Vance Joseph’s defense powered the Broncos’ surge back into contention.
The offense and special teams had its moments with timely touchdown drives or field-tilting returns, but wins followed once Denver’s defense transformed from one of the NFL’s worst groups into one of its best.
That run, of course, came to a screeching halt Saturday night in Detroit when the Lions ripped the Broncos for 42 points, 448 yards and 29 first downs.
Joseph’s group won’t see another offense with that kind of firepower over its final three weeks. But it also knows another dud will likely end the Broncos’ playoff hopes, especially considering its backed by an offense thatap been league average.
“This time of the year, we know we have to win so you just throw it away, move on and play the way we know we can play,” inside linebacker Alex Singleton told The Denver Post. “We have to in order to win these next three games.”
Sunday night, Denver hosts a New England team that is last in the NFL in scoring and No. 28 in yardage. In three games around their bye week recently, they scored a grand total of 13 points against Indianapolis, the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Chargers. Since then, they scored 21 in a win against Pittsburgh and 17 last week against Kansas City.
In one regard, the key to stopping a bad offense is similar to the key to slowing a good one: Start fast.
“Saturday we didn’t play well. We didn’t tackle well. We were very average in the red zone and on third down,” Joseph said. “I’ve got to coach better, obviously, and we’ve got to play better. Our defense plays very well when we can dictate, and on Saturday night we did not. We chased them. Some known rushing downs they were passing the ball, some known passing downs they’re running the football. We had no chance to dictate and get ahead of the sticks. We don’t play well when that happens. Nobody does.
“Just getting back to dictating, winning first down, pressuring the quarterback and taking the ball away. Thatap our recipe to win.”
The Broncos defense did plenty of it in the seven weeks before Detroit. It forced turnovers. It rattled opposing quarterbacks. It didn’t allow an opponent to score more than 22 points.
Denver’s run game tightened up, too, allowing an average of 90.7 yards per game over their three previous before the Lions racked up 185.
“Thatap playing defense in this league,” Joseph said. “If you can’t stop the run, they dictate. Thatap what happened to us on Saturday. Their running game was really good early, so when you’re playing certain defenses, you get voids in the coverage in the secondary. So stopping the run allows you to dictate and pressure on certain downs and play more coverage on certain downs.
“Stopping the run is always critical.”
Take it from the Broncos’ play-caller.
“If itap second-and-4, every call in the plan is up,” head coach Sean Payton said Friday. “If itap second-and-8, I’ve got to get back on schedule. Obviously, staying ahead of the chains — (New England) is a pretty good first-down offense. Statistically speaking, they’re one of the better first-down offenses. So understanding what they want to do — they’re close to 50/50 run/pass, the ball’s coming out quick, receiver screens, quick game, they’ll take a shot or two. (Quarterback Bailey Zappe) likes the tight ends.
“We’ll have to get acclimated to how they’re playing.”
Joseph thinks his group is primed to get back on track down the gotta-have-it stretch.
“We’ve been there before and no one is panicking,” he said. “We’re just working at it, we have a good plan for these guys and getting rested and finishing strong. I’m fine with where we are.
“Obviously that wasn’t a good performance on Saturday, but no worries going forward.”
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.
