The Denver Broncos are facing back-to-back away games that will go a long way toward proving how genuine this team is as a playoff threat. Facing the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs in rapid succession might finally pique the interest of the national media, especially if the Broncos emerge victorious.

The Broncos and Ravens will battle on Sunday and both sit at 5-3. Broncos Country can thank Vance Joseph’s defense for serving as the tip of the spear, as the team has won five of its last six games, while, across the AFC West, the Chiefs remain undefeated.

The national media might be sleeping on the Broncos defense as the elite difference-maker that it is, but not coaching legend Bill Belichick. The former six-time World Champion head coach broke down the Broncos’ defensive strengths this week and commented about how they’re “gaining on Kansas City,” which raised some eyebrows around the league.

“Denver does a real good job defensively. They have good players. They game plan well, and they’re pretty solid all the way across the board. They have a good front, good rushers. They’re good at linebacker. They have some good players in the secondary, now that [Patrick] Surtain’s back, and they’re doing a good job on offense of just playing good, smart football, not turning the ball over. We’ll see how they do against Lamar [Jackson] because they can hang in there in the running game with guys like [Zach] Allen and, you know, got some guys upfront that are pretty, pretty formidable. So. Denver looks like they’re starting to—I don’t say they’ve caught Kansas City—but I think they’re gaining on Kansas City a little bit. They’re tracking well,” Belichick said on the Football Forecast.

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This is very interesting. The Broncos face the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time in the Bo Nix era next week. And the Broncos can’t afford to look past the Ravens, obviously.

Standing up to Baltimore’s generational power runner Derrick Henry presents the Broncos’ defensive line with a clear and present danger this Sunday. Belichick feels that Zach Allen can hold the unit together and butt heads with Henry, but it’s going to take the full rotation upfront if the Broncos are going to last 60 minutes in brutal close combat.

Furthermore, under the command of Nix, the Broncos offense will have to play mistake-free football, especially if this ambitious team is going to make a statement in Baltimore. In case you missed it, Nix sounds like he’s hell-bent on pushing the offensive envelope moving forward. 

“Well, it goes without saying,” Nix said earlier in the week. “You can’t turn the ball over. At the same time—like we talked about this week—you can’t sit on the ball and take a knee every play. Sometimes you are going to put the ball in play and sometimes they make a good play. They make a good play in the air [or] they punch it out… We know it’s important. We have to eliminate [turnovers] and continue to win the turnover margin. When we do that, we’re successful. We just have to find ways to continue to do it. It has to be most important.”

Nix was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for October on Thursday, not only because he is protecting the ball, but he’s now putting it in the end zone with regularity. How quickly Sean Payton has put Nix into such a productive position offers proof of his unique acumen of developing quarterbacks at the elite level.

Belichick has gone public with his firm belief that this Broncos team is incrementally closing the gap on the reigning Super Bowl Champion Chiefs. That’s a nice little boost for Broncos Country, but when you tune into how Payton checks off every detail before hitting the road, you begin to understand why Belichick is drawing that expert conclusion.

“We’ve talked about playing well at home, but ultimately, to get to where you want to go, the better teams are able to travel and have success as well,” Payton said this week. “We’ll go out [to Baltimore] Friday, later on. There’s an hour time change on Sunday where the clocks- we fall back. Again, it’s [about] preparation, recovery and rest. That process has already begun.” 

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