Denver Broncos late-season challenge is a good thing
The Denver Broncos have not faced extremely tough teams early on. Those games come late in the year, and that’s a good thing. Over the first three weeks of the season, the Broncos have gone 2-1. The difference in those three games is a measly nine points with seven being the difference against the Houston Texans in Week 2.
It can be viewed as frustrating that the Broncos have not blown the roofs off at least the Seahawks and Texans. Sunday night’s game against the San Francisco 49ers is more reasonable with the pretty solid defense they faced, as well as Deebo Samuel being an issue (5 catches, 73 yards).
The fact of the matter is that the Denver Broncos are going to be a work in progress. It felt as if pressure was in Russell Wilson’s face a lot against the 49ers. There were times when he had almost no time to throw. There were also times in which, yes, he did hold onto the ball a little long but that could be chalked up to being because the coverage downfield was stellar. Unfortunately, we don’t get access to All-22 film, so I can’t really confirm that.
That being said, he looked pretty solid.
The thing about the NFL is that the way you have to go about winning games changes from week to week. Sunday, it was a field-position battle.
It really was the battle of the PUNTERS tonight 😭 pic.twitter.com/13KAcgo2xB
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 26, 2022
In all honesty, I’m not overly concerned about next week’s matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. The biggest threat on the Raiders offense is obviously Davante Adams, but I think that confidence in Pat Surtain II is so high, there’s not a lot to worry about. It sounds crazy because of the game experience difference, but it’s true. Surtain has just been so outstanding so far.
Later on in the year, the Broncos will face the Titans, who have one of the best running backs in the league in Derrick Henry. Henry is always a problem to bring down, so the matchup between him and the Broncos’ defensive line/linebackers will be fun to watch. D.J. Jones’ presence is going to be huge in this game.
Ryan Tannehill is a solid quarterback but they traded A.J. Brown away, which is a big help. Then, of course, there’s the Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes always is a problem but he won’t have Tyreek Hill this time around. Hallelujah!
Denver Broncos will have more time to gel…
It’s no secret that the Broncos have looked less than ideal throughout the first three weeks of the season. I am sure that a lot of Broncos fans were hoping the team would come out with blowout victories early on.
That was me at one point, but probably because I was just ecstatic the team got Russell Wilson in a trade.
Here’s the thing. The Broncos don’t always have to put up 28-30 points every week, as proven in the first three weeks of the season. They haven’t had to do that so far, but it’s possible they might have to later on against the Chiefs and the Ravens. It’s possible those teams could be too much for the team to handle.
After the win vs the 49ers, Russell Wilson said he felt this team was close to being what they can be. That’s a great sign and there were improvements—a huge one being the addition of Jerry Rosburg. We got to see the team be at the line of scrimmage with more than enough time fairly often on Sunday night, with no delay of game penalties.
What a difference just a couple of days and a single hire can make!
The issues the team faced early on are not something that can happen often against great teams. With time, these mistakes will diminish, and that’s why facing the better teams later on in the year is the best thing for the Denver Broncos. Get the easier games out of the way and build toward beating the better clubs.