ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — After their impressive win last week against Atlanta, the Broncos are 6-5 and their upcoming schedule and oddsmakers say they should eventually be 9-5.
Their next three games – at the Raiders and home against the Browns and Colts – are not played all at once, though. This week, the Broncos only play the Raiders, whom they’ve never beaten in four tries in Las Vegas. The Broncos have not won a road game against the Raiders, Vegas or Oakland since 2015, when a Chris Harris Jr. pick six gave them a 16-10 win.
The Broncos’ two senior-most players, left tackle Garrett Bolles (first round pick in 2017) and receiver Courtland Sutton (second-round pick in 2018), have never won a road game against the Raiders.
So, there’s good reason why Broncos head coach Sean Payton should direct the focus this week on nothing but beating the Raiders, and why the players have every reason to obey.
9NEWS caught up with Payton this week to discuss whether his defense is worthy of nickname status, the pressure of playing a game you’re supposed to win, and his ever-improving rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
Your old friend Jon Gruden called your defense the Anonymous Crush. Your defense is closing in on nickname status.
Payton: “Someone told me that. The one thing I like when I talk football with Jon – and he studies the tape, he’s got as good a football mind as anyone I’ve been around. And really, I cut my teeth at an early age learning pro football underneath him [in 1997 with the Eagles. Gruden was their offensive coordinator; Payton was a first-year quarterbacks coach].
“Someone just asked me about confidence and winning and I think it’s born from that. Now it can build complacency. There’s areas in all of our phases that we need to constantly look at and improve on.
“But, man, they’re playing together and that’s part of it and they’re playing for each other, and I think that’s half the battle.”
You’ve gone from being an underdog in all but 2 games before the season started to now being favored on a regular basis. Do you feel more stress among the players and coaches, you, for games you’re supposed to win?
Payton: “No, I don’t think – and I say this, and I mean this – I don’t think there’s a lot of attention paid to who’s favored. I mean we know when we go on the road to Baltimore it’s a tough game. But I’m saying week to week how we’re seen or favored. We get so inwardly focused in this bubble and opponent driven. The opponent wears different colored jerseys, and they have different skills sets and they’re talented, all of them. They’re NFL. … It’s really driven more about ourselves and our prep. Now we have to know the opponent and the scheme and the talent, but it gets so centrally focused on our process that the other stuff, you really don’t pay much attention to it.”
It was all about Bo in that media conference call Monday. People got a kick out of your, “Don’t put him in Canton yet,” line. It is a trick, isn’t it, navigating between building a player up and not let people get carried away?
Payton: “No, listen, we’re excited. Here’s the thing: He’s such a team-driven player. And you feel the maturity and the respect for his peers and the respect of his peers and man just to watch him continue to play and understand, hey, the job is to win. I don’t ever feel like for him it’s coming back and looking at whatever his statistics might or might not have been. He’s very competitive and he’s worked hard.
“His week is difficult, the amount of time he spends and [quarterbacks coach] Davis Webb does a great job with him. That [QB] room has been really good. And I think when you’re playing well at that position or you're playing well on defense, all of that rubs off on the other players. And you have hope each game. It’s difficult if you don’t.”
