Denver ready for ‘Sunday Night Football’ road battle vs. Commanders | Broncos HQ

Denver ready for ‘Sunday Night Football’ road battle vs. Commanders | Broncos HQ

Welcome back inside the Broncos studio for Broncos HQ. Fresh from the bye-week, I’m your host and team reporter, Elisa Nandez, next to the Hall of Famer, Steve Atwater. It’s week 13 and the Broncos look to build upon their 9-2 record as they head into the final stretch of the season. This week, the Broncos travel to Washington to face the Commanders on Sunday Night Football. The prime time lights will be on with both of these teams coming off a by-week. Steve, sometimes a reset is needed and the Broncos find themselves in a good position as they get ready to take on the Commanders. How do you see this team picking up from where they left off? Well, I think they’ll do just that. They will pick up right where they left off. Uh they left off with a strong win against the Kansas City Chiefs. Uh man, in in a cinematic format, it was just a a great game by them offensively, defensively, special teams wise, and I’m hoping that they’re going to pick right up where they left off. And with our coaches, with with the leaders on this team, I don’t think they’re going to have a drop off. Uh some teams take a while to get back into the groove. I think they’ll get right back into the groove um here this week. You look at Sunday night football and I always enjoy Sunday night because all eyes are on you. You’re the only game on. It’s the last game on Sunday and the prime time lights just seem to bring out the best in players, especially Bo Nicks who both of the two games that been on prime time. He has come out victorious as the Broncos extended their win streak this season. The biggest game coming against the Bengals. I mean, it was one of those games that he just tends to rise when it comes to those prime time games. Yeah. And it’s it’s amazing because uh some some players are just like that. You know, the big game comes, they show up and they play they play extremely well. And he I’m happy for him that he’s been able to do that. And the defense, it seemed like every week they show up. I don’t care whether it’s a big game, not a big game, they’re showing up every single week and they got to continue to do that as well. But uh yeah, just I expect our players to make plays. U I expect Courtland to make plays. I I expect with JK Diamonds being down, RJ Harvey, uh Jalil Mclofflin, also Tyler Bedet step up, fill in and uh excel. This is a really big game for the Broncos because they stand at 9 and two. They’re looking to extend their win streak, but also they need to keep pace because this AFC race in general is very, very difficult. Yeah, absolutely. When you look at New England at 10-2, Indianapolis at 8 and3, and then Buffalo, Jacksonville, and the Chargers all at 7-4, they’re just a couple games behind us. And we cannot rest on our laurels. We can’t sit here and say, “Oh, man, we got it won.” No, because these guys can can win these games out and we’ll end up being in a bad position. So, hey, don’t even worry about the game. Don’t worry about what the record is. Just go out there and continue to execute every single play and you’ll like where you ended up you end up at the end of the year. That’s true. And I know a lot of the guys have talked about that race to 10. Like getting that 10th win is huge, especially when they’re in the AFC, as you mentioned, so many teams are just a few games behind them. And when you look at the Patriots, who have Monday Night Football coming up for them, and I believe they play the Bills after, the Colts play the Texans. They have a tough stretch going down. The Broncos do as well. They’re going to face all three of their division rivals over the course of the next um few games as they close out the season. So, this game is one you just have to get right under the prime time lights. national stage. Show what you can do, but also show that you can keep pace not only in the division, but overall. One thing about this Broncos team, not only do they get after the quarterback, but they protect the quarterback. The Broncos offensive line has been impressive this season. Bo Nicks is one of the least sacked quarterbacks this year and has 18 touchdown passes this season. After practice, I caught up with right guard Quinn Miners as the team prepares for the Commanders. Fresh off the by-eek, how did you use that time and how much are you looking forward to playing on Sunday Night Football? Yeah, by the week was great. Um, decided to stay in town. Just kind of stayed at home. Um, you know, did some obvious bird watching, you know, if you tune in to the Instagram story. Um, you know, kind of getting getting some good pictures now here and there. We’re actually working on uh my wife and I building a library in our basement. Um, she likes collecting books and reading books, so it was fun uh putting that stuff together. Um, yeah. As far as the game, you know, I felt really excited about today’s practice, getting back into it, the motivation back, you know, having some time away from the game. Um, body physically feeling better. Um, yeah, excited to get back into like the groove of it and and finish this next half of the season. This offensive line has done a great job protecting the quarterback. How do you guys look to sustain that against a very physical Washington Commander team? Yeah, of course. That’s every every defensive front brings different uh challenges. Our coaches come up with a great plan and it’s on us to to execute it and our our communication is is extremely important. you know, the the on the road element um definitely makes it um a little bit different, especially with me having to look back and uh you know, see what see when we’re ready to snap the ball. It changes quite a bit on on the road, but like I said, we have we always come up with a good plan. I think we have really good communication and um you know, having so many snaps together, that helps, too. What’s the key to securing this 10th win under the prime time lights? Um you know, I have to be aware of of the potential weather. Um I think here that, you know, it’s going to be a little bit colder. um potentially some rain. So I think handling those those elements um the you know the best way to you know win on the road is is to establish a run game. Um so that’s something that you know we’ll be looking forward to do especially in the elements. Earlier this week this team extended Will Lutz, Malcolm Roach, Luke Watenberg. What does it mean to have those guys part of the future? Uh it’s great. They’re great team guys. They’re they’ve been part of building this culture here. you know, bringing in um Roach, bringing in Will. Um you know, they’ve been part of the the culture change here. Um you know, I’ve been here the whole time for uh Luke’s career. Um you know, he’s gone through, you know, in the early part, you know, with changing staffs, changing a lot of moving parts and stuff, um as a young player is hard. So, for him to really kind of settle into this program and develop and work really hard and and h to have that rewarded is extremely encouraging. You know, we’re wanting to keep as many people in house. You can kind of tell because the type of players that that we have here are hard to find and that’s why we want to keep them here. The Broncos will face their final NFC East opponent of the regular season on Sunday. Steve, what are your keys to the game so the Broncos can get their 10th win? Well, first off, I would say we need to start fast offensively. Um, we got off to a pretty good start with the Chiefs. We got some points on the board there, but as overall throughout the season, we haven’t done that. But we we really got to get a fast start, get that run game going, put some points on the board. Uh secondly, we got to minimize the penalties. We we had again we had what 10 penalties, 147 yards versus the Chiefs. And then the last thing is bringing some pressure on Marcus Mariota, keeping him contained in the pocket. He’s going to be one of those quarterbacks that’s going to try to run. and we got to stop him from running because I think he could hurt us more with his running than he can with his passing. Well, those are your keys to the game and now it’s time for our Hall of Famer to pick the dark horse of the game for Sunday Night Football. Steve, who’s it going to be? Uh, I’m going to go with Courtland Sutton. Uh, the Washington Commanders have given up over 250 yards in seven of their 11 games this year. And I just think Bo Nicks, he’s going to go right back to his bread and butter, Courtland Sutton, uh, after the buy. get them in a groove. It’ll get B necks in a groove as well. And this offense is going to move the ball down the field and put some points on the board early. It’s always a special sight to see when you see 10 connect with number 14. Well, that will do it for this week’s edition of Broncos HQ. I’m your host and team reporter Elisa Nandez next to the Hall of Famer Steve Atwater. A reminder, the Broncos will be on prime time traveling to Washington to face the Commanders on Sunday Night Football. Kickoff is set for 6:20 p.m. Mountain time. Don’t forget to comment below your thoughts on the game. Like and subscribe.

On this edition of “Broncos HQ,” team reporter Elisa Hernandez and Hall of Famer Steve Atwater break down the Broncos’ Week 13 “Sunday Night Football” road matchup vs. the Washington Commanders. Plus, we hear from guard Quinn Meinerz about how the team is preparing for prime time, while our Hall of Famer reveals his dark horse of the game and more.

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