DENVER — The league didn’t do the Broncos any favors this month.
Three consecutive road games – in three different time zones, mind you. To finish the road swing, the league had the Broncos fly to the west coast for the Chargers’ game one week, then jumping their clock three hours to Detroit just six days later.
Then again, there’s no complaining this time of year.
“No, as I told the players, generally speaking if you’re winning games, you’re going to play on Thursdays and Saturdays and Monday nights and Sunday nights,’’ Broncos head coach Payton said in an interview this week with 9NEWS for the Broncos Huddle. “And if you’re not, you’re going to be at 2:25 in Denver.
“We’re in a little bit of the entertainment business. We adjust," he said. "We’ve got a day (sooner before playing the Lions), so how do we practice? How long we’re on the field? All those things matter.”
The Broncos have impressively won six of seven to move their once woeful 1-5 record to 7-6, which coupled with their winnable remaining schedule puts them in decent position to nab an AFC playoff spot.
The Detroit Lions with a 9-4 record have a comfortable two-game lead in the NFC North Division with four games to play, but they are trending in the wrong direction. They have lost two of their last three games and have surrendered and average of 29.8 points in their last five games.
If the Broncos can pull off another upset Saturday – they are 4.5-point underdogs against Detroit – they will be favored to win each of their final three games against little-known quarterbacks Bailey Zappe of New England, the Chargers’ Easton Stick and the Raiders’ Aidan O’Connell. And not Mac Jones, Justin Herbert and Jimmy Garoppolo.
But before counting up wins before their games are played, the Broncos will have a tough challenge against the Dan Campbell-coached Lions. Campbell, who played as a tight end for Payton the offensive coordinator and was later an assistant coach for him in New Orleans, has his Lions playing the same brand of tough, physical football that has been the Broncos’ identity the past two months.
Got to admit, when I heard about Campbell’s introductory news conference where he said the Lions were going to knock your teeth out and bite your kneecaps, I didn’t think there was any way someone so gung-ho would succeed as an NFL coach. I was wrong. Campbell inherited a team that went 6-10, 3-12-1 and 5-11 under Matt Patricia from 2018-2020. Campbell went 3-13-1 in his first season of 2021 and started 1-6 in his second season of 2022. I was looking smart.
But then the Lions finished 8-2 last year to narrowly miss the playoffs, and they started 8-2 this year before hitting a bump in recent weeks. I now look not so smart.
“Guys that work, or don’t work, there’s all kinds of personalities,’’ Payton said. “The one thing that I know is generally you’re true to yourself. Dan’s a passionate person. I was in New York when we drafted him as a tight end in ’99-2000. And then when I went to Dallas, I convinced Bill (Parcells) to sign him as a free agent, so we were together with the Cowboys.
“And then I finally got him to New Orleans at the very end of his career (in 2009). And then when he got into coaching, I tried hiring him for two or three years, and then I finally hired him (in 2016), so the better part of my NFL career, two-thirds of it, Dan’s been a player and/or coach with me.
“He’s passionate, and when guys under you go on to have success – and (defensive coordinator) Aaron Glenn’s another one who was under me – you’re proud of them, you’re excited for them, but you’re not surprised," Payton said. "He’s extremely passionate, he’s a great teacher, a great communicator. And I’m not surprised at all how well he’s doing. This week we’ve got to play each other, but I’m a big fan of his.”
Campbell has been around Payton long enough to say this week that his former coach will try to not just beat the Lions but “embarrass” them on Saturday. In that case, perhaps Payton will pull another play from his bag of tricks, as he did last week against the Chargers.
Stealing the full-house – three backs across (halfback Javonte Williams, fullback Michael Burton, tight end Chris Manhertz) – formation that Jacksonville used against the Chargers in a first-round playoff game last year, Payton added a fake to it. Jacksonville ran out of its full house with running back Travis Etienne sweeping right for a big gain.
Payton saved the play for the same Chargers’ opponent, only this time he faked the run to Javonte Williams. Quarterback Russell Wilson, who was under center to take the snap, kept the ball, rolled left and hit a wide open tight end Adam Trautman, who had slid out from the left side of the line into the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown. Trautman said it looked like a Turkey Bowl play, he was so wide open. The score put the Broncos up 24-7 and they ran out the clock from there.
“When you watch the tape, certain times you’ll see a certain play,’’ Payton said. “Jacksonville in a playoff game ran that formation, but they ran a handoff, and it was in a critical point in the game. So we tried to marry a look that they’d seen, but it had to be, I think it was 3rd and 1, it had be a short yardage situation.
“We try to do that every one of these nights. Look at defensive behavior patterns. What are things we can do to attack certain fronts and coverages? And every once in a while something like that happens where someone gets wide open. Traut was good with his timing. The fake was really good by Javonte and Russell and you wind up having a big play.”
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