Broncos Roundtable: Will Denver stay hot in Cincinnati?

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos overcame the behemoth part of their schedule on a note nobody expected: Riding a two-game win streak.

Playoffs are now in the picture.

But before Vance Joseph and Co. can truly set their sights on the playoffs, they need to conquer one more enemy.

On Sunday, they’ll have a chance to win their first 11:00 AM MST road game in the Joseph era.

If they complete that task, they’ll realistically set their sights on the playoffs after conquering all of their demons.

The BSN Broncos crew breakdown if Denver can accomplish this task.

WHAT WOULD BE A SUCCESSFUL FINISH TO THE SEASON?

Ryan

Playoffs — This is Denver, Colorado. There are no moral victories, and there are certainly no successful football seasons that don’t result in a playoff berth.

With that being said, 8-8 or better would preserve Pat Bowlen’s legacy of never having two consecutive losing seasons as the owner of the Denver Broncos. Of course, even if the Broncos were to go 7-9, it would absolutely not put any sort of stain on Bowlen’s legacy, but it would be nice to to spoil the stat the year that he will likely go into the Hall of Fame.

8-8 or better avoids complete failure; playoffs define success.

Zac

Finish above .500 — Typically, the standards are much higher in the Mile High City, but considering where the team has been in recent seasons — specifically this season — finishing 9-7 would be wildly successful.

Eclipsing .500 would mean Denver would finish the season by winning at least six of their final seven games, which would be at least a four-game improvement from last year’s 5-11 mess and give the organization plenty of momentum and excitement heading into the offseason.

Additionally, the organization would avoid back-to-back losing seasons, something they haven’t had in over four decades.

Oh, most importantly, it would give them a shot at the playoffs, too.

Andre

9-7 or bust —Given the Broncos schedule, which just became a whole lot easier with Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton’s injury, anything less than a 4-and-1 finish is unacceptable. Wins against the Bengals, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and even the surging Cleveland Browns—who’ve done nothing more than beat two struggling opponents—are a must for the Broncos to stay in the hunt.

For a positive outlook moving forward, for continuity to be maintained, those four opponents have to be beaten. Period. 

Even that might be too conservative when you consider that the Los Angeles Chargers might have a playoff spot locked down by Week 17 and could thus opt to bench their stars, making Denver heavy favorites in their final five games.

If Denver wants to prove that they’re better than their record, they have to win the games they’re expected to win.

That would be a success.

KEY MATCHUP

Ryan

Bengals run offense vs. Broncos run defense — Remember the last time the Broncos faced an inferior opponent, with an inexperienced QB, on the road, in the Eastern time zone, in an early start?

It was the New York Jets. They beat the Broncos 34-16 as Isaiah Crowell carried the ball 15 times for 219 yards and a touchdown. As a team, New York ran the ball for more than 300 yards.

With Jeff Driskel under center, who will be a part of this Bengals rushing offense, if Denver can take away the run, they’ll have this in the bag. If they let these guys, including Joe Mixon and Gio Bernard, get off to the races, all bets are off.

Zac

Case Keenum vs. the Bengals’ pass defense — The Bengals’ defense isn’t bad.

It’s atrocious.

In fact, Cincinnati is the worst defense in both yards and points allowed. On top of that, after starting the season with poor defensive play, they’ve been even worse in their last six games giving up nearly 500 yards per game over that stretch.

If Keenum can simply be a game manager, the Broncos should have no problem putting up enough points. Heck, if Keenum’s ever going to have a breakout game, it’s this one.

Luckily for the Broncos, Keenum’s been just that of recent, putting up five touchdowns to just one interception over the last four games.

Andre

Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap vs. the Broncos inexperienced OL — Despite all the injuries, the Broncos offensive line has played a lot better the past two weeks, and even if the Bengals defense has allowed over 31 points per game, their two studs on the D-line will present a big test.

Both Atkins and Dunlap are top-10 sack producers in the AFC and Atkins has the talent to wreck Denver’s patchwork interior OL. If the Broncos are to accomplish anything offensively, stopping Atkins will be a tall order.

On the strong side, Dunlap will be right there setting a strong edge and ready to chase down Case Keenum on bootlegs.

Those two alone can change the game, and it’ll take a team effort to stop them. Implementing extra blockers won’t be easy without tight end Jeff Heuerman, but the Broncos must find a way, and Keenum will have to stay precise throwing on the run like he has the past two weeks. This will be a tight low-scoring game if the Broncos can’t nullify Dunlap and Atkins.

THE BRONCOS WIN IF

Ryan

Case stays the course — We talked about the run defense. On the offensive side, it’s all about Case Keenum continuing his streak of more touchdowns than turnovers.

It’s clear that Case has been a different guy over the last couple weeks. If he can keep that rolling, Denver is going to be in a great position to win this one, and their confidence in Case as their quarterback and leader will be at an all-time high.

With the Bengals defense being questionable at best, Keenum just needs to make sure he doesn’t give them the ball and the Broncos should be able to put up a good enough number on offense.

Zac

They don’t lose the turnover battle by two or more — It’s worth noting again: The Bengals’ defense is atrocious.

On top of that, Jeff Driskel will be making his first career start in the NFL.

On paper, the Broncos should beat Cincinnati just as bad as they beat the Cardinals in Week 7.

Turnovers could completely derail that, however.

If Denver absolutely blows this game by turning the ball over left and right, the Bengals will pull the upset.

Fortunately for Denver, they haven’t lost the turnover battle by more than one all season.

Andre

They don’t bite on RPOs — Bengals quarterback, Jeff Driskel, will present a unique challenge. The Broncos won’t have tons of tape on him, and the Bengals offensive game plan is guaranteed to be very different from what they showed earlier in the year. The main change will be a greater number of RPO looks, with Driskel keeping it himself from time to time, stressing the defense to respect QB runs.

Considering Driskel’s arm doesn’t present a great danger, Denver will go in focused on stopping the run game and Joe Mixon. That’s a smart strategy but Denver’s ‘D’, which has had issues biting on play-action fakes all year, will have to stay extra disciplined and not sell out on the run or the second-string QB will have wide open receivers to throw to. That could spell trouble against Cincy’s talented receiving corps.

All season long we’ve said that Denver has to play disciplined and eliminate mistakes, that’s the still the case this week.

RESULT (DENVER -4)

Ryan

Broncos 27, Bengals 17 — Originally, I expected this to be a higher-scoring game for Denver, but their offense has done enough to earn that trust.

This game might be a bit uglier than people would hope, but in the end, the Broncos pull out a victory that will have the Mile High City smiling come Monday.

Zac

Broncos 27, Bengals 17 — This game essentially boils down to if Denver can avoid beating themselves.

It’s not out of the question as they’ve done that on many occasions this year.

However, Denver would really have to blow it to lose to the Bengals, something that shouldn’t happen especially with the way they’ve been playing of recent.

The Broncos should pull to .500 and be riding a three-game win streak by Sunday afternoon.

Andre

Broncos 21, Bengals 17 — 11 am games in an eastern time zone shouldn’t give anyone affiliated with the Broncos confidence after embarrassing losses to the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets.

This is another big road test, and I have my doubts that this team can blow the Bengals out, especially with the offensive injuries mounting. On the road, Denver’s OL and passing attack will struggle more than they have the past two weeks, meaning the ‘D’ will have to come up with some big plays.

The Broncos prevail in a defensive battle, beating down Driskel in the end to get the hard-fought road ‘W’.