Week 1 thumping has stuck with Broncos defense, Vance Joseph

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When the Broncos found themselves on the business end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ flogging of them in Week 1, it didn’t take long for the team — and particularly the defense — to ascertain a root cause of what went haywire as the team absorbed its first loss by more than two scores since the 2024 wild-card round.

Tackling, tackling, tackling.

Depending on which service you consulted, Broncos defenders missed anywhere from 24 to 28 tackles over the course of that season-opening 31-10 defeat. Kansas City running backs Kenneth Walker III and Emmett Johnson each broke three tackles apiece, to say nothing of the diving attempts that left Broncos defenders flailing and Chiefs skill-position players accumulating yardage after contact and the catch.

Per Sport Radar, 161 of Kansas City’s 220 rushing yards in Week 1 came after contact, and 166 of their 184 gross passing yards were after the catch.

The debriefing with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph one day later was, well …

“It wasn’t good, I’ll tell you that much,” edge rusher Nik Bonitto recalled. “Xs and Os, he gets it. But when it comes to just, like, physicality and putting your body on somebody, he’s not letting that go.

“And I don’t think he will be until we’re able to show that against this team this week.”

To that end, Joseph circled back to the Broncos’ Week 1 performance when he met with his defensive players Wednesday. But it wasn’t just in the vein of remembering all that went askew over the course of that Monday night.

That wasn’t easy for Joseph.

“He’s still like, damn near wants to throw up every time he has to look back at that Week 1 film,” Bonitto said, “and it’s because he knows that’s not our type of football that he’s used to seeing.”

 

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The days that followed the Week 1 debacle were about taking something from the contest and applying it forward.

Take tackling, for starters. After being credited with 24 missed tackles in that game per Pro Football Focus data, they’ve averaged fewer than half as many per game in the subsequent six weeks, averaging 11.5 per contest.

Few have atoned better than inside linebacker Alex Singleton, for instance. He missed four tackles in Week 1. He has missed just five in the six games since, as he’s continued to rack up stops at a stunning pace, accumulating 87 over the course of the season — including 32 in the last two games, with 19 against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7.

As Singleton observed, when Joseph met with defensive players Wednesday, he made a point of showing some of the moments that went right for the Broncos defense back in Week 1.

“It’s easy to sit here, just looking back on it and think, ‘We sucked. We gave up 31 points,’ all that stuff,” Singleton said. “But you have to go back and find the good, too and build off of that.

“So, I think that was really nice with VJ this morning, was to really start with that. Like, ‘Don’t just put your head down and think whatever’s coming into town this week that scored 31 points against us. It wasn’t who we are.’

“And then we watched plays [from Week 1] and there were plays that showed who we are. Even the first drive, they’ve scored on the first drive of every game this year except last week, but ours wasn’t easy.”

The Chiefs had a short field after Mansoor Delane’s interception and needed just 46 yards to score, but the Broncos defense got Kansas City into a fourth down and another third down before finally buckling.

“And it’s just, ‘If we win this third down, we’re off (the field),'” Singleton continued. It’s things like that, finding those plays and what we need to do as a team, and tackling, all this stuff we’ve talked about with you guys for seven weeks now. It’s just getting back to those fundamentals and just playing the way that we know how we’re going to play, and doing that this weekend.”

BRONCOS DEFENSE GOT ITS ‘WAKE-UP CALL’ IN WEEK 1

If the Broncos defense wasn’t awake heading into Week 1, it was quickly roused thereafter.

Denver rebounded by eventually shutting down the Jacksonville Jaguars six days later, rallying from a 13-3 deficit in the process, and then their defense helped power the comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3 thanks to a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions from safety Talanoa Hufanga.

“I think it was a great wake-up call for us,” edge rusher Que Robinson said, reflecting on Week 1. “Not to say that we was going out there, playing timid or anything like that. … I just think that what we have to do is continue to play aggressive, focus on taking the ball away more, affecting the quarterback and playing with a great sense of urgency.”

And as if the Broncos defense needed any more motivation, it will get it from its coordinator, whose presence is revered within the defensive room.

“We’re going to play for him. We’re going to play hard for him,” Bonitto said.

Added Robinson: “I think VJ is really wanting us to put our best foot forward. And we don’t want to go out there and represent him in the wrong way, either.

“But, yeah, man, that’s really what it is. He’s just harping on, ‘Hey, we did not put our best foot forward against these guys last time.’

“[The Chiefs] are not going to make it easy, but we’ve got to go out there and play with our hair on fire, for sure.”

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