The Denver Broncos host the winless New York Giants this weekend on Sunday Night Football. Despite the Giants’ struggles to date, the Broncos cannot afford to overlook them.

Good morning, Broncos Country.

When this year’s regular season schedule came out, the Denver Broncos’ match up against the New York Giants looked to be one of the most interesting battles of the season. Last year the Giants were a playoff team who went 11-5 in the regular season, but imploded in their NFC Wildcard game against the Green Bay Packers. They entered the 2017 campaign with high expectations and Super Bowl aspirations, with a roster loaded with talent that improved significantly over the course of the offseason.

I was extremely excited to see how the No Fly Zone would fair against their elite group of wide receivers that consisted of Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Sterling Shepard — then last weekend happened. Beckham Jr. and Marshall suffered season-ending injuries, while Shepard’s ankle injury may keep him out of this weekend’s game. Now, the Giants’ group of receivers is much less potent, headlined by Roger Lewis and former Broncos wide receiver Tavarress King. To combat their injury-depleted depth chart, the Giants recently brought up former Florida State product and rookie wideout Travis Rudolph from the practice squad, as well as Ed Eagan who is a former teammate of Trevor Siemian’s at Northwestern.

Despite their injuries at wide receiver and the fact that they are statistically one of the worst team’s in the league (hence their record), the Broncos can’t afford to overlook the struggling Giants and must approach this game with the same diligence and discipline as any other. Early in the week Head Coach Vance Joseph was asked whether or not Sunday’s gridiron affair against New York was a ‘trap game’ — a statement he disagreed with vehemently.

“Again, it’s the NFL. It’s a good football team. It’s a playoff football team from last season. It’s a Hall-of-Fame-type of quarterback. Defensively, they have three corners. They have two rushers. Trap game? I don’t see it that way,” stated Joseph.

And the Broncos shouldn’t see it that way. The Giants have struggled (which is an understatement) to date, but on anything can happen on any given Sunday. The worst thing Denver could do is overlook a desperate and destitute franchise willing to do go the extra mile to get in the win column, lose their focus and subsequently lose this weekend.

“Our team won’t see it that way. Buffalo, they played a better football game than we did. That’s what happened there. If you watched that Buffalo game, there was a lot of good that we did in that game. We just didn’t win that game. So that wasn’t a trap game at all. This won’t be on Sunday,” Joseph added.

The Broncos are undefeated at home this season and will look to keep that trend going against the Giants in four days. With the Kansas City Chiefs being the hottest team in the league at 5-0, every game matters for the Broncos whose AFC West title hopes will likely come down to their head-to-head performances against the Chiefs in late October and December. Sunday’s affair against the Giants may not have direct implications on how the West will be won, but a loss would surely throw a large wrench into the Broncos’ desire to be Kings in the West once more.

A desperate team is a dangerous team, and the Broncos need to approach this week’s contest against the Giants with that sentiment in mind — or else they might end up feeling a little destitute themselves.

As always, thank you for reading and here is today’s offering of Horses Tracks.

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