Denver opens season vs. Titans on “MNF”
For the third time in four years, the Broncos will open their season working the late shift on “Monday Night Football.”
The NFL released its full 2020 schedule on Thursday and the Broncos will host the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 14 at 8:10 p.m., to wrap up Week 1.
The potential of having the season delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic likely factored somewhat into the schedule. The Broncos open up against two AFC teams (vs. Tennessee and at Pittsburgh), but they don’t play a division game until Oct. 25 (Week 7 vs. Kansas City).
The opener: The Broncos shut out Tennessee last year, forcing Titans coach Mike Vrabel to bench quarterback Marcus Mariota at halftime in favor of Ryan Tannehill. The Titans would reach the AFC championship game, losing to Kansas City. The Broncos are 39-20-1 in season openers, tied with Dallas for the best winning percentage (.658). The Broncos have won eight of their last 10 openers and open at Mile High for the ninth time in 10 years.
Easiest stretch: If the Broncos can survive the first seven games, they have a Week 8 bye and then play three consecutive games against 2019 non-playoff teams (at Atlanta, at Las Vegas and vs. the L.A. Chargers). Easy? Hardly. But manageable.
Toughest stretch: The Broncos will be tested in the first month because of two short work weeks that include East Coast trips. They travel
With Brady out of the AFC, the cluster battling for the final three postseason spots figures to be as wide as the Rio Grande Gorge. The Titans (Week 1) and Steelers (Week 2) are at the head of the class.
Tiebreakers matter.
So does a decent start, at first blush. According to the wiseapples at Sharpfootballstats.com, the Broncos only have six matchups against teams projected by the oddsmakers to win seven games or fewer, and four of them — at the Jets, vs. Miami, at Atlanta, at Las Vegas — fall within Weeks 4-10. If you’re going to get fat, it’s there.
Conversely, the Broncos draw 10 tests against opponents projected to win eight games or more. And five of those games land within Weeks 11-17, including the Chargers twice, Buffalo at home, New Orleans at home, and a trip to Kansas City the first weekend of December.
Even the kinder tussles, on paper, come with caveats. The Panthers and the Chargers before their first meeting have byes in advance of the Broncos showing up. And the Chargers leading up to their second meeting will have an extra few days of rest and preparation, given a Thursday night game the week prior. Ditto the Falcons and the Chiefs before that first Kansas City scrum.
On the flip side, Fangio & Co. get a few extra days’ run-up for a visit to New England and whomever coach Bill Belichick has running the show by Week 5. Unless Belichick is twice the genius he thinks he is, the Pats are projected to be swimming in that vast seven-to-nine-win pond, too.
“We’re going to introduce the world to the Denver Broncos early,” Elway told the NFL Network. “We were slow last year … we’ve got to figure out a way to get off to a quick start.” No red-zone foibles. No correctable penalties. No forcing a young quarterback to have to try to make magic from behind the chains.
Given an extra postseason ticket, 10-6 should be enough. A 9-7 finish might do it, if it’s the right 9-7.
Then again, the Broncos are 14-22 since 2017 vs. the AFC, 7-11 vs. the AFC West. An 0-2 start, and you risk living through 2016 all over again.
The Chargers get the Bengals and Panthers in September. The Raiders draw the Panthers and Pats. If you’re flipping the switch in Week 5 this time around, brother, it’ll already be too late.