No rest for the weary and the wholly worked over.
The Broncos, beat up and bruised to the tune of 234 yards rushing and a 31-21 home loss to the New York Jets, have a short work week before they board the charter late Wednesday to Kansas City.
Waiting in the Central Time Zone, of course, is a Chiefs team featuring quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and, statistically speaking, the best defense Denver’s faced so far this season.
The Chiefs opened this week as 10.5-point favorites and are once again off and running on a season that looks about as different from Denver’s as imaginable.
“One of the things about this league is there’s nothing like winning,” Payton said Monday. “Obviously when you’re not having success, you have to dig deep. It’s difficult. It’s tough. You get up in the morning, it’s unpleasant, and yet, I think I have pretty good instincts relative to how to approach the team and how to guide the team relative to the next challenge.
“And that’s what we’re going to do this week.”
The Chiefs have done plenty of winning, and the Broncos have not. This year, last year, in the divisional rivalry since 2016. You name it since Peyton Manning retired, and the Chiefs have dominated it against Denver.
Off to a 1-4 start and sporting one of the worst statistical defenses in modern history, however, Payton said there won’t be much talk on this short week regarding Kansas City’s 15-game winning streak against the Broncos.
“Our focus has to start internally,” he said. “In a short week here, getting ourselves both physically and mentally ready to play a really good football team on the road in a tough environment. The past 15, I don’t know that that’s a big topic right now for us. I think for us, it’s more about us.”
It’s the earliest visit to Kansas City for the Broncos since a September trip in 2015. Each of the past four seasons, Denver’s made the trek to Arrowhead in either December or early January. And even despite the still-warm weather and the majority of the season out ahead, the Broncos are a team already teetering on the brink.
Kansas City, meanwhile, has won four straight games since dropping its season opener. Mahomes and company have done it despite mostly not playing to the offensively dominant level they’ve been accustomed to in recent years. They’re still operating at a top-10 clip, but outside of a blowout win against Chicago, they’ve beat Jacksonville 17-9, the Jets by three and on Sunday topped Minnesota 27-20.
“They do a lot of things well,” Payton said. “Quite honestly, they’ve found ways to win even when it hasn’t gone as well as they would have hoped. That’s the sign of a really good football team. A champhionship team.”
And one the Broncos will see twice over 17 days around a visit from Green Bay before a bye week. Then they travel to Buffalo to open the second half of their season Nov. 13.
“There’s only one thing that heals losing, and it’s getting better and winning,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said Sunday night. “There’s no point to be frustrated. Obviously, you’re going to be frustrated. The emotions of this game ride high and low all the time, but you have to stay within the process, and you have to stay focused on the mission of this team and individually and be a professional and get better.”
There’s not a lot of time for improvement this week. The players’ off day is Monday. Then Denver has one normal day Tuesday and a walk-through Wednesday before heading out.
“Might be tough, but no one really cares, honestly,” safety Justin Simmons said. “We have to go down there and find a way to win. That would be a big one for us.”
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.
