Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was as devastating as they come for the Denver Broncos, and certainly the tone in the locker room after the game summarized that. Despite the loss and the shock of it, there’s also an eagerness amongst the team to respond from it and that will be the biggest key for them this week.
Denver Broncos response after Chiefs’ loss will be biggest key
The mental fatigue of battling in a physical game the way the Denver Broncos did on Sunday and losing on the last second can be something that sucks the wind out of your sails or push you towards something better. While there are no moral victories in the NFL, the Broncos were a special teams mistake away from knocking off Patrick Mahomes and the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
Sure, there were plenty of missed opportunities that they didn’t capitalize on throughout the game, that’s the story with every game and every team around the league — but the Broncos are in a position to grow from this loss and their young nucleus and leadership can be key reasons why.
“It is why I think it is so critical in the beginning of the process to bring in the right kind of people that have that grit, fortitude and toughness,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said. “I have said this before, it is not for when you are winning, it is for when something like this takes place or there is a tough loss. We are going to have to bounce back from it. It was difficult.”
Players in the locker room echoed the same sentiments.
“If you’re hanging your head at this point in the season, I don’t think you belong in this league,” offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “We have an opportunity to go win a lot of football games with a lot of season left. That’s what we’re going to try and do.”
Denver has three games remaining before their bye week, and they have a shot at heading into the bye week at 8-5 if they can take care of business against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders, and a Monday Night Football showdown against the Cleveland Browns.
While players in the locker room were devastated at the outcome on Sunday, they are also eager to get back to work and get the nasty taste out of their mouths.
“Just gotta keep chopping wood, man,” Broncos defensive lineman Malcolm Roach said. “Games like this are supposed to hurt. We see the faces on everybody in this locker room, man. It’s supposed to hurt. Cause we’re so invested, man. Everybody comes and works their tail off every day, man. And we see it, man. And if you’re not invested in it, it wouldn’t feel this way. It wouldn’t feel this bad, man. But we know where we want to go. We know where we’re trying to go. We know what we’re fighting to do. At the end of the day, we gotta keep showing up and keep going to work, and man, we gotta give this city something to be proud of, man, and we gotta get the job done.”
The Denver Broncos will be back at it for practice on Wednesday as they prepare for Atlanta.
