Ahead of Sunday night's showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos — and yes, it carries the NFL's greatest-game-ever hype of the week — one major issue settles calmly in the corner.
Jack Del Rio, not John Fox, runs the Broncos in a major AFC West game. It's a significant coaching change wrought by Fox's heart surgery.
The Chiefs are 9-0; the Broncos are 8-1. Pressure?
"I've never looked at it like that," Del Rio told The Denver Post. "You go to a free-throw line to make a game-winning shot, those thoughts aren't in your head. It's doing your job right, taking the three dribbles, exhaling, nice smooth release, make the shot. You do what you do. I was very good at closing out games with my foul shooting."
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Two things to remember: Del Rio was a prep basketball star, the Post notes; and he isn't a novice head coach. Between 2003 and 2011, over a span of 139 regular-season games, he coached the Jacksonville Jaguars. Remember this, too: His Jags weren't the laughingstock the current franchise has become. Del Rio's teams went 68-71, including records of 12-4 and 11-5, and made the playoffs or were contenders.
Remember, also, that Fox and Del Rio are amigos. Fox brought in Del Rio to be his defensive coordinator. The current coaching change, made during a bye week, was an interim appointment of a confidant taking over for an ailing associate/boss.
So decisions in the game will be made by Del Rio with a flavor of Fox, not as an imitation. It's the same message with a different voice.
"You could characterize it how you'd like," Del Rio said this week. "I've said very clearly, [Fox] established a blueprint and I've worked with him before. So, I understand John.
"I also understand myself, having been a head coach for nine years. I can't possibly be at my best if I'm going to stop and pause and go, 'What would John do? Oh, uhhh.' No, I can't do that."
Del Rio has the confidence of Fox, who said so from Charlotte, N.C., where he is recuperating. Their longtime friendship is the glue.
Second-guessing? In a game of Sunday's magnitude, that comes with territory.
"I certainly understand that," Del Rio said. "You tend to get more of those questions after something doesn't work and I get that, too. But I will execute from my standpoint, my responsibilities. That includes making decisions in those situations."
Last week's victory over the Chargers showed the team and its fans that Del Rio knows how to handle things.
The only question Sunday will be whether the Broncos can handle the Chiefs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.