Sean Payton teams are prone to slow starts.
In his first two seasons with the Denver Broncos, Payton is 2-5 in September. As a head coach in the NFL, Payton is 29-28 coming into the 2025 regular season.
So it’s not a surprise the Broncos have been a bit of a mess to start the season. A clean and complete game today against the rival Los Angeles Chargers (2-0) would go a long way to reversing that trend.
“I think good,” Payton said to the Denver media on Friday after practice when asked how the week
went. “Look, we all look at as teachers: how we can clean some things up? The player with a clear head and knowing exactly what to do plays faster. Then our job is to make sure we don’t slow them down before the snap. So I thought we had a good week.”
One of the best ways to help get back on track is to play a clean game. That means no costly penalties, turnovers, drops, missed tackles, missed assignments, bad reads, and so on. The old mantra, do your job and execute.
“I think that’s important,” Payton said. “We have a good (officiating) crew this week. This is a crew that would be in the lower end compared to last week. We had a crew that was at the top end the last two, three years. This crew is heavy on the behavior fouls, but on the low end of overall penalties.”
Added special teams coordinator/assistant head Darren Rizzi: “From a coaching standpoint, the thing that disappointed me is the execution part — that’s on me. As a coach, any coach, if you go out, (and) we’re not lined up correctly, and we didn’t execute the call that was called. That’s what keeps you up at night as a coach.”
Winning on the road in the NFL is incredibly difficult. That goes up even more when it’s a divisional game and your opponent is off to a hot start and playing its first game at home.
The last thing Payton and the Broncos want to do is make matters more difficult for themselves. Start the path to playing a clean and complete game. Control the factors they can control, and Denver has a shot.
“You’re searching for that perfect game, and it’s an imperfect game,” Payton said to the media. “That Shangri-La that you’re always looking for, now you play some that are close, but it’s an imperfect game.”
