-
Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Five games ago, the Denver Broncos defense was in a full spiral after a 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins, when Mike McDaniel’s offense put up 10 touchdowns, 350 yards rushing and 726 yards worth of total offense.
“After Miami,” Broncos safety Justin Simmons said, “there was a lot of self-reflection.”
While nobody is saying the Broncos have found the magic elixir, the defense has somehow pushed its way far closer to even-keel headed into the team’s bye week. The Broncos have won three of the five games since the disaster in South Florida, and with Sunday’s 24-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, they have surrendered 19, 17 and 9 points over their last three games and held two of their last three opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing.
And in the season split with the Chiefs over the last three weeks — Sunday’s win snapped a 16-game losing streak to Kansas City that dated back to 2015 — the Broncos held the Chiefs’ offense to one touchdown in the two games.
“We knew if we needed to change this season around we needed to get after them,” said Broncos linebacker Jonathon Cooper. “Winning at home [on Sunday] is a huge part of it, too. We just wanted to come out with that energy and that swag to us. I feel like we did that.”
Given the statistical anchor of the Dolphins loss, the Broncos are still at, or near the bottom of the league’s defensive rankings in most major categories. But over the course of their last three games in particular — wins over Green Bay and Kansas City to go with the Oct. 12 loss to the Chiefs — they have defended the run better, cleaned up what was a shockingly high total of missed tackles and created turnovers.
Linebacker Josey Jewell said it all involved reeling in defenders who repeatedly tried to do too much on every play.
“We knew we we’d come out of it,” Jewell said. ” … Everybody just looking at the playbook a little more, not trying to do too much.”
He added Sunday: “I think we can do this every week.”
Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph drew a lot of attention after the Miami trip, which was followed by 171 yards and 234 yards rushing allowed to the Bears and Jets, respectively. All the while he promised “we’ll get it fixed,” and he did tweak the lineup in recent weeks.
Cornerback Fabian Moreau, a seventh-year veteran, was moved into the starting lineup in place of Damarri Mathis, and Ja’Quan McMillian was moved into the nickel cornerback spot. McMillian, who was signed by the Broncos as an undrafted rookie after the 2022 draft, spent 17 weeks on the Broncos’ practice squad last season before starting in the season finale.
McMillian plays with a no-retreat edge and had his first career interception Sunday to go with two tackles for loss. Joseph has said McMillian has the “perfect profile” to play the slot cornerback role.
The Broncos have also gotten Baron Browning back from offseason knee surgery. Browning has played in the last two games and had two of the team’s three sacks on Patrick Mahomes Sunday to go with a forced fumble.
“I think it is just how do we fine-tune the details, because that was what we were missing,” Simmons said. “… I’m not just coming up here and saying communication each and every week so it sounds good. That is really the No. 1 thing you work on … I think you go, and you watch the tape, and you look at the communication and you look at the busted coverages or coverages that it looks like (we are) on top of it, it all comes down to communication and how you see it and how guys work in harmony together, from the linebacker position to the secondary.”
Even during the lowest points, the team’s most veteran players, from Simmons to Jewell to linebacker Alex Singleton and safety Kareem Jackson, were adamant the troubles were far more rooted in players missing details than the plans from Joseph. After Miami, Jackson went as far as to say “we didn’t execute anything” that was in the defensive gameplan.
“People have to relax a little bit, it wasn’t [Joseph’s] fault,” Jewell said.
The challenges, and the risk of reverting to those early struggles, certainly await with the Bills (No. 4 in the league in scoring) immediately following the bye to go with Detroit (No. 8), two games with the Chargers (No. 9) and Cleveland (No. 13) still on the schedule.
“We knew we could do it,” McMillian said. ” … We just kept fighting.”