Schlereth: Joseph’s grip on Broncos locker room on the line vs. Chiefs

The Denver Broncos head into Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night looking for a chance to gain a game on the AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs.

But perhaps more importantly, the primetime matchup could serve as a catalyst for a Broncos team scuffling in its past two games coming off a bye week or as a landmark in which the season, and perhaps the locker room, slips away from Denver head coach Vance Joseph.

“This is a pivotal game for one Vance Joseph, the head coach of your Denver Broncos,” said “Schlereth & Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth. “There’s always this opportunity. There are always these moments in a coaching career where you become more defined as a head football coach, where you either gain the credibility of your team and you gain the leadership and that aspect from your players or you start to lose it.

“And this, to me, is one of those pivotal games where you’re either going to gain credibility or you’re going to lose come credibility inside that locker room.”

Schlereth said what could sink Joseph’s credibility within the locker room is that he’s given the same reasons for why it got away from the Broncos in all three of the team’s losses in 2017.

“I have heard for three-straight losses … the same exact thing: ‘Hey, they loaded the box. We couldn’t run it. We’ve got a formula for winning. We’ve got to run the ball. We’ve got to run the ball and set up our play-action to take the pressure off our young quarterback,’” Schlereth said.

“It’s the exact same thing, and in all three losses, you did not adhere to that formula one time. You got out of balance again and again and again. And, eventually, you keep saying those things and it will start to fall on deaf ears because your players will say he’s full baloney because he doesn’t adhere to it.”

The comments come on the heels of arguably the lowest point for the Broncos, offensively, in the last 25 years, a shutout loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

On Monday, Broncos head coach Vance Joseph pointed to the lack of a running game in his team’s three losses this season as a culprit for the recent offensive woes.

“In our three victories, that’s where it started. We were in firm control of how we attacked the defense,” Joseph said. “When you’re behind the sticks so much — in our three losses it’s been that way. First down is a stuff, second down is a quick pass, incomplete, and now we’re third-and-10.

“Who wants to operate like that? Again, it’s a unit issue. We have to coach better and we have to play better, all of us.”

Earlier this week, Schlereth called on the Broncos coaching staff to “stick to the darn formula,” which includes staying with the run game.

“We know what the formula is, and if we can’t figure out that it doesn’t work when we throw it 35-plus times a game, then our coaches are stupid,” Schlereth said. “Then we just have the wrong people coaching.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.