Kiszla: In biggest Broncos game since Super Bowl 50, we’ll find out if Denver D is for real – The Denver Post

The Broncos are 3-0.*

With Lamar Jackson coming to our dusty old cow town, here’s their chance to remove the asterisk.

“It’s really like a playoff game early in the season,” linebacker Von Miller said Thursday. “A lot of these guys (in the Denver locker room) haven’t even played in a playoff game before, and that’s kind of been my message to these guys: ‘This is a playoff game early in the season. This is the time for us to show what we’ve got against a worthy opponent.’”

OK, no victory in October can ensure a berth in the NFL playoffs. But a bad loss can reveal a team as a fraud.

This is the biggest game for Denver since Super Bowl 50, way back in February 2016.

For the better part of five years the Broncos have lived on the dark side of the NFL moon. Stop Lamar Jackson and the Broncos can bask in the light of respect and adulation in a league where they’ve been an after-thought for too long.

Here’s what we won’t know until Miller knocks Jackson on his keister and kicks some asterisk against the Ravens, leading the league at 185 yards rushing per game. Baltimore has run for at least 100 yards in 42 straight games and would tie a league record by hitting the century mark against Denver.

Is this Denver defense for real? Do the Broncos have a legit, top-five-in-the-NFL, shutdown D? Or has this group been picking on young quarterbacks without a clue?

Prepping to face Jackson, Denver safety Justin Simmons said: “If we’re going to win on Sunday, the defense is going to have to be extraordinary.”

Simmons and his teammates have heard the same yada, yada, yada as everybody else in Broncos Country. This team is undefeated, but … hasn’t really proven a thing, because the smelly Giants, atrocious Jaguars and pathetic Jets are a combined 0-9.

The Broncos have enjoyed a September schedule softer and yummier than a dish of Sweet Cow Dreamsickle ice cream. And from the offensive line to the linebacking corps, mounting injuries threaten the early success as unsustainable. This is the yada, yada, yada a team that has failed to the reach the playoffs in five straight seasons must endure until it makes a bold statement to shut up the naysayers.

Denver coach Vic Fangio is a mad defensive scientist on game day. But here’s guessing Uncle Vic will try to contain Jackson with a four-man rush and zone coverage that allows as many defenders as possible to keep eyes on Lamar for three, four, five or how many seconds it takes to corral him as he tries to extend plays.

“The first three seconds of the play necessarily won’t be the problem. It’s the next three, four, five, six seconds afterwards that creates a big problem for any defense. Nine times out of 10, you’ll be able to handle concepts and be able to communicate those things, especially with our defense,” Simmons said. “But it’s what (Jackson) creates afterward. Then it gets to that backyard football.”

While quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has exceeded all expectations as a leader of men and scoring drives, what will make or break the Broncos as a legitimate threat to win the AFC West for the first time since 2015 is defense. In almost any defensive category, from yards per game (221.7) to punts forced per point allowed (3.2), the Denver D ranks first or second in the league.

But without injured starters Bradley Chubb, Josey Jewel and Ronald Darby, can the Broncos exert their will against Jackson, the 2019 NFL most valuable player?

Here is the Broncos’ big chance to prove that in the third year of Fangio’s regime, he has built a truly championship-caliber defense.

“It’s going to be a really good challenge for us,” Simmons said. “All the goals and aspirations that we have as a defense and that we verbalize, it’s going to play itself out on Sunday, if that’s what we want to be.”

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