October 29, 2025 • 44 mins
0:00 - Turns out...when the Avs have 5 guys on the ice...and the other team has 4 dudes on the ice...you're supposed to score! And good things happen when you do that!
Last night, the Avs scored 4 power play goal en route to an 8-4 drubbing of the Devils. Aside from 4 awful minutes, the Avs played on heck of a game and it was great to see!
14:36 - Brett Kane Finds Out did some digging, as he does. He compares all the stats, both offensive and defensive, between the 2015 Broncos and the 2025 Broncos. And on paper, the teams are almost identical. But...do they feel like the same team in real life? Beyond the numbers?
32:56 - Another week of the NFL in the books! Let's get to our weekly edition of NFL STOCK UP - STOCK DOWN!
Last night, the Avs scored 4 power play goal en route to an 8-4 drubbing of the Devils. Aside from 4 awful minutes, the Avs played on heck of a game and it was great to see!
14:36 - Brett Kane Finds Out did some digging, as he does. He compares all the stats, both offensive and defensive, between the 2015 Broncos and the 2025 Broncos. And on paper, the teams are almost identical. But...do they feel like the same team in real life? Beyond the numbers?
32:56 - Another week of the NFL in the books! Let's get to our weekly edition of NFL STOCK UP - STOCK DOWN!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is six in the Morning with Brett Caine on demand.
Check out Brett weekday mornings at six on Altitude Sports
Radio ninety two five and on the Altitude Sports Radio app.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Turn Over here.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Drop pats all of said ye the Shammo.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
He is officially Victor gull of sid a hat trick
for the first time. He makes it eight four Avalanche
for two twenty two to go in the third period
three seconds, two seconds, one second.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Salm the horn.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Won a wild night in the Wild West. A power
play that it's ice cold suddenly turns red hot. The
Avalanche score four power play goals and they beat the
New Jersey Devils by a final score of eight to four.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh we stink, No we're great. No we're bad, No,
we're awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was that kind of night, and for most of
it the Aves were really good, except for that whatever
the second period was for four minutes, I mean four minutes,
almost threw away everything that you did throughout the course
(01:41):
of that game that was going to be, like we're.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Gonna discuss this as hey.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The Aves really found a way to bounce back and
get back on track. They got their power play work
and they're doing everything kind of right. You know, this
comes off of a really tough game against New Jersey
where it's another one of those that you felt like, hey,
maybe you should have come away with one, and once
(02:11):
again end of regulation it gets sent to ot and
whether it's overtime or the shootout, you lose. Once that
went to five, from five nothing to five to four
(02:31):
in four minutes, you kind of had that sinking feeling again.
Now I'll say this, for the Avs to immediately respond
to that and McKinnon, they jump back on the power play.
I mean, that's the mistake for New Jersey in a
(02:52):
game in which the power play was really working for
the Aves four out of six on those opportunities, they
make that game five to four, and a minute later,
or not even a minute, a few seconds later, it
felt like they take a penalty of their own and
give the Avs another opportunity on the power play in
which Mac just buries another one. That's how you're gonna
(03:16):
end up losing that game because they did lose that
momentum for a minute.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But I liked it. There were some changes to the
power play.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You've had new guys sort of mixing in with that
first pairing now and I think they've found people, or
it's either they found people or they found a strategy
where guys are just willing to let it fly. Don't
look for the perfect pass, don't look for the perfect shot,
just get the puck on net, look for a rebound
(03:46):
and try and capitalize that way. It's all the stuff
that we were kind of discussing in what does the
power play need to do to get better?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I thought Val should be part of that unit, And.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Just like that, I think that gave them a little
bit of a boost because Val just does It's what
Val does.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He does that nasty stuff. He works extra hard.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
He makes sure that if you're gonna clear the puck
of the zone, then you're gonna have to do it
through me.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
But how about Oliveson comes away with a five point night.
And one of the things about.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Guys like him, this is kind of a specialty of
Chris McFarlane. It's find the guy with talent, find the
guy with skill that has maybe been given given up
on or not showcased in the proper sort of opportunity,
(04:51):
and give him a shot with some really good players
surrounding him, and see what he can do. Then well,
in this case, ol Ofson gets bump to the number
one power play and we all know about just his
he's got a hell of a shot. You start to
feed him some opportunities and you start to get him
(05:13):
in the mix and on the ice with guys like McKinnon.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I think it's.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's golden for people like him to go out and
play next to guys with that sort of skill level
and get a little bit more of an opportunity to
showcase what you do best because people are so concerned
with what twenty nine is doing on the ice and
what eighty eight is doing on the ice. Because McKinnon
(05:43):
and Martin Nachius are having a hell of a start
to the year and they're gonna take up the marquee
and they're gonna look at not just those two, but
Cam mccarr. You almost become the forgotten guy on the
ice because you're so concerned with everyone else else. In
the second that happens, you come away with a five
(06:04):
point night and a hat trick. God man, I it's funny.
I do the show a lot of times in the
middle of games, so it's like you take notes about
the game, but I'm also trying to figure out what
we're going to talk about for the following day, and
(06:26):
I had like the A F Show done, and then
we hit about oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Ten minutes into the second period, they score the first
goal the Devil's doing.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I we go, yeah, that was no big deal, five
to one.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And then they immediately score afterwards about a minute and
a half later, and once again Nelly, I was like,
that's fine, it's five to two.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's a big lead.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
The point A nice thing about having a big lead
is you can allow stuff like that. And then they
give up the third goal, and I go, Okay, now
I'm getting a little bit nervous. Don't like this very much.
And then they give up the fourth and it's a panic.
But to the F's credit, settle it down and do
(07:17):
what you do best, which is and I hope they're
getting back to this permanently. You give us an extra
man on the ice with how much talent in skill
level we have, you pay for it, and last night
they paid for it to the tune of four power
play or four power play goals in six opportunities.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Do you know there's that gift that everyone shares. I
don't even know what it's from, but it's Drake and
some other guy at a laptop.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh, point to the laptop of that one.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
By the way, Drake points to the laptop and the
guy goes, oh, man, last night, that's what I felt
like with Jared Bednar, where it's like or the Avs overall,
where I'm Drake pointing at the laptop going, Hey, when
you have one extra guy on the ice and the
other team is down a man, score it's easy to score.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Oh really?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Oh yeah, if there's five guys toys and there's only
four guys for the other team, you should be able
to score there.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Oh, I think Nellie to your point that little oh thing,
was you saying, just shoot it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You have more people than them. It doesn't need to
be the perfect shot. Put the puck on net and
look to get a rebound. The second you do that,
the defense is out of sorts. If you're passing and
trying to find the perfect angle for a shot and look,
you want to strive for a good look. Don't get
me wrong, but if you do that, the defense isn't
(08:48):
really reacting to anything.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
They are they're playing their role. I gotta cover this
area of the ice.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The second you put a shot on net, everybody has
to turn look towards the net and try and actually
clear the puck, which puts everybody out of position. And
it's what happens to the Avs over and over again
in the four minutes that the Devil's made the comeback.
(09:19):
They'd put a puck.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
On net, or they get a deflection somewhere near the crease,
and then there's somebody back door that because you're so
panicked on trying to get the puck out of the zone,
you lose attention to your responsibility.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And then I believe it was the Mercer goal where.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It's just like the puck kind of gets popped up
in the air and somebody's wide open on the opposite
side of the net.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I don't know which one it was. They all came
very quickly, but that's.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Sort of the point, is that you get the extra
main opportunity, but you got to be able to get
shots on. Like, here's what's funny. The Avs have gotten
better as the season has gone on at setting up
on the power play. Earlier in the year, it was
tough for the first unit to get set up. They'd
(10:14):
bring it in the zone, it would get pounded out.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Now they gotten set up and then it felt like
they got a little bit too cute when they were
set up in the zone.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But now it was just they were firing and there
was something too. You know. I mentioned this last year
with Natchu's being involved in.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
That power play over Miko Rantanen, is that there is
a movement that they have where last year it felt
like it got still because of unpredictability or I'm sorry
it got still because of predictability that everybody had their
own spots. Nate was gonna sit on the dot on
one side, and he goes to sit on the dot
(11:00):
at the other side. Cale was gonna patrol the blue
line like you just kind of knew where everybody was
gonna be. Now there's a lot of movement, like I have.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's been a while since you've seen McKinnon really sort
to troll around in that offensive zone as much as
he does on the power play now. And I think
it's set up because Marty Natchez is he he is.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I'm gonna say cheerious on the different places he can
be during that power play.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But it's set up from just movement.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And when you get movement, you can get guys out
of position, you can catch guys off guard, and then
you get a puck on net, you get a rebound.
A whole bunch of good things happen, so overwhelmingly positive
from the Avs yesterday, mixed in with what the hell
was that?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Four minutes now.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
We'll talk to Jared Bednar at eight forty five is
eighty this morning with the coach. I'm sure he'll have
a bunch of thoughts on last night. But you think
about it, you entered that game. I believe the Avs
were one of twenty four on the power play and
the exit last night five of thirty of their last thirty,
(12:27):
which obviously still isn't the number you quite want to
get to, but it's better than one of twenty four,
and it just felt like it was a matter of
time before that thing was gonna start clicking, because they're
too good.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They're too good for that not to happen. By the way,
shout out to bartikoffee got his first goal last night
in the first period as he tallies up number one
of his very young career. Pretty sick goal too, so
a lot more details to get to with the.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Avs as we move along today again Jared Bednar at
eight forty, so we get his thoughts on the game.
Last night, they got a couple of intriguing younger players
though Bardikov's won, and I every time I see Brinley
on the ice, I start to like it more and
more like he is just a an all out effort guy,
(13:24):
which at when he's I mean, I think Brindley's twenty one,
isn't he Yeah, he's twenty one. Bardikov's twenty four. The
interesting thing about this, we've just been watching these this
team for so long. It feels like the Avs aren't
that old, but they are an older team.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
They are so a lot more to get to. I
did some research last night.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I put some numbers side by side, and we'll get
to NFL stock up stock down at about six forty
five this morning. But I put numbers side by side,
and it's it's my great value knockoff dollar store brand
of Pablo Tory finds out where I do.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Brett Caine finds out.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I'm gonna make a comp for this year's Broncos team
to one where you're gonna say, oh, Brett, would you
knock it off? You'll be shocked at how remarkably similar
the twenty twenty five Broncos are statistically to the twenty
fifteen Broncos. And we get to it next. All right,
(14:37):
so Nellie listen, I'm doing this show during the APS
game last night. I'm like, all right, Broncos. Wise, one
thing I've been thinking about for a while now, though
we haven't really talked about, is the Broncos won five
games in a row. But does it feel like it's
a team that's won five straight?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Does it feel like it?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And I think a lot of like my reaction to
it is no, not in the traditional sense, like if
you won five straight games in the NFL, and I
don't care who you are, you win five straight, that
is an impressive feat because it's hard to win in
that league. So I started thinking about, well, why doesn't
(15:20):
it feel that way? And I think one option is
a belief in your offense. Is it going to continue
to improve and maybe build on what you saw against Dallas?
But what does the offense need to do better? And
it feels like bow Knicks needs to be more consistent,
(15:41):
And then that jumps into another conversation of.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Do you believe in bo Nicks or not? And then
the other part of that discussion is if the answer
is no, or maybe can the defense be generational? Can
you have the twenty fifteen offense? So then I started
doing some comparisons.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I went back and looked at the numbers between the
twenty fifteen defense and the twenty fifteen offense. I'm sorry,
the twenty fifteen defense and the twenty twenty five defense.
So listen to this, Nelly. The first numbers you're going
to hear is the numbers of the twenty twenty five
Broncos defense. The second is going to be the twenty
(16:26):
fifteen defense copy following.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
The twenty twenty five defense.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
In total yards allowed per game are giving up to
eighty one point four. In twenty fifteen, that number was
two eighty three point one passing yards allowed twenty twenty
five defense one eighty six point three twenty fifteen defense
one ninety nine point six rushing yards allowed twenty twenty
(16:58):
five defense five point one. Twenty fifteen defense eighty three
point six points per game allowed twenty twenty five Broncos
eighteen point nine twenty fifteen Broncos eighteen point five takeaways
(17:19):
per game twenty twenty five defense one, twenty fifteen defense
one point seven. That's almost identical now eight games into
the season. Still a long ways to go. All of
that's understood, but that's virtually identical at this juncture of
(17:47):
the season to what the twenty twenty fifteen defense was doing,
you know, the one that was good enough to overcome
terrible offense. So Brett Kane finds out goes further the
twenty twenty five offense versus the twenty fifteen offense.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Twenty twenty five puts up three hundred and fifty six
point nine yards per game.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
You know what twenty fifteen did, Nelly three fifty five
and a half three yard apart. The really interesting thing
is this passing yards per game twenty twenty five offense
two nineteen point one. Twenty fifteen is two forty eight
point one. But what offsets that that the Broncos rushed
(18:38):
for one hundred and thirty seven point eight this year,
and in twenty fifteen it was one oh seven point four. Also,
points per game this offense twenty five point nine. In
twenty fifteen it was twenty two point two, and turnovers
per game. This offense puts up one per game where
(18:59):
that offense put up to turnover differential right now for
twenty fifteen was negative four for this Broncos team is
negative one. You guys, tell me what you do with
those numbers? Go outside ner where I've just laid out.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Again, it's the midway point of the season essentially, But
I've just laid out that the Broncos so far this
year have a defense that's putting up virtually the exact
same numbers as the twenty fifteen defense was doing, and
their offense is doing better than the twenty fifteen offense did.
(19:44):
So why do you not? And look, I wasn't here
in twenty fifteen, so maybe this is exactly what you felt.
And you guys tell me.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Was there a belief in twenty fifteen that that team
could win the Super Bowl despite the numbers, especially the
offense that was being out there. And I think it
would have felt a lot different because first of all,
you've been to Super Bowls with that team. But second
of all, and I think this is most important, despite
(20:17):
what it looked like, Manning was across the name plate
under center, and that just gives you the warm and fuzzies.
But Nelly, let me ask you. You were here in
twenty fifteen, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I was.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I lay out all of those numbers that tell you
the defense of this year's team matches what twenty fifteen
did and in some ways was better. And the offense
for this year's team as opposed to twenty fifteen, matches
what they did. In a lot of ways they were better.
What do you do with that information?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I'm kind of in the same boat as some of
these these other people who are drawing these comparisons that
whenever you put these numbers side by side, a lot
of Broncos fans say two things. First thing is wait
for a few more games, get a bigger sample size.
And the second thing is the twenty fifteen with they
the twenty fifteen defense overall, what they did better is
they generated takeaways.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
That's the one metric where, no matter what the numbers say,
if we're just looking on a game to game basis,
they got more takeaways.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
They had one point seven of this year's team has
one per game. Yes, almost doubled.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
So I think that's important if we really want this
current defense, which which still needs a name. By the way,
I don't know if you heard Dmax quest to try
and name it the ABC defense because ABC, and it
was because of I'm blanking on Alan Benito Cooper defense.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And then you get the abcam Oh gotcha, because.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
They don't have their no fly zone name right, And
so I don't know, I've I've heard also Orange Rush
or something. The point is, that's what's gonna get you
to the next level is more takeaways. And I and
I'll let Broncos fans on the text line and twitch
line way in. But I feel like in that season,
every game kind of felt like, Hey, let's see the
(22:16):
offense go out there. Oh my god, what the hell
was that? Oh that's right, we have the greatest defense
on the planet. Okay, never mind, we're gonna be fine.
Peyton Manning, Well, wasn't it The game against the Chiefs
were Peyton Manning through like four interceptions in the first half.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That's that's the thing, though. You said the one thing
that defense did was they got takeaways. But I'm telling
you they turned the ball over way more than this
offense does. Takeaways are important because you're looking at turnover
differential twenty fifteen they were negative four so far this year.
(22:49):
The Broncos are negative one, so they don't get as many.
And I do think those are coming, by the way,
I don't. You can't sack the quarterback as much as
they do without that ball starting to pop out a
case or quarterbacks making really bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But but.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Again, I'm not saying anything about the Broncos are the
second coming of this twenty fifteen team. I'm just telling
you the numbers are nearly identical, which I thought was
very interesting. Now, multiple different factors are at play here.
When you do the comping to twenty fifteen, Texas says,
(23:35):
for one, there was no mahomes Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
et cetera. In the AFC Josh Allen, And that's true. Now,
there was a Tom Brady. It's a pretty big name
to get through. But in the AFC that year you
had Tom Brady, you had Philip Rivers and then he.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Started to run out of names real quick. I mean
big Ben.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
But yeah, it was a lot of I mean, at
that time, the bigger quarterbacks were on the NFC side
of the Ledger.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Drew Brees's, you're.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Russell Wilson's who was good at that time, Your Cam Newton's,
your guys like that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
The landscape has changed, But I.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I was just surprised to see the amount of things
that looked exactly the same. But I think a lot
of that changes when Peyton Manning is under center. Even
though we all know that Peyton Manning was broken down
by then, just the fact that you had him in
(24:57):
there created an ease in a st The question for
this Broncos team is can bo Nicks get there? Can
he get to that point? Because right now, when you
take the field and your offense goes out there like
they will this Sunday, you have no idea what version
(25:21):
you're gonna get and the amount of variance that you
have between what you did against the Cowboys and what
the Jets game looked like. It's really hard to see
that in a season of stretching from both ends of
(25:44):
the earth on how your offense can look, and a
lot of that has to do with bo Nicks and
whether he's on his game or not.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No I mentioned this.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yesterday, there could be an opportunity here where it could
look like last year midway through the season, Bo Nicks
and the offense overall sort of finds a little bit
of a rhythm in a groove within the Sean Payton offense.
Like things start to click with guys and it creates
a lot more of an ease to what this offense
(26:15):
looks like could be. But that has to be proven
over and over again. The interesting thing about this team
is that here's what makes you a contender. And this
is why, regardless of the points that you score or
the points you allow, or how the defense looks or
(26:36):
how the offense looks, there's a metric that is pretty
tried and true throughout the history of this damn league.
You can take this back to the nineteen fifties when
teams are winning NFL championships instead of Super Bowls, and
you can apply it now to twenty twenty five. One
concept that has always remained in the NFL. If you
(27:00):
are good on defense and you run the ball effectively,
you're a really good team that's going to compete for
a title.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And in this case, the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Defense is at minimum a top five and maybe the
best unit in the league. And running the football, you're
third in the NFL and rushing yards per game. It
doesn't always look that way. It's a little bit of
you eat really well one week and you don't the other.
(27:38):
But as long as you can do that, you're in
the mix for any football game on the schedule. Like
this is what's going to be so hard about the Broncos.
With the exception of what the Giants game was looking
like for a minute, it's gonna be really, really, really.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Hard for you to blow out the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
If you're an opposing team, and I don't care what
team you are, some high flying offense that's able to
keep up and continue to put pressure on them, whether
that's the Colts, whether that's we just saw with the Cowboys,
whether that's the Bills, the Lions, the Chiefs, the whoever,
(28:17):
the Rams. You have all these great offenses, you are
not gonna blow out the Denver Broncos. She's impossible because
they do those two things too well.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
You know, it's not really a statistical metric, but another
thing that the twenty fifteen Broncos and the current Broncos
have in common. I know I keep going to the
meme well, but that's kind of where my head is
this morning. There's that meme format that everybody likes to
post with their sports teams where you show the team's
logo and then you have little brackets under it, and
the first bracket under the logo says, oh, wow, I'm
(28:50):
really excited to watch the Denver Broncos play football. Then
the next ninety percent of the bracketed party first I'm
going to kill myself, and then the last part goes,
oh hey, we won. That was what twenty fifteen also
felt like Peyton Manning kind of sometimes when he would
go out there, he just felt like he felt like
one of these sixties rock bands on a farewell tour.
You were like, dude, I can run faster than this guy.
(29:13):
And then they'd score one touchdown on offense, get a
few touchdowns on defense, beat some really good team, and
you go, oh, okay, of course there you go. Of course,
well don't know how that happened, but here we are.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
See.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But here's like, this is part of the issue that
people have, in myself included with really trying to hone
in on who the Broncos are and why they got
this game against a Texans team that has improved over
the last few weeks, because they looked awful to start.
They had no offense to speak of, and that's sort
of turned around, but just out of curiosity, this is
(29:52):
going to be a team a game coming up this
weekend that features perhaps the number one and number two
defenses in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
The point spread in this game is thirty eight and
a half.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That is incredibly low for a professional NFL football game.
What that tells you is Vegas and the betters are
really thinking that the offense from last week from the
Broncos was some sort of anomaly, and why wouldn't they
(30:31):
go back and look at how these games have gone
the bronc If I tell you a football team has
scored seventy seven points in the last two weeks, you'd
be like wow, But then I go, yeah, yeah, it's
actually seventy seven points in the last five quarters, And
then you go holy bleep, And then I go yeah,
(30:55):
and the quarters before that, in seven quarters before that,
they scored thirteen points. Pretty unique. Now you could even
go to the well of in ten of the eleven
(31:19):
quarters before that you scored sixteen points, because remember you
put up eighteen in the fourth against the Eagles, you
put up thirty three in the fourth against the Giants,
and then you had finally a full games worth of
offense against the Cowboys. But it's it's bizarre to try
(31:47):
and like, hone in, what is this team? And maybe
this is who they are.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Maybe they're just a team where they just it's a
big magic eight ball. Well are offfense? Be good? Ask
again later. All right, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
But those numbers, I'm telling you, it was just I
was just curious to what they were gonna look like,
because here's what I thought they'd looked like. I thought
the the twenty fifteen defensive numbers would be a lot better,
and I thought the twenty fifteen offensive numbers would be
a lot worse. And instead they're virtually identical to this
year's team.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So throw mixy, let's mess out.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Three oh three, five oh four nine two five shot
maz de text line, one price, one person, one hour.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Hop in.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
If you got a thought that I haven't trot over
uh in making the comparisons between this team and twenty fifteen,
let me know something I didn't factor in broadcasting for
the backus in Shankers Studios, Serious lawyers for the seriously
injured NFL. Stock up, stock down next. Just an update
here before we go. Stock up stock down. Rapaport says
(33:01):
Cam Skataboo's injury has a four to six month recovery
for a dislocated ankle, a fibula fracture and deltoid ligament rupture.
I thought your deltoids were up top. Turns out you
got one in your ankle. Four to six months for that.
That looks gruesome. But I guess good for Skataboo that
(33:23):
he can be back in four to six months. I mean,
I think that means his season's over. But it looked
a lot worse. It looked like something that would take
like a year. So good on him. Now, NFL stock up,
stock down. We do it every week following the NFL weekend.
We always start with the quarterbacks. Now he stuck up.
I'll give it to the guy you're facing this weekend.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I think CJ.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Stroud has had a nice little uh last few weeks
after a rough start to the season because he was
miserable to start the year. But seven of his eleven
touchdowns have come in the last three games. He has
a quarterback rating of over one hundred in three of
his last four and they need him to succeed and
(34:06):
he's done that. Twenty nine points per game over the
last month for this team, So it's different from the beginning,
and you combine that with a defense that is very, very,
very good. They're gonna face a tough test obviously against
the Broncos this weekend, but they do get that game
at home.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
If CJ.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Stroud has kind of turned a corner and found a
little bit of a rhythm within that offense, that can
create a few different issues.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
For what the Broncos want to accomplish this Sunday. But
when CJ. Stroud is on his game, that team is
entirely different. They're they're really good and really really difficult
to stop because they've been really good at finding talent
through the draft, especially on the defensive side of the football,
whether that's Will Anderson or Derek Stingley or whoever.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
They've drafted really well and found talent. You combine that
with good quarterback play and you're dealing with something entirely differently.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So CJ. Stroud gets a stock up. Let's go quarterback
stock down.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
So I don't want to be too harsh on this
because this team has been good recently. They were just
the winners of four straight before losing this weekend to
Baltimore and it's Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Here's why.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
First of all, the end of game sequence, and I
know the game was pretty much done at that point,
but there's about fifty seconds left on the clock through
at the goal line. They have no timeouts, they're down
fourteen points. You need a score in on side and
another score. It took him twenty seconds to run a
play from like the two when you're down fourteen points.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And then when they do snap it on.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Fourth down, DJ Moore is wide open to the back
of the end zone and he misses him. So that's
just sort of a micro thing that happened in that game,
but you look at.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It more holistically.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
They've won four straight previous to this weekend, but in
the last four weeks, Caleb Williams has only two touchdown
passes to three picks. They're winning, but he's a real
wild card in those wins. He's got only two multi
touchdown passing games on this season. One of them he
(36:22):
threw four touchdowns against that Cowboys defense that's awful, and
the other he threw for two touchdowns. So nine touchdowns
and four picks on the year were about halfway through
already the Bears are better. But if he can't find
some sort of clickiness within the offense with Ben Johnson
(36:44):
as his head coach and offensive coordinator, I think you're
gonna be hard pressed to find success with anyone if
you can't find it within a Ben Johnson offense.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So he gets stocked down. Let's go non quarterback stock up.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You guys seen this fifth round pick in LA, this
kid Aurunde Gadson. There's a new thing that's happening within
the league that you draft a tight end and that
tight end pops immediately. We saw it obviously with Brock
Bauers last year. You got this with Tyler Warren in
Indianapolis this year. And this little gem, this little diamond
(37:24):
that they found late in the draft. He's got nineteen
catches for three hundred and nine yards in the last
three weeks.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
He's been a.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Massive part of their offense. And with that team so
decimated with injuries, they've been looking for guys to step
up and they don't really care where. Obviously, Lad mcconkee
is good in the pass game for them. They bring
back Keenan Allen because it felt like they had to,
you know, Quentin Johnston's had a lot better year. Uh,
he's actually catching the football, which is a prerequisite to
(37:57):
playing wide receiver. But finding somebody like Gatson in the
fifth round, he looks to be a star in the making.
Big bodied guy, super athletic runs, Chris routes. It always
seems to find a way to get open, and I
think that's going to continue for them, and he's going
to be a big target in the same way that
(38:19):
you know for years, the LA Chargers always had Antonio
Gates that they could rely upon. I'm not saying he's
gonna be Antonio Gates, but just a reliable pass catching
tight end. Arendre Gatson seems to be the guy that
can do that for the Chargers. Now he gets stuck up,
Let's go non quarterbacks stock down. So the Washington Commanders
(38:40):
had this really interesting thing that happened over the course
of the offseason. They bring in Austin Eckler last year
and he has some success. They had a backup to
him and a guy that shared the backfield in Brian Robinson.
They traded him before the season started, which was an
odd decision, but Jacory Krosky Merritt had a really good
(39:02):
preseason as a seventh round pick, and a really good
training camp, and they seem to put all their faith
in the idea of he's gonna be our backup to
Austin Eckler, so we can let Brian Robinson go. But
Vin Eckler gets hurt and then they're looking for guys
to step up and fill the role left behind by him,
and he just hasn't done it. In the last two weeks,
(39:23):
he's got fifty eight rushing yards, he is sharing the
backfield a lot more. They don't really trust him in
passing situations. It's sort of that thing that Sean Payton
talks about where they got to earn the trust in
the backfield as a pass protector. And he's got no
touchdowns in the last three weeks. I still think he's
(39:46):
got ability and he's a he's got a future, But
as a seventh round pick, you only get so many
opportunities to try and find your groove before they move
on and then they're still gonna give him run. But
he's been fumbling the ball at crucial times, which cannot happen.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
He's had a lot of different issues.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
If he doesn't figure out in hurry, he's gonna be
in some trouble, so let's he gets a stock down.
Let's go NFL team stock up. Patriots are good guys.
They're back. I mean, as much as I hate it,
they're back. Just won thirty two to twelve over the Browns.
And say what you want about Cleveland. Cleveland still has
(40:29):
a good defense. And Miles Garrett is still very good
at football and you put up thirty two points on him.
They've now tied you in winning five straight games. Drake May,
there's no question about what he is as a quarterback.
It's pretty widely accepted.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Now. Yay, he's really good.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
He could possibly be the best quarterback out of that
draft class where six guys were taken, six quarterbacks were
taken the first twelve picks.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
But Drake May is very, very good.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
They have a legit shot to win over the Buffalo
Bills and coming up for them. They got a game
in Buffalo, or I'm sorry, they already won in Buffalo.
They've proven that they can compete with them, and now
it's a matter can you hang on to this division
(41:22):
and give the old stiff arm to Josh Allen? And
I think they can let's go to FL team stock down.
It depends what version I'm getting. That version of the
Atlanta Falcons stinks. The other versions of the Atlanta Falcons
are great and fun, but they have the ability to
(41:42):
put up just a clunker. They had it in the
thirty to nothing lost to Carolina earlier in the year.
They now lost last week in brutal fashion, thirty four
to ten to a terrible Dolphins team. And I know
they were without Pennix, but it's not like Cousins is
a bum as a backup quarterback. They just they've lost
(42:10):
to the Bucks, the Panthers, and the Niners and the Dolphins,
but they've beaten the Vikings, the Commanders, and the Bills.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
You tell me what to do with that. Those are
really good teams that they've beaten, and yet they lose
to teams that you feel like should have been layups
for them.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Their unpredictability brings down their stock, so they get the
stock down, MVP stock out. Jonathan Taylor should win this thing.
If the season ended today, he should win. It's not
just the rushing yards he's putting up. It's the touchdowns.
We saw Saquon put up two thousand yards last year.
Keep in mind, I was saying that he should have
won the MVP for doing that. I don't know how
(42:49):
a running back who runs for two thousand yards isn't
even really in consideration because it was all about Josh
Allen or Lamar. But he's got something going for him
as well, where no quarterback is really taking over for
this year and playing at a super high elite level,
and he is doing some unthinkable things at running backs,
So he gets stuck up MVP stock down.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Baker.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
I know his team is decimated, but he was put
He was this stat sheet darling the first few weeks
of the season, the last couple of weeks only one touchdown.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
His team is injured.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
But this is a numbers game, and this is going
to go against Baker because maybe he was the guy
that you were saying is having an elite season, not anymore.
Best game of the week, Oh yes, Jets Bengals was awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
As much as those two teams stink.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
If you're looking into throwing up a whole bunch of
scores in a hurry and a running back throwing a
game winning touchdown pass, it kind of had it all
for you. That's my game of the week. Worst game
of the week, No, God, please, No, Bill's Panthers. Just ridiculous.
It was forty to nine and Josh Allen didn't even
have to do anything. They put up forty points and
(43:59):
Josh Allen didn't really, you didn't have a highlight. Plus
Andy Dalton was terrible. So that's the worst game of
the week, and that is NFL stock ups stock down.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Can watch it. You'll have on twitch, twitch dot tv.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Search out to tude sr in the search bar of
the Altitude TV simulcast, and that is the Safeway Twitch feed.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Order online.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Safeway does arrest get easy delivery or free pickup, but
same great deals get started at safeway dot com and
the Safeway apps, safe Way, Safeway Fresh Food, Local Flavors,
MOS Bombarding came next.
This is six in the Morning with Brett Caine on demand.
Check out Brett weekday mornings at six on Altitude Sports
Radio ninety two five and on the Altitude Sports Radio app.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Turn Over here.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Drop pats all of said ye the Shammo.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
He is officially Victor gull of sid a hat trick
for the first time. He makes it eight four Avalanche
for two twenty two to go in the third period
three seconds, two seconds, one second.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Salm the horn.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Won a wild night in the Wild West. A power
play that it's ice cold suddenly turns red hot. The
Avalanche score four power play goals and they beat the
New Jersey Devils by a final score of eight to four.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh we stink, No we're great. No we're bad, No,
we're awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was that kind of night, and for most of
it the Aves were really good, except for that whatever
the second period was for four minutes, I mean four minutes,
almost threw away everything that you did throughout the course
(01:41):
of that game that was going to be, like we're.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Gonna discuss this as hey.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The Aves really found a way to bounce back and
get back on track. They got their power play work
and they're doing everything kind of right. You know, this
comes off of a really tough game against New Jersey
where it's another one of those that you felt like, hey,
maybe you should have come away with one, and once
(02:11):
again end of regulation it gets sent to ot and
whether it's overtime or the shootout, you lose. Once that
went to five, from five nothing to five to four
(02:31):
in four minutes, you kind of had that sinking feeling again.
Now I'll say this, for the Avs to immediately respond
to that and McKinnon, they jump back on the power play.
I mean, that's the mistake for New Jersey in a
(02:52):
game in which the power play was really working for
the Aves four out of six on those opportunities, they
make that game five to four, and a minute later,
or not even a minute, a few seconds later, it
felt like they take a penalty of their own and
give the Avs another opportunity on the power play in
which Mac just buries another one. That's how you're gonna
(03:16):
end up losing that game because they did lose that
momentum for a minute.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But I liked it. There were some changes to the
power play.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You've had new guys sort of mixing in with that
first pairing now and I think they've found people, or
it's either they found people or they found a strategy
where guys are just willing to let it fly. Don't
look for the perfect pass, don't look for the perfect shot,
just get the puck on net, look for a rebound
(03:46):
and try and capitalize that way. It's all the stuff
that we were kind of discussing in what does the
power play need to do to get better?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I thought Val should be part of that unit, And.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Just like that, I think that gave them a little
bit of a boost because Val just does It's what
Val does.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He does that nasty stuff. He works extra hard.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
He makes sure that if you're gonna clear the puck
of the zone, then you're gonna have to do it
through me.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
But how about Oliveson comes away with a five point night.
And one of the things about.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Guys like him, this is kind of a specialty of
Chris McFarlane. It's find the guy with talent, find the
guy with skill that has maybe been given given up
on or not showcased in the proper sort of opportunity,
(04:51):
and give him a shot with some really good players
surrounding him, and see what he can do. Then well,
in this case, ol Ofson gets bump to the number
one power play and we all know about just his
he's got a hell of a shot. You start to
feed him some opportunities and you start to get him
(05:13):
in the mix and on the ice with guys like McKinnon.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I think it's.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's golden for people like him to go out and
play next to guys with that sort of skill level
and get a little bit more of an opportunity to
showcase what you do best because people are so concerned
with what twenty nine is doing on the ice and
what eighty eight is doing on the ice. Because McKinnon
(05:43):
and Martin Nachius are having a hell of a start
to the year and they're gonna take up the marquee
and they're gonna look at not just those two, but
Cam mccarr. You almost become the forgotten guy on the
ice because you're so concerned with everyone else else. In
the second that happens, you come away with a five
(06:04):
point night and a hat trick. God man, I it's funny.
I do the show a lot of times in the
middle of games, so it's like you take notes about
the game, but I'm also trying to figure out what
we're going to talk about for the following day, and
(06:26):
I had like the A F Show done, and then
we hit about oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Ten minutes into the second period, they score the first
goal the Devil's doing.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I we go, yeah, that was no big deal, five
to one.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And then they immediately score afterwards about a minute and
a half later, and once again Nelly, I was like,
that's fine, it's five to two.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's a big lead.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
The point A nice thing about having a big lead
is you can allow stuff like that. And then they
give up the third goal, and I go, Okay, now
I'm getting a little bit nervous. Don't like this very much.
And then they give up the fourth and it's a panic.
But to the F's credit, settle it down and do
(07:17):
what you do best, which is and I hope they're
getting back to this permanently. You give us an extra
man on the ice with how much talent in skill
level we have, you pay for it, and last night
they paid for it to the tune of four power
play or four power play goals in six opportunities.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Do you know there's that gift that everyone shares. I
don't even know what it's from, but it's Drake and
some other guy at a laptop.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh, point to the laptop of that one.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
By the way, Drake points to the laptop and the
guy goes, oh, man, last night, that's what I felt
like with Jared Bednar, where it's like or the Avs overall,
where I'm Drake pointing at the laptop going, Hey, when
you have one extra guy on the ice and the
other team is down a man, score it's easy to score.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Oh really?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Oh yeah, if there's five guys toys and there's only
four guys for the other team, you should be able
to score there.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Oh, I think Nellie to your point that little oh thing,
was you saying, just shoot it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You have more people than them. It doesn't need to
be the perfect shot. Put the puck on net and
look to get a rebound. The second you do that,
the defense is out of sorts. If you're passing and
trying to find the perfect angle for a shot and look,
you want to strive for a good look. Don't get
me wrong, but if you do that, the defense isn't
(08:48):
really reacting to anything.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
They are they're playing their role. I gotta cover this
area of the ice.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The second you put a shot on net, everybody has
to turn look towards the net and try and actually
clear the puck, which puts everybody out of position. And
it's what happens to the Avs over and over again
in the four minutes that the Devil's made the comeback.
(09:19):
They'd put a puck.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
On net, or they get a deflection somewhere near the crease,
and then there's somebody back door that because you're so
panicked on trying to get the puck out of the zone,
you lose attention to your responsibility.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And then I believe it was the Mercer goal where.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It's just like the puck kind of gets popped up
in the air and somebody's wide open on the opposite
side of the net.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I don't know which one it was. They all came
very quickly, but that's.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Sort of the point, is that you get the extra
main opportunity, but you got to be able to get
shots on. Like, here's what's funny. The Avs have gotten
better as the season has gone on at setting up
on the power play. Earlier in the year, it was
tough for the first unit to get set up. They'd
(10:14):
bring it in the zone, it would get pounded out.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Now they gotten set up and then it felt like
they got a little bit too cute when they were
set up in the zone.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But now it was just they were firing and there
was something too. You know. I mentioned this last year
with Natchu's being involved in.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
That power play over Miko Rantanen, is that there is
a movement that they have where last year it felt
like it got still because of unpredictability or I'm sorry
it got still because of predictability that everybody had their
own spots. Nate was gonna sit on the dot on
one side, and he goes to sit on the dot
(11:00):
at the other side. Cale was gonna patrol the blue
line like you just kind of knew where everybody was
gonna be. Now there's a lot of movement, like I have.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's been a while since you've seen McKinnon really sort
to troll around in that offensive zone as much as
he does on the power play now. And I think
it's set up because Marty Natchez is he he is.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I'm gonna say cheerious on the different places he can
be during that power play.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But it's set up from just movement.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And when you get movement, you can get guys out
of position, you can catch guys off guard, and then
you get a puck on net, you get a rebound.
A whole bunch of good things happen, so overwhelmingly positive
from the Avs yesterday, mixed in with what the hell
was that?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Four minutes now.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
We'll talk to Jared Bednar at eight forty five is
eighty this morning with the coach. I'm sure he'll have
a bunch of thoughts on last night. But you think
about it, you entered that game. I believe the Avs
were one of twenty four on the power play and
the exit last night five of thirty of their last thirty,
(12:27):
which obviously still isn't the number you quite want to
get to, but it's better than one of twenty four,
and it just felt like it was a matter of
time before that thing was gonna start clicking, because they're
too good.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They're too good for that not to happen. By the way,
shout out to bartikoffee got his first goal last night
in the first period as he tallies up number one
of his very young career. Pretty sick goal too, so
a lot more details to get to with the.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Avs as we move along today again Jared Bednar at
eight forty, so we get his thoughts on the game.
Last night, they got a couple of intriguing younger players
though Bardikov's won, and I every time I see Brinley
on the ice, I start to like it more and
more like he is just a an all out effort guy,
(13:24):
which at when he's I mean, I think Brindley's twenty one,
isn't he Yeah, he's twenty one. Bardikov's twenty four. The
interesting thing about this, we've just been watching these this
team for so long. It feels like the Avs aren't
that old, but they are an older team.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
They are so a lot more to get to. I
did some research last night.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I put some numbers side by side, and we'll get
to NFL stock up stock down at about six forty
five this morning. But I put numbers side by side,
and it's it's my great value knockoff dollar store brand
of Pablo Tory finds out where I do.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Brett Caine finds out.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I'm gonna make a comp for this year's Broncos team
to one where you're gonna say, oh, Brett, would you
knock it off? You'll be shocked at how remarkably similar
the twenty twenty five Broncos are statistically to the twenty
fifteen Broncos. And we get to it next. All right,
(14:37):
so Nellie listen, I'm doing this show during the APS
game last night. I'm like, all right, Broncos. Wise, one
thing I've been thinking about for a while now, though
we haven't really talked about, is the Broncos won five
games in a row. But does it feel like it's
a team that's won five straight?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Does it feel like it?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And I think a lot of like my reaction to
it is no, not in the traditional sense, like if
you won five straight games in the NFL, and I
don't care who you are, you win five straight, that
is an impressive feat because it's hard to win in
that league. So I started thinking about, well, why doesn't
(15:20):
it feel that way? And I think one option is
a belief in your offense. Is it going to continue
to improve and maybe build on what you saw against Dallas?
But what does the offense need to do better? And
it feels like bow Knicks needs to be more consistent,
(15:41):
And then that jumps into another conversation of.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Do you believe in bo Nicks or not? And then
the other part of that discussion is if the answer
is no, or maybe can the defense be generational? Can
you have the twenty fifteen offense? So then I started
doing some comparisons.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I went back and looked at the numbers between the
twenty fifteen defense and the twenty fifteen offense. I'm sorry,
the twenty fifteen defense and the twenty twenty five defense.
So listen to this, Nelly. The first numbers you're going
to hear is the numbers of the twenty twenty five
Broncos defense. The second is going to be the twenty
(16:26):
fifteen defense copy following.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
The twenty twenty five defense.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
In total yards allowed per game are giving up to
eighty one point four. In twenty fifteen, that number was
two eighty three point one passing yards allowed twenty twenty
five defense one eighty six point three twenty fifteen defense
one ninety nine point six rushing yards allowed twenty twenty
(16:58):
five defense five point one. Twenty fifteen defense eighty three
point six points per game allowed twenty twenty five Broncos
eighteen point nine twenty fifteen Broncos eighteen point five takeaways
(17:19):
per game twenty twenty five defense one, twenty fifteen defense
one point seven. That's almost identical now eight games into
the season. Still a long ways to go. All of
that's understood, but that's virtually identical at this juncture of
(17:47):
the season to what the twenty twenty fifteen defense was doing,
you know, the one that was good enough to overcome
terrible offense. So Brett Kane finds out goes further the
twenty twenty five offense versus the twenty fifteen offense.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Twenty twenty five puts up three hundred and fifty six
point nine yards per game.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
You know what twenty fifteen did, Nelly three fifty five
and a half three yard apart. The really interesting thing
is this passing yards per game twenty twenty five offense
two nineteen point one. Twenty fifteen is two forty eight
point one. But what offsets that that the Broncos rushed
(18:38):
for one hundred and thirty seven point eight this year,
and in twenty fifteen it was one oh seven point four. Also,
points per game this offense twenty five point nine. In
twenty fifteen it was twenty two point two, and turnovers
per game. This offense puts up one per game where
(18:59):
that offense put up to turnover differential right now for
twenty fifteen was negative four for this Broncos team is
negative one. You guys, tell me what you do with
those numbers? Go outside ner where I've just laid out.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Again, it's the midway point of the season essentially, But
I've just laid out that the Broncos so far this
year have a defense that's putting up virtually the exact
same numbers as the twenty fifteen defense was doing, and
their offense is doing better than the twenty fifteen offense did.
(19:44):
So why do you not? And look, I wasn't here
in twenty fifteen, so maybe this is exactly what you felt.
And you guys tell me.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Was there a belief in twenty fifteen that that team
could win the Super Bowl despite the numbers, especially the
offense that was being out there. And I think it
would have felt a lot different because first of all,
you've been to Super Bowls with that team. But second
of all, and I think this is most important, despite
(20:17):
what it looked like, Manning was across the name plate
under center, and that just gives you the warm and fuzzies.
But Nelly, let me ask you. You were here in
twenty fifteen, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I was.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I lay out all of those numbers that tell you
the defense of this year's team matches what twenty fifteen
did and in some ways was better. And the offense
for this year's team as opposed to twenty fifteen, matches
what they did. In a lot of ways they were better.
What do you do with that information?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I'm kind of in the same boat as some of
these these other people who are drawing these comparisons that
whenever you put these numbers side by side, a lot
of Broncos fans say two things. First thing is wait
for a few more games, get a bigger sample size.
And the second thing is the twenty fifteen with they
the twenty fifteen defense overall, what they did better is
they generated takeaways.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
That's the one metric where, no matter what the numbers say,
if we're just looking on a game to game basis,
they got more takeaways.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
They had one point seven of this year's team has
one per game. Yes, almost doubled.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
So I think that's important if we really want this
current defense, which which still needs a name. By the way,
I don't know if you heard Dmax quest to try
and name it the ABC defense because ABC, and it
was because of I'm blanking on Alan Benito Cooper defense.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And then you get the abcam Oh gotcha, because.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
They don't have their no fly zone name right, And
so I don't know, I've I've heard also Orange Rush
or something. The point is, that's what's gonna get you
to the next level is more takeaways. And I and
I'll let Broncos fans on the text line and twitch
line way in. But I feel like in that season,
every game kind of felt like, Hey, let's see the
(22:16):
offense go out there. Oh my god, what the hell
was that? Oh that's right, we have the greatest defense
on the planet. Okay, never mind, we're gonna be fine.
Peyton Manning, Well, wasn't it The game against the Chiefs
were Peyton Manning through like four interceptions in the first half.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That's that's the thing, though. You said the one thing
that defense did was they got takeaways. But I'm telling
you they turned the ball over way more than this
offense does. Takeaways are important because you're looking at turnover
differential twenty fifteen they were negative four so far this year.
(22:49):
The Broncos are negative one, so they don't get as many.
And I do think those are coming, by the way,
I don't. You can't sack the quarterback as much as
they do without that ball starting to pop out a
case or quarterbacks making really bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But but.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Again, I'm not saying anything about the Broncos are the
second coming of this twenty fifteen team. I'm just telling
you the numbers are nearly identical, which I thought was
very interesting. Now, multiple different factors are at play here.
When you do the comping to twenty fifteen, Texas says,
(23:35):
for one, there was no mahomes Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
et cetera. In the AFC Josh Allen, And that's true. Now,
there was a Tom Brady. It's a pretty big name
to get through. But in the AFC that year you
had Tom Brady, you had Philip Rivers and then he.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Started to run out of names real quick. I mean
big Ben.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
But yeah, it was a lot of I mean, at
that time, the bigger quarterbacks were on the NFC side
of the Ledger.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Drew Brees's, you're.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Russell Wilson's who was good at that time, Your Cam Newton's,
your guys like that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
The landscape has changed, But I.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I was just surprised to see the amount of things
that looked exactly the same. But I think a lot
of that changes when Peyton Manning is under center. Even
though we all know that Peyton Manning was broken down
by then, just the fact that you had him in
(24:57):
there created an ease in a st The question for
this Broncos team is can bo Nicks get there? Can
he get to that point? Because right now, when you
take the field and your offense goes out there like
they will this Sunday, you have no idea what version
(25:21):
you're gonna get and the amount of variance that you
have between what you did against the Cowboys and what
the Jets game looked like. It's really hard to see
that in a season of stretching from both ends of
(25:44):
the earth on how your offense can look, and a
lot of that has to do with bo Nicks and
whether he's on his game or not.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No I mentioned this.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yesterday, there could be an opportunity here where it could
look like last year midway through the season, Bo Nicks
and the offense overall sort of finds a little bit
of a rhythm in a groove within the Sean Payton offense.
Like things start to click with guys and it creates
a lot more of an ease to what this offense
(26:15):
looks like could be. But that has to be proven
over and over again. The interesting thing about this team
is that here's what makes you a contender. And this
is why, regardless of the points that you score or
the points you allow, or how the defense looks or
(26:36):
how the offense looks, there's a metric that is pretty
tried and true throughout the history of this damn league.
You can take this back to the nineteen fifties when
teams are winning NFL championships instead of Super Bowls, and
you can apply it now to twenty twenty five. One
concept that has always remained in the NFL. If you
(27:00):
are good on defense and you run the ball effectively,
you're a really good team that's going to compete for
a title.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And in this case, the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Defense is at minimum a top five and maybe the
best unit in the league. And running the football, you're
third in the NFL and rushing yards per game. It
doesn't always look that way. It's a little bit of
you eat really well one week and you don't the other.
(27:38):
But as long as you can do that, you're in
the mix for any football game on the schedule. Like
this is what's going to be so hard about the Broncos.
With the exception of what the Giants game was looking
like for a minute, it's gonna be really, really, really.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Hard for you to blow out the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
If you're an opposing team, and I don't care what
team you are, some high flying offense that's able to
keep up and continue to put pressure on them, whether
that's the Colts, whether that's we just saw with the Cowboys,
whether that's the Bills, the Lions, the Chiefs, the whoever,
(28:17):
the Rams. You have all these great offenses, you are
not gonna blow out the Denver Broncos. She's impossible because
they do those two things too well.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
You know, it's not really a statistical metric, but another
thing that the twenty fifteen Broncos and the current Broncos
have in common. I know I keep going to the
meme well, but that's kind of where my head is
this morning. There's that meme format that everybody likes to
post with their sports teams where you show the team's
logo and then you have little brackets under it, and
the first bracket under the logo says, oh, wow, I'm
(28:50):
really excited to watch the Denver Broncos play football. Then
the next ninety percent of the bracketed party first I'm
going to kill myself, and then the last part goes,
oh hey, we won. That was what twenty fifteen also
felt like Peyton Manning kind of sometimes when he would
go out there, he just felt like he felt like
one of these sixties rock bands on a farewell tour.
You were like, dude, I can run faster than this guy.
(29:13):
And then they'd score one touchdown on offense, get a
few touchdowns on defense, beat some really good team, and
you go, oh, okay, of course there you go. Of course,
well don't know how that happened, but here we are.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
See.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But here's like, this is part of the issue that
people have, in myself included with really trying to hone
in on who the Broncos are and why they got
this game against a Texans team that has improved over
the last few weeks, because they looked awful to start.
They had no offense to speak of, and that's sort
of turned around, but just out of curiosity, this is
(29:52):
going to be a team a game coming up this
weekend that features perhaps the number one and number two
defenses in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
The point spread in this game is thirty eight and
a half.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That is incredibly low for a professional NFL football game.
What that tells you is Vegas and the betters are
really thinking that the offense from last week from the
Broncos was some sort of anomaly, and why wouldn't they
(30:31):
go back and look at how these games have gone
the bronc If I tell you a football team has
scored seventy seven points in the last two weeks, you'd
be like wow, But then I go, yeah, yeah, it's
actually seventy seven points in the last five quarters, And
then you go holy bleep, And then I go yeah,
(30:55):
and the quarters before that, in seven quarters before that,
they scored thirteen points. Pretty unique. Now you could even
go to the well of in ten of the eleven
(31:19):
quarters before that you scored sixteen points, because remember you
put up eighteen in the fourth against the Eagles, you
put up thirty three in the fourth against the Giants,
and then you had finally a full games worth of
offense against the Cowboys. But it's it's bizarre to try
(31:47):
and like, hone in, what is this team? And maybe
this is who they are.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Maybe they're just a team where they just it's a
big magic eight ball. Well are offfense? Be good? Ask
again later. All right, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
But those numbers, I'm telling you, it was just I
was just curious to what they were gonna look like,
because here's what I thought they'd looked like. I thought
the the twenty fifteen defensive numbers would be a lot better,
and I thought the twenty fifteen offensive numbers would be
a lot worse. And instead they're virtually identical to this
year's team.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So throw mixy, let's mess out.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Three oh three, five oh four nine two five shot
maz de text line, one price, one person, one hour.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Hop in.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
If you got a thought that I haven't trot over
uh in making the comparisons between this team and twenty fifteen,
let me know something I didn't factor in broadcasting for
the backus in Shankers Studios, Serious lawyers for the seriously
injured NFL. Stock up, stock down next. Just an update
here before we go. Stock up stock down. Rapaport says
(33:01):
Cam Skataboo's injury has a four to six month recovery
for a dislocated ankle, a fibula fracture and deltoid ligament rupture.
I thought your deltoids were up top. Turns out you
got one in your ankle. Four to six months for that.
That looks gruesome. But I guess good for Skataboo that
(33:23):
he can be back in four to six months. I mean,
I think that means his season's over. But it looked
a lot worse. It looked like something that would take
like a year. So good on him. Now, NFL stock up,
stock down. We do it every week following the NFL weekend.
We always start with the quarterbacks. Now he stuck up.
I'll give it to the guy you're facing this weekend.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I think CJ.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Stroud has had a nice little uh last few weeks
after a rough start to the season because he was
miserable to start the year. But seven of his eleven
touchdowns have come in the last three games. He has
a quarterback rating of over one hundred in three of
his last four and they need him to succeed and
(34:06):
he's done that. Twenty nine points per game over the
last month for this team, So it's different from the beginning,
and you combine that with a defense that is very, very,
very good. They're gonna face a tough test obviously against
the Broncos this weekend, but they do get that game
at home.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
If CJ.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Stroud has kind of turned a corner and found a
little bit of a rhythm within that offense, that can
create a few different issues.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
For what the Broncos want to accomplish this Sunday. But
when CJ. Stroud is on his game, that team is
entirely different. They're they're really good and really really difficult
to stop because they've been really good at finding talent
through the draft, especially on the defensive side of the football,
whether that's Will Anderson or Derek Stingley or whoever.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
They've drafted really well and found talent. You combine that
with good quarterback play and you're dealing with something entirely differently.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So CJ. Stroud gets a stock up. Let's go quarterback
stock down.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
So I don't want to be too harsh on this
because this team has been good recently. They were just
the winners of four straight before losing this weekend to
Baltimore and it's Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Here's why.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
First of all, the end of game sequence, and I
know the game was pretty much done at that point,
but there's about fifty seconds left on the clock through
at the goal line. They have no timeouts, they're down
fourteen points. You need a score in on side and
another score. It took him twenty seconds to run a
play from like the two when you're down fourteen points.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And then when they do snap it on.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Fourth down, DJ Moore is wide open to the back
of the end zone and he misses him. So that's
just sort of a micro thing that happened in that game,
but you look at.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It more holistically.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
They've won four straight previous to this weekend, but in
the last four weeks, Caleb Williams has only two touchdown
passes to three picks. They're winning, but he's a real
wild card in those wins. He's got only two multi
touchdown passing games on this season. One of them he
(36:22):
threw four touchdowns against that Cowboys defense that's awful, and
the other he threw for two touchdowns. So nine touchdowns
and four picks on the year were about halfway through
already the Bears are better. But if he can't find
some sort of clickiness within the offense with Ben Johnson
(36:44):
as his head coach and offensive coordinator, I think you're
gonna be hard pressed to find success with anyone if
you can't find it within a Ben Johnson offense.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So he gets stocked down. Let's go non quarterback stock up.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You guys seen this fifth round pick in LA, this
kid Aurunde Gadson. There's a new thing that's happening within
the league that you draft a tight end and that
tight end pops immediately. We saw it obviously with Brock
Bauers last year. You got this with Tyler Warren in
Indianapolis this year. And this little gem, this little diamond
(37:24):
that they found late in the draft. He's got nineteen
catches for three hundred and nine yards in the last
three weeks.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
He's been a.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Massive part of their offense. And with that team so
decimated with injuries, they've been looking for guys to step
up and they don't really care where. Obviously, Lad mcconkee
is good in the pass game for them. They bring
back Keenan Allen because it felt like they had to,
you know, Quentin Johnston's had a lot better year. Uh,
he's actually catching the football, which is a prerequisite to
(37:57):
playing wide receiver. But finding somebody like Gatson in the
fifth round, he looks to be a star in the making.
Big bodied guy, super athletic runs, Chris routes. It always
seems to find a way to get open, and I
think that's going to continue for them, and he's going
to be a big target in the same way that
(38:19):
you know for years, the LA Chargers always had Antonio
Gates that they could rely upon. I'm not saying he's
gonna be Antonio Gates, but just a reliable pass catching
tight end. Arendre Gatson seems to be the guy that
can do that for the Chargers. Now he gets stuck up,
Let's go non quarterbacks stock down. So the Washington Commanders
(38:40):
had this really interesting thing that happened over the course
of the offseason. They bring in Austin Eckler last year
and he has some success. They had a backup to
him and a guy that shared the backfield in Brian Robinson.
They traded him before the season started, which was an
odd decision, but Jacory Krosky Merritt had a really good
(39:02):
preseason as a seventh round pick, and a really good
training camp, and they seem to put all their faith
in the idea of he's gonna be our backup to
Austin Eckler, so we can let Brian Robinson go. But
Vin Eckler gets hurt and then they're looking for guys
to step up and fill the role left behind by him,
and he just hasn't done it. In the last two weeks,
(39:23):
he's got fifty eight rushing yards, he is sharing the
backfield a lot more. They don't really trust him in
passing situations. It's sort of that thing that Sean Payton
talks about where they got to earn the trust in
the backfield as a pass protector. And he's got no
touchdowns in the last three weeks. I still think he's
(39:46):
got ability and he's a he's got a future, But
as a seventh round pick, you only get so many
opportunities to try and find your groove before they move
on and then they're still gonna give him run. But
he's been fumbling the ball at crucial times, which cannot happen.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
He's had a lot of different issues.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
If he doesn't figure out in hurry, he's gonna be
in some trouble, so let's he gets a stock down.
Let's go NFL team stock up. Patriots are good guys.
They're back. I mean, as much as I hate it,
they're back. Just won thirty two to twelve over the Browns.
And say what you want about Cleveland. Cleveland still has
(40:29):
a good defense. And Miles Garrett is still very good
at football and you put up thirty two points on him.
They've now tied you in winning five straight games. Drake May,
there's no question about what he is as a quarterback.
It's pretty widely accepted.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Now. Yay, he's really good.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
He could possibly be the best quarterback out of that
draft class where six guys were taken, six quarterbacks were
taken the first twelve picks.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
But Drake May is very, very good.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
They have a legit shot to win over the Buffalo
Bills and coming up for them. They got a game
in Buffalo, or I'm sorry, they already won in Buffalo.
They've proven that they can compete with them, and now
it's a matter can you hang on to this division
(41:22):
and give the old stiff arm to Josh Allen? And
I think they can let's go to FL team stock down.
It depends what version I'm getting. That version of the
Atlanta Falcons stinks. The other versions of the Atlanta Falcons
are great and fun, but they have the ability to
(41:42):
put up just a clunker. They had it in the
thirty to nothing lost to Carolina earlier in the year.
They now lost last week in brutal fashion, thirty four
to ten to a terrible Dolphins team. And I know
they were without Pennix, but it's not like Cousins is
a bum as a backup quarterback. They just they've lost
(42:10):
to the Bucks, the Panthers, and the Niners and the Dolphins,
but they've beaten the Vikings, the Commanders, and the Bills.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
You tell me what to do with that. Those are
really good teams that they've beaten, and yet they lose
to teams that you feel like should have been layups
for them.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Their unpredictability brings down their stock, so they get the
stock down, MVP stock out. Jonathan Taylor should win this thing.
If the season ended today, he should win. It's not
just the rushing yards he's putting up. It's the touchdowns.
We saw Saquon put up two thousand yards last year.
Keep in mind, I was saying that he should have
won the MVP for doing that. I don't know how
(42:49):
a running back who runs for two thousand yards isn't
even really in consideration because it was all about Josh
Allen or Lamar. But he's got something going for him
as well, where no quarterback is really taking over for
this year and playing at a super high elite level,
and he is doing some unthinkable things at running backs,
So he gets stuck up MVP stock down.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Baker.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
I know his team is decimated, but he was put
He was this stat sheet darling the first few weeks
of the season, the last couple of weeks only one touchdown.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
His team is injured.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
But this is a numbers game, and this is going
to go against Baker because maybe he was the guy
that you were saying is having an elite season, not anymore.
Best game of the week, Oh yes, Jets Bengals was awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
As much as those two teams stink.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
If you're looking into throwing up a whole bunch of
scores in a hurry and a running back throwing a
game winning touchdown pass, it kind of had it all
for you. That's my game of the week. Worst game
of the week, No, God, please, No, Bill's Panthers. Just ridiculous.
It was forty to nine and Josh Allen didn't even
have to do anything. They put up forty points and
(43:59):
Josh Allen didn't really, you didn't have a highlight. Plus
Andy Dalton was terrible. So that's the worst game of
the week, and that is NFL stock ups stock down.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Can watch it. You'll have on twitch, twitch dot tv.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Search out to tude sr in the search bar of
the Altitude TV simulcast, and that is the Safeway Twitch feed.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Order online.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Safeway does arrest get easy delivery or free pickup, but
same great deals get started at safeway dot com and
the Safeway apps, safe Way, Safeway Fresh Food, Local Flavors,
MOS Bombarding came next.
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