WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — This was anything but just another week.
The Broncos picked up their first win in three games Sunday at Tampa Bay, whipping the Buccaneers in impressive fashion. Awful news came that night when the team learned their standout inside linebacker, Alex Singleton, had suffered a torn ACL despite playing more than three quarters after the injury. He is finished for the season.
On Monday, the team, along with Singleton, traveled to West Virginia to spend five days and four nights at the Greenbrier Resort, where there are two grass fields and one with artificial surface. It rained off-and-on all week, leaving the Broncos to practice Wednesday on the grass fields and Thursday and Friday on artificial surface.
Which is fine because the Broncos will play this Sunday against the New York Jets on their turf at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (11 a.m. MDT kickoff). The Broncos will leave the Greenbrier on Friday afternoon, bused to Roanoke, W.V., where they will fly to New Jersey, arriving Friday evening.
We caught up to the Broncos’ head coach for the season’s fourth edition of Payton Files, an interview that will also be shown on the Broncos Huddle at 6:30 p.m. Friday on 9NEWS.
Coach, every team has injuries. But Alex Singleton is a tough one.
Payton: "Yeah, look, we lose a really good football player, a captain, a leader. He's someone that -- I just finished telling the team -- he's a guy that made other people around him really good. We'll have a plan relative to who fills in for him. And it'll be up to the other 10 guys on the field also to pick up the slack.
"It was unusual in that it happened fairly early in the game. With an ACL usually it's immediate. He was asymptomatic and then after the game we did an exam, went and had an MRI and ... it's tough news."
Your fourth trip to the Greenbrier Resort, first since training camp of 2016. Do you have a comfort level with this place?
Payton: “Well, way back when we were the original team that met with Mr. (Jim) Justice, Governor Justice now, about maybe having a training camp here. They built the facility, the fields. We went back and forth with some drawings. It turned out to be something special.
“I know there are eight teams that have been here. A lot of teams have used it like we are, a bridge between two Eastern Time Zone games. Some teams have used it – Houston, Cleveland – for training camp. But it’s pretty convenient. You’re close to everything and you’re at some elevation here (1,850 feet) so the temperature is pretty good.”
You have a big win Sunday and then Monday morning on our media conference call you weren’t quite as loosey goosey as you sometimes are with us. After reading your book, you subscribe to the Parcells theory in that you’re tougher on guys after a win than a loss. True?
Payton: “Here’s what happens when you watch the film after a game. Let’s say you lost a game. There’s a lot of good things you see. And so you want to build on those, make the corrections. And then when you win a game and you watch the film, there’s some things you also see that have to be cleaned up. It’s kind of that 24-hour rule. We make the corrections and now the focus is on to the next team. A real good team in the Jets. Sometimes if you’re not careful, a win can gloss over things that in future weeks can get you beat.”