Denver Broncos It might be one of the easiest games of the 2024 schedule. After you have mastered it completely New Orleans Saints Denver will host the league, which is now in decline, as Sean Payton returns home with a 33-10 away win. Carolina Panthers.

With Denver getting a “mini farewell” after playing Thursday Night Football Last week the Broncos will likely be as healthy and rested as they are the rest of the year.

The Broncos have gone from being the bottom-seeded team in the NFL and now sit at the table of “not championship caliber but might be feisty if they make the playoffs” type of teams. With a great defense, a strong kicking game, and an improving running game, Denver has an identity that tends to play well as the season progresses and the weather gets worse.

Thanks to the vision and internal culture established by Payton, a successful long-time head coach, Denver finally feels like it has positive momentum as a team on the rise.

On Sunday, the excitement on the other side is very different. The Panthers came into Denver with a 9.5-point loss and were facing a 40-7 road defeat. Washington Commanders and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota.

As if the Panthers weren’t already dealing with enough challenges, starting quarterback Andy Dalton was also in the game. He was in a minor car accident with his family this week. Luckily, everyone survived the crash, but Dalton suffered a sprained thumb on his throwing hand. The Panthers will now turn back to Bryce Young, who was benched at No. 1 overall, who played incredibly poor football to start the season before being benched before Week 3.

This Panthers team is extremely untalented and is at the bottom of the league by most metrics. According to the advanced metric DVOA, Carolina is currently the worst team in football; in the bottom five on offense and in the bottom two on defense. The Broncos could help push the Panthers towards their destiny of being the No. 1 overall pick in 2025 once again. They are in such a bad situation.

How can the Broncos lose to the Panthers this week? The first and obvious answer is turnovers.

Bo Nix and the Broncos have done a better job, more or less, of protecting the football. Nix has yet to fumble at football, making one interception and one turnover-worthy pass (the dreaded drop by Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu) in his last four starts.

The Broncos have had some trouble hanging on to the football over the past two weeks due to tackles by Javonte Williams and Audric Estime, but offensively, even as they continue to outscore a bottom-10 unit that has struggled to throw the football consistently, their drives have been converted by kicks (extra points, field goals or punts), they should be in very good position not only to win on Sunday, but to win convincingly.

Are there any other areas Broncos Country needs to worry about on Sunday? They’ve been a pretty terrible Panthers football team this season, but if there’s one area where they’re average or better, it’s the combination of their offensive line and running game.

The Panthers will come to Denver as the 14th-ranked EPA/Rush team in the NFL and the ninth-ranked offensive success team in the NFL. The Panthers struggle to pass the ball and do not have the advantage of a quarterback with offensive talent. On top of that, they have a terrible defense that puts the offense in a hole early and often, so the opportunity to step up the football isn’t always available to the Panthers.

Still, the Panthers have a path to offensive competence by turning the ball over to Hubbard behind this offensive line. Hubbard has 537 rushing yards on the year and 5.2 yards per carry. He has driven the ball down the field twice this season and hasn’t had much of an impact in the passing game, but overall the Panthers’ running game has been the only bright spot on this team.

The Broncos’ defense has been extremely good this season; It ranked second in EPA/Play, fourth in success rate, and third in DVOA. But if this defense has a relative weakness, it would be its run defense.

Denver is still pretty strong against the run, ranking 10th in EPA/Rush while being league average (15th) in offensive success rate. In parallel, the Broncos rank second in EPA/Passing defense and third in defensive pass success rate.

The Broncos should win next Sunday as long as they protect the football and trust the formula they developed over the previous seven weeks. But to remove any doubt about victory, Denver must come up with a plan to eliminate the Panthers’ rushing attack and allow Young to beat them.

The Broncos would stymie the run on early downs, forcing Carolina into obvious passing situations. This could lead to him becoming the No. 1 defense by the end of the week in many key metrics.

Stopping the run this week could be used as a fine-tuning play for arguably the toughest two-game stretch any team will face this season as Denver heads to Baltimore and then Kansas City.

Both Baltimore and Kansas City rank in the top five in key offensive metrics; so how Denver can stop this run will be critical to maintaining playoff momentum this season.

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