The Broncos made it through the first six weeks at 4-2, which was about the best-case script heading into the season. But that record has not come wrapped in comfort. Denver has leaned on late-game swings to get to four wins, and even with the roughest stretch of the schedule in the rearview, the path forward may not be as smooth as it first looked.
Week 7 was supposed to feel manageable once the schedule loosened up. Instead, Arizona has a way of making people look twice.
Denver travels to face the 2-4 Cardinals, and Arizona just knocked off the Los Angeles Rams in Week 6 with an 18-point effort built entirely on six field goals. The Cardinals still found a way to control enough of the game to win it, finishing with more total yards than the Rams, going 5/15 on third down, avoiding any sacks, punting only three times and winning the time of possession battle.
That result may say as much about Los Angeles as it does about Arizona, but it still counts. And it pushes this Week 7 matchup into the “maybe this is trickier than it first seemed” bucket.
Arizona may be bad overall, but it is not the kind of team Denver can afford to sleepwalk against. Trey McBride gives the Cardinals a weapon on offense who could create real problems for a Broncos defense that doesn’t always handle top tight ends cleanly. Jacoby Brissett can also push the ball down the field, which adds another wrinkle if Denver is without Patrick Surtain II or Talanoa Hufanga.
Even with that, the Broncos clearly have the better roster. They out-talent Arizona across the board and have the edge almost everywhere you look.
There’s also the simple fact that Denver has avoided this sort of slip for a while. The Broncos have handled lesser opponents over the past few seasons, and Bo Nix has been strong against NFC teams. So maybe this ends up being more noise than warning.
Still, Arizona’s upset of the Rams was enough to make anyone pause. The Cardinals might not be the easy out they seemed like a week ago.
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