The 2025 season is still young, but the Denver Broncos are running out of Mulligans. A 1-2 start is bad enough; can you imagine what this season would look like at 1-3, with opponents like the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs (twice), Los Angeles Chargers, and Washington Commanders waiting on the schedule?
It’s not a prospect the Broncos want to consider for even a moment. This team has several problems to solve on the hoof, and as veteran right tackle Mike Glinchey warned earlier this week, the fixes have to start on Monday night vs. the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I think it’s just a mix of understanding what went wrong,” McGlinchey told The Denver Post last week. “Sometimes, winning can suffocate or hide your problems. So all losing does is add pressure to get it right… It’s Week 4, we’ve got a lot of football left, and we’ve got a lot of time to clean this stuff up, but it has to be this week.”
The Bengals represent a great “get-right” opportunity, but if the Broncos don’t approach Monday Night Football with the right mindset, it could just as easily turn into a trap game. The Broncos made the playoffs last year, defying all expectations, but if the early goings of this season have taught us anything, it’s that they’re still relearning how to win consistently.
“The biggest thing for teams to start winning is to learn how to stop losing,” McGlinchey told The Denver Post. “The penalties, I keep harping on that. Those details, we can’t be harming ourselves and not putting ourselves in positions to win football games.”
The Broncos have focused heavily on their early-down woes this week in practice. If Sean Payton and company can improve that, it’ll lead to not only more yardage, but also in more favorable third-down situations.
“Certainly, you really get added time on those early downs,” Payton said on Saturday of his team’s practice focus this week. “You’re also mindful of how much time you’re on the field, but it’s going well.”
Last week, the Los Angeles Chargers ran 80 offensive plays vs. the Broncos’ 48. Fans complain that they’re not seeing enough touches going to rookies like RJ Harvey and Pat Bryant, let alone young veterans like Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin, but it’s hard to feed that many people with such a meager offering on the dinner table.
Even with that 17th game making for an odd-numbered campaign, the NFL season is broken down in quarters by teams. The Broncos didn’t start hot out of the gates in the first quarter of the season, much like last season.
However, when October rolled around for the 2024 Broncos, and they entered the second quarter of the season, they found another gear and never looked back. Perhaps that’s why Payton is treating Monday night’s tilt vs. the Bengals like it’s October.
“Generally, when you have good teams, a lot of your analytics carry through to different categories,” Payton said on Saturday. “Like I said, we’re going to pretend like it’s an October 1 game.”
The Broncos can’t afford to lose this game. And with the Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders losing on Sunday, Payton’s squad has a great opportunity to reclaim some AFC West real estate. Let’s hope the Broncos don’t squander it.
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