Flacco reveals the key to beating the Raiders on the road

Joe Flacco is hoping to begin his Broncos career with his 45th road victory as a starting QB.

Joe Flaccos has the distinction of winning seven road playoff games over his 11-year NFL career. It's the most for a starting QB in league history. 

Flacco has 106 career victories, which is the fifth-most among active QBs. 44 of those wins have come on the road. The Denver Broncos' new starting QB has played a lot of football and the team is hopeful that experience will pay off in 2019. 

Flacco is cool, calm and collected in the heat of battle, whether at home or on the road. Head coach Vic Fangio sees that one of Flacco's strongest attributes. 

“He’s not an up-and-down guy emotionally," Fangio said on Wednesday. "I think that’s a strength of his.”

With the Broncos opening the regular season on the road for the first time in many years, Joe Cool will get to ply his wares in front of a hostile crowd. With the Oakland Raiders first up on the schedule, the Broncos' recent struggles to win on the road in-Division are a prominent trope on local radio. 

The Broncos have only won a single, solitary AFC West road game over the last three seasons — a Week 11 victory last year vs. the L.A. Chargers. When it comes to the Raiders, the Broncos haven't beaten them in the Black Hole since 2015. 

On Wednesday, Flacco spoke to what it's going to take for the Broncos to snap that ignominious streak this week on Monday Night Football. 

“You keep it simple and you play football," Flacco said. "You allow everyone to play fast and that allows them to play physical and do the things that you really need to do to play football. I think sometimes if you try to get too cute, then you go into an atmosphere that’s already going to maybe lean on making you play a little bit slower than you should and you make that even worse. Now you’re not playing as fast and physical and getting off the ball like you should be and that ends up—that tenth of a second here and there, it builds up and it ends up hurting you.” 

To summarize, Flacco says winning on the road is about keeping it simple so that you can play fast. It would be nice to see the Broncos' offense start fast on Monday night, especially after the first-team unit failed to score anything other than a field goal in the preseason. Zero touchdowns.

One potential leg-up for Flacco going into Oakland, though, is the fact that he'll be going against a familiar defensive coordinator in Paul Guenther. As a Baltimore Raven, Flacco competed against the Cincinnati Bengals and Guenther's defensive scheming from 2014-17.

“I faced him a bunch in Cincinnati there," Flacco said. "On base downs, they’re going to do what they do. They’re also going to throw in their pressures and see if you’re ready to handle them. They’re going to all-out blitz you once you get down in there or when the critical time comes. When I played him in Cincinnati, they’ve always had a good front that’s been able to get after you a little bit and he’s been able to show you multiple looks to kind of keep you off balance with those. Like I said, we’ve got to play our game and not worry as much as we can about his.” 

The flipside to that coin is that Guenther is intimately familiar with Flacco's strengths and weaknesses. However, Guenther has no experience coaching against new Broncos OC Rich Scangarello, so the way I see it, the advantage is with Flacco, despite the game being on Guenther's turf. 

The wait is soon over. Broncos Country will get their first look (officially) at 'Mile High' Joe Flacco in Oakland on Monday night. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.