For the Denver Broncos, the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. Most teams hope that theirs lands at roughly the midpoint of the season, and 3-6 Denver’s was close enough — at least according to nose tackle Domata Peko.

“Heck yeah, brother. Nothing like a bye week; rest the body up, get the legs back and get the fresh legs going. But also just getting a chance to reset — you know, reset mentally,” Peko told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7. “It was really good to sit down Sunday and watch some games, and just see how the league is going. And it was good — really good rest time, family time, and now I’m back in, checked back in and ready to go.”

One might think that players would prefer to get away from football for the week, but not Peko, who turns 34 later this month — and still looks for ways to get better in his 13th NFL season. “Oh, I’m watching… I like to watch the nose guards and the three-technique and the centers and the guards and the tackles. That’s what I watch, I watch the trenches,” Peko said. “I was just watching the [Chargers’ last] game, so I was watching their center and their O-line; just studying to see what they’re doing and stuff like that. I’m trying to study — that’s how I watch the game… I have my notebook with me, and I’ll write down all the runs they do… stuff like that.”

The Chargers sport an elite running back in Melvin Gordon, who’s already racked up 672 yards and averages 5.4 yards a carry — the highest average among the league’s top five rushers. Peko’s well-aware of the threat he’ll pose to the Broncos on Sunday.

“[The Chargers are] a really run-happy team, you know, with him. But not only that, they like to use him in the passing game, because if he’s not breaking the line of scrimmage and they’re having a tough time running the game, they like to use him in screens and stuff like that,” Peko explained. “But then also I was watching their center, [Mike] Pouncey, he was with Miami before, so I’m just seeing him with the Chargers now; just studying him up. And he’s really good reaching people and he’s good at getting to the second level, so I’ve got to make sure I’m on top of his ass.”

Like his teammate Derek Wolfe explained on Monday, Peko also believes that the Broncos’ defense is finally rounding into form after back-to-back games of allowing 200-yard rushers in the Jets’ Isaiah Crowell and the Rams’ Todd Gurley.

“Yeah, man, I feel like our defense has been making strides the past couple weeks. Especially what I like to take pride in is the run defense. We had that debacle of those two games where they had like 200 yards on us, and then once we found out what was going on, we made our adjustments and now we’ve been holding teams [over] the last three games or so,” Peko said. “So we’re taking a lot of pride in that, but I think it’s just taking pride in your work. Doing the best you can do for this team — and that’s what I’m going to do defensively: make sure I’m doing the best I can as a nose guard, making sure I’m clogging my holes up, make sure I’m running to the ball, and winning my battles — if everyone does that and just looks in the mirror and wins your battle, your play, then we’ll be a good team. We’ll be a good defense.

“I’m definitely believing in our team; never have doubt. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we signed up, and I’m here fighting with my brothers. We’re here, everyone in this locker room believes in each other and all we’ve got to do is go out there and prove it, — go out there and do it… We played against [the Rams] we played against the Chiefs, they’re [among] of the best in the game and we were right there, neck-and-neck with them. So if we can hang with those guys, man, we can beat anybody.”