ENGLEWOOD, Colo — For NFL fans around the country but outside the Rocky Mountain region, it must be difficult to reconcile the Denver Broncos.
How can the same team that was so awful in giving up 70 points to the Dolphins in dropping to 0-3 to now owning a 6-5 record thanks to a league-best, five-game winning streak?
“We’re going to be able to reference Miami in a bunch of different ways for the rest of our lives, it seems like,’’ Broncos head coach Sean Payton said in his day-after-game media conference call Monday. “‘Well, you did this twice as good as (Miami).’’
The most pronounced improvement has been the defense. In what has to be the biggest in-season defensive transformation in Broncos’ history, Vance Joseph’s unit has gone from allowing an average of 36.2 points through the first five games (ranking No. 32, or last, in the league) to 16.5 points in its last six games (No. 3 in the league.)
Where have you gone, Randy Gregory and Frank Clark? Besides discarding the veteran pass rushers and replacing them with the younger Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper and Nik Bonitto, the Broncos swapped out Essang Bassey for Ja’Quan McMillian at nickelback, gave more playing time to veteran nose tackle Mike Purcell, swapped the every-down, green dot from Josey Jewell to Alex Singleton and got back safeties Justin Simmons and P.J. Locke from injuries.
There’s also been an attitude adjustment.
“We had so much hardship throughout the beginning of the year and I feel like all that stuff has made us closer,’’ Bonitto said Monday in his conference call with reporters. “And brought us close not only as a defense but as a team. You can tell we’re all playing for each other out there. We’re all wanting to make big plays and whenever we do, we’re willing to celebrate.”
The oddsmakers are only grudgingly beginning to believe in Denver. The Broncos were less than 3-point home favorites the past two weeks against the Vikings and Browns – which means the line setters thought the Vikings and Browns were the better team if the game were played a neutral field. The Broncos chances of making the playoffs was around 25 percent a week ago – despite a four-game winning streak that included wins against the Chiefs and Bills – and are up to 41 percent this week after defeating the playoff-favorite Browns by a convincing 29-12 score.
“I think the first thing I would say statistically speaking—when we were at 1-5 and then post 1-5—is we've protected the ball better and taken it away better,’’ Payton said. “We've defended the run better defensively, and I think we're playing a better complementary brand of football. We're playing extremely well in the kicking game. We look for those opportunities. Both our punt and kick return units are first in the NFL.
“You start chipping away and you look at a game like yesterday and you say, ‘Alright, you're going to win the rushing battle, third down battle, red zone battle, and you're going to win the turnover battle.’ Two weeks ago, with Minnesota, we didn't win those other [battles], and we only won that game because we won the turnover battle. … Back to your question relative to the difference from that early part of the season start to where we're at now—I think (No. 1) is defending the run and then the turnover ratio is dramatically different. I would guess it's first in the league since that 1-5 start.”
And so the Broncos are officially in playoff contention. Their 6-5 record is tied with Indianapolis for the 7th and final AFC playoff spot,. The Colts currently have the tiebreaker because their 4-3 record within the conference is better than the Broncos’ 3-4 conference mark. But both teams have five more conference games remaining so there’s plenty of time left in the race.
“You guys will handle that for me,’’ Payton said. “I know you will. I'm just focused on what do we have to do to win this game (at Houston on Sunday). I say that because it's that time of the year, and rightfully so, where there's a list of other (teams). The game yesterday (against the Browns) was probably very similar, right? It was a 7-3 AFC team. It's still about you winning. In other words, we could be playing an NFC team, and yet, it's still matters. It just so happens you're playing an AFC team that's a contender. You could say it's worth a little bit more, but it's still about here and what we're doing here during the work week as we prepare to play. We put ourselves in a position where each of these games becomes more and more important, but the focus has to be strictly on this one. …
“I’ve not put, for instance, the AFC chart on a PowerPoint and said, ‘Alright, here’s where it’s at. Here’s what we need.’ I just haven’t done that because I don’t know if it helps. It’s nothing that I don’t think any of these players don’t already know. These games are important. When you dig yourself in a hole at the start of the season, then there’s a little less wiggle room down the stretch.”
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