Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Banks Men, Broncos Country Today, Benjamin Old, Brian mcferguson, Grant
(00:03):
Smith five six sixty nine zero is the text line.
Thanks to Hall of Famer Steve Atwater for joining us
in the last hour. You guys missed any part of that,
You go to Broncos County Night, dot Com, Slash Podcast,
wherever you get your podcast, Apple high Tunes, Spotify, the
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That's right, I nailed it. Anywhere you want, you can
get all that and we appreciate you. You also get
to take it Forget a podcast which just dropped a
(00:24):
new episode as well. Well housekeeping here. iHeart has partnered
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F for the spelling challenged to three three one zero zero.
That's relief to three three one zero zero. Had a
(00:45):
lot of wildcard action going on this weekend. Certainly it
interesting weekend in the NFL, and we'll start it off
where it started off with the Chargers against the Texans.
Justin Herbert creeping up toward the line, leaning it, gets
the shotgun, step, looks to the left, pumps and throws
left side two talls.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Intercepthing picked off down the sideline.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Eric Murray, He's gonna take it up the listed by
Houston pick six.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
That call courtesy of Kevin Coogler with west Wood One.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And man, was I wrong about that game? I was
certainly was wrong about that game. And the Chargers, they
came out and they looked like they had it, and
they had all the momentum after two drives, but managed
to settle for field goals. The Texans couldn't get anything going,
but Detexts stuck with the game plan. They obviously identified
something with the quick game because that's what they ran
all game, and then they got Joe Mixon going a
(01:37):
little bit later on in the second half. Was all
downhill from there. Justin Herbert four interceptions in that game
after throwing three all year. Get what you seeing that one?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I just saw, I guess looking at Justin Herbert, a
guy who was trending in the right direction. It was
just that one game that he turned the ball over
four times. And you do that as a young quarterback.
Sometimes that can kind of rattle you from a confidence standpoint.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And obviously we heard so many people talk.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
About Justin Herbin said, well, maybe he's not that quarterback.
I'm going to save this on Justin Herbert's behalf. Sometimes
you have games like this and you have to use
these games to push you forward. I don't think this
is indicative of who he is as a quarterback because
I'll say this, I don't believe he has adequate receiver
talent around him outside of Lamb McConkie.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's what I was just gonna get through. Labmccacky nine catches,
one hundred ninety seven yards and a touchdown on fourteen targets.
The rest of the team will just lay two catches
for sixteen, Tucker Fisk one catch for fifteen, Djhuck one
catch for ten, Darris Davis one catch for four. That's
the rest of the team. Quinon Johnson had no catches
on five targets.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But I'll say this, this was a game that I
didn't pick the Texas to win. I mean, shout out
to Damika Ryans CJ. Shaut for pulling this off, But
to me, they were elevated once again by the run
game and the efficiency of Joe Mixon.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, it really was. And Mixing struggled a little bit
on the first couple series, picked up the fumboy and
then the penalty.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It was early.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It looked like like what is Joe Mixon? But Joe
mixed men.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Slapping does out of the way.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He just slapped them by the way, kept on slapping.
But they ended up finishing twenty five carries one hundred
and six yards and had a touchdown as well as
a catch for thirteen yards as well. The game after that,
Steelers at the Baltimore Ravens was Ruskin to Cook Lamar
in the shotgun. Here's the snap, Jackson, We'll hand it
off to Henry up the middle, big hole, turny twenty
(03:31):
five down to the twenty fifteen ten five touchdown Ravens
Derek Henry second touchdown run of the Knight.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
That call courtesy of Ryan Racky with west Wood one
and man Derek Henry looks unstoppable.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Dereck Henry Lamar were cooking in now one. Although I
gotta be honest with you, Russ played a really good
game twenty to twenty nine, two hundred and seventy yards
and two touchdowns. If they had any semblance of a
run game at all, which they didn't, and any other
weapons other than George Pickens, which they didn't, the Sea
might have might have been a little bit more competitive
when all was said and done. I don't know they
win that thing because the Ravens were on a mission,
(04:05):
but they started a little bit more competitive. The Steelers
gonna have to retool things. This is kind of funny
because the problems down the stretch weren't Russell Wilson. The
problems were.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
They get much like the Chargers.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
They've got a bad offensive line and no receiving talent
outside of one guy.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I was sitting frustrating watching the Steelers right tackle number
seventy dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Dude, he was a terms.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Robert Jones got beat like he stole something.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Like anytime you see a lineman constantly looking back over
his shoulder, you know if he called those lookout blocks
right out, Yeah, because there's the whole bust of them.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
But it just seems as though the way that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The season ended for the Steelers was very difficult because
I'm not used to watching them lose so many games.
But I didn't see the sense of urgency in the
drive you typically see from a Steelers team, especially on
the defensive side of the ball. When you think about
Derek Hearing, Lamar Jackson accounted for two hundred and sixty
six yards of the two hundred and ninety nine yards
(05:05):
that the Ravens had.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
That's kind of disappointed. Now.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I mean, idea was like, you're gonna let Lama get
his yards, but to give up one eighty six to
one freaking running back, that is utterly disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Derrick Henry averaged seven point two yards per carry in
the NFL. That's like college number?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Is that like that should be like a playoff record,
should not?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That is a college that's high for a college number.
That's like an ash did Chancey number in college.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
These were absurd.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, you know what, watching the game as a safety,
you could see some of the steerless players thinking about
the officers.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh yeah, man, you could be thinking about the officer
quarter you saw you saw them breaking their to the
defensive huddle one two three, k coon on three.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
A couple of stats on that game. Ohow, and Derek
Henry's whole season. He now has four seasons with fifteen
hundred yards rushing.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
T J.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Watt recorded zero defensive stats in that entire game.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, it was a was an empty set in that game.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
That's disappointed.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
They had one sack by Alex Heismith for the entire
game and it was just it was just an embarrassing
effort for the Steelers defense.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
What do you think the Titans are thinking right now
about letting Derrick Henry leave?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
What do you think everybody who could have had it?
Every really Garry Jones didn't want to spend the money
about them Cowboys. Yeah, Joe did want to spend the money.
He's the game grew for a week. Broncos disappointing into
the season against the Buffalo bill speaking to get run
on shock and snapped. The Knicks protection is good. Bold
loads it up, He's got it a receiver there.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Franklin makes the catch in the ends touchdown.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Denver forty three yard strike bow.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Knicks Toe's college teammates Troy Franklin Denver sixth nothing And.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Of course, our very own Dave Logan on the call.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Was that called courtesy of ko and Denver.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Call courtesy of KOA and Denver, the Broncos radio network.
The one positive highlight from center, and it was two
and a half minutes into the game.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It was it was all down hill.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
From there, at least on the Bill's offensive side of
the ball. Shore was because they're coming downhill on that
first time two rookies have connected in a playoff game,
so there was that.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
UH.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The only other offensive highlight for the UH for the
Broncos was when Will Lutz joined the Gong show clanking
the field goal off the loudest whatever I ever heard.
It wasn't a doy kill was like gong. And interestingly,
this was a stat that I happened to know going
into that kick, which was a was it a fifty
fifty two yard attempor something like that? No visiting kicker
(07:38):
in the history of the NFL has ever kicked a
fifty or longer field goal in Buffalo in the playoffs. Ever,
it has never happened, and that streak continues.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I will glad to say that maybe it's because the
Bills opened the tunnel when he got ready kicked the
ball right, But I mean that Tonne was wide open,
so it wasn't that. It just kind of a build
up in a Mike mc cosm of so many things
that went.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Wrong in that game, and to know that when.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The Broncos had that opening touchdown Detroit Franklin, I was like, yes,
we are in business. And then I looked at the
next three quarters business They.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Going out of business. So everything must go one unanswered
by Buffalo as they just put it on the ground
and put it to the Denver Broncos. They did anything
they wanted. Josh Allen twenty twenty six two seventy two,
two touchdowns through the air, James Cook twenty three carries,
one hundred and twenty five point two average on the ground,
Josh Allen five point eight average on the ground, Ty
(08:37):
Johnson four point nine average on the ground. They were
absolutely killing it. The loan highlight for the Broncos probably
Courtland with five catches for seventy five, although he had
some egregious drops in that one. Troy Franklin finally hung
on to a ball and it all went for naught
in the end. It was just it was just a
bad performance all the way around. Zach Allen did get
a sack, DJ got a sack in that with nothing
(08:59):
of note. I think on the defensive side, really PJ
Lock got ten tackles. But anytime your safety leads a
team in tackles, that's a problem in it of itself.
So you know, there you go on that. Let's let's
wash that one out of the way, get something else.
Backers at the Eagles second down at one, Hurts looks
like he's changing the play.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
Drew receivers to the left, Perchs throws to us left
for Goddard. Goddard takes ex spins Goddard Sunder's way. It's
under fifteen state parks through the ten. It's on the
five touchdown Eagles.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
That was all Dallas Goddard twenty four yards.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That call courtesy of Tom McCarthy with Westwood one and
that close. That game wasn't even as close as the
final score.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It was not sake one. Barkley twenty five carries, one
hundred and nineteen yards four point eight average, also chipped
in a couple of receptions for four yards, touched out
to Jahan Dotson. And you heard the Dallas Goddard both
from Jalen Hurts. Jordan Love absolutely croaks this one away.
Quarterback rating of forty one and a half, no touchdowns,
three interceptions were staking a pretty good performance from Josh
Jacobs eighteen carries eighty one yards and a four to
(09:58):
five average long a pull as a touchdown. There are
a lot of questions surrounding Jordan Love as more and
more as this goes along. It looks like he had
a little six game hot hot streak last year and
looks to be a lot more middling than perhaps the
sentiment on him was at the end of last year.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Well, here's what I'm going to say in the defense
of Jordan Love.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He lost Watson a week before with an ACL injury,
then you know, Dobbs had his injury, then we got injured.
So three of your top wide receivers had some kind
of injury issues. And if you were watching that game,
once you got into the fourth quarter, it seemed like
every five plays it was a Packer.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Guy on the ground.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
The medical crew had to come out and kind of
helped them get off the field.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And I think that Ben was probably the reason why
Jordan Love struggled.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
But still, at the same time, you were facing off
against the Eagles, the philosophy was really easy to.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Turn around and the ball to save kwon Barkley. And
here's another since if you are right, Joe Shane, who
worked for the GM for the Giants, where do you
think it right now?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Watching Saquan in a different uniform trying.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
To rack up these types of yards, I think you
have no Sean Morino sized tears. Every time you turn
the television on, you just crying. We pay Oh, Vic
Fangio and the Philadelphia Eagles continue to advance skins, Uncle
Vic Popovich cooking up them spicy meat balls. Combed Rick
(11:32):
Lewis never got an invite our Washington Commanders, our commander
in chief, did Quinn and the Tampa Bay Bucketeers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Press way the whole Tyler on the staff from Ashmark
left where.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The Commanders win. The kick is up, it's sails on
the way hit stay upright and goes through. He knocks
it through and wins the game. Twenty three twenty That
call courtesy of Jason.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Bennetti with Westwood One, and that was by far the
game of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, most of these games weren't close. And it's kind
of funny because the games this week on average were
actually closer than the Wildcard weekend from last year. Average
scoring deficiency in this week's wildcard games was twelve points.
Last year it was fifteen points for the same round
of games. Baker Mayfield capped his season with a fifteen
of eighteen performance hundred and eighty five yards two touchdowns,
Bucky Irving seventeen for seventy seven on the ground. Mike
(12:29):
Evans seven catches ninety two at a touchdown was the
biggest threat on the Tampa side of things. Jade Daniels
leading the team and passing two hundred and sixty yards
two touchdowns, rushing at thirty six on the ground as
the ground game really struggled there for the Washington Commanders.
Terry McLaurin, that synergy continued seven catches eighty nine yards
and a touchdown at DM brown In there for the
(12:49):
early strike as well as Ayman Gonzaland's three for three
including that close Paul another game where Washington didn't punt.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But I think the thing that changed the game, and
you can see the look on Baker Mayfield's face that
exchange that gave Washington and the ball back. See that
was the game winning drive for Tampa Bay. They had
all the momentum. But that's what these games.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Come down to.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Which team is going to make the mistake, but then
also being able to capitalize off their mistake.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
And throughout this game, I know, leading up.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
To it, for me, it was Marshall Lantimore versus Mike
Evans and Marshall Lantimore, I mean, the PI calls, the
passing apparence man, I mean, it got to a.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Point I was like, are they gonna throw another one?
I think I'll throw another one.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You should just met Mike Evans carry his own flag
with it and he should just drop it on the spot.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
That was really bizarre.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But this was one of those games of the wild
Card weekend that was really exciting because it wasn't a
lopsided and we had to wait till that last kick
and Zane gon Dallas man bless his heart to watch
him stress out.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
It's no, he's diagnosed, because.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I put a tweet out there and I was like, dude,
for just watching him with stressing me the hell out
because I have my own ocds myself, which you know,
I just I decided to out myself with that. But
the idea is that there are a lot of players,
believe it or not, that have some of that same issue.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Where they have a routine that if they.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Break that routine or something breaks it, it kind of interferes.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
With them, but great for him. It was a doink.
It went through the.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Commander's move on they do And congratulations to coach Pagano
everybody out there, Shaq Barrett. Nice to see him getting
some moren again from a bronco with the Tampa Bay
Bucks and Steve Adwater's nephew Jeremy Chance seven tackles to
tie for on the Washington team. Bobby Wagger had eight
in that one's so good for good for the Vikings
(14:55):
at the Rams.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Donald will be in the gun and against the shotguns
up and against the.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Block from him, and he felt up and he's honey
fumbled the day he looks picked up on the play.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
It's sharpers with the fifty years so long fety from
the thirty TENNY.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Ten five touchdown touchdown ums that called courtesy of the
one and only Kevin Harlan with Westwood One.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, this is a game where they said Darnald up
for failure. Having him throw forty times is not got
the recipe to win if you're in Minnesota. Meanwhile, Matt
Stafford continues to be clutched in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, definitely clutching the playoffs and then you use your right.
I mean, the Rams unexpectedly was able to generate an
enormous amount of pressure.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
I didn't even expect them to get nine sacks what
they did so very frustrating for Kivin O'Connell and the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, and then man that defensive coordinat for the Rams,
really putting his name on the map with that one
up against Brian Floors. We got Ryan Michaels. We come back,
Broncos Country at night, the Broncos Country to the Klans
with all bright, Nick Ferguson, Grant Smith here with you.
Five sixty six nine zero is the text line. Guys
can't wait. Celebrate the best of podcasting at the twenty
(16:05):
twenty five iHeartRadio Podcast Awards Live and South by Southwest Monday,
March tenth. Podcast fans celebrate your favorites by voting it
Iheartpodcast Awards dot Com. We've got this diverse categori says,
lifestyle and true crime and true crime and next favorite podcast,
which is Dudes on Dudes, Dudes on Dudes. That's right,
Dudes on Dudes's podcast. Nick, did you already get your
(16:26):
your vote in for dudes on dudes.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
You know what, it's something I want to say. It's
both guys right now, is there's something I want to say.
What I got.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I got a lot of respect for the both of
you guys. So so let me keep that one dooka
to myself.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
He was.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Nick was not disappointed in the content of that podcast,
as opposed to some demographics that the certainly we're going
to go right out to the Kiwa, come a Sperrell
outline and bring on our guy, Ryan Michael at the
Ryan Michael, Ryan, how you doing this evening?
Speaker 5 (16:53):
I'm doing well, man, Nick. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Pretty well? Nick's looking for the pivot on the change
of topic here see Dallas's coconut water over their coconut
water comic epis tastes awful.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
It tastes like it tastes a cat. You're in strings
with a dirty sock.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
How do you know what it tastes like?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Because I tad water.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Answer the question.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It tastes like when I imagine cat, you're a strength
to a dirty stock. It tastes like just terrible. Right,
you know you've been on this arrived with us from
the from the beginning for Canta postseason, You've you've been
called both. I've seen it on social media, been called
both a stan and a hater. Uh, sometimes in the
same conversation. Now that the dust has settled, how do
you feel about the Broncos twenty twenty four seasons?
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Good question, you know, I echo a lot of the
sentiments that you expressed last night. Obviously, as a team
that was projected to win five to six games, winning
ten exceeded all expectations, and as rough of a game
as it was on Sunday, we got to beat by
a much better team. Hopefully we can use that as
fuel moving forward into twenty twenty five. So all in all,
(17:58):
I'm feeling pretty good, or at least as good as
you can after a butt kicking like that. But I
think there's really two ways that you can approach it,
and both are valid. The first is the critical perspective, right,
what is it? Can we what can we do better?
And the other is the glass houseful and I think
that we can acknowledge that both of those points are valid.
(18:20):
What I find is if it were a head coach
or a quarterback who came into post season meetings after
getting knocked off. If their focus was we need to
improve on X, Y and Z, they would be printed.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's what you need to do to take a.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Step to the next level. And I think here on BCT,
if we do that in as far as we can
as commentators and as analysts, we're called wet blankets, or worse,
we're called haters. We're all united in the fact that
we want to cover a winner here. I have a
tremendous love and reverence for this team, so I'm rooting
as hard as anybody on Sundays. But I think what
we're dealing with then is the struggle to objectively assess
(18:58):
individual l mints of a collective that exceeded expectations. So
that's what I'm here to talk about tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, I know the game is very disappointing, but I
like sometimes to look at the silver lining. If we
can do that when you look back at this game,
is it something that the Broncos Country fan base can
look and pull at least some positives from what we
saw on Sunday?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
I think so, Nick. I think even with a defeat
as bad as it was on Sunday, certainly that first
drive right, the aggression that Sean Payton showed on that
first drive. It was the best first drive we've had
all year. I was over the moon after the first drive.
And I think bow Nick's overall had a very impressive
postseason debut. You wouldn't think that scoring only seven points,
(19:47):
but you know, we're looking at a total QBR of
sixty eight point four, which was the fourth highest of
all the quarterbacks who played on Wildcard Sunday. He was
only sacked twice. He had some qutch throws, and there
were three or four notable drops that would have made
those numbers look even better. So I think it was
an impressive debut for bow and Jack Allen, who's been
(20:08):
knocking it out of the park all season. Five total
tackles for them were solo to TfL's two quarterback hits
the sack he showed up. So there's always that silver lining,
And you know, I think it's important for us to
focus the season as a whole. It's not a matter
of silver lining. It's the season that exceeded all of
our expectations, I think. So that's something certainly to the
(20:31):
hold close to your heart and to use his fuel
looking forward to next year.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Talking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter
Pro Football Hall of Fame contributor, you told us back
in March that Sean Payton typically has hot starts and
cold finishes and that history was certainly noteworthy. Is it
fair to say that that given the seven verses two here,
I could say yes and no.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I mean we talked back in March, and what I
had to say then, I'll quote, it's really that one
in three finish that I hone in on, and I say,
may be a cause we're concerned. And here we are
been ten months later, and we finished the season one
and three again. And this isn't just a recent trend.
This has been going on for nearly a decade, dating
(21:18):
back to Shawn's time in New Orleans. Twenty seventeen, the
Saints started off eight and two. They finished four and four.
The next year thirteen and two. They one in three
seems to be our favorite finish here twenty nineteen ten
and two, they finished three and two. Twenty twenty ten
and two, they finished three and three. For Breeze retires,
they get off to a fairly impressive five and two start.
(21:38):
They close out the year four and six, and obviously
both years here in Denver. Last year we started off
seven and six, we closed one in three. We're better.
This year started off nine and five, closed the season
as one in three and not sharing this to have
a gotcha or I told you so a moment, but
it's something that concerned me ten months ago still does
(21:59):
well for me.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Being a defensive player.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I feel as though with all to talk about the quarterback,
a lot of the details about the defense are often overlooked.
And there's one guy from this past season that I
thought was very sensational for the Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Deserve to go to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
He did not go, and that's Zach Allen.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I mean, statistically, what did you see from Zach Allen
in his game that gives you optimism rolling into twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, an important distinction is that when you look at
different accolades Pro Bowl or something that some people focus on,
I think really focus on Pro Bowl selection so much
as All Pro selection. So Zach is the second team
All Pro selection this year. I would have loved to
have seen him as the first team All Pro selection.
Forty quarterback hits, he had a safety fifteen TFLs. He
(22:49):
was pressure all season long, and collectively as a defensive force,
we were far and away, in my opinion, the best
pass rushing at the NFL team, not just this year
but in some years. Right sixty three sacks as a
collective broke the franchise record is one expert game and
a statistic that I referenced last week as we were
(23:11):
number one in the league in quarterback hits with one
hundred and forty two. Second place was Baltimore at one
twenty two. So Zach Allen at least got the acknowledgement
he deserved it. As a second team All Pro selection,
he can make the argument for first team All Pro
and I sure hope to see him doing similar things
for us next year.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Hary, Ryan Michael and the Ryan Michael on Twitter, we
talked a little b about those cold finishes with Sean Payton.
While you're sort of on the hate train, what concerns
you heading into twenty twenty five?
Speaker 5 (23:41):
So obviously the hot star cold finish thing is more
than just the recent thing. But the question we have
to ask ourselves is how do we top a season
that exceeded expectations? Right, there's some challenges we're going to
face in the offseason the potential loss of Vance Joseph.
And without getting too track here, I've heard the chatter
(24:02):
and the nonsense online about letting go Vance Joseph, who was,
in my opinion, far and away the best defensive coordinator
in Pro football this year. Obviously, towards the end of
the year we switched to run a little bit more zone.
We have pats or ten playing on a bum ankle.
We obviously weren't the same defense we were when we
were one hundred percent healthy. And I always say then,
(24:23):
when we are honing in on a specific window to
tell a narrative, if we're ever emphasizing a window over totality,
we know that we probably don't have a great perspective.
So if you're hearing people chatter about how good of
a defense we were in the month of December, it's
notable that for the entire season, third in points per
game surrendered, second in both pass and rush defensive exp
(24:46):
which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference. As
they said, First in quarterback sack, we led the league
in sack percentage. We sacked the quarterback on nine point
four percent of the one out of every ten plays
results in the sack, you know that we're doing something right.
So those numbers still hold up even considering the rough
outing that we had in December. Vance Joseph if we
(25:07):
were to lose him, of course, Jim Leonard is the
natural selection for who would be his successor. But I
sure hope that we don't lose Van Stros if he's
the guy who's had nine years of collective experience at
either the head coach or DC level. Jim had some
experience as a defensive coordinator and as an interim head
coach in Wisconsin, but I hope to see Vance Joseph
(25:27):
next year for sure.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
One of the.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Biggest questions for a lot of fans here in Broncos
Country has to do.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
With the running game and how the running game never
really picked up.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Do you feel optimistic moving forward to twenty twenty five
that aspect of the Broncos game would somewhat change.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
It's going to improve. We can't take anything for granted.
We were twentieth in rushing the X this year negative
seven point four to six, twenty third in the league
in rushing touchdowns, and three of them came from both
They think twelve Wall together. Certainly, we might be looking
at some personnel moves, we might be looking at some
things and free agency in the draft. That's something that
(26:06):
if we can balance the offense, Nick, we're going to
see a lot more of what Bonix can do, because
they think some of those efficiency marks really struggled as
a consequence of us not having balance on that other
end of the offense. So I think that we're going
to have improvement this year. You don't want to take
it for granted, but it is something. If we're looking
for that glass half full, how good can this offense
(26:27):
be if we can move our rushing attack from being
bottom of the third to top third.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, let's let's stick with that, Dan as as we
talk about the glass half full, we started on the
other side, let's go with the glass half full perspective.
Does what is the glass half full perspective as we
head forward into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Well, I mean building upon the winning culture that we're establishing.
And to Sean Payton's credit, even going eight and nine
last year is not necessarily a bad record for a
first year head coach. Everyone would like for someone to
step in take the team to the playoff win a championship,
but you know, to pretty much get close to five
hundred his first year right playing with a quarterback who
(27:07):
was not his keig, not to fit for his system.
Although I'll continue to argue that Russ was quite underappreciated
and underrated given what he did on the other end
of the other end of that spectrum. But we now
have confidence in Bonick's being, at the very minimum, a
legitimate QB one, a starting quarterback with the potential to
one day the elite.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
He was sixth in the.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
NFL and touchdown passes as a rookie, and even when
Justin Herbert threw thirty one in twenty twenty finished tenth
in the NFL, BO Knicks is already top six as
a rookie quarterback with a personnel that had some limitations.
What happens when the offense gets better? If it gets
better for free agency in the draft, familiarity in Sean
Payton's system, a lot of things were dialed back, especially
(27:50):
early in the season, and we see how much better
Bonick sad looked as he's gone along. What does that
look like in year two? What does it look like
two years from now? Out of salary cap heal, and
we could really build the roster that they want. And
you know, if Sean Payton is a Hall of Fame
caliber head coach, and I think you and I are
both in alignment. He was borderlined before this season started.
(28:13):
I would argue that at ten and eight season, definitely
it might not be what puts him over the top there,
but a ten win season on a Broncos team fighting
in salary cap heal is certainly a feather in his cap.
I'd make the argument that Sean Payton deserves Head Coach
of the Year consideration.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Well, let's stay right there for a second. With the
salary cap.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Now, the team has been Saturday cap purgatory obviously after
the Russell Wilson do and I'm glad that they decided
to eat some of that money now. Then they're going
to eat a portion of it in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
But what could this roster possibly look like?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Known as though you have a couple more dollars to
actually spend to upgrade on either side.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Of the ball.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I think twenty twenty four was a testament that just
how far this team could go with good coaching. Great
coaching on both sides of the football, Shawn on the offense,
Man's on the defense. So the stronger the personnel is
obviously Nick, we hope to have even better results. I
think what twenty twenty four accomplished for us is it
re established the winning culture that perhaps we took for
(29:17):
granted during the John Elway years, during the years when
you played with Jake Plumber on the other side of
the ball, during the Peyton Manning years. Winning cannot be
taken for granted. But now free agents can look to Denver,
Colorado as a place that has that winning culture back,
and I think it's going to be a lot more
attractive to free agents this go around than it was
last year.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I think you will. There's certainly something to that, but
the reality is they're still a bit hamstrung by the cap.
Even with fifty four million available, you have no backup
quarterback that's going to cost you roughly ten million on
the market, maybe twelve, depending on who it is. You
go out there and kat you're going to have to
reserve another eight to twelve for your rookie draft class.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
That's twenty four.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Then fifty four already chewed up right there before we
even ad anybody. Now you need to add a tight end.
You probably need some depth. You only got thirty eight
players under contract. You're going to have to do a
few things. I don't expect the Broncos to be huge
players in free agency, at least from a top of
the dollar perspective, But do you expect them to go
out and find maybe smaller and spread that out, an
(30:16):
inside back or backup quarterback, a few other things that
they could use.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I think their approach is going to be very similar
then to what it was last year, and it's really
and I'm sorry for sounding like a broken record, but
it's doing the best we can with the resources that
we have available. Twenty twenty five is going to be
similar in twenty twenty six. Will have a little bit
more weight off of our shoulders at that point. So
there's going to be a lot of pressure for this
team to not necessarily repeat the success, but at least
(30:45):
keep it close to, if not above five hundred, because
if you take a step back and you have a
seven one season, that's going to affect the way that
free agents look at us in twenty twenty six. So
we can't take winning for granted. We beat all the
teams that we should have beat this year at Glas
Tampa Bay. It was the only team with a winning
record that we beat, So you know, you can make
arguments in that direction. I'm trying not to get caught
up in that because there were games like the first one,
(31:07):
the true one against Kansas City that we should have won.
So Nicks outperformed Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead under as much
pressure as we've seen any rippy quarterback this year. So
we're gonna have to earn it. But I think now
we have the coaching staff and we have the beginnings
of a roster, and it's proven that they can be
winners in this league. Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Ryan Michael aty Ryan Michael on Twitter. We appreciate it
and we will look forward to talking to you next week.
Good guys, Well, absolutely take care. Ryan Mike contribute to
Pro Football Hall of Fame. Always love having him on
the show. We hit the over on Taking It for
Granted podcast plugs there. I told Nick there was no
way when we got the four he was going to
hit five. But he hit the fifth one he did.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
I'm not taking it for grated podcast on the free
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
See there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's what every time somebody says take it for granted,
that's what we need to do. Nick had a great idea,
we need to cut every time someone says taking it
for granted. We need to like take that play like
a tag and run a take it for Granted podcast commercial,
and just saying we always appreciate Ryan Michael joining us
and look forward to having him again this year. You
get the dail on the Headhen we talked about Sean
Payton starting hot finishing cold, I mean to be honest
with you, it could have been a lot worse for
the number Broncos. You know, the final five games post
(32:16):
bye week. If it had been for the defense coming
alive and Indy absolutely choking that thing away with Jonathan
Taylor fumbling the ball as he crossed the goal line,
we could have lost that one. And who knows if
we'd have been up against Kansas City's backups and practice
squatters in another situation, it could have been a rough
end of the season, you know, all the way, all
things considered, So we'll take it. Stuff to build on,
(32:37):
but something to keep your eye on. Sean Payton starting
hot and finishing cold gets a good little nugget here.
That you get on Broncos Country Night. We come back.
We talk a little bit about the the Broncos run
game and what they should be targeting and what they
should be doing with the running back position. This is
a Broncos Country Night k where
Banks Men, Broncos Country Today, Benjamin Old, Brian mcferguson, Grant
(00:03):
Smith five six sixty nine zero is the text line.
Thanks to Hall of Famer Steve Atwater for joining us
in the last hour. You guys missed any part of that,
You go to Broncos County Night, dot Com, Slash Podcast,
wherever you get your podcast, Apple high Tunes, Spotify, the
totally free and awesome now redesigned Heart Radio app. You did,
That's right, I nailed it. Anywhere you want, you can
get all that and we appreciate you. You also get
to take it Forget a podcast which just dropped a
(00:24):
new episode as well. Well housekeeping here. iHeart has partnered
with the Dream Center. We're taking donations for families affected
by the southern California wildfires. They onnate the residents in
need by texting relief as R E L I E
F for the spelling challenged to three three one zero zero.
That's relief to three three one zero zero. Had a
(00:45):
lot of wildcard action going on this weekend. Certainly it
interesting weekend in the NFL, and we'll start it off
where it started off with the Chargers against the Texans.
Justin Herbert creeping up toward the line, leaning it, gets
the shotgun, step, looks to the left, pumps and throws
left side two talls.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Intercepthing picked off down the sideline.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Eric Murray, He's gonna take it up the listed by
Houston pick six.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
That call courtesy of Kevin Coogler with west Wood One.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And man, was I wrong about that game? I was
certainly was wrong about that game. And the Chargers, they
came out and they looked like they had it, and
they had all the momentum after two drives, but managed
to settle for field goals. The Texans couldn't get anything going,
but Detexts stuck with the game plan. They obviously identified
something with the quick game because that's what they ran
all game, and then they got Joe Mixon going a
(01:37):
little bit later on in the second half. Was all
downhill from there. Justin Herbert four interceptions in that game
after throwing three all year. Get what you seeing that one?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I just saw, I guess looking at Justin Herbert, a
guy who was trending in the right direction. It was
just that one game that he turned the ball over
four times. And you do that as a young quarterback.
Sometimes that can kind of rattle you from a confidence standpoint.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And obviously we heard so many people talk.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
About Justin Herbin said, well, maybe he's not that quarterback.
I'm going to save this on Justin Herbert's behalf. Sometimes
you have games like this and you have to use
these games to push you forward. I don't think this
is indicative of who he is as a quarterback because
I'll say this, I don't believe he has adequate receiver
talent around him outside of Lamb McConkie.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's what I was just gonna get through. Labmccacky nine catches,
one hundred ninety seven yards and a touchdown on fourteen targets.
The rest of the team will just lay two catches
for sixteen, Tucker Fisk one catch for fifteen, Djhuck one
catch for ten, Darris Davis one catch for four. That's
the rest of the team. Quinon Johnson had no catches
on five targets.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But I'll say this, this was a game that I
didn't pick the Texas to win. I mean, shout out
to Damika Ryans CJ. Shaut for pulling this off, But
to me, they were elevated once again by the run
game and the efficiency of Joe Mixon.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, it really was. And Mixing struggled a little bit
on the first couple series, picked up the fumboy and
then the penalty.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It was early.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It looked like like what is Joe Mixon? But Joe
mixed men.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Slapping does out of the way.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He just slapped them by the way, kept on slapping.
But they ended up finishing twenty five carries one hundred
and six yards and had a touchdown as well as
a catch for thirteen yards as well. The game after that,
Steelers at the Baltimore Ravens was Ruskin to Cook Lamar
in the shotgun. Here's the snap, Jackson, We'll hand it
off to Henry up the middle, big hole, turny twenty
(03:31):
five down to the twenty fifteen ten five touchdown Ravens
Derek Henry second touchdown run of the Knight.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
That call courtesy of Ryan Racky with west Wood one
and man Derek Henry looks unstoppable.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Dereck Henry Lamar were cooking in now one. Although I
gotta be honest with you, Russ played a really good
game twenty to twenty nine, two hundred and seventy yards
and two touchdowns. If they had any semblance of a
run game at all, which they didn't, and any other
weapons other than George Pickens, which they didn't, the Sea
might have might have been a little bit more competitive
when all was said and done. I don't know they
win that thing because the Ravens were on a mission,
(04:05):
but they started a little bit more competitive. The Steelers
gonna have to retool things. This is kind of funny
because the problems down the stretch weren't Russell Wilson. The
problems were.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
They get much like the Chargers.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
They've got a bad offensive line and no receiving talent
outside of one guy.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I was sitting frustrating watching the Steelers right tackle number
seventy dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Dude, he was a terms.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Robert Jones got beat like he stole something.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Like anytime you see a lineman constantly looking back over
his shoulder, you know if he called those lookout blocks
right out, Yeah, because there's the whole bust of them.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
But it just seems as though the way that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The season ended for the Steelers was very difficult because
I'm not used to watching them lose so many games.
But I didn't see the sense of urgency in the
drive you typically see from a Steelers team, especially on
the defensive side of the ball. When you think about
Derek Hearing, Lamar Jackson accounted for two hundred and sixty
six yards of the two hundred and ninety nine yards
(05:05):
that the Ravens had.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
That's kind of disappointed. Now.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I mean, idea was like, you're gonna let Lama get
his yards, but to give up one eighty six to
one freaking running back, that is utterly disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Derrick Henry averaged seven point two yards per carry in
the NFL. That's like college number?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Is that like that should be like a playoff record,
should not?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That is a college that's high for a college number.
That's like an ash did Chancey number in college.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
These were absurd.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, you know what, watching the game as a safety,
you could see some of the steerless players thinking about
the officers.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh yeah, man, you could be thinking about the officer
quarter you saw you saw them breaking their to the
defensive huddle one two three, k coon on three.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
A couple of stats on that game. Ohow, and Derek
Henry's whole season. He now has four seasons with fifteen
hundred yards rushing.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
T J.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Watt recorded zero defensive stats in that entire game.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, it was a was an empty set in that game.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
That's disappointed.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
They had one sack by Alex Heismith for the entire
game and it was just it was just an embarrassing
effort for the Steelers defense.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
What do you think the Titans are thinking right now
about letting Derrick Henry leave?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
What do you think everybody who could have had it?
Every really Garry Jones didn't want to spend the money
about them Cowboys. Yeah, Joe did want to spend the money.
He's the game grew for a week. Broncos disappointing into
the season against the Buffalo bill speaking to get run
on shock and snapped. The Knicks protection is good. Bold
loads it up, He's got it a receiver there.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Franklin makes the catch in the ends touchdown.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Denver forty three yard strike bow.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Knicks Toe's college teammates Troy Franklin Denver sixth nothing And.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Of course, our very own Dave Logan on the call.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Was that called courtesy of ko and Denver.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Call courtesy of KOA and Denver, the Broncos radio network.
The one positive highlight from center, and it was two
and a half minutes into the game.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It was it was all down hill.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
From there, at least on the Bill's offensive side of
the ball. Shore was because they're coming downhill on that
first time two rookies have connected in a playoff game,
so there was that.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
UH.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The only other offensive highlight for the UH for the
Broncos was when Will Lutz joined the Gong show clanking
the field goal off the loudest whatever I ever heard.
It wasn't a doy kill was like gong. And interestingly,
this was a stat that I happened to know going
into that kick, which was a was it a fifty
fifty two yard attempor something like that? No visiting kicker
(07:38):
in the history of the NFL has ever kicked a
fifty or longer field goal in Buffalo in the playoffs. Ever,
it has never happened, and that streak continues.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I will glad to say that maybe it's because the
Bills opened the tunnel when he got ready kicked the
ball right, But I mean that Tonne was wide open,
so it wasn't that. It just kind of a build
up in a Mike mc cosm of so many things
that went.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Wrong in that game, and to know that when.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The Broncos had that opening touchdown Detroit Franklin, I was like, yes,
we are in business. And then I looked at the
next three quarters business They.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Going out of business. So everything must go one unanswered
by Buffalo as they just put it on the ground
and put it to the Denver Broncos. They did anything
they wanted. Josh Allen twenty twenty six two seventy two,
two touchdowns through the air, James Cook twenty three carries,
one hundred and twenty five point two average on the ground,
Josh Allen five point eight average on the ground, Ty
(08:37):
Johnson four point nine average on the ground. They were
absolutely killing it. The loan highlight for the Broncos probably
Courtland with five catches for seventy five, although he had
some egregious drops in that one. Troy Franklin finally hung
on to a ball and it all went for naught
in the end. It was just it was just a
bad performance all the way around. Zach Allen did get
a sack, DJ got a sack in that with nothing
(08:59):
of note. I think on the defensive side, really PJ
Lock got ten tackles. But anytime your safety leads a
team in tackles, that's a problem in it of itself.
So you know, there you go on that. Let's let's
wash that one out of the way, get something else.
Backers at the Eagles second down at one, Hurts looks
like he's changing the play.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
Drew receivers to the left, Perchs throws to us left
for Goddard. Goddard takes ex spins Goddard Sunder's way. It's
under fifteen state parks through the ten. It's on the
five touchdown Eagles.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
That was all Dallas Goddard twenty four yards.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That call courtesy of Tom McCarthy with Westwood one and
that close. That game wasn't even as close as the
final score.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It was not sake one. Barkley twenty five carries, one
hundred and nineteen yards four point eight average, also chipped
in a couple of receptions for four yards, touched out
to Jahan Dotson. And you heard the Dallas Goddard both
from Jalen Hurts. Jordan Love absolutely croaks this one away.
Quarterback rating of forty one and a half, no touchdowns,
three interceptions were staking a pretty good performance from Josh
Jacobs eighteen carries eighty one yards and a four to
(09:58):
five average long a pull as a touchdown. There are
a lot of questions surrounding Jordan Love as more and
more as this goes along. It looks like he had
a little six game hot hot streak last year and
looks to be a lot more middling than perhaps the
sentiment on him was at the end of last year.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Well, here's what I'm going to say in the defense
of Jordan Love.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He lost Watson a week before with an ACL injury,
then you know, Dobbs had his injury, then we got injured.
So three of your top wide receivers had some kind
of injury issues. And if you were watching that game,
once you got into the fourth quarter, it seemed like
every five plays it was a Packer.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Guy on the ground.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
The medical crew had to come out and kind of
helped them get off the field.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And I think that Ben was probably the reason why
Jordan Love struggled.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
But still, at the same time, you were facing off
against the Eagles, the philosophy was really easy to.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Turn around and the ball to save kwon Barkley. And
here's another since if you are right, Joe Shane, who
worked for the GM for the Giants, where do you
think it right now?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Watching Saquan in a different uniform trying.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
To rack up these types of yards, I think you
have no Sean Morino sized tears. Every time you turn
the television on, you just crying. We pay Oh, Vic
Fangio and the Philadelphia Eagles continue to advance skins, Uncle
Vic Popovich cooking up them spicy meat balls. Combed Rick
(11:32):
Lewis never got an invite our Washington Commanders, our commander
in chief, did Quinn and the Tampa Bay Bucketeers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Press way the whole Tyler on the staff from Ashmark
left where.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The Commanders win. The kick is up, it's sails on
the way hit stay upright and goes through. He knocks
it through and wins the game. Twenty three twenty That
call courtesy of Jason.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Bennetti with Westwood One, and that was by far the
game of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, most of these games weren't close. And it's kind
of funny because the games this week on average were
actually closer than the Wildcard weekend from last year. Average
scoring deficiency in this week's wildcard games was twelve points.
Last year it was fifteen points for the same round
of games. Baker Mayfield capped his season with a fifteen
of eighteen performance hundred and eighty five yards two touchdowns,
Bucky Irving seventeen for seventy seven on the ground. Mike
(12:29):
Evans seven catches ninety two at a touchdown was the
biggest threat on the Tampa side of things. Jade Daniels
leading the team and passing two hundred and sixty yards
two touchdowns, rushing at thirty six on the ground as
the ground game really struggled there for the Washington Commanders.
Terry McLaurin, that synergy continued seven catches eighty nine yards
and a touchdown at DM brown In there for the
(12:49):
early strike as well as Ayman Gonzaland's three for three
including that close Paul another game where Washington didn't punt.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But I think the thing that changed the game, and
you can see the look on Baker Mayfield's face that
exchange that gave Washington and the ball back. See that
was the game winning drive for Tampa Bay. They had
all the momentum. But that's what these games.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Come down to.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Which team is going to make the mistake, but then
also being able to capitalize off their mistake.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
And throughout this game, I know, leading up.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
To it, for me, it was Marshall Lantimore versus Mike
Evans and Marshall Lantimore, I mean, the PI calls, the
passing apparence man, I mean, it got to a.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Point I was like, are they gonna throw another one?
I think I'll throw another one.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You should just met Mike Evans carry his own flag
with it and he should just drop it on the spot.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
That was really bizarre.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But this was one of those games of the wild
Card weekend that was really exciting because it wasn't a
lopsided and we had to wait till that last kick
and Zane gon Dallas man bless his heart to watch
him stress out.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
It's no, he's diagnosed, because.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I put a tweet out there and I was like, dude,
for just watching him with stressing me the hell out
because I have my own ocds myself, which you know,
I just I decided to out myself with that. But
the idea is that there are a lot of players,
believe it or not, that have some of that same issue.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Where they have a routine that if they.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Break that routine or something breaks it, it kind of interferes.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
With them, but great for him. It was a doink.
It went through the.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Commander's move on they do And congratulations to coach Pagano
everybody out there, Shaq Barrett. Nice to see him getting
some moren again from a bronco with the Tampa Bay
Bucks and Steve Adwater's nephew Jeremy Chance seven tackles to
tie for on the Washington team. Bobby Wagger had eight
in that one's so good for good for the Vikings
(14:55):
at the Rams.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Donald will be in the gun and against the shotguns
up and against the.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Block from him, and he felt up and he's honey
fumbled the day he looks picked up on the play.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
It's sharpers with the fifty years so long fety from
the thirty TENNY.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Ten five touchdown touchdown ums that called courtesy of the
one and only Kevin Harlan with Westwood One.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, this is a game where they said Darnald up
for failure. Having him throw forty times is not got
the recipe to win if you're in Minnesota. Meanwhile, Matt
Stafford continues to be clutched in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, definitely clutching the playoffs and then you use your right.
I mean, the Rams unexpectedly was able to generate an
enormous amount of pressure.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
I didn't even expect them to get nine sacks what
they did so very frustrating for Kivin O'Connell and the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, and then man that defensive coordinat for the Rams,
really putting his name on the map with that one
up against Brian Floors. We got Ryan Michaels. We come back,
Broncos Country at night, the Broncos Country to the Klans
with all bright, Nick Ferguson, Grant Smith here with you.
Five sixty six nine zero is the text line. Guys
can't wait. Celebrate the best of podcasting at the twenty
(16:05):
twenty five iHeartRadio Podcast Awards Live and South by Southwest Monday,
March tenth. Podcast fans celebrate your favorites by voting it
Iheartpodcast Awards dot Com. We've got this diverse categori says,
lifestyle and true crime and true crime and next favorite podcast,
which is Dudes on Dudes, Dudes on Dudes. That's right,
Dudes on Dudes's podcast. Nick, did you already get your
(16:26):
your vote in for dudes on dudes.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
You know what, it's something I want to say. It's
both guys right now, is there's something I want to say.
What I got.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I got a lot of respect for the both of
you guys. So so let me keep that one dooka
to myself.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
He was.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Nick was not disappointed in the content of that podcast,
as opposed to some demographics that the certainly we're going
to go right out to the Kiwa, come a Sperrell
outline and bring on our guy, Ryan Michael at the
Ryan Michael, Ryan, how you doing this evening?
Speaker 5 (16:53):
I'm doing well, man, Nick. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Pretty well? Nick's looking for the pivot on the change
of topic here see Dallas's coconut water over their coconut
water comic epis tastes awful.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
It tastes like it tastes a cat. You're in strings
with a dirty sock.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
How do you know what it tastes like?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Because I tad water.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Answer the question.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It tastes like when I imagine cat, you're a strength
to a dirty stock. It tastes like just terrible. Right,
you know you've been on this arrived with us from
the from the beginning for Canta postseason, You've you've been
called both. I've seen it on social media, been called
both a stan and a hater. Uh, sometimes in the
same conversation. Now that the dust has settled, how do
you feel about the Broncos twenty twenty four seasons?
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Good question, you know, I echo a lot of the
sentiments that you expressed last night. Obviously, as a team
that was projected to win five to six games, winning
ten exceeded all expectations, and as rough of a game
as it was on Sunday, we got to beat by
a much better team. Hopefully we can use that as
fuel moving forward into twenty twenty five. So all in all,
(17:58):
I'm feeling pretty good, or at least as good as
you can after a butt kicking like that. But I
think there's really two ways that you can approach it,
and both are valid. The first is the critical perspective, right,
what is it? Can we what can we do better?
And the other is the glass houseful and I think
that we can acknowledge that both of those points are valid.
(18:20):
What I find is if it were a head coach
or a quarterback who came into post season meetings after
getting knocked off. If their focus was we need to
improve on X, Y and Z, they would be printed.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's what you need to do to take a.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Step to the next level. And I think here on BCT,
if we do that in as far as we can
as commentators and as analysts, we're called wet blankets, or worse,
we're called haters. We're all united in the fact that
we want to cover a winner here. I have a
tremendous love and reverence for this team, so I'm rooting
as hard as anybody on Sundays. But I think what
we're dealing with then is the struggle to objectively assess
(18:58):
individual l mints of a collective that exceeded expectations. So
that's what I'm here to talk about tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, I know the game is very disappointing, but I
like sometimes to look at the silver lining. If we
can do that when you look back at this game,
is it something that the Broncos Country fan base can
look and pull at least some positives from what we
saw on Sunday?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
I think so, Nick. I think even with a defeat
as bad as it was on Sunday, certainly that first
drive right, the aggression that Sean Payton showed on that
first drive. It was the best first drive we've had
all year. I was over the moon after the first drive.
And I think bow Nick's overall had a very impressive
postseason debut. You wouldn't think that scoring only seven points,
(19:47):
but you know, we're looking at a total QBR of
sixty eight point four, which was the fourth highest of
all the quarterbacks who played on Wildcard Sunday. He was
only sacked twice. He had some qutch throws, and there
were three or four notable drops that would have made
those numbers look even better. So I think it was
an impressive debut for bow and Jack Allen, who's been
(20:08):
knocking it out of the park all season. Five total
tackles for them were solo to TfL's two quarterback hits
the sack he showed up. So there's always that silver lining,
And you know, I think it's important for us to
focus the season as a whole. It's not a matter
of silver lining. It's the season that exceeded all of
our expectations, I think. So that's something certainly to the
(20:31):
hold close to your heart and to use his fuel
looking forward to next year.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Talking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter
Pro Football Hall of Fame contributor, you told us back
in March that Sean Payton typically has hot starts and
cold finishes and that history was certainly noteworthy. Is it
fair to say that that given the seven verses two here,
I could say yes and no.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I mean we talked back in March, and what I
had to say then, I'll quote, it's really that one
in three finish that I hone in on, and I say,
may be a cause we're concerned. And here we are
been ten months later, and we finished the season one
and three again. And this isn't just a recent trend.
This has been going on for nearly a decade, dating
(21:18):
back to Shawn's time in New Orleans. Twenty seventeen, the
Saints started off eight and two. They finished four and four.
The next year thirteen and two. They one in three
seems to be our favorite finish here twenty nineteen ten
and two, they finished three and two. Twenty twenty ten
and two, they finished three and three. For Breeze retires,
they get off to a fairly impressive five and two start.
(21:38):
They close out the year four and six, and obviously
both years here in Denver. Last year we started off
seven and six, we closed one in three. We're better.
This year started off nine and five, closed the season
as one in three and not sharing this to have
a gotcha or I told you so a moment, but
it's something that concerned me ten months ago still does
(21:59):
well for me.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Being a defensive player.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I feel as though with all to talk about the quarterback,
a lot of the details about the defense are often overlooked.
And there's one guy from this past season that I
thought was very sensational for the Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Deserve to go to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
He did not go, and that's Zach Allen.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I mean, statistically, what did you see from Zach Allen
in his game that gives you optimism rolling into twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, an important distinction is that when you look at
different accolades Pro Bowl or something that some people focus on,
I think really focus on Pro Bowl selection so much
as All Pro selection. So Zach is the second team
All Pro selection this year. I would have loved to
have seen him as the first team All Pro selection.
Forty quarterback hits, he had a safety fifteen TFLs. He
(22:49):
was pressure all season long, and collectively as a defensive force,
we were far and away, in my opinion, the best
pass rushing at the NFL team, not just this year
but in some years. Right sixty three sacks as a
collective broke the franchise record is one expert game and
a statistic that I referenced last week as we were
(23:11):
number one in the league in quarterback hits with one
hundred and forty two. Second place was Baltimore at one
twenty two. So Zach Allen at least got the acknowledgement
he deserved it. As a second team All Pro selection,
he can make the argument for first team All Pro
and I sure hope to see him doing similar things
for us next year.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Hary, Ryan Michael and the Ryan Michael on Twitter, we
talked a little b about those cold finishes with Sean Payton.
While you're sort of on the hate train, what concerns
you heading into twenty twenty five?
Speaker 5 (23:41):
So obviously the hot star cold finish thing is more
than just the recent thing. But the question we have
to ask ourselves is how do we top a season
that exceeded expectations? Right, there's some challenges we're going to
face in the offseason the potential loss of Vance Joseph.
And without getting too track here, I've heard the chatter
(24:02):
and the nonsense online about letting go Vance Joseph, who was,
in my opinion, far and away the best defensive coordinator
in Pro football this year. Obviously, towards the end of
the year we switched to run a little bit more zone.
We have pats or ten playing on a bum ankle.
We obviously weren't the same defense we were when we
were one hundred percent healthy. And I always say then,
(24:23):
when we are honing in on a specific window to
tell a narrative, if we're ever emphasizing a window over totality,
we know that we probably don't have a great perspective.
So if you're hearing people chatter about how good of
a defense we were in the month of December, it's
notable that for the entire season, third in points per
game surrendered, second in both pass and rush defensive exp
(24:46):
which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference. As
they said, First in quarterback sack, we led the league
in sack percentage. We sacked the quarterback on nine point
four percent of the one out of every ten plays
results in the sack, you know that we're doing something right.
So those numbers still hold up even considering the rough
outing that we had in December. Vance Joseph if we
(25:07):
were to lose him, of course, Jim Leonard is the
natural selection for who would be his successor. But I
sure hope that we don't lose Van Stros if he's
the guy who's had nine years of collective experience at
either the head coach or DC level. Jim had some
experience as a defensive coordinator and as an interim head
coach in Wisconsin, but I hope to see Vance Joseph
(25:27):
next year for sure.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
One of the.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Biggest questions for a lot of fans here in Broncos
Country has to do.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
With the running game and how the running game never
really picked up.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Do you feel optimistic moving forward to twenty twenty five
that aspect of the Broncos game would somewhat change.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
It's going to improve. We can't take anything for granted.
We were twentieth in rushing the X this year negative
seven point four to six, twenty third in the league
in rushing touchdowns, and three of them came from both
They think twelve Wall together. Certainly, we might be looking
at some personnel moves, we might be looking at some
things and free agency in the draft. That's something that
(26:06):
if we can balance the offense, Nick, we're going to
see a lot more of what Bonix can do, because
they think some of those efficiency marks really struggled as
a consequence of us not having balance on that other
end of the offense. So I think that we're going
to have improvement this year. You don't want to take
it for granted, but it is something. If we're looking
for that glass half full, how good can this offense
(26:27):
be if we can move our rushing attack from being
bottom of the third to top third.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, let's let's stick with that, Dan as as we
talk about the glass half full, we started on the
other side, let's go with the glass half full perspective.
Does what is the glass half full perspective as we
head forward into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Well, I mean building upon the winning culture that we're establishing.
And to Sean Payton's credit, even going eight and nine
last year is not necessarily a bad record for a
first year head coach. Everyone would like for someone to
step in take the team to the playoff win a championship,
but you know, to pretty much get close to five
hundred his first year right playing with a quarterback who
(27:07):
was not his keig, not to fit for his system.
Although I'll continue to argue that Russ was quite underappreciated
and underrated given what he did on the other end
of the other end of that spectrum. But we now
have confidence in Bonick's being, at the very minimum, a
legitimate QB one, a starting quarterback with the potential to
one day the elite.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
He was sixth in the.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
NFL and touchdown passes as a rookie, and even when
Justin Herbert threw thirty one in twenty twenty finished tenth
in the NFL, BO Knicks is already top six as
a rookie quarterback with a personnel that had some limitations.
What happens when the offense gets better? If it gets
better for free agency in the draft, familiarity in Sean
Payton's system, a lot of things were dialed back, especially
(27:50):
early in the season, and we see how much better
Bonick sad looked as he's gone along. What does that
look like in year two? What does it look like
two years from now? Out of salary cap heal, and
we could really build the roster that they want. And
you know, if Sean Payton is a Hall of Fame
caliber head coach, and I think you and I are
both in alignment. He was borderlined before this season started.
(28:13):
I would argue that at ten and eight season, definitely
it might not be what puts him over the top there,
but a ten win season on a Broncos team fighting
in salary cap heal is certainly a feather in his cap.
I'd make the argument that Sean Payton deserves Head Coach
of the Year consideration.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Well, let's stay right there for a second. With the
salary cap.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Now, the team has been Saturday cap purgatory obviously after
the Russell Wilson do and I'm glad that they decided
to eat some of that money now. Then they're going
to eat a portion of it in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
But what could this roster possibly look like?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Known as though you have a couple more dollars to
actually spend to upgrade on either side.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Of the ball.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I think twenty twenty four was a testament that just
how far this team could go with good coaching. Great
coaching on both sides of the football, Shawn on the offense,
Man's on the defense. So the stronger the personnel is
obviously Nick, we hope to have even better results. I
think what twenty twenty four accomplished for us is it
re established the winning culture that perhaps we took for
(29:17):
granted during the John Elway years, during the years when
you played with Jake Plumber on the other side of
the ball, during the Peyton Manning years. Winning cannot be
taken for granted. But now free agents can look to Denver,
Colorado as a place that has that winning culture back,
and I think it's going to be a lot more
attractive to free agents this go around than it was
last year.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I think you will. There's certainly something to that, but
the reality is they're still a bit hamstrung by the cap.
Even with fifty four million available, you have no backup
quarterback that's going to cost you roughly ten million on
the market, maybe twelve, depending on who it is. You
go out there and kat you're going to have to
reserve another eight to twelve for your rookie draft class.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
That's twenty four.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Then fifty four already chewed up right there before we
even ad anybody. Now you need to add a tight end.
You probably need some depth. You only got thirty eight
players under contract. You're going to have to do a
few things. I don't expect the Broncos to be huge
players in free agency, at least from a top of
the dollar perspective, But do you expect them to go
out and find maybe smaller and spread that out, an
(30:16):
inside back or backup quarterback, a few other things that
they could use.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I think their approach is going to be very similar
then to what it was last year, and it's really
and I'm sorry for sounding like a broken record, but
it's doing the best we can with the resources that
we have available. Twenty twenty five is going to be
similar in twenty twenty six. Will have a little bit
more weight off of our shoulders at that point. So
there's going to be a lot of pressure for this
team to not necessarily repeat the success, but at least
(30:45):
keep it close to, if not above five hundred, because
if you take a step back and you have a
seven one season, that's going to affect the way that
free agents look at us in twenty twenty six. So
we can't take winning for granted. We beat all the
teams that we should have beat this year at Glas
Tampa Bay. It was the only team with a winning
record that we beat, So you know, you can make
arguments in that direction. I'm trying not to get caught
up in that because there were games like the first one,
(31:07):
the true one against Kansas City that we should have won.
So Nicks outperformed Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead under as much
pressure as we've seen any rippy quarterback this year. So
we're gonna have to earn it. But I think now
we have the coaching staff and we have the beginnings
of a roster, and it's proven that they can be
winners in this league. Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Ryan Michael aty Ryan Michael on Twitter. We appreciate it
and we will look forward to talking to you next week.
Good guys, Well, absolutely take care. Ryan Mike contribute to
Pro Football Hall of Fame. Always love having him on
the show. We hit the over on Taking It for
Granted podcast plugs there. I told Nick there was no
way when we got the four he was going to
hit five. But he hit the fifth one he did.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
I'm not taking it for grated podcast on the free
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
See there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's what every time somebody says take it for granted,
that's what we need to do. Nick had a great idea,
we need to cut every time someone says taking it
for granted. We need to like take that play like
a tag and run a take it for Granted podcast commercial,
and just saying we always appreciate Ryan Michael joining us
and look forward to having him again this year. You
get the dail on the Headhen we talked about Sean
Payton starting hot finishing cold, I mean to be honest
with you, it could have been a lot worse for
the number Broncos. You know, the final five games post
(32:16):
bye week. If it had been for the defense coming
alive and Indy absolutely choking that thing away with Jonathan
Taylor fumbling the ball as he crossed the goal line,
we could have lost that one. And who knows if
we'd have been up against Kansas City's backups and practice
squatters in another situation, it could have been a rough
end of the season, you know, all the way, all
things considered, So we'll take it. Stuff to build on,
(32:37):
but something to keep your eye on. Sean Payton starting
hot and finishing cold gets a good little nugget here.
That you get on Broncos Country Night. We come back.
We talk a little bit about the the Broncos run
game and what they should be targeting and what they
should be doing with the running back position. This is
a Broncos Country Night k where
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