Miss Justin Simmons?

The kids on the Grading The Week staff sure do, but the Broncos don’t. Not according to Pro Football Focus, at least.

With the Broncos having already won more games (five) in eight weeks than many in the NFL thought they’d win in 18, the statniks on Team GTW scoured the popular scouting and analytics site, known colloquially as “PFF,” for some clues as to why.

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BOULDER — Shedeur Sanders flu under the radar. Dude practiced one day last week. One. Before he went viral, No. 2 felt viral.

“It was tough out there getting the chemistry back with everybody,” the CU Buffs’ QB1 explained early Sunday morning, having powered through influenza to throw for 323 yards in a 34-23 win over Cincinnati. “Because you lose weight, you lose strength, you lose a lot of things.”

Not touch. Not zip. Not feel. Not mojo. Shedeur completed his first 15 passes. In a half. Against a good Cincinnati team. Against a Bearcats defense that allowed 19 completions to Texas Tech last month — over a whole game.

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BOULDER — When the bully across the road gives you a wedgie on national TV, the neighbors start to worry. Get beat by little brother? The neighbors start to talk.

“I would say (CU Buffs coach) Deion Sanders needs (Saturday) more,” CBS analyst and former NFL lineman Ross Tucker, who’s in the booth for Saturday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown at Fort Collins, told me by phone earlier this week. “The reason why I say that is when things started to go south (in 2023), they really went south. (CU) did not show the ability to really handle and overcome adversity very well.

“So based on how last year went, if you’re a CU fan or if you’re a Deion fan, you see back-to-back losses to Nebraska and to CSU, two of the four teams you beat last year, you’ve got to think about how well they’ll be able to keep the team together and in a good headspace for the rest of the season. … (It’s) not even, ‘Here we go again.’ It’s, ‘These are actually two of the teams we beat last year, so we’re going in the wrong direction.’”

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