Good morning, Broncos Country.
The Denver Broncos sport a 2-1 record after the first three weeks. After tough loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football to start the season, the Broncos have reeled off back-to-back comeback victories. For their Week 4 gridiron matchup, they have another tough opponent in the undefeated San Francisco 49ers.
The 49ers fell short of their Super Bowl aspirations in 2025 losing to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Round. This season, their goal remains the same: securing another
Lombardi Trophy that has evaded them for over three decades. Their 2026 gridiron campaign is Kyle Shanahan’s tenth season leading their squad.
Over the years, Shanahan has proven to be one of the most innovative minds in the NFL. That’s no surprise, given everything he was able to learn from his father Mike Shanahan and growing up in the world of football. This weekend, the Broncos’ defense will need to perform at a high level to earn their third victory of the season.
Yesterday after practice, cornerback Patrick Surtain II talked about the versatility and star power of their offense.
“They have a good thing going. They’re off to a hot start offensively. I think they lead the league in third-down percentage. They throw a lot of stuff at you offensively. It starts with Christian McCaffrey in the backfield and what he is able to do not only in the run game, but in the pass game as well. He’s definitely a threat coming out of the backfield,” stated Surtain.
“Then you have George Kittle and Deebo Samuel Sr. and all of those guys making plays for them. They also have good perimeter players. It will be a good challenge on the horizon for us. It’s the same system that we’ve been facing these past two weeks, that same Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay system. We just have to be ready and understand how they will try to attack us,” added Surtain.
The 49ers are the league’s second highest scoring team in the NFL thus far. In addition to the players Surtain mentioned, quarterback Brock Purdy has had an impressive start to the year with nine touchdowns and just one interception. Purdy has done a great job dividing his targets around with optimal efficiency. There is no doubt he has been one of the best signal callers through three weeks.
McCaffrey and rookie running back Kaelon Black have been a strong duo. They’ve combined for nearly 300 yards on the ground and have an impressive 4.5 yard per carry average between the two of them. The Broncos have struggled to win the time of possession battle in their first trio of contests. On the road in San Francisco, finding a way to limit their ground game is an absolute must for victory.
What would be even better is more turnovers. So far, the Broncos’ defense has notched four. They are making good on their promise with respect to that. Two of those came last week courtesy of Talanoa Hufanga, who earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for his performance against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football.
Maybe, just maybe, the standout safety will find a way to cause some more havoc against his former team. That’d do wonders as Denver looks to earn their third win of the season on Sunday.
As always, thank you for reading. Here is today’s slate of articles for Horse Tracks.
