👋 Good Morning!

The only thing better than a Victory Monday is a Victory Friday.

Last night might have been ugly but 8-2 isn’t a bad place to be. Have a great weekend.

— Justin Michael

A win is a win, right?

The victory over the Raiders was your typical garbage Thursday night game. Penalties, turnovers, special teams miscues, this matchup had it all.

As ugly as 10-7 looked on the scoreboard last night — and that was about as bad as a team can look offensively and still win a game — 8-2 looks damn good in the standings. And after going 1-6 in one-score games last season, currently sitting at 6-2 in those same types of games, Denver is finding a way.

Sean Payton and Bo Nix have got to clean up the offense. You can’t keep doing nothing in the first half and expect to be sustainable. Winning tight games is a skill though. And it doesn’t hurt to have the most disruptive defense in the NFL.

You’re going to hear a lot of hot takes today on both sides. The truth is the four remaining division games will define this season.

The AFC West is there for the taking. Can Denver evolve enough to go on a real run? Or will the clock strike midnight and the magic disappears? We don’t know yet. For all of the flack that the Broncos are taking, though, the resume is very similar to Kansas City’s through the first 10 games in 2024.

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READ: Sean Payton pinpoints why the offense struggled

Julian Lewis will make his first career start on Saturday. Scott Procter laid out the path to success for CU on the road against West Virginia.

Read: CU Football prediction & preview (West Virginia)

As bad as the offense looked last night, the defense looked stellar. Now that this group is forcing turnovers at a higher rate, they really are starting to give shades of 2015.

READ: Denver’s Orange Crush defense carries them to another win