The Broncos beat their longtime rivals the Oakland, LA, Oakland, Las Vegas Raiders, by hanging around in the first half, and taking it to the Raiders in the second half. The Raiders came out blitzing on defense, which isn’t their normal game plan. They blitzed to stop the run and pressure the Broncos rookie quarterback into making mistakes. That’s usually a good game plan against rookie quarterbacks, but once Bo Nix settled in, the Broncos were able to take advantage of the one-on-one pass coverage that blitzing dictates.
Wil Lutz and the recently maligned field goal team came through with 5 made field goals in the game.
Denver’s defense played the entire game without their top defensive lineman Zach Allen, and lost rookie cornerback Riley Moss in the second half. Allen’s pressure up the middle was missed throughout the game, and it would have been nice to have Moss in the game when the Raiders tried to make a 4th quarter comeback. The Broncos defense kept them in the game early and came up with turnovers to help seal the win. This was a team win, on the road, against a division opponent. All three phases of the Broncos outplayed their Raider counterparts.
As the season winds down, the Broncos’ schedule is going to get goofy. They play Monday night and then they have their bye. They also got flexed into a Thursday night slot against the Chargers. These changes will mess with the rhythm of a team’s normal weekly practice schedule. How do you handle schedule changes? In the NFL meetings and practices are planned out ahead of time. If anything changes, and adjustments are needed, everyone is notified as early as possible and reminded repeatedly. Hopefully the Broncos will rise above the disruption and continue their push to the playoffs. Go Broncos!
Karl Mecklenburg originally shared this post on his social media pages and it was re-shared here with permission. Mecklenburg played for the Denver Broncos from 1983-1994, earning six Pro Bowl nods and five All-Pro selections during his decorated career in the NFL. Mecklenburg is now a motivational keynote speaker. You can book Mecklenburg on his website.
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