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Broncos defense has a week to reverse its slide

Jan 1, 2025, 1:50 PM | Updated: 1:50 pm

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For the Denver Broncos defense, the days of being one of the NFL’s top units have quickly fallen into the rear-view mirror.

A unit that ranked No. 3 in the NFL in total defense heading into December has fallen so far that it barely resides in the NFL’s top half of the full-season rankings, now resting at No. 15. Its pass defense has plummeted from 9th to 25th. Only against the run have the Broncos maintained their form, dropping only to 8th from 6th in the league heading into December.

Getting cornerback Riley Moss back in Cincinnati did not slow Denver’s descent. But he offered the most telling perspective in the wake of a 30-24 overtime loss that saw the Bengals pick at the second-year cornerback.

“We gotta be able to put the fire out when something goes bad,” Moss said. “That’s what great defenses do is they figure out a way to get off the field and you know we got to dial it in.”

But being ranked No. 15 in total defense for the season doesn’t reflect where the Broncos stand right now.

32

That is the Broncos’ ranking in total defense this month. They ranked No. 3 in the NFL in defense heading into December before Jameis Winston and Jerry Jeudy sliced and diced Denver’s secondary in what would be a 41-32 Broncos win.

The Broncos have the same total-defense ranking in the last four weeks that they had in the first four weeks of Vance Joseph’s tenure as defensive coordinator in 2023: dead last. But the team turned it around in between.

8

That’s where the Broncos ranked in total defense from Week 5 of the 2023 season through Week 12 of this season. In between the two four-week bursts of leaking yardage at a calamitous rate, Joseph’s defense did its job — and did it well, offering hope that it can put the pieces back together in time for January to look nothing like December.

3

Number of games in Broncos history in which the team has failed to force a punt in regulation, with the defense not generating a Cincinnati punt until the first series of overtime.

Week 18 marked only the second time in the last half-century that the Broncos failed to force a punt. The other occasion was the infamous Christmas Day debacle of 2022, when the Rams never punted as they shredded Denver, 51-14.

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