When the Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots on Sunday night, the margin of error will be small.
The Broncos, losers of four straight, will only have so many chances over the course of the game to knock off Tom Brady and the Patriots. If they capitalize on those chances, a win over New England could be exactly what the Broncos need to get their season back on track.
If they don’t, chances are they will not only lose the game, but they might lose any hope they had left about making the playoffs.
“I think in this game, you have to make the most of every opportunity you get for big plays,” offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said on Thursday.
“That’s the beauty of football,” Von Miller said on Thursday. “You could be solid here, but not so solid here and miss or get you beat. This will get you blown out over here. It’s a beautiful game, and you have to really stay on top of all of your mistakes, on and off the football field. to be a successful team.”
The Patriots do a good job of making sure those opportunities are few and far in between.
As of late, those are the opportunities that the Broncos have had some trouble capitalizing on, as McCoy noted on Thursday.
“There have been certain games, whether it’s a protection or a missed throw, something that comes up and you think, gosh, if we would have just hit that, that could have changed something,” McCoy said. “There was something at the end of a half that could have swung the momentum a certain way. Scoring a touchdown in Buffalo instead of just a field goal. There are a number of things that come up every week that we have to improve on.”
A loss for the Broncos on Sunday wouldn’t do them any favors, but the notion of a win isn’t that far-fetched, given Brady’s history in Denver.
The last month has been just about the worst month of football the Broncos could have asked for, but Miller knows that every Sunday presents another opportunity to turn the ship around.
“It’s the NFL; that’s what makes it great and that’s what makes it beautiful — you can have all of the stars on the roster and go out there and not win a game,” Miller said Thursday. “You can go out there with a bunch of no-names and win the Super Bowl. I love that aspect of the game. I feel like that is the most beautiful part; any given Sunday I step on the field, I have an opportunity to do something great. I have an opportunity to do something that nobody has ever done before — and that’s what drives me every single week. You don’t always win, but we still have a huge opportunity in front of us.”
The window that the Broncos have to capitalize on that large opportunity might be a small one, but the ability to do so could be the difference in the season.
