There are some advantages to facing a team twice in 18 days. The preparation is relatively fresh in the minds of players and coaches. There is the chance to adjust, to make corrections and tactical tweaks before the second half of the home-and-home series.
For the Broncos, that could provide a boost — especially as they attempt to snap a 16-game losing streak to their rivals from the east.
But here’s the thing: The Chiefs have the same advantage, too.
“I think they’ll probably make adjustments and stuff like that — as we will, too,” running back Jaleel McLaughlin said.
In the end, the adjustments could cancel each other out.
“I guess it probably helps them just as much as it helps us,” Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “I think familiarity with your opponent is a huge advantage going into every game. It certainly settles the nerves. It’s a little bit less of the unknown the second time around. I think it certainly helps everybody.
“Honestly, it just probably helps you play a little bit faster on both sides and I think play a little bit more committed football, and that’s all you try to do against the guys that you saw a week-and-a-half ago.”
FOR BRONCOS AND CHIEFS, IT WON’T BE THE SAME TYPE OF GAME
Indeed, you can expect some adjustment from each team as they account for what worked and what failed in Kansas City on Oct. 12.
It would be an upset if the rematch takes on a similar tone and pace to the game at Arrowhead Stadium, which saw the Broncos fail to score until deep into the fourth quarter, by which time they trailed 16-0.
“It’s just going to be kind of seeing the plays that they had, maybe they missed on, that they’re obviously going to do again,” linebacker Alex Singleton explained.
“Plays that the Packers ran [last week] that they have in their offense that they’re going to be able to use, and just stuff and plays they feel like they might have missed on, or just certain calls that we were in that, hey, if we are in that call, in that situation, they might take advantage of this.”
In Singleton’s eyes, the cerebral matchup will become more pronounced.
“These two weeks, chess games become a little bigger,” Singleton said. “Just like every week, you’ve got to see what they’re gonna do in the first 15 plays, and then they’ll get in their usual rhythm.”
The chess game becomes bigger — and for the Broncos who experienced first exposure to the colossus in Kansas City on Oct. 12 — the challenge, they hope, becomes more manageable with what they learned.
That’s true for a rookie standout like McLaughlin.
“There was a bunch of things in the game that I missed in Kansas City,” he said. “Even going out right after the game, I was watching and I was like, ‘Man, I think I could have been better at this, oh, why didn’t I see this,; and now I’m able to capitalize off those things that I believe I seen a couple weeks back, because there’s actually film of me actually doing it.”
Enough of that from multiple players, and the Broncos have a puncher’s chance at an upset.
