Kiz: Well, your Bron­cos can­not go 16–0 if they don’t win the first one, to cite one of my favorite lines in the “Book of NFL Coach­s­peak.” This home open­er with­out fans in the stands wor­ries me because I believe Den­ver will miss the awe­some pow­er of its 12th man. But the Bron­cos should win the game if they can do just one thing: Lim­it Ten­nessee pow­er back Der­rick Hen­ry to under 100 yards rush­ing. It won’t be an easy task, as Hen­ry ran roughshod on the league last sea­son dur­ing the Titans’ sur­pris­ing march to the AFC cham­pi­onship game.

O’Halloran: The Bron­cos’ rush defense was awful dur­ing their 0–4 start, but the 16–0 win over Ten­nessee in Week 6 was the sec­ond game of Mike Pur­cell at nose tack­le, Shel­by Har­ris at defen­sive end and Alexan­der John­son at inside line­backer. Hen­ry is the reign­ing run­ning back king, hav­ing led the NFL in rush­ing yards (1,540), attempts (303) and touch­downs (16) last year. Jur­rell Casey was acquired from the Titans to play along­side Har­ris and Pur­cell. And I do think the Bron­cos are well-equipped to stop the run because Josey Jew­ell should be viewed as a run-game upgrade com­pared to Todd Davis (released last week).

Kiz: The Bron­cos’ shutout vic­to­ry against Ten­nessee was their defense’s finest hour in 2019. Den­ver made Titans quar­ter­back Mar­cus Mar­i­o­ta look worse than Tim Tebow on his worst day, while Hen­ry bare­ly touched the ball or made a peep. But I also thought it was the dumb­est game plan designed by any Den­ver foe all last sea­son. Only two weeks before the Titans came to town, Jack­sonville pow­er back Leonard Four­nette tram­pled the Bron­cos with 225 yards rush­ing, lead­ing the Jaguars to vic­to­ry. I couldn’t believe Ten­nessee coach­es didn’t take copi­ous notes after ing that game tape. We’ve got to see a heavy dose of Hen­ry this time, right?

O’Halloran: Arthur Smith was in his sixth game as the Titans’ play-caller last Octo­ber against the Bron­cos and it just felt like he was still try­ing to make Mar­i­o­ta the cen­ter of his offense. That changed at half­time when Ryan Tan­nehill replaced Mar­i­o­ta. Hen­ry car­ried 15 times for 28 yards in the game. To your point, the first half was puz­zling — the Bron­cos led only 6–0, but Hen­ry car­ried only nine times out of 31 plays. The rest of the sea­son, includ­ing play­offs, Hen­ry eclipsed 20 car­ries sev­en times — the Titans went 6–1 in those games. In Week 1, it makes per­fect sense for the Titans to hop on the back of their best player.

Kiz: Let me get this one on the record now. I think Denver’s first offen­sive play from scrim­mage dur­ing this new sea­son should be Bron­cos quar­ter­back Drew Lock fak­ing a hand­off to Melvin Gor­don and throw­ing deep to Jer­ry Jeudy. But I also sus­pect front-office hon­cho John Elway has actu­al­ly told us the truth when sug­gest­ing this team will rely heav­i­ly on its defense to win games until a young offense gels. Ear­ly in the sea­son, the Bron­cos need to run the foot­ball effec­tive­ly to win. So in Week 1, will Gor­don out-rush Hen­ry? No. But Phillip LInd­say might.

O’Halloran: I’m all for a first-play deep shot to Jeudy — give the Kid QB (Lock) a chance to fling it and give the Kid WR (Jeudy) a chance to make an instant impact. The best way to neu­tral­ize Hen­ry is by get­ting a lead. If the Titans make them­selves one dimen­sion­al (a lot of Hen­ry), that’s trou­ble. If the Bron­cos force them to be one dimen­sion­al (have to lean on Tan­nehill), that helps the Von/Chubb pass rush and will allow new play-caller Pat Shur­mur to pri­or­i­tize the run. I say Hen­ry out­gains Lindsay/Gordon com­bined, but the Bron­cos win the game.