Might be preseason, but Broncos need a win

Winning in preseason means nothing tangibly. No matter if the Denver Broncos win Thursday against Arizona, they’ll be 0-0 on Sept. 13 at Cincinnati when the season starts.

But the Broncos are starting to get antsy. They are 0-3 in the preseason, and the result in the finale against the Cardinals is on their minds.

“Win,” receiver Brandon Stokley said when asked for his goals going into the final preseason game. “We were unable to (Sunday), so win.”

The Broncos not had a winless preseason since 1960, when they went 0-5 in their first year of existence. They have only had one preseason with only one win since 1971, when they went 1-4 in 1992.

A win would be nice but the Broncos would probably take an efficient and healthy game. They incurred some injuries on Sunday night, although right guard Chris Kuper’s injury wasn’t too serious. A source, who didn’t want to be named because the Broncos didn’t reveal the extent of the injury, said it was a high ankle sprain. Quarterback Kyle Orton also left the game with a lacerated right index finger.

On top of that, the Broncos didn’t play well against Chicago. They had 10 penalties, didn’t force a turnover for the third straight game and had two turnovers on offense. The starters were outscored 17-3 in the first half. 

Denver realizes it has to fix the mistakes fast.

“We’re not going to go through the motions, we have a lot of work to do and we don’t have much time to do it,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said of the last preseason game. “We’re running out of time.”