All year, the Broncos have been living up to one question: Will they go out “kicking and screaming”?
That’s what John Elway called for last offseason, and that’s why John Fox, his staff and a chunk of last year’s roster are no longer residing in the great state of Colorado.
After three 14-point comebacks against playoff-bound teams, the Broncos seem to have heard the message, and Elway agrees. On Tuesday, the Broncos legend talked with former Bronco Alfred Williams and Mile High Sports Magazine columnist D-Mac of 104.3 The Fan’s The Drive, calling this Broncos team “battle tested.”
“I think we’ve got a team that’s full of competitors, and competitors want to win football games,” Elway said. “Sometimes it’s not the prettiest looking, but we figure out ways to win, and that’s what we’ve been able to do this year. We haven’t necessarily played great for 60 minutes, but we’ve played hard for 60 minutes.”
He continued: “The thing we’re I’m really encouraged is that we’ve been battle tested, especially the last two weeks. You look at the games we’ve been through, and how we continue to battle through those. Two weeks ago we could have been out of the playoffs, and then we get out of the game Sunday against San Diego and we’re the No. 1 seed.”
And it’s easy to see how Elway would feel confident about the Broncos’ close wins, despite the fact that he said they caused him to “age as much as he aged in the previous years in this role.”
The Broncos have blown through the regular season before, notching blowout win after blowout win, and it hasn’t earned them anything; when faced with adversity, they folded. Now that they’ve been “battle tested,” any adversity they face in the postseason will be nothing new.
Elway also discussed the decision to go back to Peyton Manning during the second half of last week’s game, saying that it was entirely Gary Kubiak‘s decision. He admitted that he would continue to give Kubiak his thoughts and opinions, but that in the end, it’s not his decision.
When asked by D-Mac to elaborate on just what those thoughts and opinions were, though, Elway shut him down:
“That’s why there are doors on rooms.”
