Ride Denver’s defense, take Broncos to cover spread vs. Chiefs
Lost in the rush to write Peyton Manning’s obituary as an elite NFL quarterback after the 39-year-old didn’t throw a touchdown pass in the Broncos’ season-opening 19-13 win over the Baltimore Ravens is the fact that Denver’s defense was dominant.
DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller hit Joe Flacco (117 yards passing, two INTs) eight times and Aqib Talib scored on a pick-six as the Broncos limited Baltimore’s offense to two field goals.
Largely because of Denver’s improved defense, handicapper Bruce Marshall of The Gold Sheet (goldsheet.com) is backing the Broncos as 3-point underdogs today at the Kansas City Chiefs (5:25 p.m., CBS (8), NFLN (317)).
“I’ve never seen a team win as important a game as Denver won, and I think as impressive as Denver did, get trashed as the Broncos did after this game,” Marshall said. “Nobody’s looking at what (defensive coordinator) Wade Phillips did with this defense. It’s spectacular. I think it’s the best in the league.
“Maybe Manning has slowed down some, but he had nowhere to throw last week. He didn’t have much time. It was a tough matchup. But this defense is way above anything they’ve had in recent years. The offense is probably gonna come around, but with this defense, they’re a threat to win the whole thing.”
The Broncos have won six straight in the series and Manning is 13-1 vs. the Chiefs in his career.
“And you’re giving Denver points? I think there’s value on Denver tonight,” Marshall said.
Stratosphere sports book director Ed Malinowski said he opened the Chiefs as 2½-point favorites and the line is now 3 at minus-120 at his place. He doesn’t expect the number to move off of 3.
“If we move that game to 3½, I’m sure we’d get a lot of Denver money coming in,” he said. “Denver is still very much a public team.”
The total opened at 40½ and has climbed to 42.
“We’re gonna find out something tonight, whether it’s all true what they’re all saying about Manning and he gets old in front of our eyes. But I can’t count out Manning until I see it,” Malinowski said. “We’ve heard this all before. Everybody wrote him off before he got to Denver and he lit it up. They’re all knocking him but he won that game.”
