It's time to talk that talk, and we talk it like no one else. This is the stinking truth. Now, here's your host, Mark Schler. Hey, welcome to the Seek Truth Podcast alongside Mike Evans. I am Mark Schler. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. I'm live from Tampa Bay where I'm celebrating my granddaughter's 10th birthday. So please bear with us as we come to you from two different parts of the country. Mike, how are you, buddy? I'm doing great. And I'll tell you what, all offseason we heard from the Broncos and Sean Payton saying, listen, maybe we got to avoid playing in so many close one score games. The idea that we're going to be able to replicate the same kind of success that we had a year ago, the odds may not work in our favor. But hey, the winning formula was on display again.
Right. Kind of sleepwalk a little bit. Kind of shoot yourselves in the foot offensively. Defense keeps you in the game. Bo Nix gets hot in the fourth quarter and the Broncos rally and win a one score game. Rinse and repeat, man. Same thing we saw last year. Why can't it work this year? Yeah. You know what? If it's not broke, don't fix it. And you would love to see them come out in the first drive and put a great drive together and have great success and everything clicking. You know, your first 15 just works like a charm. That apparently is not the Denver Broncos. Listen, you play. It's the NFL. You're going to play so many one score games. It's just the way it works in the NFL.
They happen to be really good at it. They happen to be really good at figuring it out over the course of a game and executing late in games and coming back from a deficit and finding a way to win, and they did it again in this particular game. You know, I love the way they started this thing out because, you know, yours truly put a moratorium on them last week on the wide zone. I was like, no, we're not – don't understand it. We're not going to run it anymore. They come out, and we talked about shotgun and their reliance on shotgun last week. And we talked about the gun runs and the things that I didn't like last week. They came out in heavy personnel, and they ran duo to the left and duo to the right the first two plays. And, listen, they were executed pretty well up front, Mike. I thought that J.K. Dobbins wasn't very good in either of those particular plays.
But I love the fact that they got back to what they did pretty well in the preseason. Let's get physical. Let's get big. Let's condense formations. And let's work from that platform. Let's start off with that platform. And I thought that was a much better approach by the Denver Broncos in game two. And I thought it paid dividends at the end of the game with Jonah Coleman and them running the four-minute offense with...
you know, whatever, half the fourth quarter left, you know, just getting into it and saying, let's put the kibosh to this thing. Let's end this game controlling the tempo, controlling the line of scrimmage, and controlling the game with the run game. And I think that was set up early by, you know, relying on heavy formations and trying to beat people up a little bit. Yeah, here's the thing that was maybe different about the Broncos' offense than last year. They moved the ball. They put up almost 400 yards of offense throughout the course of the game. So this wasn't a case of them just...
absolutely being stagnant for the first half or first three quarters of the game. But you had those two drives. One, they get the long pass to Jalen Waddell down to the one-yard line, and then it was the much-discussed sequence there where it was first and goal at the one they ended up having to settle for the field goal. And then the other time they got in the first and goal, Bo ends up throwing the interception in the corner of the end zone. So a case where, hey, they move the football. They put themselves in position. They just couldn't execute or slash shot themselves in the foot. Instead of coming away with maybe 14 points, 10 to 14 points, they come away with just three, and it becomes a much different football game.
Yeah, I think when you look at those two scenarios you talked about, you're down there on the goal line. I love the approach by Davis Webb. Like, all right, we're down there first and goal the one. We're going to pound this thing in. And they run the ball, and it was well blocked, except the right tackle didn't get his job done. And he let a guy cross his face. And there's always a situation on the goal line. They're always going to have more defenders than you have blockers.
So we used to say it with the running backs. It's BYOB, man. You're in charge of the one linebacker we can't get or the safety that we can't get. And what you have to understand is when you're on the one-yard line, the safeties or whatever, their heels are at four yards. I mean, it's just a bunch of linebackers back there, right? So there's always going to be a guy that you can't account for, and that's the running back's job to break that tackle. But when all of a sudden a defensive lineman slips the block of an offensive lineman and he lands on that running back at the same time, a 230-pound linebacker hits him, and then a 320-pound defensive lineman hits him, and they hit it at the same time right at the one, well, that running back is going to fail. So that happened on the first play and the second play. McGlinchey again.
He gets cut off. He can't get through. And his guy ends up going across the formation and making the tackle or making a hit in the backfield as well. And then the third down play would have been, in my estimation, a walk-in touchdown based upon what they were doing. But there was a center quarterback exchange issue. Remember, your quarterback didn't play in the preseason except one series. And he was playing with a backup center because your center missed the entirety of the preseason. And so there's this exchange issue. And those exchange issues are always accentuated on the goal line because all people are doing is trying to blow you up.
So they're right there on the line of scrimmage, but then your helmets are four inches apart, and they're just trying to root through and create a new line of scrimmage. So then the whole snap thing gets completely discombobulated, and then the pitch, and it's supposed to be this downhill inside pitch, it gets widened out, and the whole thing was an absolute disaster. And so that happened, and then you talk about the interception throne. I mean, you're in zero coverage, man-to-man. And I'm sure in practice all week, they ran that, and they hit the corner route to Cortland Sutton, who's on the inside receiver, as the number three inside guy. And the guy that was over number two, the guy that was over Waddle, just sloughs off his coverage guy and goes to the corner like he just guessed. And Bo Nix threw it anyway. And he throws it to Jalen Waddle. It's a walk-in touchdown. But he just decided, he predetermined, on that snap, I'm throwing it to Cortland Sutton, my red zone target, without actually reading the defense. And so that one was one of those mistakes that you just look at, and you kind of shake your head and go, young quarterback.
made a stupid decision, predetermined where he was going with the football, and read it right, read that he had zero coverage, man-to-man across the board, but didn't read, you know, the underneath defender, didn't read his movement key, which was, you know, who's holding the curl flat? Like, that's the guy you're reading, and that guy went off and ran to the pylon and intercepted the football. So, in both cases, down there by the goal line, you like the play calling, you like the idea, you like the design, you like the philosophy, it just, it wasn't executed. properly by the players so after a week in which the davis webb caught a lot of heat justifiably after the the kansas city game at least in those two situations you felt like the the play calling the game plan was sound yes davis webb did a fine job in week two and the thing i loved about what he did and i was as you know i was incredibly critical um most popular podcast we've ever done because i was dropping f-bombs every like i was just yeah we got a little awkward but um davis webb came back out saw the error of his ways and um and put a good game plan together and now you look at it and you know
Here's what I'll put on the Broncos now, okay? I'll put a moratorium on you being the best offensive line in football because I hear that everywhere, right? Oh, they graded out and they're the best O-line in football. Well, if you're the best O-line in football, get your shit together on the goal line and hold a block. Block a dude, right? Don't get shucked off your block. I mean, if you're responsible for a dude one-on-one, you've got to tie that dude up and give your back an opportunity to get in the end zone. So those things have got to be better.
Those things have got to be rectified. So if I'm going to point the finger at Davis Webb and the coaching staff and Sean Payton for what I thought was a horrible game plan in week one, I'm going to look at them and say, praise you guys. You guys did a great job. Now your players have got to go out there and execute. I'll tell you the other thing about the preseason, Mike. And we talk about this all the time. Not playing in preseason. We are so inside our fears. Like we are so, oh man, we got our panties in a wad for sure about players getting hurt. Oh, we can't risk a player in the preseason. We can't. Oh, you know what? Wattenberg did not look good. Well, guess what?
That guy was injured, and that guy didn't play in the preseason. Bo Nix is still making rookie mistakes. Well, guess what? That guy needed reps in the preseason that he didn't get in preseason games, and J.K. Dobbins sat out the whole preseason and has now hurt again. And J.K. Dobbins left yardage. I mean, he left a lot of meat on the bone. Those first two runs, I told you, duo left, duo right. Those first two runs were blocked well enough. He should have had four or five yards on each one of them, and he came away with one or two yards. And that was him almost being too patient, not just getting in there. So, you know, it does matter. You've got to play.
Like, this is a game that you have to actually take the reps. You have to play. And I know how we are now in the league, and we're so afraid. But it certainly showed week one with the defense not being able to tackle, Mike. So, you know, this week was a much better week because Jacksonville, I'm here to tell you, is a damn good football team. And they're a big physical football team. And the Broncos played, you know, a great second half. Let's call it a great second half.
Yeah, let's give it up to that defense. Against the Chiefs, they had 24 missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus. That number dropped dramatically down to just seven against Jacksonville. And you saw big plays by the defense in the second half. How about Riley Moss? The much maligned, beleaguered at times, Riley Moss, who I think is a really good corner. Pay the man. But he came up with a...
Maybe the play of the game, that interception, that changed the momentum of the game? Yeah, great job sloughing off. You know, great job. He's rolled up. He's kind of, quote-unquote, in a cover two. And he basically, you know, lets the flat defender just kind of hang out there in the flat and gains ground. It was a horrible throw by Trevor Lawrence. But it was a great read by Riley Moss. And one thing about Riley Moss, like, hey, you're going to occasionally get, you know, he's going to get handsy. You know, he's going to get a penalty or two. It's going to happen. He missed tackles in the first game and really had a poor game, game number one. But with that said, Riley Moss, because he's opposite of Pat Sertan, who is a phenomenal football player.
Dude, that dude's going to get action. He's going to wear the hat all the time. And that dude is all balls because he's not afraid. Like, man, I know they're coming after me. Every week, they're coming after me. And you know what? Every week, he seems to make plays. And so I'm going to give him a ton of credit for his playmaking ability. And you're right. That interception really changed the momentum, changed the trajectory of that game. And you can put that on Riley Moss. And so that dude, and I'm with you 100%. That dude, I mean, I know we're always looking to replace guys. And we look at everybody in Broncos country is like, well, he's handsy. And he had some penalties last year.
This dude is a damn good player. And I think sooner than later, don't be surprised when all of a sudden the Broncos announced that they signed Riley Moss to a new contract. I think it'd be a great deal. I think it'd be a smart, smart move. The offense did finally get going. They started to put points up. And we saw the impact of Jalen Waddell all over the place, not only when he was making catches, but also when he was just out there moving around, lined up in different positions. You see how the defense would have to react to him, opening up things for somebody else. We're all wondering what the Jalen Waddell impact would look like. We saw it in spades in game two.
Yeah, for all the people out there who said, oh, you gave up too much, a first-rounder and a third-rounder. No, you didn't. You gave up a third-rounder for Jalen Waddle. You swapped your first-round pick, 30th overall, for Jalen Waddle, a guy who has been a multiple-thousand-yard receiver, came in as a rookie and had over 1,000 yards receiving, has been an exceptional, an exceptional player. And you saw Jalen Waddle dominate at his best. And by the way, there's two plays that I'm thinking about. The first big run by J.K. Dobbins, it was a...
14, what they call, excuse me, 15, to the left-hand side, 15 sift. So they were in strong left, which was a tight end on the left-hand side, then a fullback, like up toward the line of scrimmage, and then a back dotted out of under center. Well, you know who the fullback was lined up on that play? It was Jalen Waddle. He was playing fullback. That's what the position he was in. So they hand the ball off. J.K. Dobbins heads toward the left guard, right? And Waddle cuts across the formation.
And so he's sliding. And normally, when the fullback is there, he's kicking out the end-man line of scrimmage. Well, Jalen Waddle just runs by him. And that dude just stops. And the backer on that side stops. And the safety on that side stops. They're like, oh, shoot, here comes Jalen Waddle out in the flat, right? And they all start pulling to Jalen Waddle in the flat. And here comes the cutback. J.K. Dobbs, shoot, and gets about 12 yards on that play. And I'm like, brilliant design.
And the effect that Jalen Waddell has with his speed, all of a sudden you think he's going to get something out on the flat, and he's going to be gone, maybe it's a bubble screen, whatever, and he's got the ability to take it to the house. And you get a 12-yard run because of the effect of Jalen Waddell on that. And then in four-minute offense, Mike, when they need it, they motion Jalen Waddell across to a two-by-two formation, across a formation. And they motion him outside of Cortland Sutton, man, and he runs this out and up, like a little stutter almost, right? And I'm telling you what, the corner's playing. What was the corner playing? He was playing male.
He was playing the sticks. Yeah, he was playing the sticks, Mike. Good job. So he's playing the sticks, right? He's going first down. He jumps that stutter move, and boom, Waddle just takes off for about a 30-yard gain that essentially sealed the victory. And, again, that was out of a timeout with the coaching staff with Sean Payton and Bo Nix and Davis Webb there. Man, that takes balls. That's a gutsy, gutsy call on a third down and three to throw it that far past the sticks to say, hey, we're going to be good enough to run a double move. And, oh, by the way, Bo is also moving outside the pocket on that one.
Everything was picture perfect in the way they executed it and the way they called that and the way they designed that. So, again, tip of the cap. If I'm going to be critical of them week one for the game planning that went on against the Kansas City Chiefs, I have to be on, you know, I've got to be on the up and up and praise them for the game planning, some of the design they had in week two. I love the way they finish the game. They get the ball with 441 left. And you're great teams.
that won the back-to-back Super Bowls, man, you would get the ball back with four minutes, five minutes, six minutes left in the game. And man, you just shut it down. You just ran that clock out and you ended up taking a knee victory formation. I mean, it was a work of art how you guys would run those four, five, six minute drills to close the game. Broncos haven't really done that over the last couple of years, but they did it to perfection. The big third down play was the big one in there, but they were running the ball as well with Jonah Coleman. And I'm curious, what did you see in Jonah Coleman who got thrown into this position with the injuries to RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins?
And looked really good. Yeah. I saw a professional football player, man. Jonah's a professional, man. And I was excited. I was excited for him. I was excited for what he showed. And I was really excited. Like, one, he's short of stature. You know, the guy's 5'8", 220. I mean, he's built like Mo Jones drew. And he showed great patience. One of the things I saw on Sunday Night Football between Kansas City and Indianapolis was two great backs. I mean, two great backs who really are so patient.
setting up their blocks on the second level, just gliding almost in the backfield, getting the line of scrimmage, and then setting somebody up and then exploding and then finishing. Or you block it for two or three and they're getting you five or six and doing that over and over and over again and how they wear somebody out. And here's a rookie coming in there because he's the last line of defense, so to speak. He's the last one in. And he is executing that to perfection, setting up that second level block, being patient, allowing his offensive line to get in to their guys and then...
and then reading it and bouncing off of it. And I thought he was physical. I thought he was sharp. I thought he read the blocks well. And he gave them a chance to keep moving the chains. And then he breaks one down the sideline and has the wherewithal as a rookie just to hit the slide like a baseball player sliding in the second and effectively ending that game. So really excellent job by Jonah Coleman. And he looks like a kid that's going to have a bright future. And I don't know how long J.K. Dobbins is going to be out, but I'm not in any hurry for J.K. to be back because I want to see what Jonah Coleman can do.
Well, that was going to be my question. Assuming all three guys are healthy Sunday night and the Broncos came out after the fact and said that J.K. Dobbins, it wasn't a hamstring as much as it was a cramp. Okay. But let's say all three are healthy and ready to go Sunday night. R.J. Harvey as well. How, if at all, do things change when it comes to the workload and how it's dispersed? Yeah, I think that ultimately if J.K. Dobbins is healthy, he's going to get the first crack.
But I think you're going to be more willing to say, hey, man, we're going to put you on a more rotational basis. I still think R.J. Harvey is their third down back, is the guy that's going to catch the ball out of the backfield. So he's going to get his touches, but they're going to come mostly in the passing game. He'll have a few runs in there as well. But I do think there's going to be a little bit more of a division of labor between Jonah Coleman and J.K. Dobbins. It's not just going to be, hey, man, cleanup duty, you're going to get two or three reps. I think he's going to get a little bit more action than that based on the way he performed, not only the preseason, but the way he performed in Week 2 because I thought he was really good. I thought he was a difference maker.
Well, big win for the Broncos. For a time there when they were down 13-6, it didn't feel good. And you're thinking, oh boy, 0-2 with the schedule that they have coming up. But you get the win. You're 1-1. Suddenly, everything just seems...
a lot easier moving forward than it could have been. No question about it. And it's a great thing, man. It's a great thing to be sitting at one-on-one with the schedule they've got coming up Sunday night against the Rams. That should be a great one. Hopefully, Sean McVay decides to fly in the night of the game and paratrooper style, just parachute down into the stadium right before kickoff. Because what you don't want to do is spend a lot of time here in Denver with all the altitude. So just treat it like Australia. Don't get here too early. Don't try to get yourself used to the climate.
any of that stuff. Just come in, parachute in, play the game, and then hellevec out. You know, just get in and right out after the game, after you lose. So that's what we're hoping for. Sounds good to me. Yeah. Hey, for everybody involved in Stink True Podcast, we appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. Thank you to all of you that continue to pour in this show. We've just had record numbers, and we continue to grow. So thank you so much. Make sure you subscribe, share with your family and your friends, and we will be back with you later on the week for our big-time Odyssey podcast show as well. So make sure you stay tuned right here on the Stink True Podcast.