Will no fans at Mile High home-opener turn victory into defeat?
Are you ready for some football? I don’t know about the rest of Broncos Country, but I can’t wait to get back to Empower Field at Mile High. Wait … what? Oh, yeah. There will be no fans allowed for the home opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 14. Dang pandemic. Does an empty stadium mean the sellout streak is officially over? Or will the team instead announce 76,125 noshows? And more important: In a game that could well be decided by a field goal, isn’t no fans in the stands a huge advantage to the visiting team from Nashville?
It will be a huge advantage for the Titans and Tampa Bay and maybe even Miami — the Broncos’ first three home opponents — if fans aren’t allowed in Mile High. Just like it will be a huge advantage when the Broncos visit the Jets and Las Vegas, two franchises that have already announced a seasonlong ban on spectators. But, whew, under normal circumstances, it would have been silent count time for Ryan Tannehill. Prime-time game. Season opener. The return of Bradley Chubb from injury. Von Miller pumping up the crowd. The place would have been rocking.
We don’t know when — or if — any Broncos fans will be allowed to attend home games in 2020. But let me share something I’ve learned from the NBA bubble. No fans definitely favors offense, because pumped-in music and canned crowd noise provides very little distraction to players. Great defense is passionate work. Offense is all about precision. So even if it’s safe to let 20,000 spectators into the stadium by the time Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes comes to town, the job of Denver’s defense is going to be way tougher.
That’s a big point — even if fans are allowed to attend Week 3 vs. Tampa Bay or Week 7 vs. Kansas City, it won’t even be 25% capacity and in a gigantic venue like Mile High, noise won’t be a factor at all in 2020. If I’m an offensive play caller, I get creative with the tempo, calling the play at the line, etc., because receivers Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy will be able to hear quarterback Drew Lock’s call just as easy as guards Dalton Risner and Graham Glasgow.
No fans in the stands is going to be a shock to the system for everybody, especially when the Broncos can’t ride waves of emotion and noise from their faithful congregation in Week 1. They don’t call the home crowd “The 12th Man,” for nothing. Whenever Denver opens the season at home, regardless of any other factor, I automatically pick the Broncos to win every, single year, purely out of respect for some of the rowdiest fans in sports. This game against Tennessee just got a lot more dangerous, because an empty stadium could well be the difference between a W and L.
Remember the old days when the Vegas oddsmakers quantified home-field advantage as worth three points? It will be interesting to see what the lines look like to start this year because it’s not like the road offense will have false-start issues. On the flip side, being totally serious and returning to your point about the offense gaining an edge, no fans at home will only help a guy like left tackle Garett Bolles, who won’t have to tune the crowd out after a poor play. Despite no fans, I will still pick the Broncos to beat Tennessee.