Denver Broncos: Team needs same mindset vs. 49ers as Cardinals game

The Denver Broncos need to take the same mindset to San Francisco as they did against the Arizona Cardinals earlier this season.

Remember what Von Miller said the Denver Broncos were going to do against the Arizona Cardinals earlier this season?

The team needs that same mindset and approach heading into their week 14 game against the San Francisco 49ers out in California.

The 49ers have been the worst team in the NFL up to this point, but nothing is ever guaranteed in the NFL and everyone has to play their role in order to win games. Now that the Broncos are back up to .500 in the standings, the tension is much greater and the stakes are much higher.

Even a game against the hapless 2-10 49ers feels nerve-wracking not because of the opponent, but because of what’s at stake.

The same was true for the Broncos back when they took on the Cardinals and desperately needed a win, perhaps to save jobs or perhaps to even save their season. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks how much that single victory means.

This game against the 49ers is a game, like the one against the Cardinals, that the Broncos should win easily. Even playing on the road, the 49ers are down their best offensive weapon in Matt Breida, who was averaging 5.6 yards per carry with five total touchdowns this season.

They’re also down Jaquiski Tartt, one of their top safeties.

The Niners have two interceptions all year even with the addition of Richard Sherman. Reuben Foster got himself kicked off the team. Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t playing, and neither is C.J. Beathard. The 49ers are down to Nick Mullens at the quarterback position but even with a backfield duo of Mullens and Jeff Wilson (a running back, in case you didn’t know), the 49ers are an NFL team with an NFL coaching staff and these guys get paid to prepare and play just like everyone else.

Even if they have nothing to play for besides pride, sometimes the team with nothing to lose has more success against a team that has really everything to lose.

The Broncos need to stay hot and they can do that by having an aggressive mindset.

Denver’s pass rush duo of Von Miller and Bradley Chubb is starting to take over, but they’ve been getting some help lately from interior players like Shelby Harris, who has really started coming on as of late.

The Broncos have started creating turnovers defensively at a very high rate and if they can get off to a hot start against the 49ers offensively (yes, that’s asking a lot right now) the defense can play to its strengths, even with Chris Harris Jr. injured.

In four games played, Mullens has been pretty solid for the 49ers. His breakout came in a Thursday night matchup against the Raiders, where he threw three of his seven career touchdown passes.

Since then, the 49ers quarterback has cooled off a bit, throwing four touchdowns compared to five interceptions over the Niners’ last three games. NFL defenses have figured out how to defend him a bit better, and it’s resulted in some pretty ugly losses for the 49ers.

In his first two starts this season, Mullens was not sacked a single time, but over the past two weeks, he’s taken seven sacks.

The turnover rate is increasing, and the pressure is not holding up quite as well. The Broncos need to take advantage of Mullens’ youth and learn from the games they have played against young, inexperienced quarterbacks this season, both the good and the bad from those games.

This game against Mullens needs to be much more like the team’s domination of Josh Rosen than the game they played against Sam Darnold, which is the game Jets fans are going to point to all offseason as the great sign of hope for their young franchise quarterback.

Even though Kyle Shanahan is a great play-caller and the 49ers still have some weapons available offensively, the Broncos need to make sure they put the clamps on early and force this game into Mullens’ hands, locking down in coverage and creating a lot of pressure in the early goings.

The more pressure the Broncos put on early, the easier this game will be for them to win, but they have to be efficient and effective with it without giving up big plays.