Lindsay H. Jones

USA TODAY Sports

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Super Bowl 50 might still be a week away, but the Denver Broncos believe they did enough work this week that they could have played the Carolina Panthers this Sunday.

The Broncos will head to Santa Clara, Calif. on Sunday, but the team did all of its game planning and installation during three practice sessions in Denver, head coach Gary Kubiak said Saturday.

“It's really hard when the game is two weeks away to ask your players, your organization to say, 'No, no, no, we're playing this week, we're going to focus this week.' That's hard on them, but coaches, administration, players, they've all done a really good job,” Kubiak said. “I really feel good getting on the plane tomorrow that they're close to being ready to go.”

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Kubiak said that means three practice sessions held at Stanford University in Palo Alto should be shorter than normal and intended to sharpen and reinforce what the team worked on while they were still in Colorado.

“We'll continue our meetings and that stuff, and how we prepare to play, but I want them relaxed. They've done the work. I want them to enjoy themselves and get ready to go,” Kubiak said.

That’s a change from the way the Broncos handled their preparation before the Super Bowl two years ago, and it was different for defensive end Antonio Smith, who played in the Super Bowl with the Arizona Cardinals in 2008.

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“As players, Kubiak sprung it on us. But our coach believes in what he believes, and we believe in him,” Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “He believes us getting the bulk of our work now will help us next week, with all the things that are going to be going on, all the distractions. You already have a good baseline, where you won't be trying to take in knowledge and at the same time, you got all this other kind of stuff going on and you won't be able to focus as much.”

Another change for the Broncos practice routine from their Super Bowl preparation two years ago was practicing with crowd noise. Though Levi’s Stadium is considered a neutral site, the Broncos don’t want to get caught unprepared if they find themselves needing to use a silent count on offense.

That happened on their first series in the Super Bowl against Seattle, when they opened the game backed up near their goal line. Quarterback Peyton Manning and former center Manny Ramirez miscommunicated on the opening snap and the ball whizzed past Manning’s head and resulted in a safety.

“Peyton mentioned that to me, so we took the approach this week to practice with noise. We can always go the other way, that's a positive, so we tried to approach it that way,” Kubiak said.