know,
he's a much better quarterback. This offense has been humming
to a similar extent, at least in the passing game.
And you know, if he gets going, it's going to

(23:48):
be very difficult for the Broncos to hang in this game. Now,
if they can can slow him down, you know you're
not going to make him look like they made cam
Ward look in Week one. But if if they can
just slow that Chargers passing game down, the offense might
grind to a halt. They are three. Although they are

(24:08):
the best passing offense in the league, they're the second
worst thirty first overall rushing offense in the league. They
just haven't had to lean on that run game at
all because Justin Herbert's been playing out of his dang mind.
If this Broncos secondary and pass rush plays up to,

(24:29):
you know, the level the team has invested in them,
the level people were expecting to see from them this
season and even saw from them in Week one, I
think this game lines up pretty well for the Broncos.
Now if it looks like we just saw against the Colts, man,
it's going to be tough to hang in a shootout
against this team because this Chargers passing defense is gnarly.

(24:52):
It's gonna be a real challenge for bo Nicks. So
to just hang in this game, defense has to show
up and present a real challenge to Justin Herbert. You know,
credit where it's due. The pass rush did get home
against the Colts. I think they should all get home
again against the Chargers. Joe All looks great at left tackle,
but the rest of that line is pretty unimpressive. I

(25:15):
think you can create some pressure, create some heat. We
saw a lackluster Chiefs pass rush do it in Week one.
Raiders even managed to do it some and they don't
have a whole lot outside Max Frosby and Malcolm Koontz.
I think the Broncos can get after Herbert some in
this one like they did the Colts. It's just going
to come down to can the coverage be better? And

(25:38):
you know, granted, Daniel Jones made a lot of hard,
hard throws, like high difficulty throws. He was he was
placing the ball accurately. You know, he went after the
linebackers where the gaps and coverage were consistently. But you know,
Herbert can do all those things too at a very
high level. So it's it's going to be a great
test for this Broncos defense. Can they work around some

(25:59):
of the linebacker can those linebackers bounce back or you know,
even if they do have some of those same linebacker problems,
are they able to put together a better defensive effort overall?
You know, you don't have to worry about this run
game in the same level you do, Jonathan Taylor. You know,
I saw how damaging that was last week. Outside of that,

(26:21):
my keys for the game are all on offense. I
mostly trust this defense to bounce back. I do think
that Chargers passing attack could present a real problem, much
like the Colts did, but Broncos are built to give
offenses like that a hard time. It didn't happen last week.
I feel like it should happen this season more times

(26:42):
than not. The offense, though, and they're coming off a
great game last week. The Colts defense, though, is also
very vulnerable down there, only good cornerback down their best
pass rusher. This Chargers defense, they are down Khlilnack, so
admittedly that's somewhat similar. The pass rush for the Chargers
isn't overly threatening, at least on paper, but they've been

(27:04):
a nightmare to deal with. You know, for Geno Smith
and Patrick Mahomes, who are two veteran quarterbacks. I know
Broncos country doesn't think that highly of Geno Smith, but
he's good at throwing the ball downfield typically, and we
saw him shred a Patriots defense in Week one on
those downfield throws goes against the Chargers and couldn't do anything.
Their average depth of target that they're allowing is under

(27:28):
four yards. They are refusing to let teams attack them downfield,
forcing you to nickel and dime your way down the field.
And I think you can really suffocate the Broncos offense
if the Broncos play into that. You know, they've nickel
and dimed a lot with bo Nicks. You know, the
checkdown critiques and everything have come out, and there'll be

(27:52):
some of that this week, certainly, But bo Nicks has
to has to pull the trigger. He has to be
more aggressive on those downfield shots this week when the
windows present themselves, because he's not going to get many.
This Chargers team does not allow many explosive opportunities. This
Bronco's offense so far has the least explosive passing place
tied for the least in the entire NFL. You know,

(28:15):
you don't have to be the twenty nineteen Chiefs out
there just going bombs away up and down the field.
But to hang with this justin Herbert passing attack, the
Broncos are going to have to find some explosives in
the passing game. And so when those moments present themselves,
bow has to be aggressive, more aggressive than he's been
the first two weeks. I should say last week. He

(28:36):
was probably overly aggressive in Week one, trying to do
some trick shots and whatnot. But you saw last week
there are open receivers downfield, or receivers that open up
a split second after bow Nick settles for the checkdown,
and it's like, oh, you've got good pass protection. We
know how good this line is at pass blocking. They
could stand to improve his run blockers, but they are

(28:59):
arguing the best pass protection group in the league. So
bou should feel comfortable hanging in there. He's also a
tough guy. He's a tougher quarterback. Hang in there, and
you know, try and deliver that downfield shot. Be patient,
hang on that split second longer to see if it
develops and opens up, rather than just settling for the
two three yard checkdown, because that's how the Chargers want

(29:21):
you to play. They are great at rallying to the ball.
They are one of the best tackling teams in the NFL,
if not the best tackling team in the NFL. They
just do not miss tackles. Then you know, The Broncos
have some exciting options like RJ. Harvey and Marvin Mims,
Troy Franklin who can create some after the catch point.
But you can't just live that way. You can't survive

(29:44):
solely on that. To hang with this Chargers team, to
pull the upset, they're gonna have to find exposures in
the passing game. He's going and we saw it on
the touchdown to Mims last week. Like that touchdown pass
to Mims was an aggressive shot. He bat on his
guy to make a play, threw it up there, guy
makes a play, it's a touchdown. Need a little bit
more of that from bow Knicks this week if the

(30:04):
Broncos do want to knock down the Chargers last one
I want to hit on here. The Broncos really need
to lean hard on their run game, and we saw
it against the Colts. I think that was excellent. You know,
they maybe even could have been a little more run heavy.
I think you could argue, but that was a great
step in the right direction. And for all I said

(30:27):
about the Chargers pass defense, and they are excellent, arguably
the best pass defense in the league. Some metrics do
have them as the best defense pass defense that is
in the league in terms of drop back success rate
they are. They're allowing us drop back success rate of
just thirty seven percent, meaning you know, you're staying ahead

(30:50):
of the sticks on just thirty seven percent of your dropbacks.
Their dropback EPA allowed is seventh, So they're not maybe
created the sacks and the crazy explosives that other pass
defenses are, but down to down, I mean, they are stifling.
They are suffocating, and then that's the A dot and everything.

(31:10):
They are forcing you to play underneath, rallying and tackling,
and it's just so hard to march your way down
the field when two out of every three pass plays
is going to put you behind the six. So you've
got to run the ball, and you can run the
ball on this Chargers defense. For as good as they
are against the past, they are very pedestrian against the run.

(31:34):
They're allowing a rushing EPA per play that ranks fourteenth
in the NFL. The Colts are seventeenth, and that's after
facing a Bronco's rushing offense. That's much more challenging than
what the Chiefs or Raiders can offer up. You know,
the Raiders and Chiefs, right now have some of the
worst rushing attacks in the NFL. Both are comfortably bottom

(31:57):
ten units. And you know, the Broncos rushing offense, I
think we all want to see it improve. It's more middling.
It's not a bad rushing attack, and again, despite that,
they rank very, very similarly to the Colts. The Colts
have played the Broncos rushing attack and a Dolphins attack,
which can say what you will about the Dolphins this year,
Devane Chaine and Ollie Gordon. That looks like a solid backfield.

(32:22):
So the Chargers look very vulnerable against the run and
the Broncos are going to have to attack them there.
Hopefully it opens up some more favorable pass looks, you know,
hopefully it can keep you ahead of the sticks. But
if you're going to beat the Chargers, they have to
have a consistent run game and frankly, an explosive run game.

(32:45):
You have to be able to find explosives there because
the Chargers are not going to give you them downfield. Again,
I know, I said Bo needs to find those opportunities downfield,
and he does, but it's hard. Gino Smith during his
Seahawks starting tenure twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four.
He's one of the five best deep ball quarterbacks in

(33:07):
the NFL by any metric you want to look at.
Look at what the Raiders did to him, or sorry,
what the Chargers did to him on Monday night. Bow
Knicks does not have that resume of throwing the ball deep.
It's going to be hard for him to get away
with that. But I think also in part because he
doesn't have that resume, there might be more opportunities than

(33:28):
the Chargers allowed for Gino Smith. The Chargers are going
to be clamping down and playing all the underneath stuff
because they know that's how Bonix wants to live. I
think they're going to be daring him a little more
to take those deep shots, so he is to find them.
You know, you've got to lean on the run game,
I think for your down to down stability and also
hope to find some explosives there. And then on defense,
you got to stop Justin Herbert. It's a tall order,

(33:51):
but I really think the Broncos can do it. I'm
picking the Broncos this week. Seventeen to sixteen coverage will
are at eight am. Make sure you're tuning into that
coming up next, I'll talk about why Broncos Country shouldn't
be panicking about the Broncos and the Colorado Buffaloes matchup
with the Wyoming Cowboys this Saturday. Stay tuned for that

(34:14):
coming up next right here on Broncos Country tonight on
KOA eight fifty am ninety four one FM