Denver Broncos vs San Francisco 49ers Preview
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After last week’s game, I fought every urge to jump on and write a post game recap to just HAMMER the Denver Broncos, Nathaniel Hackett, and the players, and decided against it. As a passionate fan, I think that last week was the ugliest, most embarrassing victory that I’ve witnessed as a fan, supporting the Broncos since I was 6-years old (24-years now). There were too many mistakes that were inexcusable to give any leeway. Bad clock management, bad trick play calling, dropped balls, wasting timeouts, not kicking a 59-yard field goal because of an offsides call, not having a punt returner on the field, no timeouts left with 7 minutes remaining in the game, 3 more delay of games even with burning timeouts…
I made the conscious decision to try to write a recap the next day, where maybe I would have calmed down a little and just enjoyed the fact that they were now 1-1 and secured their first victory of the season. The next day came and went, national media gave our team and leadership everything that they deserved, and I felt I didn’t need to lump on with my own article.
We all watched the game, we all know what the problems were, only thing left is to hope they have the self-awareness to address the problems, course correct, and get better every single day. I think it is a healthy indication that they hired Jerry Rosburg, a 21-year NFL coaching veteran, to be Nathaniel Hackett’s personal coaching assistant and help shore up his weakness of clock management, decision making, and play-calling. Sean McVay has a sideline assistant to help make sure he isn’t directly in the way of the officials to prevent flags from being throw, our head coach just needs an assistant to help him do the job he was hired to do.
Now, getting that off my chest, what can we expect versus the San Francisco 49ers on Prime Time, Sunday night football this week? I hope I’m not alone in my feeling of serious connectedness between these two franchises, but I have always felt the 49ers and Broncos have long history despite being in separate conferences. Kyle Shanahan grew up in Denver, John Lynch played 4-years in Denver, D.J Jones is an ex-49er, Russell Wilson has a 10-year history against the 49ers, Broncos played them in a Super Bowl that we don’t need to talk about, and Jerry Rice played his last Pre-Season in Denver! I just always seem to gravitate toward the 49ers if I was forced to root for an NFC team, especially that Super Bowl against the KC Chiefs…
What can/should we expect when these two franchises meet up for the 16th time in NFL history (49ers currently own an 8-7 record against the Denver Broncos). Well we know that Jimmy Garoppolo is officially the starter after Trey Lance is out for the season with an Ankle injury that will require surgery. We know that they will be without starting running back Elijah Mitchell, cornerback Jason Verrett, cornerback Jimmy Ward, and that they have Arik Armstead marked as actually questionable and hasn’t practiced this week. On the other hand, they also get George Kittle back this week, to make his season debut and we can expect him to show up.
Though the 49ers have some pretty serious injuries, the Broncos, who did not play majority of their starters in the preseason, have an injury report consisting of 16 players, 10 of which are marked as questionable to play on Sunday… Stars Jerry Jeudy and Patrick Surtain II made it back to practice this week after both left the Texans game with what seemed like legit injuries. Billy Turner, who we are expecting to be the Broncos starter at right tackle, participated in Wednesday’s practice fully, and then was a light participant on Thursday and Friday, which makes me think that he aggravated something on Wednesday. Dre’Mont Jones sustained a neck injury in practice which is concerning, but hopefully he feels fine on game day. KJ Hamler practiced lightly on Wednesday and Thursday and then was a full participant on Friday, which leads me to believe he is ready to go.
Keys to the Game
- First and foremost, Hackett might legit be on the hot seat after two embarrassing coaching performances in the first two weeks of the season. If there is a single delay of game, I expect the Broncos stadium to be unforgiving. If we see a panic timeout called because of lack of clock awareness, Empower field might erupt. If the offense moves to the 1-yard line again and they dont run the ball, from under center, with Javonte Williams, the fans may go insane. If they get to the red zone on the first possession of the game and do not score a touchdown, Hackett could get Booed off the field.
- Lets pray that Hackett has taken the criticism to heart and this week took the opportunity to improve and get over a hump. This is a professional football league, your NFL head coach cannot be making high school football coach blunders, especially with new owners that didn’t hire him looking down.
- The Broncos need to do something that they appeared incapable of in the first half against the Seahawks, consistent open field tackling. I think they figured it out in the second half against Seattle, and I don’t think I questioned their tackling much against the Texans, but if you miss tackles against the 49ers, they make you pay. Most of their offense is based around getting playmakers the ball in space and making players miss.
- Score more than 16 points. I saw a tweet that said Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater could have this team at 1-1, scoring 16 points a game against two bottom feeder teams in the NFL… and we could have kept our players and draft picks… Russell got traded for, then absolutely paid, he cannot score 16ppg. Touchdowns instead of field goals. Im not worried about the offenses ability to move the ball, the seem completely capable, elite even, from the 20 to the 20, but then they lose their minds as an offense in the red zone.
- George Kittle cannot feast. Against the Seahawks, their TEs had 8 receptions for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Against the Texans, their unknown TE room had 6 catches for 34 yards, which is better but who the hell is Pharaoh Brown… Alex Singleton when he is in coverage, seems to be the slowest athlete on the field, which is insane because he attacks the run game with so much instinct and downhill speed.
- Which players are going to be healthy and on the field. We know the team is missing All-Pro safety Justin Simmons. Last two first round picks Jerry Jeudy and Patrick Surtain need to be on the field to make an impact. Id love to see Josey Jewell, Billy Turner, and Dre’Mont jones on the field as well to have any level of confidence.
- Reduce the number of penalties, this team is the most penalized team in the NFL with 25 flags against in the first two games, both 100+ yards in penalties. They have to play disciplined football and keep the laundry off the field.
If the Broncos are decently healthy, Hackett has fully removed his head from his ass, and the players can execute on the field I believe the Broncos can get a win at home, on prime time. Those are a lot of IFs… so I reserve the right to face-palm if they lose because of any of those reasons, but Broncos win 24-16to advance to 2-1
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