Nik Bonitto made his stance on the Broncos’ trip to Philadelphia on Sunday clear enough.
“It ain’t no measuring stick,” Denver’s star pass-rusher said Thursday. “We’re trying to go win the game. We know we’re a good team… We know who we are.”
Bonitto’s defense has a clear identity. Bo Nix and the offense think they’re starting to forge one, too. Collectively, they have a pretty good idea of who they are. They also have an idea of what they want to be.
They want to be like Philadelphia.
Who doesn’t, at this point? The Eagles are 4-0, they’re the defending Super Bowl champions and they’ve won 20 of the past 21 games they’ve played. The only loss in that stretch: A 36-33 barn-burner against Washington in December last year when Jalen Hurts sustained a concussion early in the game and was ruled out after four pass attempts.
“They’re one of the few teams in NFL history that have won that many — and with their starters playing, they’ve won that many in a row,” Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey told The Denver Post. “It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my career.”
Philly is 30th in total offense and No. 22 in total defense so far this season. Nick Sirianni’s team head-scratchingly has struggled to run the ball even with Saquon Barkley and a rugged offensive line. Receiver A.J. Brown took to social media to complain about a lack of targets. The defense has been fine but not special. And yet they’re 4-0.
They slugged it out and won at Arrowhead Stadium for the second time in two years. Blocked a would-have-been game-winning field goal against the Rams. Jumped out big and held on last week against Tampa Bay.
“They win a lot of different ways,” McGlinchey said. “They win playing defense. They’ve won playing insane offense. They win running the ball. They win patiently. They win in the fourth quarter. They win on blocked kicks. They win on all kinds of stuff. That’s why they’re a championship-caliber football team, because they can beat you in a lot of different ways. They’ve had this continuity in their program and a calling card of beating people up up front, running the hell out of the ball, playing great defense and allowing the game to come to them.
“They’re a great group, they’re the defending champs for a reason and we’ve got our work cut out for us, but we think we can compete, too.”
The Broncos and Eagles are built in similar ways.
They’ve got high-quality offensive lines and dominant defensive fronts.
They’ve got secondaries that can play with anybody. Pat Surtain II is the best in either group by a wide margin, but Quinyon Mitchell is one of the most promising young corners in the game and, like Surtain with Riley Moss, pairs with a big, rangy corner out of Iowa in Cooper DeJean.
Broncos inside linebacker Alex Singleton told The Post last summer that his rookie quarterback, Bo Nix, reminded him of Jalen Hurts from his younger days with the Eagles.
“I would say they have a lot of similarities in that nothing really seems too big for them,” Singleton said then. “They’re like the calm-in-the-storm kind of guys.
“I think there’s a lot of similarities between those two.”
Hurts is considerably more accomplished at this stage, and the Eagles have more elite skill talent in Barkley and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. That’s the biggest difference roster-wise.
“That’s just old school,” McGlinchey said. “That’s good football. It’s clear what wins, and there’s a philosophy to how we win. Now we have the opportunity to put it all together, and so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
That’s the biggest difference at a broader level. The Eagles are a fully formed winning machine. The Broncos think they’re on the way to that, but they’ve already lost twice on the road at the buzzer this fall. Take away a Week 18 game against Kansas City’s JV squad last year, and Payton’s team had just one win against a team that finished the season with a winning record — Week 3 at Tampa Bay.
There’s work still to do.
So Sunday may not be a measuring stick, but it’s the next best chance for the Broncos to show they’re on the way to being something resembling the Eagles.
“We just talked about it,” Payton said Thursday. “They’re doing a great job with the turnover ratio. They’ve only given the ball away one time in the first four weeks. They’re taking it away. Their special teams, they had the blocked punt last week, the blocked field goal, blocked extra point against the Rams. So all three phases are doing a good job.
“That’s one of the reasons they’re the champions.”
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.