09-27-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to it, Broncos Country Tonight. Benjamin Olibright here
with you. Big show tonight, short show obviously post Rockies edition.
This will be our last post Rockies Edition show of
the season, So myself, Nick Ferguson be coming to you
live for full live shows every night from here on out.
We're super excited about getting back in the swing of
things on that, getting all the great guests that we

(00:21):
have over the course of the week back into their rotations,
all that kind of stuff. We love doing that every year,
so looking forward to getting back to that. Some some
news and notes. Sunday morning, The Orange and Blue Brunch
at eleven am is going to be at Avanti. Those
of you who don't know, it's down there by Course Field,
opposite side of the highway but across from Happy Camper

(00:42):
Avanti Food and Beverage. It's great. I've been there before.
You used to go there all the time. It's it's great,
a good fun place and we're gonna be down there
for the Orange of Blue Brunch from eleven to one,
So come on down to find folks at Don Julio
have a bunch of giveaway type stuff. You guys want
some some freebies that they're giving stuff. As a matter
of fact, they still have I'm sitting here with my
sunglasses that I got from them, So they got they

(01:03):
got all kinds of cool freebie stuff though, Uh that
they'll be given away there and then uh, Monday, Monday Night, myself,
Nick Ferguson, Uh, we'll be following the KI Sports guys
down at the Sporty Pickle Bar and grill the guys.
Let me tell you, this place is fun. Sporty Pickle
is a fun place. A little out of the way,
you know, it's not it's not a foot traffic type place.
A little out of the way, but worth it. It's

(01:24):
it's really cool. It's new inside. They've got great food,
they got fun drinks. Uh. They had TVs everywhere, So
you can't miss any part of Monday Night football and
you know in the game. So when you get on
down there to the Sporty Pickle on Monday, we'll be
down there, Kay Sports be down out of three to six,
we'll be down there six to nine. Myself, Nick Ferguson
will be following Dave Alan Ryan, Uh doing the show

(01:47):
out there. So you guys want to come out there
and uh, and meet up with us, have some fun,
have some drinks. We we did a nice little crowd
last weekend last week excuse me, but uh, looking forward
to it and looking forward to seeing you guys out
there as well, if you want to get on out
there right Edwards, Biggert, what's gonna join me in the
next segment, talk a little bit about this, uh, what
we've done with the Bucks and where this team is,
what we got coming up with the Jets. He's a

(02:09):
little more optimistic about this game than I am. I
think that this game is not uh gonna go particularly
well for the Broncos, but I do you know, I
want to continue to see flashes and I want to
see the team continue to build. So get a chance
to to talk with him about all that. A lot
going on this weekend. See you taking on Central Florida

(02:32):
down in uh down in Florida, And I do not
expect this As much as I said, I don't expect
this to be a good game for the Broncos. I
don't expect this to be a good game for see
you Buffs. You know, maybe I'm off on this, but
Central Florida is a good football team and they got a.
They got a big tank of a quarterback. kJ Jefferson
used to used to start at Arkansas, I transferred. He

(02:53):
can run the ball, he can throw the ball. They've
got they've got a pretty good run game there. And
you know Gus Malson UH is the team there. He
was he was coaching high school ball back when I
was in Arkansas. I entered at Hazen and then later
at UH Shallow Christian at Springdale and get get a
chance to you know, play against those teams and all
that kind of stuff. And he, you know, he's he's
a heck of a football mind. Well, a lot of

(03:15):
the hurry up now huddle stuff, mean, he literally wrote
the book on it. But a lot of the stuff
that people run these days, especially with the up tempo
and the UH and that kind of stuff, is just
from him. You know. It's things that he UH concepts
and things that he came up with. And so I I,
you know, Central Florida is a good a good football team.
Don't get me wrong on their own, but they've they've
got some talent. And I think, see you, he's in

(03:36):
for a rough game. I really do. I think that,
you know, they they've got a very strong run game
there with the quarterback as well. And and I I
just think that, uh, if you're the Buffs, this this
could be this could be a make or break type
game for the season. You're coming off a last second

(04:02):
emotional victory over a team that wasn't very good in
Baylor and the and the question, uh really becomes, you
know what are you at this point? And you have
the opportunity to come in here and try to get
something of a signature win against a team you're a
You're a two touchdown dog two in U c F

(04:24):
And you know U c F H they like I said,
they they don't throw the ball that well, but that
that rushing attack is very very strong. They love to
run the veer h. A lot of that stuff is
you know, is this inverted option type stuff. They've got
a great running back in R. J. Harvey and you

(04:46):
know kJ Jefferson, like I said, used to be the
starter at Arkansas and now he's now he's the starting
quarterback there. He's he's kind of a tank. I mean,
he's built just uh, you know the way Cam Newton
was built, like just uh just you know, ridiculously thick
for a quarterback ur Jacobe Brissett. He's he's kind of
in that same mold. He's about six four, two fifty
and he's just he's built thick and he can run

(05:07):
and so you'll see that, you know, you'll see that
born out. He's three games. He he gets about ten
carries a game, you know, and they do have a
lot of option stuff built in there, so, uh, it'll
be it'll be interesting to see how these teams matchup.
UCF also pretty good defense. Now they've they've started the

(05:29):
season against some some less that opponents New Hampshire and
in Sam Houston State. They dispatched them to those two easily.
September fourteenth was their last game, so they've had two
weeks to prep for this one.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
And on the fourteenth they were at TCU, which they
they won that game by one point, thirty five to
thirty four, and a large portion of that was a
second hand comeback. They were down twenty one seven at
half and outscored them uh in the second half. In
the third, especially the fourth quarter, TCU blocked three kicks

(06:07):
and led by twenty one points at one time. But
you know, U c F found a way to uh
find a way to pull that off. A large portion
of that was again running back R. J. Harvey, who
had twenty nine carries for one hundred, one hundred and
eighty yards and two touchdowns. They're they're their best receiver
is probably Kobe Hudson. You know, Rady Pittman Juniors is decent,

(06:31):
and they do they will throw the battle Harvey out
of the backfield a little bit. But you know, Hudson
really had a great game there against TCU, which could
not get the run game on track against u c F.
U c F mostly on the ground in that one,
and that's sort of what they do. So you know,

(06:52):
this is going to be a tough game for see
you I I just I look at this and and
you know, UCF is the number one rushing team in
the nation. They're they're third and totally ours per game,
you know, in terms of points against, they've they've only

(07:13):
allowed fifty one points through three games. So, uh, they're tough.
They're they're a tough, tough football team. They like to
play smash mouth. They are. They're disciplined. You know, they
only have fourteen penalties on the season, whereas Buffalo's got thirty.
The Buffs have thirty penalties so far this season. So

(07:35):
you know, I I see really needs to win this one. Uh,
you've got to continue the momentum going forward, and you've
got to put a statement on there that you're not
just uh a flash in the pay and program. That's
a showcase for Shadur and especially Travis Hunter. Uh, You've
you've got to come out and you've you've got to
find a way to to show that you're you're a

(07:59):
legitimate the football program, a destination football program, not you know,
flash and no substance. And this would be the game
to do that. You know, this would be the game too,
uh to get in there and put a statement on
a team that's it's a tough, physical, smash mouth football
team and you're you're a fourteen point dog on the road.

(08:23):
Uh to to a running football team that's you know,
that's sort of a slap in the face. And so
we'll see, Uh, well, we'll see how it goes. We'll
see you. But I'm you know, starting off the weekend,
that's not one that I I particularly like for Colorado.
I think that's a game that if you're Colorado, this
is this will establish what you are this season, you know, uh,

(08:48):
and I think that you have arguably the best player
in football in Travis Hunter. So, you know, how do
you come out and show the football world at large
that you're not just you know, this isn't a Deon

(09:12):
Sanders showcase for that. This is a showcase for Dion,
a showcase for Dion Sun's a showcase for Travis Hunter.
How do you show that you're a long term viable
football program. And it starts with stacking wins? You know,
obviously you lost the big Nebraska earlier in the year,
but other than that, you've won your other three games
in whatever matter that you want them, you still want them.
You got a bye week coming up after this Central

(09:34):
Florida game, and you get a tough Kansas State team
at home. If you can go into that that Kansas
State game, you know, and and win that one, you
can win these two back to back. Now, all of
a sudden, you're five and one. You've already beaten what
the sportsbooks say, and you're staring down the barrel of
the METI your schedule, which right now has two ranked
teams on at utaon Ocloba State. You're staring down the media,

(09:56):
your schedule with an opportunity to start making some noise.
And and you know, momentum is a funny thing, you know,
having the ability or having that momentum, having that snowball
rolling downhill, you know kind of thing winning begets winning.
And and so for me, you know, looking at this
and looking at the Big twelve and looking looking at

(10:19):
what it is that that see you both wants to
be and wants to do. You've got some opportunities here.
And it starts with UH going on the road, going
down here and and you know, playing UH Central Florida
and and you know, Gus mals On in a what

(10:39):
is going to be a tough, physical football game and
coming away with a win, showing that you can win
a tough, physical football team that did you have the
ability to do that, and putting the rest of the
Big twelve. I think on notice that you know, you're
you're not a joke. You know that you're not a

(11:02):
team that is there for the halftime shows and the
trappings of celebrity which constantly get shown on television. That
you are a legitimate football team that's here to win.
And so you know, going down there to Orlando, I
think and getting that victory, especially in what's probably going
to be a little bit of weather, you know, and

(11:23):
favors a ground of pound team like Central Florida, that's
going to be it's a big ask. But if you
can conquer that and then get into the bye week,
you've got a lot of positive momentum going into the
part of the schedule that you need that sort of
positive momentum to make that happen. A large portion of

(11:44):
that gonna have to be the run game for the
Boffs two hundred and sixty fifth ranked rushing attack in
the NCAA at sixty eight point eight yards per game.
The only player even close to one hundred yards at
this point in the season would be Welch eighteen carries,
eighty seven yards touchdowns. No, you know, nobody else even close.
In factully two other players even have over fifty yards,

(12:05):
augusta Day and Hayden. Meanwhile, over there on the UCF side,
you have four players that are over one hundred yards
for the season and two more players in addition to
that that are over eighty yards. So you know, obviously
the effect with which Central Florida runs of football is
going to be a big part of a big part
of this game for the Broncos. I mean, this could

(12:27):
be this could be a bad weekend across the board
for football for Denver. Broncos taken on the Jets seven
and a half point underdogs over under thirty nine and
a half in that one. Morgan Moses is already out. CJ.
Moseley doubtful for that game. So Broncos catching a couple
of breaks there, you're gonna have the rookie tack a
little with a shadow in for Morgan Moses. For the Broncos,

(12:49):
Jail Skinner is out. Nate Adkins is questionable, get a
little bit of a shoulder issue, but you should get
the lay back. So we'll see, you know, we'll see
how that goes. Both the these teams are low scoring
offensive low scoring excuse me, defensive type teams. To Broncos
rank six in the NFL, allowing only fifteen point three
points per game, the Jets eighth at seventeen point three.

(13:11):
Jets just have a little better offensive score a little
better at twenty two three versus seventeen to three four
the Broncos in terms of yardage, both of them in
the bottom third of the league. Jets twentieth in total
yards per game, Broncos twenty sixth on offense in terms
of yards against Jets seventh, Broncos third. Broncos only allowing
two hundred and fifty nine point three yards per game.
A large portion of that is their ability to shut

(13:32):
down the pass. Broncos only allowing one hundred and thirty
three passing yards against them per game, which is an
absurdly low number. They are giving up one twenty six
on the ground, which would be twenty second in the league.
In terms of rushing yards per game. Neither one of
these two teams is a prolific rusher. Jets twentieth overall,

(13:52):
Broncos twenty first. The differences the two backs that Jets
have have a little bit more potential. Both these two
do get after the quarterback. That's third in the NFL
and sacks thirteen and a half Broncos fifth in sacks
with eleven. A large portion of the Jets pass rush
as they're in there, he's just you know, he's a

(14:12):
fantastic player, and you know, you look at defensively what
they do. They want to send very few people after
the quarterback. They want to they want to send four
and drop everybody else back, and they have the ability
to do that. When you've got guys like Will McDonald
who have five sacks on the season and are able
to kind of do that, Solomon Thomas, Michael Clemens, Quentin Williams,

(14:38):
John Killow. They've got a good rotation there on the
line to send after the quarterback and it makes them,
it makes them a formidable team. The Broncos, of course,
will be starting Pawshowski in place of Mike McGlinchey at
the right tackle, and that's that's going to be something
that he looked good in his first start against Tampa.

(15:00):
But you're up against some tough players. You're up against
the tough, a tough, fearsome pass rush, you know. In
the Jets, bow Knicks done pretty well so far in
avoiding sacks. Only four sacks taken on the season. So
whatever we think of bow And in terms of, you know,
his ability thus far, he certainly stayed relatively clean in

(15:24):
terms of taking sacks. Both Javonte and Julie each have
a fumble, and they've got to get that run game going.
You're talking about guys that are everaging two point two
of carried Meanwhile, Bede he's averaging eighty six, largely buoyed
by a forty three yard scamper in the last game
at a sixteen yard of the game before. He's got
some explosive ability. It's time to take advantage of that.
Broncos do have two hundred yard receivers thus far, Josh Renolds,
Courtland's Sutton and then Will Lutz, who has been perfect

(15:51):
so far nine to nine on field goals, three of
three on extra points for the Broncos. Special teams game
has looked has looked pretty good on the Jets. On
the offensive side of the ball, I think everybody knows
who Aaron Rodgers is. Don't really need to get into
that too much. You've got two running backs that are
fearsome and Brice Hall and Braylen Allen, and then you know,

(16:14):
on the receiving side of things, it's been interesting. They've
made it an effort to get Allen Lizard involved. These
eleven eleven catches one hundred and forty eight yards, they
have four receivers of over one hundred yards. The tight
end Tyler Conklin, the running back Brieze Hall we talked about,
and then Garrett Wilson and Allens are. When we come back,
we're gonna get into with our guy Ryan Edwards, the
og the Godfather, get a chance to talk to him

(16:37):
about what he thinks. He's a little bit more optimistic
about this. I'm dealing in pessimism right now. I guess
I was born in Missouri. It's the show me state,
so you got to show me. But I I'm one
of those people that's doubting. I'd love to be proven wrong.
See how it goes. Broncos Country Tonight rolls on after
this right here on KAA. Welcome to it, Broncos Country Tonight.

(17:03):
Benjamin Albright here with you and guest in studio here,
Captain Fantastic. I was trying to come up with a
good nickname for you. I had nothing. I just I
stumbled on Captain America, mister Fantastic, and I combined the two.
It's like when what's his name does the Bill Belichick
does the face space or whatever.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
You know, it's early in the day for you, it
is late night. You actually had to work last night.
I mean, that's that's tough. It is.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
It takes a lot out of you, you know, But
I'm here. I give it back to you the people.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, I mean, but you know it's it's not a
big deal the fact that you had to work. And boy,
starting next week, you guys are gonna be back on.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Full live shows. Can't wait the time, super yeah, I
can't wait, super excited about that.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Really makes my drive home more enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Does it, though? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, I mean I had screaming in my car. Oftentimes
it just depends the Rockies are ben it.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, you're right, well, no, usually I'm just catching the
pregame for the Rockies, so it's a much more mellow
relax the.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Hammit started sucking yet and.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Then when you and Nick are going back and forth
and you say something bombastic and Nick says something that's
well relatively saying relatively yeah, and then all of a sudden,
again it's a good show.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
That's you know, this is what we do. This is
these are the seeds or planet they've borne fruit from
the days of sewing in the fields.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah, but no, man, I'm excited. It's uh,
we're we're in full season swing here, week four of
the NFL, and got lee. Man, I'm I'm kind of
excited about this game, all right, you.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Seem a bit more optimistic than I am about it.
Broncos taken on the Jets this weekend. Obviously here on KOA,
Dave Logan Rick Lewis with the call Sunday morning, but
I am not as optimistic about this game, especially after
watching the Jets last week. I get that the optimism
is largely coming from the Broncos performance against the Buccaneers,
which many people did not see coming, myself included. But
the Jets performance is they've gotten better each week. You know,

(18:53):
this wasn't a team that's missing players or beating up
on bad team, but they're just getting better each week.
And the one thing that jumps out at me that
I'm like, maybe we have some hope is they get
the right tackle all the sado. Yeah, Fieshano started from Morgemoses,
and that's going to be an area where you're hoping
he is not ready to go, because Morgamos is a
heck of a tackle, been a long story career, He's

(19:13):
been a great, great player. He's out, and that that's
may change some of the way that the Jets do things.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, I MECJ. Mosley, we don't know about him yet either,
but that would be another big hit. But I guess
the way I'm looking at this in part, yes, the
way they played against Tampa Bay, which is also, as
you said, a team getting better every week. Right, So
I think we have to apply the same logic to
what the Jets are doing and what the Broncos are doing.
The Broncos are also escalating each week. We're not seeing

(19:41):
steps back. And it's not even just the way they
won this game. It's the way they put it all together.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
They hadn't put together a complete game in how long.
I mean we go back to even last year. I
mean they had a couple of good games, but not
really complete games. There were still moments on the offensive
side of the ball, you're just like, I don't know, man,
Russell Wilson's doing a lot of the improv stuff and
John Payton looks like he's getting ready to pull his
hair out. Meanwhile, the defense will have maybe a couple

(20:06):
of turnovers, but they still have their problems. This was
a This was a slacking from top to bottom. Now, yeah,
you'd say the second half, maybe they could have scored
some more points whatever, But even then, at that point
you're you're playing more protect at that point because you
know you've got to win. All you got to do
is not screw things up like Javonte's fumble. And that
might be the one example thing to point to is say, hey,
the run game, right though it was better one hundred

(20:26):
and thirty six rushing yards, is really buoyed by Tyler
Badet's forty three yard scamper and and that's fair, right,
that's fair. But I'd like to believe again it's a
step forward, much like the other two games, a step
forward for this team, step forward for the Jets as well,
and I think both teams are facing each other at
the best they've been.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, it was an explosive run there, which which was
a large the largest chunk of what they did. He
had some hangers on, but washed him right off, I think.
But what he's trying to flush those other names away.
He's changed his name three times in two years?

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Are you really well?

Speaker 1 (21:00):
I mean, you know, suddenly you're looking at me as though,
and you're like, I should have expanded the wheels. I
could see them turning in real time, like I should
have should have brought his name up. I knew it
was coming. Yeah, that was the one thing you talked
about a complete game, but that was one of the
things I was going to point to right off the
bat was the run game is not complete. And it
feels to me like these running backs are miscast. I
still think you can give a large number of carries

(21:21):
to Javonte Williams, but he needs to be more in
this samage p RN roll where he's in pass protection,
short catches, where he situations where you can get him
one and he could break a tackle, not running him
head first into the into the throes of the defense,
and an eight man box on first down between the b
gaps that seems to have worked for a day. He
has two explosive runs over the last two weeks doing that.
And then you know Julian McLoughlin, who belongs in pitch

(21:42):
stretch outside its own type situations. You'll give him the
occasional inside run to make sure the defense is being
honest about that, but that's really where he belongs, and
it feels like these have been largely miscast. I don't
think that the offensive line is not blocking. I don't
think that these running backs are not talented. I just
feel like they're not being put in the bed situations
for them to do what it is that they're able

(22:02):
to do.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
I think it's fair.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
And this is a little bit of a trial and
error situation, right, I mean most of the time these
situations happened as a result of an injury. Right, Hey,
maybe Alex Peltchewski might be a better fit at right tackle.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Hes look good. I'm not gonna lie he's look good.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
I'm just I'm not saying what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
He got off the ball a little too early twice
and that game didn't get flagged. All let it slide
because it's my boy, his first game. You could you
get this? Hey, we need we need to tighten it up.
Tighten it, lock it up.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
It's just one of those deals.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Like and I'm not sitting here trying to say, well,
Alex Singleton now is out, so Cody Barton is automatically
a better fit.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's not like that.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I'm just saying the most of the time, when you
find out what your depth looks like, and maybe if
some of the guys are going to be better for you,
it's because of an injury. We wouldn't know about Tyler
Biday if Odrick Estimey hadn't gotten hurt, right, and and
we would have gone into this last game against Tampa
Bay with the same three headed guy, three headed monster
of Javante Williams, Julia McLoughlin and Odric Esta May and

(22:54):
the running game maybe not as good. And maybe we
are sitting here saying it's still not on track, what
is going on? We're miscast here. And I think those
are all valid points. But because you're seeing Tyler Bidet
sort of step into a role which looks like a
guy that should be featured a little bit more, maybe
that pushes the coaching staff to say, let's let's rethink
this a little bit now.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Again, it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Mean to your point that you don't bring Javonte out
early and he's the guy, and you start there because
he's great in pass bro. He's been tremendous in pass
pro and just like samaj p Ryan, that's that's a
very valuable thing, especially with a rookie quarterback back there.
But at the same time, the rushing attack has to
be more of a it has to be more formidable.
And you see perfect example of the Jets. They've got

(23:38):
a one two punch with their two running backs that
doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
And historically Breest Hall has golloged the Broncos. I mean, yeah,
he has been their kryptonite in a lot of ways,
and so I think that's going to be a big thing.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
He was a career game before he towards a cl
right right, this is you look.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
At you look at what he what he does, what
he brings to the table, and it's not just run
the football. He catches the ball well out of backfield
and they like to get him involved in the past game.
But getting him on track's gonna be big for the Jets.
If you are a Broncos fan coming into this, I've
been asked a lot of questions about the secondary by
New York media, and then you know, we do the
media trades every week and all the kind of stuff
you on. I get a lot of questions about the secondary,

(24:17):
and I'm like, well, honestly, I think it's more important
for the Broncos to shut down the run and the
extensions of the run game, and in that secondary will
be fine because you've got guys like Zach Allen and
Cooper and Ellis who are getting after the quarterback you
know pretty well, and Dondre ed Tillman, I mean, you know,
get his first two seconds. The rotation has been pretty good.
I think the Broncos are at their best if they
force the Jets into passing situations and then can tee off.

(24:39):
And that seemed to befuddle the Jets media a little bit,
but I think everybody here in Denver can understand what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Which is weird because we had a guy on Koe
Sports from the covers of the Jets and he said,
this wants to be a running team. They want to
be a team that can run the ball. So I'm
one hundred percent with you. Like, if they if they
can go between Alan and Bryce Hall and just take
it right at the Broncos in the ground game, They'll
let Aaron Rodgers hand the ball off forty five times
in this game.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
They really don't care.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Now, Aaron Rodgers, Yeah, there's a certain amount of he's
gonna want to do some things out there. He certainly,
even though they say there's nothing there with Nathaniel Hackett
and Sean Payton, Aaron Rodgers ain't gonna forget that stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Well, Sean Payton probably not gonna forget that, you know,
Sean payton Ate a big plate of humble pie after
calling him the worst coach to ever do it and
then getting spanked by that dude coaching Zach Wilson doing
victory over you at home last year, Sean payton Ate,
and he never didn't acknowledge it in that regard, But
that dude he choked. He choked that play to crow
down one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
So that's where I'd say we come into this thing
and say, even though both sides are saying that has
been squashed, I don't believe that.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
I don't either, And the.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Fact is, this is where I guess I lean into.
I think that the Broncos will be more prepared this
time around versus the last time. And remember the way
they lost that game against the Jets. They had a
chance to win it, they did.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Russell Wilson in the offense had the ball with the
trailing with two to three points something like that, and
then he had the fumble that I ended up in
return for a touchdown and they lost the game. There.
That's got to be haunting Sean.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
And he's got the quarterback that he handpicked here that
finally had his best game of his young career. That's
where I'm leaning a lot of my optimism on for
this this game coming.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Up, it's gonna be a different defense than Boenicks has
ever seen. I don't think that Bonix has ever played
a Cover three team in his career. I'm going back
and it dates back to high school. I'm going back
and trying to think because the Cover three is really
not much of a collegiate defense anymore. Was for a
long time, but it's not really much of a collegiate
defense anymore with teams playing the way they do spread
it out. It's it's interesting because there are some Cover

(26:43):
three beaters and it's the reason it's no longer the
vogue defense in the NFL Fanjos defense is. But when
it was in vogue, there's there's three specific plays you
use to try to beat the Cover three, and it's
curl flat, slant flat, anything you could do to move
and get in those in those flat zones, and then
switch verticals to when you want to get You want
to get vertical because you've got three and you know
you're forcing the three shehell to make a choice on

(27:05):
four receivers. You know, we have not seen bo be
very effective going vertical. We did see it at the
beginning of the Tampa game where they came out they
ran those what three shot plays I think it was
on the opening drive. The only stumble they had was
when they tried to shuffle personnel out and got a
delay a game. I love the fact that they were
going up tempo and being aggressive on the front end.
You're going to have to do that against the Jets.

(27:25):
You have to set the tone early that this is
what we're doing. Otherwise they're gonna come down and sit
down on all this other stuff that Sean Payton wants
to run and that Bix likes to run, and it's
going to look as bad as it did the first
two weeks.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
But the fact for me, again we're talking about reasons
for optimism, the fact that they on the road took
the ball and went right into that right. I mean,
you won't be able to surprise the Jets with those
kinds of plays again. But the fact is the coach
Payton had that kind of belief in Bonick's had that
belief in the offense, but based on nothing, based on

(27:58):
nothing we'd seen on the field. Now maybe the practice field,
they felt good about it because they practiced it and
repped it over and over and over again. Well that's great,
But then you get that on the field, you have
the crowd noise, you have a Tampa Bay team that
is two to zero, and they are looking like one
of the best teams in the NFC, maybe prime to
win that division, even though the fact the Saints were
what they were, they looked like they were in great
shape and you took a right to them and you

(28:19):
were doing things out there that you hadn't done all year.
So that's where I'm saying, like, maybe maybe this is
part of that first four install period where you're still
figuring out a few things about yourself. But the trend
for this team, if you think they can only build
on this and they don't take a step back, you
have to least believe that that there's a reason they

(28:41):
can win this game.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Well, I mean, anything is possible. That's why they play
the game. But at the same time, I'm looking at
this and I'm not sure that it plays into their hand.
I hope it does. I hope staying on the East
Coast does. If it does, I'm claiming all the credit
for it for saying back in the day. And if
it doesn't, I'm you know, I'm telling them to fire
whatever Jack has suggested into the sun. For me, one
of the things that I noticed, I go back to
the Tampa game real quick and then we'll build them then,

(29:03):
is bo Nicks a don't blitz him quarterback? Because Tampa
did that. The Seahawks didn't blitz him much. The Steelers
didn't blitz him much. They mostly sent four of a
play at a man, but they mostly sent four. Tampa was
blitzing and they got roasted. And it reminded me a
little bit. And I hate to I don't want to
invoke this, but it reminded me a little bit of
how you figured out very early on that Patrick Mahomes

(29:25):
was a don't blitz him quarterback because the minute you
blitzed in me burns you up. When you drop, when
you set four and drop guys back, that's when he
started to not see things as quickly or whatever else.
And I operate on I'm processing the field rather than
football instinct. And I'm wondering if bo Nicks said, don't
blitz him quarterback because you saw it now that the
Jets aren't gonna blitz Hi much this week. Like I said,
I'll be Cover three, they send four, they drop most
up back. But we'll get opportunities to sort of see this.

(29:47):
And I want to put a pin in that for
further discussion down the season as we see some blitz
heavy teams down the line and how they are able
to do that going up against the Cover three sort
of does play to Nick's strengths. The areas he liked
to put the ball if you're doing switch verticals and
hit the guy as as soon as he crosses over
to the scene. Carl flat, Slade flat. Those are Bonux concepts.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Ye, so, and we saw better timing with the receivers
this week he did.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
He didn't look as frenetic. He had two plays I
think where the footwork was what do you stop it?
You stop it right now? You stop it, sir.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
But again from what he was the first two weeks.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
I think a large portion of that was the fact
that Tampa couldn't get any pressure between the big gaps
at all. Hemvy Tovey out was horrible in College of Cants.
It was horrible for them. They could not get internal pressure.
But I think that says something. I think if you're
the never Broncos, you're saying, okay, when they don't get
internal pressure, our guy does what he's supposed to do
with the pocket. How can we better bolster that so
that teams are not getting that pressure up the middle?

(30:37):
A tough ask. When you have Quinn Williams on the
defensive line.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Well then that's it.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Their their best player on the defense, and they have
very good players in the defense, but their best players
in the interior. So this is going to be a challenge, right.
I mean, you had a week where the interior of
the Broncos offensive line didn't go up a single pressure, right, obviously,
no sacks for the entire offensive line, and that that's
something that was very encouraging because we said from the beginning,
like a if Luke Wattenberg gets it, then the interior

(31:03):
the offensive line needs to be a strength, right, because
you have two of your highest paid players between Quinn
Minors and Powers that are supposed to hold that up.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
It's very interesting you bring the Blitz.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
So tder Gorse had the stat earlier today saying that
the Broncos had the fourth most passing yards against the Blitz.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
So to that point.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
There is something there, and I think oftentimes, especially with rookies,
when there is a blitz, it does allow for if
you're a coaching staff to say, okay, if you can
identify it, then you throw to that side right most
of the time where the blitzer is coming. If it's
a team, you just gonna throw it right behind them.
And it's such a simple way, which is why most

(31:40):
of the time teams really shouldn't blitz rookie quarterbacks. They
should be dropping everybody, which is something you've talked about forever.
And that is a problem here with the Jets. Because
the Jets know they can get home with four they
don't have to blitz, and that that.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Is going to be a bit of a challenge here.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
But like once again I come back to, like, okay,
the Broncos offense, this might be a race to twenty
kind of game if the Broncos offense can kind to
do their job, continue to play complimentary football like they
did this last week, even at times when it meant
like we don't have to be as aggressive here in
the second half because we got this thing in control.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
That's the thing.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
There wasn't a lot of forced moments in the game
and you didn't have to. But even early on, I mean,
they got the fourth down where they had to go
for it, but they did go for it, and they
did get it. And I think just that re emphasis
of there's ways to go about this thing, there's ways
to operate where we can put ourselves in successful situations
and not hurt ourselves the long term.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, I think there are a couple of things I
want to see early in this game. I'd love to
see just a vertical shot for Marvin Mins. Just back
them off, I know, just just put it up asking
for it, Just put it up there and back them off. Yeah,
you know. And and it's what I've often called the
referred to as the will Fuller effect. You know when
will Fuller. Will Fuller didn't get that many catches, but
when he was on the field, he changed the dynamic.
The quarterback rating went up twenty five points, and he
changed the dynamic of how defenses had to cover you.

(32:51):
It takes the safety out of the box, it allows
you to do different things on for so take a
shot on first down.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
With what Sean Jackson's another guy that was always like that,
caught a lot of balls. He did, But I'm just saying, like,
like that speed when it's on the field changes thing
it does, and it changes the way that you covered,
and it gets him to respect.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
The other thing is they ran that Reid option play
out of the gun. I want to see some more.
If we're going to run bow knicks like this, then
let's do it. Let's commit to doing that. And you know,
and he's got the brain power to be able to,
you know, to read it and pull it down and
do this kind of stuff. This isn't a you know,
a Drew lock where he looks like a new born
giraff out there running the football. With all due respect
to Drew, you know, so why don't we commit to that.
If that's going to be the run game, then let's

(33:27):
let that be the run game. And it just feels
like we've we've sort of experimented with a few things
early in this year. You know, we got the color
palette down now, but we're not painting the picture. Let's
start painting the picture.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Let's let's just make this an identity of this offense.
If Bo's gonna be if bon Nix is going to
be Bovick, then let's make him Bovic right, He's already
shown a propensity for being able to get down, you know,
I mean, he'll cut it out for yards, but he's
not taking unnecessary hits. You know, he's not getting He's
not This isn't to a running the football. This is
this is a lot closer to uh.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
You know, I'm gonna say uh Jadan Daniels because he
gets down, you know, like he obviously doesn't have the
athletics of Daniel's, but you get the idea. What I
did love was the natural feel for the past rush
shark Garrett Bolls lost. This guy comes around, I think
it was Shrion Trunk or whatever. I'm not sure who
it wasn't that played it almost got the sack and
the timer went off, and you could you could see
the timer go off as he just subtly steps up

(34:17):
the pas rusher missions that he takes off for twenty
some odd yards. You don't need him to do that
every play, but if he does that two three times
a game, you're gonna you're gonna have defenses defending you differently.
You're gonna have to have a mirror zone defender there.
Whether it's a spy or whatever. You're gonna have to
have ends that play contained. Well, okay, if you got
him playing contained, now, all of a sudden, that Reid
option is opening up lanes for your running back, whether
it's Javonte or Batty or Wheels, mcloff or whoever it is.

(34:40):
So I just want this team to start to quit
farting around for lack of a better term, and trying
all these different things out. You know, Okay, you bet
at the buffet, you sampled all the selections. It's time
to put a sandwich together, right, and that that's what
I want.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I think it's said, And that's that's kind of where
I'm going with it as well, just the terms of
and I will get a break, But in terms of
of dialing it in on the things that are actually working,
it did feel like a scottershot.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, for the first two games. They finally dialed in
on the third game, a

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Little bit of Broncos compentry tonight coming back after after
this