16 times the Denver Broncos and the Green Bay Packers have faced off, with eight of those the Broncos have won. The Broncos have won two of the last three games. Nine times has Green Bay traveled to Denver and they’ve only one once. The Broncos hold the upper hand in this matchup that dates back to September of 1971, including a victory in Super Bowl XXXII.
Both of these teams lead their respective divisions. Both of these teams have a young quarterback that are primed for good and long careers. Both of these teams boast
top-five defenses. But only one of these teams can leave Sunday with a win.
How can the Broncos once again take down the Packers?
1. Do what they did against the Raiders
The offense was chugging against the Raiders last Sunday, and they did this with a pretty vanilla offensive scheme. They didn’t do anything flashy, there wasn’t that token trick play by Payton, and they didn’t air the ball out much. They didn’t need to do any of these things. The run game was producing chunk yardage nearly once a drive and Bo Nix was simply taking what the defense gave him. They were efficient, converted third downs, and stayed ahead of the chains nearly the entirety of the game.
If Nix can put up the same performance, then that’ll be huge. It seems like the rushing attack, lead by RJ Harvey, is getting going again, and there’s been a lack of offensive penalties.
The only thing they don’t need to repeat is the two sacks they gave up. While Garett Bolles may have finally given up one, they need him to be air-tight when he squares off against Micah Parsons. But I have plenty of confidence that the two best pass-blocking offensive tackles in the league will execute at a high level.
2. Force turnovers
One way to stop a high-powered offense is to force mistakes. Big mistakes.
This Packers offense loves to hit these deep shots that keep their offense explosive and keeps the defense on their heels and always afraid of the next attack. If Jordan Love wants to air the rock out, then it’s up to this defensive secondary to make him pay. It’ll be a big game for Riley Moss as he’ll likely be targeted as much as he usually is, which is a lot. A pick for Moss would be massive.
And if the Packers want to try to get their mediocre rushing attack going, then the Broncos front seven has everything they need to stop Josh Jacobs in his tracks.
The defense has been a bit hit-or-miss since the bye week. This is a massive opportunity for Vance Joseph to get things churning again and put a hurting on Matt LaFleur’s team.
3. Hit Jordan Love
Another way to keep the Packers from hitting these deep shots is to keep the pressure up on Love and make him uncomfortable in the pocket.
For the most part, the only way the Commanders and the Raiders were able to get their offense going was to get the ball out as quick as possible. Marcus Mariota did a great job of that, and that’s a huge reason he looked as good as he did on that Sunday night. I’d expect Love and the Packers do keep this trend going. Love is going to have to do everything he can to hit his first or second read, because if he has to double clutch, then there’s a high chance that he’s going down.
We know the Denver secondary is going to hold up their end of the bargain. Right now the Green Bay offensive line is only giving up 1.4 sacks per game, which is the fourth-best rate in the league. This is a big test for guys like Nik Bonitto, Jonathan Cooper, and the rest of the gang. Can they get home on Sunday? They’ll need to.
