DENVER — 14 days ago, as reporters were let into the Denver Broncos locker room following the 10-minute “cooling-off period,” things were anything but cool.
After the team’s heartbreaking and frustrating loss to the Jaguars that sent them to 0-4, tempers were flaring. The only thing that haulted the commotion was the sight of the media, but even then, the tension was palpable. Of course, it was in that locker room that Chris Harris Jr. infamously said “13 more weeks for me,” according to Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post.
Times were dark in that room, and it felt like the whole thing was about to fall apart. In that tough moment, Derek Wolfe was asked how the Broncos could stop that from happening.
“That’s a good question, man,” he said, not ready with an answer. “I think that is something that will either make or break us as a team. You either stick together, or you separate, and everyone becomes an individual and does what is best for themselves. That’s when football isn’t fun anymore whenever you aren’t playing as a team… We have to use this to bring us together, use it as a positive. Otherwise, we are in for another shit season.”
On that late September day, I found it hard to believe that they would find a way to use the losing as something to rally around… but then something happened.
The Broncos did the one and only thing that can fix your problems in sports—they won. Vic Fangio found his formula up the middle with Mike Purcell at nose, A.J. Johnson at linebacker and Kareem Jackson at safety, they beat the Chargers, and the team found an ounce of belief.
Then, on Sunday, the formula worked once again. The Broncos put the Tenessee Titans in a defensive chokehold from the opening kickoff, and they didn’t get a single breath until the clock struck zeroes.
The locker room? It was a good-vibe farm.
Guys making plans to spent time together tonight, gassing up their teammates and cracking jokes. Unlike the ugly option that Wolfe imagined, nobody had gone the route of freelancing for themselves, and football was once again fun on and off the field.
“It was like a club in there,” Jonhson said of the atmosphere in the stadium. “Just loud music, having a good time, making plays, defense swarming. It was a wonderful time.”
The Broncos got their mojo back.
“We’re just confident,” Wolfe said when asked what the biggest difference is from two weeks ago. “You have to have confidence as a football team. The more confident you get, great things come from that. But when you’re down on yourself, you just press, press, press and then you start making mistakes and nothing works out for you. When you start winning, that builds your confidence back up, and now we just can’t let up.”
Out of nowhere, the Broncos believe they have a good team. They don’t see 2-4, they see 2-0 in the last two weeks, but the most impressive part is that more than any of that, they see 0-0 this week with a massive opportunity on the line.
“Tell ’em we not talking about the Titans,” Harris Jr. yelled as he emerged from the showers. “We onto the Chiefs!”
And he was right. The Chiefs were talked about more than the Titans or the Broncos in that locker room. Each and every player harped on the fact that there is no time to celebrate this win, that it’s time to focus on a much larger challenge ahead.
Suddenly, a confident group with their backs still against the wall, has a chance to get off the wall against a team that has lost two in a row.
Do you believe? They do.
What a difference 14 days can make.
