05-17-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with Brandon Krisztal

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
No Ben tonight, so you gotme instead, Brandon Christal at BK Denver
Sports rolling with you, and Iam just back off what I would call
not the best trip I've ever beenon. I went to Minnesota working with
Gorilla Sports covering the Nugs. Sothe trip over the weekend for games three
and four better than the trip forGame six. The crowd was electric once

(00:26):
Minnesota got into the game and neverreally let up. They were electric in
games three and four as well,but then we're taken out of the game
by how well the Nuggets played.We're gonna get to the Nuggets. I've
got my thoughts on the schedule.Release romy Bean, who I sat next
to at the game from CBS four. She is going to join me with
her thoughts on everything going on thereand maybe chime in on the Broncos schedule

(00:48):
as well. And then I'm gonnatalk about the schedule as well as I
want to start with the news ofthe day and that is and it was
funny, right, so up earlywanted to get back to town all of
that, and as I'm in thecar on the way to the airport,
it's about a fifteen minute ride fromMinnesota or downtown Minneapolis to the Minnesota Airport.

(01:12):
I'm looking at my phone. I'mlike, what is going on?
Because at first I'm like, oh, I'm gonna watch a little golf and
it was gonna fall asleep on theplane. But I'll watch from of the
US Open and see how that stands. And you immediately open up Twitter and
it's actually I think I even wentto the ESPN app and it was a
ninety second clip because it was tento fifteen minutes after the Scottie Scheffler story

(01:34):
broken. Jeff Darlington, who doessuch a great job covering the NFL,
is also now becoming one of thebig NFL, or rather big golf reporters
for ESPN as well, and you'rejust trying to understand the story and for
people who may have missed this today, Scottie Scheffler, the number one player
in the world who had a prettygood opening round. I think he was

(01:55):
four under, so nine off thelead or i'm sorry, five off the
leads. Ander Schoffley was ten underor I'm sorry nine under, shot a
sixty two, the second time heshot a sixty two in a major.
I think he's at the top ofthe list of best players number won a
major, but so Scotty Sffler worldnumber one in striking distance. The only
one of the few highlights I sawyesterday was him eagling his first hole,

(02:17):
Scottie Scheffler, and then kind ofhad a bit of an up and down
day, but a solid round,kind of like what Rory McRoy had.
But you see the headline and itsays world number one Scotti Schffler detained by
Louisville police for incident unrelated to trafficdeath. And then you start to get
into the story, and as everybody'strying to make their way in Louisville to

(02:38):
Valhalla Country Club for the PGA Championship, which used to be the last major
of the year, now the secondmajor of the year, you find out
the details of Scotti Schffler was onbasically a closed off road. Unfortunately,
a pedestrian who was working as avolunteer I believe at the tournament was struck
by a shuttle bus and killed.And so that slowed things down. The

(02:59):
rain made things difficult, but theydecided they were it was backing traffic up
so much. The PGA of Americaofficials said, we're gonna have to hold
the tournament up well. Scotty Scheffleron a closed road is trying to drive
around the traffic on the shoulder followingpolice directions, ends up having an incident
with a police officer that he thenthe police officer wouldn't like. I guess

(03:20):
was holding on to Scotti through hiscar and according Jeff Brons, he went
like twenty yards. Scotty Scheffler arrested, charge with felonies, Taken to downtown
Louis, all about a forty minutedrive for what this has had to be
about seven something in the morning.He had a ten o'clock tea time,
so they get him all the waydowntown, get him book, put him
in an orange jump jumpsuit, mugshot, all of that. He think,
gets back and makes his tea timebasically, and goes out and shoots a

(03:43):
five under and it's just a fewshots off the lead. Xander Schofflee at
twelve under. Klin Marikal at elevensaid to Gala at ten, but there's
a bunch of folks, including ScottiSchffler at nine under. Three shots off
the lead. And so before weget to the nuggets, and I want
to do that here In a second, Scotty Scheffler did meet the media,
and you weren't sure if he wasgoing to after round one. He only
talked to ESPN, then wanted togo work on his swing yesterday. So

(04:05):
this is Scotty Scheffler saying something thatit's one of the craziest stories in sports
that a player that's about to playa game is detained and then now charged
with felon. He's they're able toget him out. Gives you an idea
of one the silliness of this perhaps, and we'll see I've been end the
ball getting dropped, and he writesa check to the police, charities there
in Louisville, or his sponsors doall the above. But I imagine some

(04:28):
of the members at Balhalla were ableto make some calls and get him,
probably in a police escort back tothe PGA Championship. But here's Scotty Scheffler
talking about how instead of being ableto get ready for his round at the
country club, he had to getready for it in the holding cell in
Louisville. I did spend some timestretching in a jail cell. That was
the first for me, you know, I was part of my warm up.

(04:49):
I was just sitting there waiting,and you know, I started going
through my warm up. I feltlike there was a chance I maybe be
able to still come out here andplay, and so I started going through
my routine and I tried to getmy heart rate down as much as I
could today. But like I said, and you know, I still feel
like my head's spinning a little bit. But yeah, I was fortunate to
be able to make it back outand play some golf to day. Now
they play some golf, play somegood golf, go five underd to Major

(05:10):
in now three shots off the lead. So you see why he's the world
number one for a lot of reasons. And what's funny is everybody that covers
golf says that if you were goingto go through and pick a person on
tour that was least likely to bedetained or have an incident with police,
Scotti Seffler would also be number onein that he's just the nicest guy,
and for a guy, it's numberone in the world. You wouldn't know
about how he carries himself. Thenthere was that story at the Masters about

(05:32):
his wife if she was going togo into labor, he would leave the
Masters despite winning it, but hewould leave even during the final round if
he got word that she was goinginto labor. She held off and I
think had the baby the next dayor day after. But there were a
million memes of him in jumpsuits andprison tattoos and and everything you can imagine.
Somebody I saw, maybe Barstool Bigcattweeted will he leave jail if his

(05:57):
wife goes into labor, which whichI got to chuckle out of that one
as well. But a wild storywild day condolence is to the family of
the man who lost his life andto the police officer who apparently has ruined
pants that was dealing with Scotti Scheffler. So there's that. Now. Speaking
of ruined pants, I think youcould argue that plenty of Nuggets fans might
have had some of that last night, especially if they had money on their

(06:17):
team to win in Game six,but one fifteen to seventy. Sitting in
the building, it was almost comicalhow bad it was in terms of the
shot making or lack thereof for theNuggets, because early on they jump up
to a nine to two lead,and that's something we're gonna hear from nicolea
Yokis in just a second. Butyou think, okay, they're gonna take

(06:40):
control of this game. They've solvedthe Timberwolves attacking defense, they've taken the
crowd out of this again, andthen just within a matter of minutes,
they're trailing and they're missing just wideopen threes. Michael Porter Junior might have
taken a guarded three, but JamalMurray's wide open, Kcp's wide open,
Aaron Gordon's wide open. And sothese guys have been making threes throughout the
seasies for the most part and throughoutthe season, certainly because they struggled early

(07:02):
in that Lakers series. They're justmissing shot after shot after shot, and
then it gets to a level whereit just it was so out of hand.
Unlike Game two, where they wereblitzed and got their butts beat,
this didn't feel like that, eventhough the score was worse and you knew
they couldn't get back into it.And maybe part of it was that they've
now shown Okay, these have beenvery weird games back and forth in terms

(07:25):
of the dominance of one team forthe most part, other than in Game
one, but for the Nuggets toshow their championship medal and respond in those
three games gives you an idea thatthey have the ability to do it.
And you've seen them come back withtheir backs against the wall. Well,
Minnesota clearly had their backs against thewall. For a fan base that was

(07:45):
so fired up in games three ingame four hadn't had second round playoff action,
hadn't had much playoff action in general, but second round playoff games in
that building at Target Center, whichis more like a college gym because there's
only one level of sweets. Itwas built in nineteen ninety. It's only
one level of suit. It kindof goes straight up. It is very
loud. It says on the internetit holds up to twenty thousand. Well,
they jam them in there and itfeels loud, and you get that,

(08:09):
you get that college atmosphere, andso, like I mentioned, the
crowd was completely out of it earlyin game three, as well as pretty
early in game four. Well,if they were certainly back into it.
And when you shoot seven of thirtysix from three, sometimes all you can
do is laugh, and I thinkyou can hear that. We're gonna hear
from the three most important people Ithink on the team with apologies to some

(08:31):
of these other players, but we'regonna start with Joker as and I put
both both these things. You canhear from Joker on on social media on
X. You can see the videoand see them laughing. I don't know,
I call it X, you know, Grant obviously we call it Twitter.
But I do have Grant Smith rollingwith me tonight, and Grant we'll
start with. This was Joker talkingabout the loss and ask just you know,

(08:56):
to kind of put it into perspectiveand characterize it. I think we
need to sink in like it's agreat loss. They beat us, they
destroy us, and we should learnit and you need to keep in respect,
you know. They they came outand actually we had him like nine
two score right. Fun didn't lookgood for them in that period, you

(09:20):
know. Uh, But since thenit was it was a one team show.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna take this. It's a great loss, a
great loss, and you're kind ofsitting on Okay, a great loss,

(09:41):
all right, it's a weird wayto weird way to characterize it. And
so that was his first answer.Then he goes through, you know,
and I think we asked about theshooting and everything else and solving their defense
and then double teaming and all that. And in fact, somebody asked about
the double team. He goes,well, this time they double team.
The last game they didn't, sothat was one of the bigger differences.
He was in a pretty light moodfor a guy that looked pretty locked in

(10:03):
as he stood the whole fourth quarter. I did ask him why he was
standing once he was taken out ofthe game. He said, just so
we could stay loose to go lift. But then credit to Katie Wenjy Altitude,
because she followed up at the veryend of his press conference. She
wanted to know about the great loss. And here was that interaction. Nicole,
You said, this was a greatloss. Can you just elaborate on
what that means, Like, whatdo you mean by it being great?

(10:24):
Great? You know, they beatout ass They were better than us in
the average segment of the game,and be neath to accept it, you
know, baked, and just tryto try to be better next time,
you know, when you lose byforty five. He sounds like something happens
every day, So just accepted.You know, I'm cool if it is.

(10:52):
He's cool with it. It's heis a fascinating individual. Vick Lombardy
and I were talking about this.Of all the great players we've covered,
he is are in a way themost unique. Nothing they don't have unique
traits. You think about guys likeAlan Iverson. As I'm watching TV right
now, highlights have been popped upbecause they're doing NBA Playoff comparisons to Rick
Brunson and small guards. But AlanIverson was here, Carmelo Anthony, obviously,

(11:13):
Peyton Manning, all those great playersthat played with the Rockies in their
run to October. Guys like ToddHelton, Nolan Ronado and other great players
have been here. Chauncey billups theHall of Famer, and I could go
down the list, Joe Sache atthe end of his career, Nathan McKinnon
and Cale mccarr now, but theyhave trades of other players' personalities. Nicole

(11:35):
Jak is truly one on one,not just for his numbers and what he's
done on the court, but forhow he sees the world. And so
now we're gonna hear a chunk ofanswered from Michael Mullen, including a question
I had, But there was somuch about the shooting, and that to
me, I think really set upthe game is they missed the shots.
It then allowed easy rebounds and theywere able to lead to easy offense from

(11:58):
Minnesota and Denver's never really really ableto get in their defense. And I
think Mike Conley was maybe one ofthe biggest reasons that was the case too.
But so Michael Malone, as wehear from the head coach now in
front of Sunday's Game seven, butthis was after the game last night,
we'll start we still asked about thatshooting. We started off nine to two,
they call time out, they goon a twenty nine to five run,

(12:20):
and in that stretch, the twothings that stood out to me were
one the turnovers. To your point, which I said pregame is you know
you can't do that in this buildingwith that crowd, give them life,
give them energy, and so ouroffense that the lack of value in the
ball was problematic. And then theother thing that was really problematic in that
first half eleven offense rebounds for fifteenpoints. So I told the guys at

(12:46):
halftime, I said, fellas ifI would have told you before the game
that they'd be shooting forty two fromthe field and thirty from the three point
line. Would you have taken it? And they all said yeah. I
says, well, the reason we'regetting were askicked because I'm not taking care
of the ball and not rebound it. Were playing with no physicality and no
toughness, and they hit us first, they hit us second, they hit
us third, and so you givethem credit. They did what they needed

(13:09):
to do to keep this series alive, and they bring it back to Denver
for a game seven. So disappointingloss. Anytime you get down by fifty
in a playoff game, you knowthat's you know, never an enjoyable experience.
But you know, we have togo home and get back to playing
the way we did where we wonthree games in a row, and I
have no doubt that we'll be readyto do that come Sunday. Michael,

(13:33):
how'd you feel about your team's offensiveprocess once you guys did get down big
in the first half, felt likethere were a lot of threes going up.
Were you good with those looks forthe most part or would you like
to have been a little bit moreaggressive towards the rim? Yeah? I
don't know. I think at halftimewe had twenty one threes attempted and we
only made like maybe four of them. And it's a fine line because obviously,
as I predicted they would, theydouble team Nicola. Obviously after a

(13:56):
forty point out worst they double teamhim. So when they put two on
the all, you're going to generatesome open looks from three, you know.
But it's a fine line, Vinnyof Okay, Yet we're generating good
looks, and I felt early onwe didn't make the good looks and that
kind of discouraged us and kind oftook away our defensive intensity. We've went

(14:16):
so much more aggressive the last threegames and decisive and assert of the last
three games than we were today,and I think I'm making shots kind of
had a negative impact on just ouroverall disposition tonight, which which can't be
the case. When you are missingshots, you gotta dig even deeper and
give greater effort. But you know, that just wasn't the case tonight.

(14:37):
So we'll watch the film, we'llsee what we can do better come Sunday
and try to, you know,win a game seven, another game seven
for us. Coach out the pylonabout the misshots, but and you mentioned
the rebounding when their open looks,but there's not as many rebounders people near
the glass. I guess, howmuch is it? You know, a
chicken and an egg kind of dealthere. Give me the question. Well,

(15:01):
I guess I'm saying they're taking openlooks, but you had so many
guys in the perimeter and almost nobodyinside, which then leads to easy rebounds
and leads to them going the otherway. So is it almost like a
false positive that those looks are thatopen with nobody underneath? Well, obviously
going seven to thirty six from threeand shooting thirty from the field, it's

(15:22):
problematic in and of itself, youknow, not making shots, not making
open shots. We never aside fromthe ninety two start, Well, I
guess to start the I left Nicolaand to start the second and realizing that
this game is about to get awayfrom us, so I'm going to leave
him in the game, and wecut it to eleven, and then they
went on another big run thirteen zero, which put it to twenty four.

(15:46):
And then late in that second,so let's cut it to fourteen. By
the half, you know, justkind of state with end striking distance,
we get a stop, we tryto throw a run out a turnover,
they score again. So now we'redown on seventeen or nineteen that to half.
But yeah, we can be alot more instead of just all standing
on the perimeter. We can bea lot more aggressive to the basket,

(16:06):
not just settle for threes. Andobviously, to your point, a sixty
two to forty three rebound margin,that is a nineteen rebound differential, and
that to me speaks volumes about thegame and our approach. So I didn't
mean to confuse them with my question, but you understood that some threes while

(16:27):
they're all open looks. And asI was sitting around, you know,
as I mentioned, I had aRoumi being next to me and we're gonna
talk with Roby here in just afew minutes. And then I had other
media members around me, and someare saying, get to the basket,
to the basket, and I wasn'tdisagreeing with that notion, but this is
the NBA, and these are someof the best shooters in the world who
have been great shooters all year.So I don't have a problem with the

(16:47):
shots, but how they got tothose shots and standing around the perimeter and
basically at times playing five out,not having Aaron Gordon or an MPJ near
the basket, or even Joker nearthe basket, but Joker shooting the three,
someone's got to be inside. Therewas one time where the only person
near the room was Jamal Murray andthen he had four timber rolls around him
that ended up grabbing rebound and leadingto a break. So it was not

(17:07):
characteristic of who these Nuggets are.It'll be really fascinating to see how they
handle things in Game seven on Sunday. But we're gonna get Romey's perspective on
things on the other side, Sodon't go anywhere. This show is called
Broncos Country Tonight. My name isBrandon Christal in for Benjamin all Bright.
But too much stuff going on betweenthe Nugs, the Abs and of course
those red Hot Rockies and invate ScottieScheffler that we to get to all that.

(17:33):
But I'm also gonna talk about Broncosschedule. Got Grant Smith with me
rolling along as well. You're listeningto KOA eight fifty ninety four to one
FM. Powerful faith in the talent, still the poise of the team.
You know, we fought all year, like like I was saying, to
get our home quarterback, so youknow, we have all our our focus
on our ender. His young Gameseven, we're gonna play Dummer Nuggets.

(17:55):
Brand of basketball was Aaron Gordon inthe locker room. He was a little
more down than I think just aboutanyone. It was interesting because there's obviously
frustration and disappointment after losses. ButI talked him after Game two and he
said, all we had to dois go win one game and then we'll
get the momentum back. And hewas exactly right. They won in Minnesota

(18:17):
on Friday in Game three, andthen I asked about momentum. He said
again going into Game four that yeah, we've got the momentum back, and
he was right, and then goinginto Game five obviously really had momentum once
that game ended, and now themomentums certainly shifted back to Minnesota to some
degree. So this show Broncos Countryat Night, plenty of Broncos talk.
We're gonna ask our next guest,romy Bean about the Broncos schedule, maybe

(18:40):
at the end, but if shejoined us on. Brandon christallin for Benjamin
Albright, we go to the CommonSpirit Health text line, and I am
going to begin as romy and Iwere seat mates. We sat right next
to each other and almost basically atthe mid court straight a pretty good media
seating there at Target at Target's therein Minneapolis. Romey, you got a

(19:02):
sense postgame? Do you think that'sa fair characterization. Appreciate the time as
always, but do you think thatof all the players that we saw,
and certainly Michael Malone postgame, thatAG's demeanor was, especially for a guy
that kind of keeps it pretty evenkeeled, was the most somber. And
you were that from Michael Porter Juniorand I wasn't. So maybe you could
differentiate, but that was the senseI got of everybody else that I saw.

(19:25):
Yeah, I would agree, Iwould. I would say Michael Porter
Junior was probably on Aaron Gordon's level, But then you could trast that with
I mean, Reggie, Reggie Gordon, Reggie Jackson was he was kind of
smiling, he was talking about Gameseven. Just enjoy it, man,
right, just enjoy it. Jamalwas. I think we were all a
little taken aback at how kind ofcalm Jamal was. And he wasn't necessarily

(19:48):
brushing it off because He certainly saidhe was gonna they own it. They
owned that game. He didn't playwell, et cetera, et cetera.
But Jamal comes out before Michael Maloneand the press are and I'm expecting him
to come out hot or be reallyor with his answers. And he was,
you know, seemed disappointed, butnot panic, not down. Definitely
not the way Aaron Gordon founded byany means, you know, Yokich's this

(20:11):
is why we love to call you, because he's kind of his own,
his own, his own cat.But yeah, I was. I would
say Aaron Gordon was much more down. I was surprised kind of at Jamal's
demeanor, and I don't know ifit's a good thing or about things,
but I was certainly surprised at hispost game demeanor. Well. And then
what's interesting too, not just thathe came in before Michael on that in
and of itself, but Jamal Murrayfor as good as he is on the

(20:33):
court and as good as he isat times when he wants to be,
which isn't all the time in amedia session, whether it be right after
practice or after a game, includingafter lots and lots and lots of wins,
big wins. He can be alittle, a little gruff, a
little surly. He also now hasa reputation of skipping media availabilities. He
did it last year in Phoenix aftera tough loss to the Sons in the

(20:56):
playoffs, and then it did itafter games one and too here in Denver
of this series. And it's somethingthat I think people have been critical of.
I know, I have to somedegree that if you're going to be
one of the leaders of your team, you've got to face the music,
so to speak, even when thingsdon't go well. So I think that
similarly as you and I were sittingthere though, and tell me if you

(21:17):
disagree, they understood that the gamegot so far out of hand because they
were missing good shots, but andthere were breakdowns all over the place defensively
as well, and then they're ballhandling and all that, but that it
just got so out of hand thatonce they realized that it was okay,
let's let's figure out why this isgoing on, but let's get locked in
for Game seven. Yeah. Absolutely, And I thought it was interesting,

(21:40):
you know, Jamal said after thatcrazy first quarter run, first quarter run,
he said, we did nothing toshift the momentum or change or change
it. So it was it wasalmost like they it was doomed from the
start in many ways, kind ofreading between the lines of what he said
there and it they did, andI don't you know, It's it's really

(22:03):
interesting, Bka, because when welook at this whole series, it's been
I think that on the one hand, you can certainly be critical. They
had a chance to close this out, and why didn't they close it out.
It seems like they weren't even fullypresent in a lot of ways,
like it just got away from themand they said, all right, moving
on to Game seven. I guess. On the other hand, you can
look at it they're fully confident theycan come home, and they're three and

(22:23):
wanting their last four game sevens,you know, all of these things.
But it is just interesting, andthen you see the histories kind of on
their side, all of these teamsthat have got blown out in the game,
you know, and then come backand won in the elimination game the
next game. But it's just it'sjust such a stark contrast. I think

(22:45):
from the Nuggets. We saw itlast year's postseason, right that was like
they played every single game, getit done, Get it done. The
series were all pretty short. Italmost seems like it's a different mentality this
year. And that's not to saythat it's not a championship mentality, but
we have seen so many ebbs thisseries. This series itself feels like an

(23:06):
entire postseason, with the blowouts,with the drama, with the heat packs,
right with the poise and the lackof poise. It's really interesting.
I think it's testing the Nuggets ina lot of different ways. Yeah,
and we're talking with Roby Bean fromCBS four. Follow her on Twitter at
romy underscore being or Instagram at romyBean. No underscore there. But it's

(23:30):
just to see because we saw themkind of flip a switch, especially late
in games, and they won somany go twenty and six out of the
break, but a tied for bestrecord in the West at fifty seven wins.
But late in games they could justdo what they needed to do.
They had the answers to the testand could close it out. But you're
not playing against even you know,different teams, good teams that timberlves might

(23:52):
be the second best team in theNBA, let alone in the West,
So you don't always have that luxurybecause they're gonna throw a bunch of different
things at you. Their rosters constructedby Tim Conley, who's the same guy
that basically constructed ninety percent of theNuggets roster, give or take, and
so to see kind of the backand forth has been fascinating. But I
guess the final thing I have onthis is, how do you see this

(24:12):
Game seven playing out here Sunday infront of this home crowd. You know,
my expectations are that I think itis going to be a significant bounce
back and it is going to bea kin to what we saw from Game
two to Game three. But atthe same time, there's a little piece
of me that also says, Idon't know. First of all, game

(24:33):
sevens get weird. Thing can getweird in game seven, Right, this
is what you never wanted to goto a Game seven. I do expect
the Nuggets to come out with moreenergy to play the way they were playing
in their three wins, but Ialso expected them to do that in game
six. So there is a partof me that's a little bit uncertain about
what we're going to see. ButI think when it comes down to it,

(24:56):
we're definitely going to see more effort, completely different game than we saw
in Game six, because now itreally is now or never. Yeah,
And as I mentioned all the percentages, the team that wins Game seven moves
on one hundred percent of the timein the history of NBA, NHL,
and MLB playoffs, So they winGame seven, whoever wins this game will

(25:18):
move on. Mark it down,Romie, I told you that last night
after the game, and it stillrings true. So and you can use
that on CBS four if you wantas well. Kind Of before we get
to my question about the Broncos,because we're kind of quick. One,
how fun is it? It's tiringfor sure, especially when you're traversing the
country, but you go Nuggets asNuggets has and because they both made it
in the second round for only thefourth time ever. But I think the

(25:41):
most recent was in the bubble thatthe way these teams are built Ballerina,
it's not far fetched that just likewe're seen in Boston a lot of years
with the what the Bruins and Celticshave done with deep playoff runs, that
building is packed every night or thatteam those teams are playing. Just how
fun is it that both teams withdeeper playoff runs. Oh, I mean
it's the best, you know,Like people are like, are you exhausted?

(26:03):
I'm like, what a great reasonto be tired though, and way
better than the alternative. We're stucktalking about the Rockies for three months,
right, the red Hot Rockies ofcourse, and baseball I get it,
the Home of the Rockies, ofcourse, that's koa. But it's just
it's so fun. And it's sofun because watching both of these rosters and
the way they're built and the waythe talent is there for you know,

(26:23):
it's it's the opposite of the NFL, NBA and NHL. You can really
keep these groups together and build thosethose long runs where you can have playoff
runs year after year after year.And the Nuggets and that's gonna have several
more years of this, which isit's just awesome. Yeah, It's something
that you can start to build intoyour calendar potentially, Like, we're gonna

(26:44):
be tired, but it's gonna beworth it. We know we're tired during
a football season also in a goodway. It's more fun covering a winning
team, something that you and Ihaven't really done since we work together.
At the end of I guess aswe were starting Denver Sports seven sixty and
the Broncos go into a playoff runthat ended in the Super Bowl, and
then we know what it's been.But the schedule comes out Sean Payton year

(27:07):
two, maybe we'll have a rookiequarterback at some point, we know we'll
see bo Nicks. What jumped outto you about the schedule. That's kind
of the final thing I have foryou, And I'm gonna do some more
schedule talk after we get to traffic. But what were your initial thoughts when
you saw the schedule break down andnow we know who they play, win
and when they're buy weekids, etcetera. Yeah, you know, because
I think what shoot out to meinitially was if bo Nicks does get the

(27:29):
start, you start three or fouron the road, that's a tough slate
for a rookie QB. And Seattle, you know, is so loud.
I mean, that's one of theloudest stadiums probably in the world, right,
so I feel like that that's achallenging start, three or four on
the road, and of course twoon the East coast Florida in September.
It's always tough for the Broncos.The Steelers one is obviously rich with story

(27:52):
line, so that first month isgonna be really interesting, the return of
Rus. And of course you lookat and you're like, NFL had to
do it week two to make surethat Russ was still the quarterback, and
then it's just right, I'm notwrong though, and then and then you
start getting into I think another thingthat stood out to me for sure was
the bye. You mentioned it thatso late. I think I read it's

(28:15):
the latest since like two thousand andone. You do have the Thursday night
game week seven, so that's thatkind of a mini buy, but week
fourteen that is a brutal buye.I feel like, I guess the silver
lining is if they were to getto the postseason and then that's an awesome
break, right, But to canthey get healthy? They had a great
track record of staying healthy last year, but to go that long without a

(28:37):
bye, to me, stands outas something that's significant as well. And
there's others a couple other like toughstretches, you know, Baltimore, Kansas
City, those kind of stretches,and there looks like there's winnable ones in
between Carolina, New Orleans before Atlantabefore So you look at the schedule,
to me, there's places where theBroncos can maybe go on run, maybe
win a couple, you know,luck into a couple. Well, you

(29:00):
know how the NFL goes. ButI think the first month is going to
be pretty tough. It's tough tostart. Yeah, and obviously they can
come out of it at five hundredor better than they should be sitting in
pretty good shape with what should bea fun year. We know it's a
fun time here though right now.When I was glad I was able to
hang out with you and sit andwatch a whole game, although we were
goofing around more than anything because thatgame got so out of hand. Nonetheless

(29:21):
it was a blast, and thenI appreciate the time. So we will
continue to check in with you andfollow you, not just on CBS four
but on social media as well.So, romy Bean, thank you so
much for the time, and youand I at least will see each other
for game seven. Yes, cannotwait. And thanks for all the company
yesterday in the game well at anyair quotes. Yeah, and we didn't

(29:42):
meet to pick our seats, butthat's really put us, so we had
a blast. It's like when weused to have our desks right next to
each other. So we were gonnatake a quick time out though again thanks
to romy Bean. We're going tohead right now though to the Kowa Traffic
Center and as the drive is wrappingup on this Friday, let's check in
of course with Dave O'Bryant. Theschedule. It is funny see how excited

(30:03):
people get with it. I amBrandon Christall and for Benjamin Albright and appreciate
you joining us on a Friday nighton Broncos Country tonight. And it was
something that I brought up with Romeythere at the end of our chat.
But looking at the way this shapesup, this is no easy start for
whomever the quarterback is, and ifit is Bo Nicks, and I've said

(30:23):
this, I want to see boNick squat and win the job, right.
You don't want to see bo Nicksbe given the job. And that's
not the way Sean Payton operates.He's not giving bo Nicks the job just
because he was drafted in the firstround, drafted twelfth overall. He has
to go win the job. Hehas to beat out Zach Wilson, who
was taking second overall just a coupleof years ago, and has I think
up boards of thirty something starts inthe NFL that they haven't necessarily gone great.

(30:45):
It'scept against the Broncos mostly, butyou've got Zach Wilson. Of course,
you have Jared Stidham, who knowsthe offense and his teammates really like
him, and he and bo Nickshave a bit of a relationship because he
hosted bo Nicks on Bow's recruiting tripto Auburn, and so while they weren't
in school together, they obviously knoweach other with those Auburn ties. So

(31:06):
I'm sure that the quarterback room isa fun place to be these days,
especially when all the rookies, butBonick specifically is in the building, and
I didn't even follow up to seeif Bow was here. They have the
weirdest rule in the NFL, andI'm gonna go on a little tangent here
real quick before we look at schedulemore. The NFL, which seems to
get most of the things right,they've had this rule that the rookies coming

(31:29):
for rookie minie camp and then theyhave to go back. They don't have
to go back to campus, butthey cannot return back to their NFL team
for an offseason program until their semesteris over at school. Now, in
a world where Bonix probably has agraduate degree, when he's in college for
six, seven, eight, nineyears, whatever it is, does he
have to get back to Oregon foranything? I don't know, and I

(31:51):
don't know when Oregon semester ends.And so that might affect Franklin as well.
His target, favorite wide receiver inTroy Franklin. But schools like Stanford
that are on trimesters, they sendthese kids away until their entire semester is
done and then they can rejoin theprogram. And there's an argument about how
much off season program do you needanyway, and all of that, and

(32:14):
that's a whole separate conversation. Butthe point is you have teammates, new
teammates to learn, and a newoffense and everything else in life in the
NFL and be in a pro andyou go to college not just for the
experience. But if you're going tobreak it down, what is college about.
It's about getting a job, right, And so you now have the

(32:36):
opportunity to have a job, andif you're a first round pick, especially
you've got a job for a coupleof years, you have a contract that
will pay you millions of dollars.And so why does the NFL have this
stupid rule that they can come infor a week and then they have to
go back for six, eight,ten, twelve days until their semester ends.
It's not the NFL's job to worryabout whether or not these kids get
degrees. If it was, theywould have rules that say you cannot come

(32:58):
until you graduate. And that's notthe case. These people are adults.
These men are adults. It's onthem to finish up their academic responsibilities and
if they again, these are voluntarynot I mean even the brook Comuni can'tvoluntary.
If they want to walk with theirclass or if they have friends or
family or whomever graduating, great,then take off and usually that's on the
weekend. Well, I guess collegegraduations community of the week. But it's

(33:21):
just silly that they can come totown and then they're they're not allowed to
be back in the facility. Iguess they can stay in town, right,
No one's gonna stop them from youcan't track their travel, but it's
just a dumb rule, and maybenext time I see Roger Cadell, I'll
ask him why is this still stilla rule. But going back to the
Bronco schedule, so you get Bonexin here, and like I said,
I wanted to win the job,but at Seattle never an easy place to

(33:42):
play. You know, Carroll's defenseswere good. We'll see now with Mike
McDonald coming in from the Ravens,what does that defense look like Pittsburgh and
Russell Wilson. Yeah, Rummy saidit rich with storylines. Russ and we
too, no reason to think hewon't be the starter. I don't see
a world where Justin Fields beats himout. But Russ in week two.
Then you go to Tampa. Theywere a playoff team last year, won

(34:02):
their division, and Baker Mayfield plentyof confidence there. Florida in September has
not been kind to the Broncos.They were in Miami last September. We
know how that went. It feelslike every time they go to Tampa Bay.
I think was the last time theywere there. Paxson Lynch started or
played, but there was a lightningdelay and rain and it was gross.

(34:24):
Then at the Jets, who aregoing to be all over primetime. This
is a non primetime game. Wegive back to back one o'clock starts.
Will they stay on the East Coast. You don't have the Raiders eighteen weeks
apart like you did last year,but you've got the Raiders and Los Angeles
you can pick up some division wins. We'll see what this John Harbaugh rather
Jim Harball led Chargers team looks like. You get Sean Payton's returning New Orleans

(34:45):
short week Thursday night. I'm sureSean doesn't mind. Let's talk about his
return in New Orleans and less NewOrleans media that's gonna come here and make
it about him. He can getthat out of the way and then move
on. You get the mini bythere, and so if you go through
it, there's that winnable stretch inthe middle. You're gonna get the Browns
coming to town on Monday night footballright after right after the Thanksgiving holiday.

(35:12):
So then your stretches against the Indianwe don't know what they'll look like with
Anthony Richardson. Will he be healthyby then or is it I can't even
remember wheal they signed as his backupnow, But either way, you've got
a cold steam that should be beatable. Then you're at the charge of that
since he will not be a breezeright after Christmas before New Year's no way,

(35:32):
that's an easy game if Joe Burrow'shealthier, even if he's not.
But if Joe Burrows healthy and thenyou get the Chiefs to close it out
here at home. So I stilllike to I love the Broncos go over
five and a half, even witha rookie quarterback. I'm probably gonna put
real money on that. But Idon't know if they're a playoff team or
not. They're gonna have to winsome of those tough games in the division.

(35:52):
They're gonna have to go on theroad and beat a Tampa or B
two Seattle have wins like that tomake the playoffs. Just what it's gonna
take. So a brief schedule breakdown, but nonetheless to what we do here
on Broncos Country Tonight. It's justso much fun with nugs and abs and
all that going on as well.So I am Brandon Krystal and for Benjamin
Albright. As I mentioned, isBroncos Country Tonight. You're listening to koa

(36:15):
A fifty men ninety four one FM,