Mile High Report
Between Vegas and pundits, it appears the Broncos’ week off plus playing at Mile High is not convincing enough to think Denver is the “overdog.”
And I love that. I prefer the Broncos to be overlooked underdogs, so the team can stay focused on fighting to prove everyone wrong, rather than buying into any noise that they should easily beat a team.
For one thing, since when has a Denver Broncos team in any era pounded another team into submission? Almost never. For another thing, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that this team actually does need to prove itself in the playoffs before the betting odds move to their favor.
The best part of this divisional matchup is that it is a rematch of last year’s wildcard game and will be billed a revenge game for Denver.
Bring it on. Nothing will get Mile High more fired up than a revenge game. And a fired-up Mile High is even better than the revenge factor.
But I’m not gonna lie, either. I prefer a revenge game to the Bills than the Chargers or Texans. Josh Allen will do Josh Allen things, no doubt, but the team around him this season is not as strong as it’s been, nor as complete as the other two (granted, Justin Herbert is probably still dizzy from all the sacks and would have been a lot easier to beat than he was in Week 3 but my point remains).
But the Broncos need to step up quite a bit from their offensive performance the last few games of the season. The lack of red zone production will absolutely not work against the Bills. Even a banged up Bills team. Allen is too good and will put the team on his back to win if Denver gives even the slightest inch to allow it.
“We’re going to have to play better,” Sean Payton said last week after being asked if he had dialed back the aggressiveness the past two games. “I’d love to say that we pulled a bunch back, but the tape from last week wasn’t really good, offensively. It wasn’t great at Kansas City either. It was good enough to win that game. We have to be sharper as we get to these next few games here.”
The game plan for beating the Bills seems pretty simple actually — pressure Allen, run the ball, and create turnovers.
All. Freaking. Day.
I don’t want to see Vance Joseph do anything other than bring the heat. Allen is beat up. And he’s prone to turnovers under pressure. At the same time, Allen is the Bills’ X-factor and the only way to stop him is to actually stop him…before he can throw an accurate ball. He is also feeling some pressure from Buffalo fans that it’s time to cash in on his MVP-caliber seasons with a team championship. Allen is 7-6 in postseason play,...
