ENGLEWOOD, Colo — Beating the Chiefs changes how the NFL nation outside the Rocky Mountain Region views the Denver Broncos.
Beating the Chiefs for the first time in eight years, which came the game after the Broncos also defeated one of the league’s epochal franchises in the Green Bay Packers, means Denver is on the verge of becoming significant again.
“I feel like we’re a better team today than we were four or five weeks ago,’’ Broncos first-year head coach Sean Payton said Monday in a Zoom conference call with the Denver media. “You can see that in a lot of ways. … From an overview as a team, I think we’re a lot further down the road, and because of that, you get that much more invested and recognize the next opportunity at hand.
> The video above aired Oct. 29: Broncos defense fuels win over Chiefs, Denver snaps losing streak to Kansas City
“We’re going to play a national TV game a week from tonight and then another national TV game the following Sunday night," Payton said. "Those will both be important games for us as a team.”
Are the Broncos ready for primetime? They play next Monday night at Buffalo against a 5-4 Bills’ team that is not playing as well as they did in four previous seasons, and then the following Sunday night against the Kirk Cousins-less Minnesota Vikings at Empower Field at Mile High.
The Broncos struggled mightily with offense in primetime last year. Attractive to the networks because of the acquisition of star quarterback Russell Wilson, the Broncos played before primetime audiences in four of their first six games. They went 1-3 in primetime, averaging a mere 13 points a game. Then there was their standalone Christmas Day game in Los Angeles where the Rams routed the Broncos, 51-14, in what was Nathaniel Hackett’s last full day as Broncos’ head coach.
The Broncos played just one primetime game in the first half of this season, and again their offense was putrid in a 19-8 loss to the Chiefs on Oct. 12 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Broncos’ hope (believe?) after back-to-back wins against the Packers and Chiefs at home, followed by a full-week rest with the bye, they will be ready to put on a better showing for the national audience these next two games.
“It’s something we bring up,’’ Payton said. “The one thing we do know is if you’re significant, you begin to play on a lot of these hours – these primetime night games. Thursday night, Christmas Eve, Sunday night, Monday night. And then the less significant you become, your chances are you might play one of those a year.
“I think for us, it’s twofold. We’re playing good teams. Buffalo has been a perennial playoff team here, been on the cusp of a handful of Super Bowls, and a team that we have great respect for," Payton said. "Sean (McDermott, the Bills’ head coach) has been fantastic there in what he’s done, and I think they present a huge challenge, especially in Buffalo in the month of November. Just do any November, October, December Google search at Buffalo – it’s a tough place to play. And then to play them on Monday night, those are great challenges.
“Yeah, as competitors you want to play in front of large audiences in important games. These are those opportunities.”
Improvement
Payton was asked specifically where his team is better now than, say, where they were after losing to the New York Jets in week 5.
“I think we’re defending the run better, No. 1,’’ he said.
Indeed, after they were gouged for a three-game record of 755 rushing yards against Miami, Chicago and the Jets, the Broncos in their next three games against the Chiefs, Packers and Chiefs permitted just 295 yards rushing.
“I think our red zone defense has been much improved,’’ Payton said.
Indeed, the Chiefs scored a touchdown on just one of eight red zone trips in their two games against the Broncos.
“I think offensively we’ve been more efficient running the ball,’’ Payton continued.
Indeed, since the Miami debacle, the Broncos had four consecutive games in which they averaged at least 5.0 yards per carry, then amassed 153 yards rushing off 40 carries last week against the Chiefs.
“We had better red-zone numbers offensively last week,’’ Payton added.
Actually, the Broncos’ offense has been decent in the red zone all year, converting 15 of 28 trips (53.6%) into touchdowns. All four touchdowns against the Chiefs this year came from the red zone.
“And then in the kicking game week to week, we’re winning most of those battles which means a lot,’’ Payton said, specifically pointing out Marvin Mims’ production as a returner. “We’re doing a number of things that are necessary to win games that I don’t think we were doing nearly as well at the start of the season.”
Evaluating Russ
Anyone expecting more from Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson is over-expecting. Unless they’re not. Wilson leads the NFL through eight games and nine weeks with a 16-to-4, touchdown-to-interception ratio.
“Those numbers are all good," Payton said. "I think the most important thing is how we’re playing as a team and how we’re playing as an offense."
The Broncos are only 22nd in total offense with 302.1 yards per game and 16th in scoring with 21.5 points per game.
“The No. 1 job is to get us in the end zone,’’ Payton said. “The things we’ve seen that I’ve been encouraged with are obviously the off-schedule plays. He does a great job working the pocket, climbing the pocket. He makes a real good throw to (Jerry) Jeudy last week doing that, Courtland (Sutton) the same way.
“And then continuing to look at reducing the turnovers, managing the game the right way, understanding who we’re playing and how we’re playing it," he said. "All of those things, that transition for him so far – he’s in his third offense now in three years and every day working at it and working his tail off at it. I would say there’s a lot of things we’ve been impressed with that he’s doing very well and there’s some things he wants to improve on and collectively we want to offensively.”
Bye week football viewing
Payton, like many Americans, spends his downtime watching football. He had more downtime than usual last week, thanks to the Broncos’ bye.
“I have a sweet tooth and eat a lot, so I’m the worst when it comes to sitting back and just watching the game,’’ he said. “But it does give me a chance, the bye week, you get to see a Thursday night game. You see the games on Sunday, there’s one more game tonight.
“My wife will say, 'You never show any emotion. You just watch it.’ I’ll see something that maybe I want to go back and watch today on coaches’ tape that was unique. USC ran some crazy flea-flicker that I have to see on coaches’ tape. I know they didn’t win the game, but it looked pretty unusual.
“Probably like everyone else, you get comfortable and you flip through your channels and you find a game that matters to you," Payton said. "Certainly last night (Cincinnati beating Buffalo) mattered watching that game because we’re playing that opponent (Buffalo), and so you’re watching that a little differently. You’re watching that relative to scheme and best you can guess what’s happening. Paying attention to injuries and cadence and all those things.
“But generally speaking the other games, (I watch) much like you guys would.”
The 2-point decision
The Bills scored a touchdown late in the game Sunday night, narrowing their deficit against the Bengals to 24-16. But instead of kicking the relatively easy extra point to make it 24-17 where it would be easier to eventually force overtime, Bills’ coach Sean McDermott went for the riskier 2-point conversion. Fail to convert, and it would have been more difficult to force overtime, down 8 points. Bills quarterback Josh Allen converted with a pass to make it 24-18. The Bengals ran out the clock and won, anyhow, but the point is, going for the riskier 2 points rather one the 1.
Payton was asked about his 2-point philosophy.
“I generally will pay attention to the 2-point chart in a low-scoring game maybe early in the second half and a high-scoring game later in the second half,’’ he said. “Sometimes now a good 2-point play is like a Christmas gift – you can’t wait to open it. … I do think people are thinking of it differently. It’s a small, small, small part of analytics relative to the grand scheme of things.”
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