Denver’s need to stop Adrian Peterson and the Vikings’ rushing attack has been one of two major storylines for the Broncos in Week 4. The other, of course, has been the shuffling of the offensive line with the injury of Ty Sambrailo.

But as those two storylines have dominated discussion, the Broncos pass defense, which has been the best in football through three weeks, has been mostly unrecognized as game time approached.

Mario Sanelli of The Denver Post joined The Final Word on Mile High Sports 1340 and told Joe Rico and Alex Ramirez that he believes Aqib Talib can be the x-factor in Sunday’s game, providing Denver can contain Peterson.

Sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has just one touchdown to go with two interceptions so far in 2015, a trend Sanelli thinks could continue if the Broncos can force him to throw into their very dangerous secondary.

The Vikings’ quarterback has nearly a 1:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio for his career at 15-14.

Sanelli picked David Bruton to be the x-factor in Week 3 and proved to be spot-on. If he’s correct again this week, Bridgewater might see that ratio continuing to move in the wrong direction.

The discussion with Sanelli picks up at the 5:00 mark in the podcast below…

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