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HT: Matchups to watch tomorrow vs Bears Every game has its interesting matchups. The preseason is especially interesting with evaluation of so many players happening and the process of cycling through the layers of the depth chart through the course of the game. Let’s take a look at some players with something to prove tomorrow when the Broncos take the field to face the Chicago Bears.Broncos Secondary vs Bears Passing OffenseThis is a little broad Denver Broncos T-Shirt , but it’d get a bit repetitive to write about Mitch Trubisky vs the Broncos’ secondary, then Allen Robinson vs the Broncos’ secondary, and then Trey Burton vs the… you get the idea. For the first time in quite a while, there appears to be some cause for concern about Denver’s defensive backfield. Can Bradley Roby step up into Aqib Talib’s role? Can Tramaine Brock and Isaac Yiadom fill the hole that leaves at CB3? Have the Broncos finally addressed the longstanding weakness vs tight ends & running backs in the passing game? We won’t get answers to those questions tomorrrow, not full ones. But we’ll get some evidence to weigh, and it’s certainly something to watch.That said, there’s a caveat here. Chris Harris Jr & Su’a Cravens both missed significant practice time this week. If Harris in particular doesn’t play, then we’re really just evaluating the team’s depth in this game, not the starting unit.Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty ImagesCase Keenum vs the BearsWe saw so little of Keenum vs the Vikings, so it’ll be good to see him hopefully throw more than just a literal handful of passes this weekend. Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, & Courtland Sutton vs the Bears’ cornerbacks, as individual matchups, should be very one-sided in favor of the Broncos. Can Keenum take advantage of that? Will he lead sustained drives and make good decisions with the football?After the last two seasons, you can’t really blame any Broncos fan who wants a bit more assurance of that.Jeff Heuerman & Jake Butt vs Bears Linebackers/SecondaryOwen Daniels retired after the 2015 season and apparently took the concept of effective Broncos tight ends with him. We’ve had a strong week of practice from a healthy Jeff Heuerman, with the talented Jake Butt in the mix as well.Neither saw a target last weekend and that needs to change vs the Bears. The tight end position needs to start producing to match the promise we’re seeing at WR and RB.Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY SportsBradley Chubb & Jeff Holland vs Bears Offensive LineMiller & company should be on your to-watch list every week this season, because they should absolutely tear it up. It’ll be nice if Miller plays vs the Bears, though it’s understandable if the team holds him out. He’s got nothing to prove this preseason. But keep an eye out for another hopefully strong performance from rookies Bradley Chubb & Jeff Holland.Chad Kelly vs the Bears’ 2sChad Kelly played with enough skill & fire vs the Vikings to earn himself a promotion. How quickly can he build a rapport with his new cast of 2nd string receivers? And can he sustain the encouraging play from last week now that the competition has been raised a level?Last week, Kelly took Paxton Lynch’s job. Tomorrow marks the official opening of his two to three game window to defend his new position from a potential veteran acquisition.Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY SportsPaxton Lynch vs the Bears’ 3sLast week vs the Vikings, Paxton Lynch played with… well Denver Broncos Hats , with his usual manner. Now he’s fallen to the bottom of the depth chart and his future with the Broncos is very much in doubt. It’s time for him to start putting up some good tape and prove that he can at least outclass a bunch of guys who mostly won’t even make it to a practice squad. That’d be best for him and his career, and also for the Broncos’ ability to do the best thing they can for his career by trading him away.If he doesn’t dominate at this lowest level of NFL competition, though? Yikes.Horse TracksNFL preseason 2018: Highlights and results from Week 2 – SBNation.comThree games down, 13 more to go this weekend. Let’s get you caught up with what’s happened so far.Remembering Aretha Franklin’s 2016 national anthem performance – SBNation.comAhead of a 2016 Detroit Lions game Aretha Franklin took nearly five minutes to sing the national anthem, and the world stood still.NFL preseason 2018: The 6 best storylines to watch in Week 2 – SBNation.comNo lie, this week’s schedule is pretty great.The best and worst quarterbacks in the NFL, according to Jalen Ramsey – SBNation.com"I don’t care what nobody say. He’s trash. And it’s gonna show too."Teddy Bridgewater's rise adds intrigue to Jets' QB fray – NFL.comThe most captivating quarterback battle in the NFL got a little more interesting Thursday night with Teddy Bridgewater outperforming Sam Darnold in the New York Jets' preseason loss to the Redskins.What we learned from Thursday's preseason games – NFL.comWeek 2 of the NFL preseason kicked off with a trio of interesting games that saw Tom Brady's debut and developments in the Steelers' backup QB battle. Here's what we learned.NFL preseason puzzles: What's next for holdouts, rookie QBs? – NFL.comWhen will we see Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack and Earl Thomas again? Are trade winds blowing once more? How many rookie QBs have a chance to start in Week 1? Gregg Rosenthal examines six big questions. There are a lot of reasons the Broncos blew a 10-point lead to the Chiefs last night and gave themselves an “L” that should have been a “W.”As in … many, numerous, more than one.We could start with the refs’ missed call on the play clock that’s easy to get mad about but not necessarily a game-changing mistake.We could berate Marquette King for a 35-freaking-yard punt when he needed to pin Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs much deeper to help the defense.We could complain about Shaquill Barrett not covering Demetrius Harris better and allowing a huge third-down conversion to keep a drive alive that lead to a go-ahead touchdown a few plays later.We could debate whether zone or man coverage was the better call on 2nd-and-30 where Mahomes scrambled for what felt like 110 seconds and then hit Demarcus Robinson for a 23-yard gain.We could bemoan the Broncos’ offense for going three-and-out at the worst possible moment with just over six minutes left, leading by just three.But it doesn’t matter which one thing was more to blame because each reason by itself could have meant the loss just as one not occurring could have meant a win.“We were winning,” Von Miller said. “We were playing pretty good defense. We had a great drive where we had a great stand at the goal line where we held them to three points. I think that was right after the half. Offense went down and scored. The energy was up. We were up by 10 and then let them score 14 straight.”Maybe a penalty for delay of game and a 3rd-and-12 would have been just enough of a momentum-buster for the Chiefs to fail on their third-down conversion and be stymied in the comeback quest.“That was crazy, man,” Chris Harris Jr. said. “It’s delay. It’s zero on the clock forever鈥?That was a huge, huge no-call.”Domata Peko was particularly annoyed about the potential impact, as he told Ryan Koenigsberg of BSN Denver.There’s no way of knowing if Mahomes would have completed 3rd-and-12 the same frustratingly amazing way he completed 3rd-and-7, but it might have changed the play calls and could have had a very different outcome. Or maybe not.Without a penalty leading to a change of possession or taking away a go-ahead score, that missed call didn’t necessarily change who won the game.The Broncos did that one all on their own.After controlling the game, keeping “Showtime Mahomes” in check and staying one step ahead on scoring Denver Broncos Hoodie , it was really the Broncos offense that failed first.By the end of the third quarter, the Broncos had just gone up 20-13 thanks to a Phillip Lindsay touchdown, and then the defense held KC to a three-and-out, causing Andy Reid to sit down next to his young QB for a pep talk.After a gigantic 32-yard reception by Andy Janovich, the offense couldn’t take advantage in a costly drive, but Brandon McManus’ 46-yarder added some buffer before the Chiefs engineered a 12-play, six-minute drive to bring the game within three.All the Broncos’ offense needed to do was what it had been doing most of the previous three quarters – control the clock, run the ball, get first downs.It did none of those, choosing instead to go three-and-out at the worst possible time in the game. The defense had just been on the field, chasing the elusive Mahomes all over the place, and now one minute later, it had to do it again.It was where the game truly broke down for the Broncos.“We’ve got to do a better job late in the game, we’re up by 10 points. We’ve got to put together a drive, we can’t go three and out,” quarterback Case Keenum said. “That one is kind of glaring in my mind right now. That’s what I want to watch, talk through my decision-making at that point.”King followed with a 35-yard punt that put the Chiefs mid-field with 4:35 left in the game.In other words, an eternity for the quarterback who could run across the field, have his legs wrapped up by Von Miller, then switch hands and “push” a throw to his receiver with his left hand and complete a first down.“He’s fast. We’ve got to get him down. That’s just plain and simple Customized Denver Broncos Jerseys ,” Miller noted, who had two QB hits but zero sacks. “He’s pretty fast. He’ll run all day, buy time and especially to the right, deep. I’m talking like 20 yards deep and then he’ll throw the ball 40 yards. He’s a great quarterback. He did a great job tonight.”Despite the questionable defensive coverage calls on that final Chiefs drive – choosing man over zone on long-yardage plays – every Broncos fan knew it would come down to the offense to mount a comeback score.And it fell short in every way possible. A sack on first down set up 2nd-and-20. With the help of Emmanuel Sanders, Keenum got the offense out of a 4th-and-11 before throwing to Jeff Heuermann for a big gain, a new set of downs and still 30 seconds to go for the end zone.The offense promptly wasted all of it with three incompletes, including an overthrow to Demaryius Thomas just steps from the end zone that had #MileHighMiracle written all over it.“There’s not much time left and you do whatever you can do to try to take a shot,” Keenum said. “It was close. I want to watch it on film, but it felt really close. There’s a few, especially those type of plays that I’ll lose a little sleep over, thinking about it, laying at night in bed. It’s a tough one. It stings.”That’s an understatement.But the defense seems to be taking it the hardest since Mahomes and the Chiefs scored 14 unanswered points in the second half.“Yeah, I think it is very frustrating because we felt like we outplayed this team, out-schemed this team, and it came down really to three plays defensively at the very end that cost us,” Shane Ray said. “It is very frustrating.I don’t like to lose, no one does, obviously. When it’s a game like this where we definitely should have won, it doesn’t feel good.”Harris Jr. said the Broncos “just didn’t finish.”“We’ve got to close that game out,” he said. “We have them 2nd-and-30 and we just let them off the hook.”It would be unfair though to call it “letting them off the hook” when the defense was chasing No. 15 all over the field. In fact http://www.authenticsdenverbroncos.com , Harris Jr. had to get two IVs because of the maximum effort.“I was covering. [Mahomes] made us cover for a long time鈥?Just playing those extra times, he made us scramble in coverage the whole game. We couldn’t sack this man,” Harris Jr. added. “He’s a hell of a player, he’s a hell of a quarterback. He made plays with his feet, and I can’t wait to play him again though.”Perhaps the defense can have a chat with the offense, which was unable to score more than two touchdowns and only got 23 points against a defense that had allowed an average of 32 points in its first three games.“We were in great shape. We were good. We just didn’t close out the game and we let them off the hook on a second-and-30, which was crazy,” Harris Jr. said. “I don’t know, I can’t talk about it. Y’all go back and watch the film and see what we do.”Shaq Barrett is taking it even more personally, mad that “his guy” got the third-down conversion that allowed Chiefs to keep driving for the winning TD.“This one is going to hurt, this is going to hurt for a while because I feel like it was my fault for not sticking with my guy,” he said. “So, this one is going to hurt for a long time.”Miller was visibly worn out but stuck to his “back to the lab” script.“It’s tough. It’s like investing in something. You invest 100 percent in everything that you got, and you lose. There is a sense of disappointment,” Miller admitted. “We’ve got to get back to the lab and we’re going to do it again. We’ve got to reload again.”But the Broncos were competitive with one of the best teams in the NFL right now and that has positives players and fans should not lose sight of. The real test will be how the team responds to this loss next week.“We’ve got to reload again,” Miller said. “The great teams do that.”