Denver has opened the season by played the Jags, NYG, and NYJ–three teams that have yet to win a game and, as a group, have lost nine contests. On top of that, the Broncos are riddled with injuries at wideout, corner, and the O-line. Denver will have a home crowd advantage, but the Ravens are 14-4 in their last 18 road games. I see a close game the visitors should win.
WHAT: Week Four at Denver Broncos
WHEN: 4:25 p.m. (ET); Sunday, October 3
WHERE: Empower Field At Mile High; Denver (76,125)
RECORDS: Ravens, 2-1; Broncos, 3-0
LIFETIME SERIES (regular season): Tied, 6-6; in Denver, the Ravens are 1-5, having lost on each of their last four trips to the Mile High City. But in postseason play, the Ravens have a win in their only January trip to Denver, taking a double-overtime Divisional round playoff victory, 38-35.
BALTIMORE TV/RADIO: WJZ-TV, Channel 13 (Andrew Catalon, James Lofton, booth; Amanda Balionis, sidelines); WIYY-FM, 97.9 (Gerry Sandusky, Obafemi Ayanbadejo, booth)
About the Broncos
—The Denver Broncos were born in a rather roundabout way. The owner of minor league baseball’s Denver Bears, Bob Howsam, expanded the team’s stadium to 34,000 seats in anticipation of a new Continental League baseball team. Still, that league folded before it started when Major League Baseball announced that it would place expansion franchises in two cities the Continental League had targeted, New York and Houston (Mets, Colt .45s, later changed to Astros). Faced with a mountain of debt, Howsam turned to football, as he and several other businessmen, dubbed the “Foolish Club,” founded the upstart American Football League in 1960; that league was assimilated into the newly-created AFC as part of the 1970 merger.
—The team is currently owned by the Pat Bowlen Trust, named after the Hall of Fame inductee and now-deceased longtime owner of the team. He ran it from 1984-2014 before stepping down due to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and eventually passing away at the age of 75. Joe Ellis is the franchise’s president and chief operating officer.
—The Broncos were extremely unsuccessful during the AFL era, never posting a winning record and winning as many as seven games just once in ten years. They only won five or more on three occasions. In fact, the team posted the worst record of any team in that league, recording a 39-97-4 mark – being the only original AFL team to have never played in that league’s championship game – before being placed in the AFC West Division after the merger, where they have remained ever since.
—In a 1967 preseason game against Detroit, Denver became the first AFL team to defeat an NFL team head-to-head. The Broncos could also boast the first receiver ever to have a 100-catch season (Lionel Taylor) and the first modern-day African-American starting quarterback (Marlon Briscoe).
—In their 61-year history, the Broncos have a total of 22 playoff appearances, tied with the Las Vegas Raiders for 11th-most in league history and only nine more than Baltimore, a team playing in only its 26th year. Denver’s total includes seven wild-card berths and 15 division titles, including five in a row between 2011-2015. However, Denver has not made the playoffs since then. The Broncos are 8-2 in AFC Championship Games – the conference’s second-best win percentage behind Cincinnati (2-0, 1.000) – and have appeared in eight Super Bowls (3-5), tied with Pittsburgh and Dallas for second-most behind New England (11).
—The Broncos’ five Super Bowl losses are tied with New England for the most, but Denver has won in three of its last four Super Bowl appearances after losing its first four. Denver was victorious in Super Bowls 32 (vs. Green Bay), 33 (vs. Atlanta), and 50 (vs. Carolina), while losing Super Bowls 12 (Dallas), 21 (New York Giants), 22 (Washington), 24 (San Francisco) and 48 (Seattle).
—Empower Field at Mile High, the home of the Broncos, opened in 2001 and features a Kentucky bluegrass playing surface. Ground was broken for the stadium in 1999, and it cost $400 million to build (a $30 million renovation took place in 2013). It hosted the final session of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. It has had as tenants the Broncos and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer and served as the host to numerous college football games and concerts.
—The Broncos won five of six-lifetime meetings with the Baltimore Colts before that franchise moved to Indianapolis. When Denver beat the Ravens in December 2012, it marked the franchise’s first win in Charm City since Week Two of 1983, when the Memorial Stadium crowd famously jeered rookie quarterback John Elway for spurning the Colts, the team that had drafted him. To the delight of the fans, Elway left that game with an injury, but backup quarterback Steve DeBerg rallied Denver to victory.
—Denver is one of three teams with which the Ravens are tied in the lifetime head-to-head regular-season series, the others being Minnesota (3-3) and Seattle (3-3). The Broncos had won three straight games against the Ravens – including a December 2012 game in Charm City before the slumping Ravens regrouped and made a Super Bowl run, which included a double-overtime win in Denver – before Baltimore won a home game against them in 2018.
—In the Ravens’ 1996 debut season, at the old Mile High Stadium, Broncos eventual Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis ran for 194 yards against a banged-up Baltimore defense. A single-game Ravens opponent rushing record stood until Tennessee’s Derrick Henry ran for 195 yards in a 2019 Divisional round playoff game at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.
—When the Ravens met the Broncos for only the second time, in 2001 in Denver’s current stadium, Baltimore took a 20-13 win to notch the first win by a visitor in the new building. Denver is one of five current facilities where the Ravens were the first visitors to win, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland; Nissan Coliseum in Nashville and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
—The Broncos, one of two remaining, surprising unbeaten AFC teams along with the Las Vegas Raiders, began the 2021 season with two straight road games against Jacksonville and the New York Giants before returning for the home opener against the New York Jets. Denver won all three games against those teams, which are a combined 0-9 through three weeks. The Broncos are currently in a stretch that will see them play three home games in four weeks, with only next week’s trip to Pittsburgh in between. As for the rest of Denver’s games against the AFC North, the Broncos will play host to Baltimore this Sunday, travel to Cleveland for a Thursday-night game on October 21, and host Cincinnati on December 19.
—Partially because the Broncos have played three outclassed opponents, they have one of the league’s best point differentials at plus-50 (76-26). They have allowed only seven points in each of the first two quarters while shutting out opponents in the third. Denver has allowed only four touchdowns in three games while forcing opponents into 113 pass plays (including sacks allowed) and 49 rushes. For its part, Denver has run the ball 95 times and passed it on 102 occasions (including sacks allowed). The Broncos have also gained eight first downs via opponents’ penalties.
—Through Week Three, Denver ranks 14th in total offense (tied for seventh rushing, 12th passing, 12th scoring at 25.3 points per game). The Broncos’ time-of-possession average of 36:36 is leading the NFL. But the team’s third-down conversion rate is the league’s ninth-worst, and its touchdown red-zone percentage is tied for seventh-worst.
—Defensively, the Broncos are second overall (second vs. rush, third vs. pass, first scoring by allowing 8.7 points per game). Denver is one of only two teams allowing fewer than 12 points per game (Carolina). Denver has a third-down defense ranking in the middle of the league pack, but its red-zone defense is tied for eighth-best.
—The Broncos have played to a plus-3 turnover ratio, tied with four other teams for the third-best in the league. That’s mainly due to the fact that the team has picked off four passes on defense, tied for second-most, and is one of five teams leaguewide that has not thrown an interception on offense. Denver has committed 21 penalties in three games, tied for fifth-most in the league; the total is only two more than Baltimore has. Denver has not been called for delay of game, offensive pass interference, or defensive holding, but it has drawn five false starts and three defensive pass interference flags.
—Longtime NFL coaching veteran Vic Fangio, 63, a noted defensive expert, was named Denver’s 17th head coach in franchise history in 2019, supplanting the short, disastrous two-year reign of Vance Joseph. Fangio is in his third season, but no Denver coach has lasted more than four seasons since Mike Shanahan led the team from 1995-2008. In his 34th season coaching in the league (42 years overall), Fangio is currently 15-20 at the helm. He has spent most of his career as a defensive position coach, defensive coordinator, and consultant; among his stops were the USFL’s Baltimore Stars (1984) and the Ravens (2006-09). Noteworthy assistants on Fangio’s staff include tight ends coach Wade Harman, who held the same position in Baltimore between 1999-2013; outside linebackers coach John Pagano, brother of former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano; and quarterbacks coach and Baltimore native Mike Shula, son of Hall of Fame Baltimore Colts and Miami head coach Don Shula.
—Sunday’s game will feature a battle of Louisville quarterbacks, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, and Denver’s Teddy Bridgewater, the team’s 2014 first-round pick who was selected 32nd, as Jackson was in 2018. Bridgewater missed the entire 2016 season due to a devastating leg injury, and he is on his fourth NFL team (Minnesota, New Orleans, Carolina, Denver). Bridgewater was named to the Pro Bowl in 2015, just before his injury. He has completed 76.8 percent of his passes this year with four scores and none picked off. Bridgewater has been sacked seven times and has played to a 116.4 rating. Bridgewater has never faced the Ravens, one of six clubs he has not played.
—Denver’s running game is paced by former San Diego Charger starter Melvin Gordon, part of an impressive stable of Wisconsin backs that have made an NFL impact. Gordon was San Diego’s 2015 first-round pick (15th overall), and he currently has a team-high 193 yards rushing, eighth in the league, with two touchdowns and a 4.6-yard-per-carry average. Backup Javonte Williams, a rookie second-round pick (35th overall) from North Carolina, has 138 yards, one score, and five receptions. Williams has 177 total yards from scrimmage, second-most among rookies. Four-year veteran Mike Boone could return from injury this week to see his first action of 2021.
—The Broncos’ wideout corps has incurred a pair of costly injuries to a pair of 2020 draft picks, first-rounder Jerry Jeudy (high ankle sprain) and No. 2 pick KJ Hamler (torn knee ligament, out for the year). Courtland Sutton, the team’s 2018 second-round pick (40th overall), currently leads the team in catches with 15, second-most in the league through two weeks, for a 14-yard average. On the other side is former Ravens camp body Tim Patrick, who has a dozen catches and two scores with a 14.5-yard rate. Diontae Spencer, who has just one catch all year, is listed as next up in the slot. Gordon has six catches out of the backfield.
—The Ravens have had to face solid tight ends in the season’s first few weeks, and Denver’s is no exception. The starting tight end is 6-foot-4, 249-pound Noah Fant, an Iowa product, as are other notable NFL tight ends such as George Kittle (San Francisco) and TJ Hockenson (Detroit). Fant has 12 catches and one touchdown. Fant is backed up by Albert Okwuegbunam, a 2020 fourth-round pick from Missouri who is even bigger, at 6’5” and 258 pounds.
—A Broncos offensive line that has done a good job pacing the team’s league-best time-of-possession figure suffered two big hits last week against the Jets, as starting guards Dalton Risner (foot) and Graham Glasgow (knee) were both injured. Replacing them will be Netane Muti, a 2020 sixth-round pick from Fresno State, and Quinn Meinerz, a rookie third-rounder from Wisconsin-Whitewater. Garret Bolles, a 2017 first-rounder from Utah (20th overall), is the left tackle, and ten-year veteran Bobby Massie, drafted in 2012 by Arizona in the fourth round, handles the right side. The center is Lloyd Cushenberry III, a second-year player, taken in the third round from LSU.
—Nose tackle Mike Purcell handles the middle of the Denver 3-4 defensive line; he is an undrafted six-year veteran out of Wyoming who has four tackles. Shelby Harris and Dre’Mont Jones play on either side of Purcell. Harris is quite the success story, drafted in the seventh and final round (235th overall) in 2014 by the then-Oakland Raiders. Harris has nine tackles, a sack, and two quarterback hits so far. As for Jones, he is a third-year player taken 71st overall out of Ohio State with two tackles for losses and one quarterback hit.
—Eleven-year NFL veteran outside linebacker Von Miller, the second overall pick in 2011, is blazing a Hall of Fame path. He has 110 career sacks (four of the team’s eight this year), seven double-digit sack seasons, Super Bowl 50 Most Valuable Player honors, eight Pro Bowls, three All-Pro selections, Defensive Rookie of the Year, and a berth on the Hall of Fame’s Team of the 2010s. He has six tackles for losses, and six quarterback hits so far this year. In three career games against the Ravens (two wins), Miller has six tackles, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, and no sacks.
—Miller used to form quite the pass-rush tandem with Bradley Chubb, the fifth overall pick in 2018. But Chubb is recovering from ankle surgery and has been replaced by Malik Reed, an undrafted third-year player from Nevada. Alexander “AJ” Johnson (team-high 12 tackles, two sacks, two pass breakups) and Justin Strnad (ten tackles) play the inside spots; Josey Jewell has a torn pectoral muscle and is out for the season.
—Like a few other position units on the team, Denver’s secondary has also been hit with the injury bug. Seven-year veteran and former Buffalo starter Ronald Darby incurred a hamstring injury in the season opener and has not yet returned. Reserve Michael Ojemudia, it has already been announced, will not practice this week. Veteran Kyle Fuller, a Baltimore native and Chicago’s 2014 first-round pick (14th overall), and rookie Patrick Surtain II (ninth overall) are the starting tandem for now, with Bryce Callahan in the slot. Fuller is second on the team with 11 tackles and two pass breakups, while Surtain has nine stops, two breakups, and an interception. Callahan has broken up three passes.
—Strong safety Kareem Jackson is a 2010 first-round pick of the Houston Texans and has been one of the league’s steadiest and most reliable at his position. Free safety Justin Simmons has been a Bronco since the 2016 draft when Denver selected him in the third round (98th overall). Jackson has ten tackles, tied for third-most on the team, while Simmons has recorded nine stops and one of the team’s four interceptions.
—Punter Sam Martin has been around the NFL for quite a while; he was a 2013 fifth-round pick of the Detroit Lions. Martin has placed five of his nine punts this year inside the coffin corner with no touchbacks. Thanks to good coverage, he is grossing 42.2 yards per punt and netting 41.8.
–-Eighth-year veteran kicker Brandon McManus is bigger than most at his position (6’3”, 201). He has converted all seven points-after touchdown so far this year and is 9-for-9 on field goals. McManus has not attempted a field goal 50 or more yards in length in 2021, but with the Broncos home in the thin mountain air for most of the next part of the schedule, that could certainly change.
—Backup receiver Diontae Spencer is the Broncos’ main return specialist, but he has not returned a kickoff through three games. He has run back only six punts with four fair catches and an 11.5-yard average, and he has no punt return longer than 25 yards. As for the coverage teams, McManus’ shallow kickoffs have hurt the Broncos, who have allowed a whopping league-worst 41-yard average on five returns, including a 102-yard touchdown. Conversely, the punt coverage team ranks as the best, allowing just two yards on two runbacks.
Prediction
These two teams have met 12 times in lifetime regular-season play and are tied, 6-6. On Sunday, who will break the tie? Some are saying it will be the home-standing Broncos, and I’m not so sure about that. To date, Denver has played Jacksonville, the New York Giants, and New York Jets – three teams that have yet to win a game and, as a group, have lost nine contests. On top of that, the Broncos are riddled with injuries at wideout, corner, and the offensive line. Yes, Denver will have a good home crowd on its side, but the Ravens have won 14 of their last 18 road games. And if Baltimore needs another Justin Tucker field goal…. Seventy yards, anyone?
Baltimore 27, Denver 23
