ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It's a make or break in Music City.
There is still hope that the football landscape will look back and say the Broncos were sandbagging in the first-half of this season, with what Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett getting to know each other, as they pulled off a repeat of a Philadelphia-type resurgence from last year. All the well-rested and assumingly fully prepared Broncos have to do is defeat a beat-up, emotionally drained Tennessee Titans’ club Sunday in chilly Nashville.
Lose and the hope dies for the 2022 Broncos. They cannot fall to 3-6 with two games remaining against the Kansas City Chiefs, and road games left against the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams, and expect to avoid a sixth-consecutive losing season, much less reach the postseason for the first time in seven years.
Beat the Titans, though, and the Broncos will be 4-5 with their next two games against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders (2-6) and Carolina Panthers (3-7). Win in Nashville and the Broncos can get in position to move their record to 6-5 and have momentum going into the gauntlet section of their remaining schedule.
“I think everybody in the building feels that urgency,’’ Broncos safety Kareem Jackson said in a sit-down interview this week with 9NEWS. “I know in the locker room we do. To get that one in London and to finally get things trending in the right direction, I think this week is definitely huge for us. We have nine weeks left with everything we want right in front of us, but we have to string some wins together.”
Key players will be missing from both sides Sunday at Nissan Stadium, but the home Titans have the worst of it with four defensive starters declared out with injuries – defensive end Jeffrey Simmons, inside linebacker Zach Cunningham, outside linebacker Bud Dupree and strong safety Amani Hooker.
The Broncos will be missing defensive starters Baron Browning and Justin Simmons because of injuries.
It’s time, long past time, for Wilson and the offense to carry the Broncos. The Denver defense may struggle at outside linebacker Sunday with Bradley Chubb traded away and Baron Browning and Randy Gregory still out with injuries while the Titans are getting quarterback Ryan Tannehill back to help balance the workload of star running back Derrick Henry.
So after going on seven consecutive years with the Denver defense playing well and the Broncos’ offense struggling, the visiting team needs to put up 20 to 24 to, dare we say, 28 points Sunday.
“It’s not like those guys on offense don’t want to get going,’’ Jackson said. “It’s not like it’s not important to those guys. Certain things happen throughout the course of games and sometimes they don’t go the way you want them to go.
“For us as a defense, it’s about controlling what we can control on our side of the ball. Making sure we get those guys extra possessions. And making sure we’re doing our part. And obviously having a guy like Russell we know at some point we’re going to get things going. We got it going a little bit against Jacksonville (in the previous game two weeks ago) so looking forward to those guys continuing to take steps in the right direction so we can put a full game together in all three phases.”
While the Broncos rank 30th in the league by scoring a mere 15.1 points per game, the Titans aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut with an 18.6 point average that ranks 24th. The difference is, the Titans don’t need to score as much as others because of their ability to control time of possession through Henry. Once again, the powerful Henry leads the NFL in rushing with 870 yards through eight games. He’s been especially rolling lately, bringing in five consecutive 100-yard games, including a 219-yard effort two weeks ago at Houston.
Do the Denver defenders have to psych themselves up to get ready to exchange collisions with King Henry?
“I don’t have to,’’ said Jackson, a hard-hitting safety that belies his 183-pound frame. “That’s my style of play, that’s the game I like to play, the physical game. We know going in considering the last two weeks what they’ve done as far as running the ball. As a defense we have to have that mindset and be ready for what that’s going to look like. Because its going to take all 11 of us. We’re going to have to have nothing less than 9 hats around the ball at any given time when he has it.
“We know the skill set he possesses and what he can do once he gets in the open field. For us we’ve got to crowd the ball and be around it and be ready to tackle.”
When he’s not practicing, studying his opponent or playing on Sundays, Jackson is often out in the community trying to make the surrounding Denver area a better place. His Kareem Jackson Foundation was busy last month putting in time and money for breast cancer awareness and this past week he hosted a turkey giveaway to families in need.
“With the breast cancer awareness my mom’s a two-time breast cancer survivor,’’ Jackson said. “So a lot of work I do with my foundation is with women with breast cancer. And kids with pediatric cancer as well, my sister is a leukemia survivor. So I try to do a lot with kids in the hospital and for me it’s all about creating some type of stability for them. Just being there for them, try to put smiles on their faces. Just to relieve them for a day or two of what they’re going through in that fight. Because I’ve seen it firsthand not only what it can do not only the person that’s physically going through it but the family, a sibling or parent.
“The turkey giveaway, this time of year for me is all about family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family as a kid growing up, we always gathered in one house and had a big meal. So providing some less fortunate families to have that opportunity and for them to have a great Thanksgiving, for me it’s a no-brainer.”
Jackson is now 34 years old and midway through his 13th NFL season, making him the senior member of the team. The past two years, people around the NFL have demonstrated during the early-spring free-agent period they don’t believe he will last much longer. Even his own Broncos have signed him back the past two seasons on one-year contracts that included pay cuts from $10 million to $5 million in 2021 and from $5 million to $2 million this season.
Yet Jackson continues to play at such a high level that when at least one team tried to trade him at the dealing deadline two weeks ago, Broncos general manager George Paton wouldn’t take it, preferring instead to keep his now newly minted co-captain.
“It’s all about proving people wrong,’’ Jackson said. “I work with that attitude in the offseason each and every day. Obviously, being 34 they look at you: “Oh he’s getting older, he’s slowing up.” So for me it’s all about proving these people wrong no matter who it is. Whether it’s in the locker room or throughout the league, I’m all about showing as long as I still feel great physically and can still run around and play at a high level I’m going to keep going.”
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