Denver Broncos BATTLE Chargers for TOP SPOT in AFC West

Denver Broncos BATTLE Chargers for TOP SPOT in AFC West

The Denver Broncos are tied for second in the AFC West and Sunday’s showdown against the Chargers has massive stakes. We’ll break it down and much more here on today’s episode, Locked on Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Week three and the stakes have never been higher for the Denver Broncos as they face a tough matchup on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Thank you to all the everydayers, first listeners out there in Broncos country. Thank you for making the show exactly what it is, making us part of your day however you choose to do so. If you’re not yet an everyday, become one. I’m Cody Roric, Broncos reporter for mile high sports, joined as always by Sarah Bettinger, site expert over there, predominantly Orange.com. And we got a lot to break down here on today’s episode of the show. We’re going to go through a little bit of a state of the AFC West and why the Broncos, they face a stiff test this Sunday against the Chargers. We’ll take a look inside the division. Plus, is it Dre Green Law watch here this week? Will Dre Greenlaw make his debut on Sunday against LA? Plus, we’ll go through why it’s important that the Broncos defense avoids giving up the big plays to Justin Herbert and that Chargers offense this week, just a week after they gave up nothing but big plays to the Indianapolis Colts. All on today’s episode show brought to you by our friends over there at Mazda. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count, pulling off the unexpected is only the beginning. Stay tuned later for highlights in this week’s moving the game forward. Mazda moved and be moved. Speaking of needing to move and be moved, the Broncos sar have to move the Los Angeles Chargers off the pedestal that they are on right now. 2 and 0 after they took care of business against the Raiders on Monday Night Football. And I think for the Broncos, the biggest thing this week, avoiding letting the Chargers go 3-0 in AFC West divisional play to start off the year. The stakes, they’re massively high this week. They really are. What a weird deal for the Chargers to be able to start off the year with three straight AFC West matchups. I I don’t think I’ve seen that before, Cody. I can’t recall anyways if that ever did happen, but it would be a huge advantage. You’re right, for the Chargers to start off the year, 3-0 against AFC West opponents. And the Broncos obviously, they’ve got a little bitterness towards the Chargers after last year the Chargers almost spoiled Denver’s playoff hopes. So, got to carry that chip on your shoulder into this matchup where remember last year in Los Angeles, the Broncos had a big lead, 11-point lead in the first half and then Chargers kind of came back right before the end of the half and the Broncos got that 11-point lead back in the second half and it just didn’t they couldn’t close out that game. How where have we heard that before? I guess we talked about that right after the Colts game. Couldn’t close it out. So closing games and finding ways to win and learning how not to lose is really part of the equation for the Broncos right now. And we know that’s been a problem for the Chargers as well, right? They’ve had really big issues finishing games. But they’re trying to change that culture. The Broncos are trying to change that culture. And it really does feel like these two teams have a chance to kick down the door on the Kansas City Chiefs here in 2025. Well, right now the Broncos, they are tied for second in the AFC West with the Raiders. Both teams sitting at 1 and one after two weeks of play. And who would have thought the Kansas City Chiefs 0 and2 to start the year. What a great start for Kansas City. And obviously, look, you know, early on in the season, a lot can change. You know, you’re you’re hoping to find some balance here. The Chargers, they’re hoping to sustain the start they’ve got. the Broncos. They’re looking to kickstart a little bit against the Chargers this week to try to elevate and like knock them off that pedestal a little bit. But man, what an interesting start to this division after we just did our divisional preview just a few weeks ago before the season even began. I didn’t think anyone saw Kansas City being 0 and2, but you know what? We’ll take it. We like it and we hope the Broncos can find a way to beat the Chargers here. To that at that point, too, it would put them obviously Denver would put them at 2-1. It would put the Chargers at 2-1. and then by virtue essentially Denver would overtake the top spot in the AFC West because of that head-to-head there against them. Though I’m still thinking in my head, is it because that the Chargers have a 2 and 0 AFC conference? They still stay maybe at first in the division. That might still be the case here. But regardless, I think the stakes this week for the Broncos are are relatively high. Let’s go through and talk about what we’ve seen from the AFC West so far through two weeks of play. I Let’s start off with the Chargers because that’s the opponent that Denver plays this week. S you know offensively Herbert looks very very good this year. I was a little surprised that we haven’t seen the run game with Naji Harris and Omari and Hampton as much of a focal point for Harbaugh and this Charters team as maybe we thought before the season even began. I found that to be a little interesting. Yeah, they’re kind of missing JK Dobbins a little bit, aren’t they? Their running game has not really taken off. And to your point, Cody, this game is for the top spot in the AFC West because 1-0 in the AFC West for the Denver Broncos would be better than two- one in terms of winning percentage. So it this is for first place in the AFC West early on in the season. And I think the Broncos can really find a way to treat this game with that kind of, hey, it’s not the end of the season. We’ve obviously got games after this, but this game is for first place. like we can take control of first place in the division and kind of just start running with that, right? And so let’s keep the stakes as high as they possibly can be for this game. And you’re right, the Chargers have struggled with what we’ve come to know as sort of their bread and butter. We’ve seen Justin Herbert do a lot more passing the ball and of course he’s very good at that and he’s got a lot of targets that are making plays for him. Keenan Allen back making plays once again. Quinton Johnston, who I think the Chargers were about ready to write off after his first couple seasons in the NFL. He’s out there making big plays and their defense is still good. So, even if they’re not running the ball, you kind of figure that could almost come on at any point in time, especially with the Broncos giving up 6.6 yards per carry to Jonathan Taylor here in week two. The Chargers might look to exploit that a little bit and get their rookie running back going. But you can’t also help but think about this little revenge game for JK Dobbins. They brought in two guys to replace him, right? And didn’t think he was good enough to keep around. So maybe that maybe that’s another spark for this Denver Broncos team going on the road here in week three. Any spark you could find, you might as well take it and use it to your advantage here. I, you know, defensively the Chargers. I think we’re going to be monitoring Khil Mack this week. He obviously left with what looked like a really, really painful injury. Looked like a dislocated elbow, but I’m not going to confirm whether or not that’s the injury. But we’ll see if he plays this week. But I think that their defense is very underrated. They play a lot of zone. They play a lot of cover three, a lot of cover two, and some quarters coverage. Their safeties break on the football. And I know that was a little bit of a problem in that first matchup that they had against the Broncos last year where Boon excelled the pass intended for Marvin Mims safety jumped it and made a play. Aloh Gilman’s obviously a player to watch. Tui Tui Palo is obviously another player there on that defensive line. And we’ll see about Mac as we mentioned, but Diane Henley at linebacker. The Broncos, they’re going to have their hands full this week. This will be a nice test, especially after the offense for Denver. Had what I felt like was a pretty good game against the Colts there. Some stuff to clean up, but overall a lot of great stuff to build off of ultimately in that game. The Raiders, they look terrible. They looked rough, which is obviously a nice development here in the AFC West, but granted it is early on in the season, but Gino Smith, he is who we thought he was. Exactly. I mean, he’s got four interceptions in the first two weeks right now. And just really ultimately when you look at throws that were downfield in that Chargers game, it felt like he was constantly putting the ball in harm’s way when he wasn’t checking it down or when he wasn’t going underneath to one of the tight ends. And I mean, that’s not a it’s not a hate thing with Gino Smith or the Raiders even. I mean, we’re kind of just looking at this from the vantage point of we thought going into the year the Raiders made one of the most substantial quarterback upgrades in the NFL. I think we’re all kind of surprised to see Gino dropping off the way that he has here in these first two weeks. I know he had a decent game against the Patriots in week one, but they also didn’t have their best corner and are breaking in almost, you know, a ton of new pieces there. So, it’s really just a matter of this division right now looking like it’s there for the taking. That is the bottom line going into this game against the Chargers. And that’s where I think the urgency needs to come from for the Denver Broncos. And speaking of the state of the AFC West, Cody, we also all get to be Russell Wilson fans again here in week three because him and the Giants are taking on the Kansas City Chiefs. And the Giants, they just put up a pretty darn good offensive performance against the Dallas Cowboys there in week two. I know Russ, you know, he heaved one up an ill-advised throw late in that game to lose in overtime ultimately, but man, I think he had like 450 passing yards or something crazy like that and three touchdowns. So, the way the Chiefs have played, I mean, Russ might be able to go cook against them this week. Nah, what a development that would be if they started off 0 and3 and they lost to the Russ and the Giants here in week three, that would be a fun development to kind of see transpire here. But yes, the West is up for grabs. The Broncos have a chance to jump in a first this week here with a win against the Los Angeles Chargers. And if the Broncos are going to win against LA, heck, having Dre Greenlaw back this week would be a huge development. Will we see the Broncos coveted free agent linebacker make his debut? We’ll discuss what that may look like this week here on today’s episode of the show. This episode of Locked on Broncos is brought to you by Mazda’s moving the game forward for those who believe it’s not just about playing the game, it’s about redefining it. There are moments that do more than put points on the board. They move crowds, they move culture, and they keep moving the game forward. And speaking of moving the game forward, this week’s moment that moved the game forward for the Denver Broncos, well, it belongs to Troy Franklin, who absolutely dominated the first half in their loss, unfortunately, against the Indianapolis Colts. But you know what? You got to find those nuggets of hope. You got to find those glimmers of hope from a loss like that to prove that you can keep moving forward. We needed to see the offense step up for the Broncos in week two, and that’s exactly what they did to keep this thing moving forward. And when you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there’s more to every highlight, there’s more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda move and be moved. Today’s show is also brought to you by Game Time. The NFL season, it’s back. And honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans and cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets, it can be a huge hassle between cues, login screens, and prices. Jumping at checkout, it is frustrating. That’s why I use Game Time. It’s the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. And Game Time, it’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s backed by the Game Time guarantee. You will always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all fees are included. So, the price you see is the price you pay. I pulled up Game Time. Just a couple of taps, I saw amazing deals. I’m talking about your favorite NFL games as low as $100. The app, it’s super simple to use. And my favorite feature is that you can see the exact view from your seat before you buy. So download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s promo code LOL O C O N for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download Game Time today. Everybody’s excited for the debut of Dre Greenlaw, but when is it going to happen? Well, we’re hopeful that it could be sooner rather than later, and we’ll find out more this week. Broncos country. And look, there’s no better time than now for Dre Green Law to come back after watching what happened against the Colts. The Broncos need help at linebacker more than just about anything on this team heading into week three. Maybe the savior is coming to the field this week. We’re going to discuss that on today’s episode, Locked on Broncos. Broncos country. Just like Cody said earlier, we appreciate every single one of you for making this part of your day. If you’re not already an everydayer, become one today. Hit subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. Cody, let’s talk about Dre Green Law because I know earlier in the week you had mentioned kind of a theory about what his timeline could be based on what we saw last week in which he was upgraded to a limited participant late in the week in practice. Now, that could mean that they’re ramping him up to play this week. It could mean that they’re just trying to get him reaclimated to practice. What is your take on this? How soon can Dre Greenlaw come back because ultimately it feels like it can’t be soon enough at this point. I mean, the Broncos are hoping that it’s going to be this week against the Chargers. Now, as I mentioned a little bit in our post game, obviously as we reflected on the aftermath of the Colts game and how the defense had played, Dre Greenlaw would be a welcome addition back to inside linebacker here. But what does that look like? And I floated out the possibility there that he could be a limited participant all week long here and still essentially not play against the Chargers where they give him an additional week next week to maybe go from limited to full participation hopefully all week long and then play on Monday Night Football. Granted, that’s not going to be against Joe Burrow and the Bengals. going to be against Jake Browning’s Cincinnati Bengals who once again they still have a ton of weapons that you have to worry about offensively and you have to really be on your P’s and Q’s because Browning has been in that system. No, he’s not Joe Burrow, but still going to be a tough test on Monday night here for this Broncos team. So, it’s not necessarily about rushing Dre back as well, which I think is the key. But here is the kicker, and this is where I think a lot of people have been frustrated is, okay, well, when is he going to be back? Well, if the Broncos haven’t placed him on short-term injured reserve, Sarah, that means he’s going to be back sooner rather than later. But you also have to be smart with it. You know, for example, I’ll go back prior to week one. We had that bonus practice where Dre was on the field practicing and then Wednesday he was on the side field, right? So, we assumed that a setback had occurred initially in that Monday practice that we only had to see a little bit of. We didn’t get to see the full portion of that. So, that was something to monitor. you throw him out in full go in practice. You don’t want to have another setback in practice. You have to be smart with it. But also at the same time, it goes back to what Sean had said that he’s going to be on a pitch count to start the season. Well, we didn’t get to see that initially there in week one. So, is he going to be a pitch count essentially here if he does make his debut against the Charters? I’m curious your thoughts on that. Yeah, I wouldn’t be shocked if that’s the case, right? Because obviously you’re you want him around, like we said, for a long time, not just a quick good time, right? you want him around to help this team make a playoff push. And ultimately the Broncos can’t make the playoffs on Sunday. But I do think Cody, I do think that they treat this game a little bit like it does have playoff implications. I think you have to because ultimately you could get to week 15, week 16, you could be sitting there with your head in your hands thinking, man, if we had just beat the Chargers back in week three. I know that you don’t want to sacrifice Dre Green Law on the altar of just one regular season victory, but I do think that when it comes to, you know, like they say in the offseason a lot of times, hey, if we had a game Sunday, he’d play. You know, that’s that I think is the mentality that you’ve got to take at this point to say if he’s remotely ready to play. You don’t want to risk further injury, but if he can play on a pitch count, if he can be effective, because what we saw against the Colts was over pursuit, bad tackling, bad coverage, bad angles, like you you name it, we saw it from the linebackers against the Indianapolis Colts. Thankfully, Justin Sternot has made a couple of splash plays in the first two weeks. Other than that, this this linebacker position has been exactly what you and I talked about all off season. a major concern, a huge liability, a an issue beyond even your best case scenario because the best case scenario is that you get the majority of a season out of Dre Green Law. Not even 17. I don’t think anyone was saying, “Hey, we’re going to get 17 games.” I don’t think that was ever a realistic possibility given the past couple of years. And here we are. The Broncos didn’t have a good plan in place. They didn’t draft anybody after Dre got hurt. They didn’t really sign anybody after Drew Sanders got hurt. and they banked way too much on Alex Singleton who’s going to be 32 later this year coming back from the ACL injury and looking fresh. He has not he has not looked good out there. So, I don’t like the plan the team took here. And so, I think it’s forced you into this corner of having to play Dre Green Law even if you’re a little uncomfortable with it. And yeah, I mean ultimately if Dre can play, play him. I think that’s the the number one goal. And look, the Broncos are going to practice here today for the first time since Sunday’s loss against the Colts. I’ll be out there. will provide you with an update here on lockdown Broncos as to the level of participation status here of Dre. I do think it is a good sign though that last Friday he was with the team stretch was doing individual drill didn’t quite upgrade the team yet but that means that he’s close he’s ramping up which means that Dre is coming soon which should be good news here for the Broncos and I’ll even throw this out there as well if Dre plays this week sir part of me is wondering do you start and do you start Green Law next to one another and then do you maybe rotate in if Dre is going to be a pitch on a pitch count do you rotate Singleton in with Dre or do you rotate single built in with Stern. I think that’s another interesting question. Yeah, I would say absolutely it should be Sternod out there with Dre Greenlaw because Stern has actually made a couple of plays in the first two weeks of the season. I don’t mean to I don’t want to continually bag on Singleton. I know that it’s tough, I’m sure, coming, you know this, Cody, coming back from an ACL and so I don’t want to take anything away from that or the type of dude that he is or the captain and leader that he is in the locker room. I realize he means more to this team than just we’re not just talking about a game of Madden, you know, where you swap somebody in. This is a real life and he’s a real guy. But at the same time, there are also real stakes to these games. And we just saw the team give up 473 yards to the Colts. And a direct reason for that was the play of your linebacker. So, I absolutely think that Singleton’s got to take a step back and, you know, that paves the way for Green Law and Stern to be out there. I think Greenlaw being out there even helps Sternod and what he does well be that much better because Greenlaw if he’s at if he’s able to play at the level that we know he’s capable of shoot I mean Stern’s going to be free to go out there and attack the line of scrimmage do what he does best and make those plays behind the line. So I think absolutely it has to be those two guys in the starting lineup. Well and Sean even said as well in his Monday Zoom conference call with us he he talked about how concerning it was of what the Broncos were giving up defensively on first down the 9.8 8 yards per play, but he said we, you know, two weeks in a row, we’ve also allowed the opposing team to go down and score points. He said that’s a concerning trend. And so, if that concerning trend that he mentioned that is bothersome to him is relative to the inside linebacker position, Singleton’s play specifically here, then I imagine that you could see a little bit of a shorter leash on Singleton. And maybe it won’t hurt to rotate Alex in from time to time as he’s, you know, goes to work his way back. But teams are picking on him right now. And that’s been an obvious sign so far through the first two weeks. And and it’s also on Vance Joseph, I think, to put all these guys in a position to succeed. So, we’ll see how things look here week three with all the weapons and with Herbert being a guy who loves to attack the middle of the field. That is something we’re going to watch here coming into Sunday’s game against the Chargers. And speaking of Sunday’s game here, one of the biggest keys for the Broncos is avoiding giving up the big plays to that team. First down, second down, third down, but more importantly, this is a team that loves the big, big explosive play. Can the Broncos defense avoid that? We’ll take a look at some of the key numbers that define this matchup here on today’s episode, Locked on Broncos. This episode of Locked on Broncos is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure that you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using the FanDuel app because it fits however you like to bet, whether it’s player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. It’s super quick, it’s easy, and it’s the best way to add a little more energy to Sundays. And speaking of Sunday, the Denver Broncos, their early 2.5 point underdogs on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers. So you can check that action out as well as a number of other interesting player props in this game. Are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanuel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. Big plays are the recipe to avoid this week here if you are the Denver Broncos defense. Hopefully, if you’re the Broncos offense, you can find a way to capitalize on that. We’re going to take a look at some of the bigger numbers here, according to our friends over there at True Media. Real quick, I want to say thanks once again to everyone in Broncos country, all the everyday for tuning in, making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. Here, Sarah, I think it’s no surprise what we’ve talked about all week long as being a a key that the Broncos have to avoid this week. It’s the big play. It’s the stuff that plagued them in Sunday’s loss to the Colts, especially on the defensive side of the ball. when you allow 470 plus. When you do that and you play a team like the Chargers who are clicking on all cylinders with Justin Herbert and their passing game, that’s kind of scary to look at considering what Justin Herbert, Lad Mani, and those guys have done to Denver in the past here. I wanted to get into some numbers here because we talk about big plays. We can look at it in contrast between both of these offenses and also maybe a reflection here on the Broncos defense. According to our friends over there at True Media, you look at the Chargers here, they’ve had 24 plays of 10 plus yards, right? That’s a lot. The Broncos in comparison offensively have had 22 plays of 10 plus yards. But what stands out to me are the bigger plays, the super explosives, the 20 plus yard plays. The Chargers have had seven, Denver in comparisons had five, but a lot of those have come through the air here for the Chargers, including one completion of over 50 plus yards. We saw that on Monday Night Football. To me, that is a little bit of a concern here. And it all goes back to what we talked about in the Broncos playing this man blitz scheme primarily what we learned from our friends at NextGen Stats against Daniel Jones and the Colts. When you’re sending when you’re playing man coverage and you’re sending pressure and it’s not getting home, you’re putting your defensive backs, you’re putting your cover guys at a disadvantage because pressure and blitzes are predicated on we need to get home because it’s a gamble. because you can’t expect your cover guys to cover for more than 4 and a half seconds. This is where the gamble is going to be this week, especially with how the Chargers like to play things offensively with attacking vertical and freeing up guys like Vlad Maki coming underneath the formation. The big play is going to be the the key here this week for this Broncos team. Yeah, because we’ve seen through the first couple of weeks a lot of bend don’t break mentality from this team, right? Obviously, you see what the Chargers have done in exploiting teams deep down the field. So obviously their guys are making a lot of those big plays for them. They are winning in terms of just Herbert making accurate throws. They have receivers that are making tough catches and they’ve got guys that can beat you in a variety of different ways. So I wonder Cody, are we going to see the Broncos go with a much more conservative approach with the blitzes? because that’s been Vance Joseph’s calling card obviously, but when you go up against a team like the Chargers, are you going to really be reliant on guys like Nick Bonito, Zack Allen, Jonathan Cooper, those guys up front to win their matchups, especially with no uh, you know, the left tackle for the Chargers is Rashan Slater. He’s not playing obviously had the patellar tendon injury earlier this off season. So, you’re going up against an offensive line that doesn’t have arguably their best player, although they’ve reloaded plenty. They’ve got plenty of talented guys there still. Those guys are going to have to get home early and and the coverage is going to have to hold up on the back end. And that’s where I think, man, we talked about Dre Green Law coming back. How important is the linebacker position if you are going to drop seven guys into coverage for the majority of this game? You’ve got to have somebody that can not only make plays if they try to go underneath in the passing game, but also somebody that can get after Justin Herbert if he’s able to escape the pressure and get out on the move. Well, let’s now shift our focus here to both defenses for Denver and for obviously the Chargers. I think through two weeks of play, yes, you look at Denver’s week 2 performance, that definitely impacts their statistics negatively. I think Nick Bonito leading the NFL right now in overall pressures in comparison where he has more pressures, I believe, than the Carolina like than four or five other teams. Nick Bonito solely through two weeks has more pressures, which is crazy. Love that for Nick here. But I tell the tape on the two defenses here, according to our friends over there at True Media, right now the Chargers rank as the seventh ranked defense in the NFL, allowing only 282 yards per game. They average 4.6 yards per play allowed, whereas Denver, and this is based on what you saw from week two. That jumped up to 5.0 yards per play. I think the bigger thing here that we have to look at for this game is that Denver defensively and how they play. I think they’re they’re good on third down. you look at their third down numbers, but they haven’t allowed a single fourth down conversion this year. Whereas the Chargers, they’ve been susceptible to giving up some plays here on third down. Also on fourth down as well. This is where I’m going to go back and forth and saying like, you know, obviously with how the Chargers play zone, right? Bo Knicks in the offense, once again, they’re going to have to find where to pick and choose their battles, especially in a zone defense, you can kind of keep Courtland Sutton contained a little bit because you’re playing a corner who’s probably going to be outside leverage, a safety over the top, and then you might spy an inside linebacker. I think that the Chargers so far, from what I’ve seen on film the last two weeks, they love to drop their inside linebackers back, especially Henley. he can be one of those spies in the middle of the field there. So, that’s where your other guys have to come in like the Marvin Mims, the Troy Franklin, obviously, as we saw his big game against the Colts. But, it’s going to have to be more than just Troy. You’re going to need other guys to step up in this game specifically against this Chargers defense that is pretty good with Derwin James. Tony Jefferson has turned back the hands of time, it seems like, for them as well. This is going to be a massive key here for the Broncos this week. Yeah, absolutely. We need to see a big Evan Ingram game, don’t we? I mean, Evan spurned the Chargers to sign with the Denver Broncos, and so this would be a perfect time for him to break out. As we’ve talked about earlier this week, it seems kind of like whatever the hope and vision and plan for him this season was has yet to really come to fruition in any sort of way. So, this would be the perfect week for that to obviously happen as opposed to the last two weeks where we haven’t seen it. So, we need to see it ASAP and this is the perfect time for him to do that and be that piece for Shawn Peyton’s offense. I couldn’t help noticing too, Cody, looking at those numbers there. The Chargers, they have not allowed a single goal to go to to be scored by their opposing teams here in the first two weeks. The Raiders and the Chiefs, obviously, they’re 16.7% red zone efficiency there. I mean, that’s that’s exactly what you want, man. That is you’re tight in the red zone. You’re tight in goal to go situations. You’re forcing teams to take field goals instead of scoring touchdowns. I mean, you want to talk about bend don’t break, that’s the definition right there. I mean, if teams are even getting into the red zone or into goal to go situations in the first place against a team like the Chargers. So, they’re limiting the big plays downfield and they are preventing teams from scoring when they do. So, the Broncos have to take advantage whenever they do get those chances. And this is a week where I’m hoping the Broncos come out and establish a run. I think the Chargers at least through two weeks of play, right? They they tackle well. Of course, Ashton Genty broke a couple on Monday Night Football. Couple of 10 yard runs for him, but you know, it really was kind of this bend but don’t break mentality. Can the Broncos get them to break a little bit? Marvin, I think, is going to be a key piece in this game. The last time they played, obviously Shawn used Marvin in the back field a little bit more. We remember there was that little swing route that he threw to him where he almost took it for a touchdown and then Derwin James recovered and knocked him out of bounds. But we saw the run game in this last matchup, at least in that first half on Thursday Night Football for the Broncos against LA. The run game, it was going, Granted, this running back room looks entirely different right now. I loved what we saw against the Colts here and how the Broncos just initiate a little bit more gap scheme where it’s, hey, JK Dobbins, we’re going to hit it. We’re going to go a gap, B gap. There was some inside zone stuff that they ran that was obviously able to spring him free. Uh, and then, you know, the outside zone stuff, they tried to get a little bit with RJ Harvey. those lanes didn’t necessarily open up for him. So, can you get a little bit more downhill this week based on how aggressive this Chargers defense plays with? Obviously, Jesse Mer calling the plays there. They adjusted well in the second half on Thursday Night Football, whereas the Broncos didn’t and they kind of made things difficult for them. So, can this Broncos team showcase a level of growth that we didn’t see from them last year? The response to obviously the loss this past week, I think, is going to be a big measure of where we see this team. Can they avoid those big explosives that we saw early on? That’s something I’m I’m looking forward to seeing how this team responds this week here on Broncos country. We appreciate you as always for tuning in, rocking with us here on Locked on Broncos. For all you everydayers out there, tomorrow’s episode of the show, you know what it is. It is crossover Thursday where we sit down with the host of Locked On Chargers and we preview Sunday’s matchup, every angle you need to know, the biggest stories, the key matchups, and all that. You’re going to get that on tomorrow’s episode, Locked On Broncos, Broncos Country. We’ll see you then.

The Denver Broncos have a chance to take over the top spot in the AFC West with a victory against the Los Angeles Chargers this Sunday. Early storylines include Justin Herbert’s strong start, how the Chargers defense plays, and what the Broncos defense needs to do in order to bounce back against them. Plus, Dre Greenlaw watch begins as the team returns to practice today for the first time since Sunday’s loss to the Colts. Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger break it all down for Broncos Country.

Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos.

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