Watching your defense get picked apart as you lose by 16 in Week 1 is never the way a coach wants to begin a season. Turning around and having to face Peyton Manning & Co. in Week 2 can hardly be a comforting prospect.
The Kansas City Chiefs, which fell to the Titans 26-10 on Sunday as Tennessee quarterback Jake Locker compiled 266 passing yards and two touchdowns, will take on the Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Sunday. And they’ll do so knowing the Broncos still have the best offense in football, but also a defense to be reckoned with now.
“There are similarities as far as scheme, but even with that you can tell they worked during the offseason putting some different stuff,”Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said of the Broncos’ new-look defense.
“I think it’s just a matter of us getting back to what we were doing and the details of how we do it,” he said. “It’s a division game, a chance to get back on the righ track for us.”
But the Chiefs have the tough task of doing so without a couple of key cogs on their defense: tackle Mike DeVito and linebacker Derrick Johnson, who were both lost to injuries. To help make up for their losses, the team picked up former Bronco Kevin Vickerson, who will quickly jump into the starting role.
“We welcome him aboard,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of Vickerson on Wednesday. “There’s a void on the defensive line as far as the rotation we put together, so he’ll work in there and be a part of that.”
And they’ll certianly need him. The Chiefs gave up a total of 405 yards to the Titans in Week 1 and now face a team that piled on 361 total offensive yards in its opener, thanks to Manning being Manning and tight Julius Thomas catching three touchdowns in the span of about 12 minutes.
On the other end of the field, Reid knows his offense faces a much greater challenge this year against Denver, which revamped its defense with the offseason signings of cornerback Aqib Talib, defensive end DeMarcus Ware and safety T.J. Ward.
“T.J.’s been a good football player for a lot of years,” Reid said. “He’s just transferred that over to the Broncos. He’s a physical player, and we look forward to playing him.”
Reid said he hopes to get running back Jamaal Charles involved more Sunday — he had only seven carries for 19 yards against the Titans.
“I probably didn’t do a good enough job of that last week,” Reid said. “I hope he touches the ball more than seven times, but we’ll see how things roll.”
Smith, however, is just eager to just get back to work.
“You have a lot of expectations and to come out and to play the way we did (against Tennessee) is tough, but it’s done,” he said. “We didn’t come home with the win, and that’s the bottom line. We’ve got to find a way to regroup.”
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or at
