The No Bull Week 1 Preview: Get ready Broncos Country!

It has been a very interesting year heading up to this season opener.

Honestly, the ineptitude of the Denver Broncos over the past two seasons has wore on me a little bit. I’m seriously a little cranky to be completely open with all of you out there in Broncos Country.

We’ve come from 5-11 and 6-10 to this moment.

And I’ve heard all the hype before. I heard in 2017 with fresh new head coach Vance Joseph ready to help the Broncos get back in control of the AFC West.

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I heard the hype again in 2018 Elway cleared the way for Vance to make more of the actual coaching decisions because he didn’t have a fair shake in 2017.

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But let’s get real, Broncos Country. THIS TIME...we have a REAL head coach in Vic Fangio and Elway is fo sho getting out of his way.

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Enough of the talk. Talk is cheap, Denver Broncos. This fan base who I’m proud to be a member of dating back decades is ready to get back to Bronco football.

That means winning. That means no excuses and to hell with 6 - 10.

This Monday night, we have a superb opportunity to hit the ground running against the hapless and homeless jokeland faders.

This is not a test

I hear talk of the first two weeks of the season being really wishy-washy. It would be nice to go 1-1.

Nonsense.

If the positive spin we’ve been hearing out of Dove Valley for the past number of months has any ring of truth to it, this team had better come out ready to lay the wood on the raiders.

You have a real old-school coach with a new attitude and a very businesslike approach to winning football.

You have according to your own words the best free agent quarterback available this year in Joe Flacco.

Now go get it.

We have all been party to talking about the great talent this team had and how it has underachieved for the past two seasons. That time is up and piper is here ready to get paid.

Von Miller is a HOF pass rusher.

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Bradley Chubb has better rookie stats than any other pass rusher evah.

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Chris Harris Jr. is the NFL’s best coverage technician playing the game today.

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Phillip Lindsay is an absolute weapon (shout out to my Scottish homies out there).

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I could go on and on because I believe in this team and the talent they have.

But this game isn’t about talk or paper. This game needs to be about playing sound, decisive, winning NFL football.

Run the ball.

Stop the run.

Throw for 5 TDs.

Create 6 turnovers.

I don’t care how you get it done, but this fan base is STARVING for good football.

Sadaraine’s No Bull Keys to the game

1) Don’t scheme to sack Carr

Derek Carr doesn’t hold onto the ball against our defense historically. He has learned to get rid of the ball before Miller & Co. even have a chance at getting close to him. The ball will be out in less than 3 seconds (I honestly believe he’s in the past gotten out in 2 or less) so while yes you should try to scheme pass rush, the more important piece of stopping their offense is being ready to stop their quick throw game.

The encouraging thing here is that Fangio loves using and utilizing zone schemes with his coverage. That is a plus against a quick throw team and may cause big headaches for the raider offense on Monday night.

2) Run block well

I honestly don’t give two hoots about the passing game for the Broncos this year. I don’t have a great amount of faith in Joe Flacco to put up big numbers consistently (though I’d love to be proven wrong). I do know he can be a good QB when he has a run game though.

And that means that the offensive line needs to be strong in the run blocking game. If you can just get some holes opened up for Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman, they have shown they can make teams pay. If you can get them churning, your whole playbook opens up off of playaction and the game can go sideways in a big hurry when paired with a dominant defensive performance.

3) Feed your play makers

The team is new, the scheme is new, and the season is just starting. Whoever shows up on offense to make plays needs to get touches. It matters not if that is Phillip Lindsay, Emmanuel Sanders, Noah Fant, or Courtland Sutton...if one of them looks hot the offense needs to keep them involved and make the opponent have to make adjustments to take them away which will open up the rest of the offense.

Final Thoughts

I could talk about how positive I am feeling about this team.

I could even talk trash about how much better we are than the raiders (because let’s be real, Broncos Country...we all know we are).

But instead, I’m going to be real with you all.

I have no idea how this team is going to look on Monday night and it has me very excited.

I’ve prided myself for years on having my finger on the pulse of this team by watching them play and knowing our players better than most people do.

This preseason hasn’t shown me much which is somewhat normal, but even then, this coaching staff from what I’ve seen has kept their cards closer to their chest than any other coaching staff I’ve seen grace our sidelines.

I do think this team is going to be a work in progress for most of the season as the new coaching staff and players get in sync and figure things out. But I’m betting we’ll all learn quite a bit from what we see on Monday night.

Hit me up in the comments with your thoughts on the game. Are we going to lay a 40-burger on the Raiders? Is this defense going to dominate start to finish and hold the raiders to under 13? What do you know about this team that the rest of us don’t?