Undisciplined Broncos Defense Is Cause for Concern in Quest for Repeat AFC Title

It’s Super Bowl title or bust for a team that fell one game shy of that goal last season. Everyone inside and outside the organization understands that the expectations for the Denver Broncos couldn’t be higher.

On Sunday, the Broncos managed to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 24-17 at home to move to 2-0, but it was far from a dominant performance. The play of an undisciplined defense is especially cause for concern for a team that wants to be able to beat the NFL’s best.

The Chiefs are not an offensive juggernaut, but the Broncos still struggled to get off the field all afternoon. Chiefs star running back Jamaal Charles even hurt his ankle early in the game, and Kansas City was already dealing with injuries to a thin offensive line, but that didn’t seem to be an advantage for Denver’s defense.

General manager John Elway spent the offseason trying to improve a defense that was a liability at times last season. The additions of defensive end DeMarcus Ware, strong safety T.J. Ward and cornerback Aqib Talib were supposed to help a suspect defense rebound, but it’s now clear that it might take a while to jell.

It’s Week 2, so there’s still time to get things corrected. It’s also a lot easier to be patient with a 2-0 record than a 0-2 record—especially considering the Broncos head to Seattle to play the team that trounced them last February in the Super Bowl and is coming off a tough loss to the Chargers.

Still, it took defensive stops inside of two minutes to seal both of Denver’s victories this season. That shouldn’t happen with a high-powered offense if the defense is also performing.

The offense is also clearly not an issue.

Quarterback Peyton Manning had just five incomplete passes, no interceptions and threw three touchdowns against the Chiefs. The Broncos also averaged 4.6 yards per carry on 19 carries or 5.4 per carry on 17 rushes if you don’t count negative rushes by Manning and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders.

The defense’s biggest issue was penalties, which should be an easy correction to make in theory. The Broncos committed 11 penalties for 71 yards, including eight on the defensive side of the ball. The Chiefs declined another defensive penalty that would have made it nine.

Down	Penalty	Penalty on	Yards Enforced	Result of Penalty	Drive Result	Chiefs Time of Possession
3rd-and-8	Defensive Offside	Von Miller	0	Declined, 1st-and-10	11 Plays, Punt	5:21
3rd-and-9	Defensive Offside	DeMarcus Ware	5	3rd-and-4	7 Plays, 3 Points	2:14
3rd-and-9	Defensive 12 On-Field	Jack Del Rio	5	3rd-and-4	11 Plays, 7 Points	4:24
2nd-and-8	Illegal Use of Hands	Steven Johnson	5	Automatic 1st down.	11 Plays, 7 Points	4:24
3rd-and-13	Roughing the Passer	Malik Jackson	15	Automatic 1st Down.	23 Plays, Missed FG	9:55
3rd-and-8	Illegal Contact	Chris Harris Jr.	4	Automatic 1st Down.	23 Plays, Missed FG	9:55
3rd-and-5	Defensive Offside	Quanterus Smith	5	Automatic 1st Down.	14 Plays, Turnover on Downs	3:02
1st-and-10	Defensive Offside	Terrance Knighton	5	1st-and-5	14 Plays, Turnover on Downs	3:02

Five of the nine penalties the Broncos committed on defense resulted in first downs; two turned 3rd-and-9 into a manageable 3rd-and-4, one turned a 1st-and-10 into a 1st-and-5 and one inched the Chiefs within two yards of tying the game with just over a minute left in the game.

The penalties kept multiple drives alive and contributed to the Chiefs' near-13-minute advantage in time of possession.

"We're beating ourselves," said veteran cornerback Chris Harris Jr. via Andrew Mason of denverbroncos.com. "It's nothing that they're doing to kill us. It's us."

Seven of the nine defensive penalties came on third down, and five of those times Denver’s defense would have been able to get off the field immediately. The Chiefs converted 11 of their 16 attempts on third down in total, but three came by way of a penalty and another because of a much more manageable situation created by a penalty.

Many more third downs were only possible because the Chiefs couldn’t get off the field.

One of the strengths of the defense was supposed to be its pass rush, which needs to do its best work on third downs. The Broncos finished with just two sacks and frequently lost contain on quarterback Alex Smith, who rushed for 42 yards on five carries. One of those sacks came on a rather meaningless play at the end of the first half.

With the defense unable to get off the field, the Broncos couldn’t take control with their offense. The Broncos had just seven offensive drives, and they scored on four of them—good for 3.42 points per drive. That’s actually better than their 2.83 points-per-drive average from 2013 when they set the record for most points scored in a season, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.

The primary difference is that the Broncos averaged 12.6 offensive drives per game last year.

"I’m just glad we held up at the end and did everything we had to do to get off the field," defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said after the game via quotes distributed by the team. "We’ve just got to do a better job of getting off the field a little quicker and allow our offense to get in a rhythm.”

If the Broncos don’t improve defensively soon, opponents with superior offenses to the Chiefs will try to limit Manning’s opportunities and try to win with efficiency. As it was, the Chiefs made an odd decision to kick the extra point instead of go for two after a fourth-quarter touchdown and two yards at the end of the game away from beating the Broncos Sunday.

It’s no time to panic—the Broncos are still a great team. The playoffs are a near-certainty as long as Manning is healthy, but what the Broncos do once they get there will have to be a team effort. The defense through two weeks hasn’t been the unit that it needs to be 15 weeks from now.

"When you have so many mental mistakes and dumb penalties and breakdowns and things like that, it's because we haven't played long enough together," said Harris via Mason. 

The absence of linebacker Danny Trevathan, who is out with a fractured tibia, could be one factor contributing to the defensive struggles. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio grew to rely on Trevathan last year to make plays in the absence of pass-rusher Von Miller and Harris Jr. The Broncos have depth on the defensive line and to some extent in the secondary, but they had no suitable replacement for their weak-side linebacker.

Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded linebacker Brandon Marshall—forced into action because of Trevathan’s injury—as the worst on the defense last week. The majority of Marshall’s struggles came in coverage, which makes perfect sense, considering how opposing offenses have attacked the Broncos.

Tight ends and running backs would typically be the coverage responsibility of the linebackers, and they were among the most productive for the Chiefs Sunday in the passing game.

Tight end Travis Kelce had four receptions for 81 yards, and tight end Anthony Fasano had three receptions for 39 yards. In total, running backs and tight ends accounted for 57.7 percent of Alex Smith’s completions and 64.3 percent of his passing yards.

Even if Trevathan takes longer than anticipated to come back from a fractured knee, he should return with plenty of time to help the defense get on track before the playoffs.

Until then, the Broncos need to figure out how to get more from what they have. Impact players like Miller, Ware, Ward, Talib and Harris Jr. need to step up if the Broncos are going to get a tough road win next week in Seattle.