Miller: “Have to be desperate for a win”
Even if he were facing a team of peewee football players, Broncos star Von Miller insisted Thursday that he would approach Sunday night’s game against the depleted, reeling Giants the same way.
“I don’t care if you were playing … the ‘Little Giants,’ ” Miller said, referring to a 1994 film featuring pint-sized players competing in Giants and Cowboys uniforms. “I would still be up for it. That’s how it is. They’ve got weapons over there. Eli (Manning), with the football in his hands, they have the opportunity to win. The type of defense they have, whenever they’re out there, they have the opportunity to win. It’s the National Football League.”
The Broncos, emerging from their bye week at 3-1, have been installed as nearly two-touchdown favorites at home against the 0-5 Giants, who will be without at least three of their regular wide receivers, a top cornerback and, potentially, a number of other players at key positions.
Denver, meanwhile, is fully healthy. Only wide receiver Cody Latimer missed practice Thursday.
But Miller said that can’t change how the Broncos approach the game.
“You have to be desperate for a win or it’s not going to happen,” he said.
Broncos coach Vance Joseph said it’s easy for outsiders to look at newcomers to the Giants’ wide receiver position and see players who aren’t capable of performing its requirements at the NFL level. But he cautioned that, at certain positions, the gap between players on a 53man roster and those trying to forge a spot behind them isn’t always that wide.
Joseph pointed to Tavarres King, a former Broncos draft pick who was on the Giants’ roster for two weeks this season before being waived. King was signed by the Giants again this week after Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Harris all suffered seasonending injuries.
“He’s tall and can run, so I think players understand that,” Joseph said. “I think the media sometimes don’t think players get it, but they watch the tape. He’s 6-foot-2, he runs a 4.4 (40-yard dash), he can catch the football.’’
Plus, Joseph has been quick to remind his players that the Broncos have aspects of their game in need of improvement, and a game stage, regardless of the opponent, is the only way to gauge that progress. On Thursday, Joseph moved the team’s red-zone drills, normally held at the end of practice, to the top of the workout’s schedule, drawing more focus to a problem that has plagued the Broncos the past two weeks.
“We all understand as an offense what we have to do to clean those things up,” Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said. “We just have to eliminate the pre-snap penalties. I can help them with certain things and we’ll do that.”
Miller was on hand in Houston on Sunday night as the AFC Westleading Chiefs moved to 5-0 with a victory over the Texans. The standings alone are a motivator for the Broncos this week. They can ill afford to not take seriously a game they need to win to keep pace in their own division.
“Look at the games won and lost every week,” Miller said. “It doesn’t matter how stacked the other team is. The Buffalo Bills went into Atlanta and beat Atlanta. That’s the kind of league we’re in. That’s what makes it beautiful. You have to be desperate for a win each and every week.”