How are Teddy Bridgewater and Vic Fangio preparing for pivotal matchup vs. KC?

The Denver Broncos will play their most important game in six years on Sunday, as they head to Kansas City to play the Chiefs, and to battle it out for the AFC West Crown.

Head coach Vic Fangio, and starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, know just how difficult a task beating the Chiefs, and their high-flying offense, is.

“It’s a difficult offense to defend by the design of it,” Fangio said on Wednesday. “It’s a spread-out offense. The guys running the offense are really, really fast. You have those ingredients and then put [Patrick] Mahomes in there. They run a similar offense that they ran when [former NFL QB] Alex Smith was there. Mahomes is Mahomes. That makes it a lot better.”

Fangio isn’t buying into the narrative that Kansas City’s star quarterback is slumping either.

“[His interceptions] came early (in the season),” Fangio said. “They haven’t happened recently. They got off to a slow start for them, and that’s when the bulk of his interceptions came. I’ve seen all their games, but obviously, [I’m] focusing more on the recent six to eight. They’re not showing up like they did before either. He was rare in that regard through his early career with a bunch of touchdowns and hardly any interceptions like Aaron Rodgers. He had the start to this season, which was out of character for him, but he’s back to normal.”

That sentiment of the Chiefs offense being remarkably deadly was echoed by Bridgewater, who reflected on what it was like to play Kansas City when he was with the Panthers.

“It was a game where you just had to score points,” the starting quarterback told the media on Wednesday. “Last year when I was in Carolina, we faced those guys. They didn’t punt until the fourth quarter. They had one punt that game. When you play a team like this, you have to get seven’s. You have to score seven. Three isn’t enough. That’s one of the things that stood out from last year.”

The Broncos have come close to toppling the Chiefs in recent years, but have yet to get over the hump. Fangio doesn’t cling to those close performances though, as he knows close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

“No,” Fangio retorted bluntly when asked if he’s had success against Mahomes in the past. “We’ve got to win the game.”