Denver is currently the center of the North American sports world, with the NBA Nuggets and NHL Avalanche off to historic starts and looking to add to their records, while the Broncos boast the best record in the NFL at 12-2.
“I had a chance to talk to a few Nuggets players and told them it’s our turn to have a parade in the city,” Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton said, noting that Nikola Jokic and Nathan MacKinnon have both had champagne showers since his team’s last championship nearly 10 years ago.
“So we feel like it’s our turn to do our part to keep this victorious tradition,” he added. They play good basketball and good hockey and it’s exciting to be a part of it. And I know people across the United States are really shocked to see that the state of Colorado is doing so well right now. »
To get there, the Broncos want to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars (10-4) on Sunday in a flagship match of the 16th week between section leaders in the American. This could well be a taste of the playoffs.
With quarterback Trevor Lawrence playing his best football since his NFL debut five years ago, the Jaguars have won five in a row, outscoring their opponents by a cumulative score of 171-72.
“We’ve been winning one after another for a while, we’re doing what we do best: making plays, minimizing mistakes and playing our football,” said Jaguars cornerback Jourdan Lewis. We have confidence in ourselves and we try to impose our game on our opponents, no matter who we face. Of course, it’s a very good team. But we always focus on us.”
With Bo Nix gradually establishing himself as one of the best quarterbacks to support a defensive unit that has amassed 58 sacks so far, the Broncos are in the heart of an 11-game winning streak, their longest since 2012.
They won 10 games coming from behind and prevailed in 10 of the 12 close games they played (only one point difference).
The Broncos ended an eight-season drought without making the playoffs last year as a draft team. This year they are aiming for first place in the American in order to obtain a bye in the first round.
Head coach Sean Payton insisted all week that the team had yet to achieve anything, despite the fact that they are already qualified for the playoffs.
“I think the most important thing for us is to not get carried away by our successes,” Sutton said. We stayed low-key, worked hard every week, then showed up on Sundays to deliver the goods and be successful.”
Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press
