Denver Native (Carol)
12-02-2016, 12:40 PM
Coffee is for closers. Or in the Broncos’ case, the playoffs are for closers.
Denver’s defense, long the strength of the team, has squandered a lead late in each of its past two games. At New Orleans, a blocked extra point and score distracted from an alarming two-minute collapse. And against Kansas City last weekend, there were no defensive heroics to save the day. Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith marched his team to the tying score late, then two field goals in overtime for a 30-27 victory.
“If you give us an eight-point lead, I would bet my game check that no one would score on us, so I would have been in debt right now,” Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib said, laughing. “I’m going to bet it every time. So we put that (loss to the Chiefs) on us.”
The defense’s focus now shifts toward fixing its problem. Players point to lapses in pass coverage, costly mistakes including penalties, and being too comfortable in their success the past year and a half as reasons for what’s gone wrong.
“You just assume that everybody is going to do their job,” said defensive end Derek Wolfe. “This defense puts everybody in position to make plays. You assume that person is going to be that position at the right time to make that play. That didn’t happen right there at the end.”
Inside linebacker Brandon Marshall added: “That was the second game in a row. I don’t want to say we relaxed. I know we’re playing more zone at the end of the game. We had a few mental errors, the coverage wasn’t tight enough, we didn’t tackle well.”
Denver has allowed only two scores in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter this season, one each in the past two games. Both came on drives where the opponent had three minutes or less remaining and no timeouts left.
rest - http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/01/broncos-defenses-knack-for-closing-games-vanished/
Denver’s defense, long the strength of the team, has squandered a lead late in each of its past two games. At New Orleans, a blocked extra point and score distracted from an alarming two-minute collapse. And against Kansas City last weekend, there were no defensive heroics to save the day. Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith marched his team to the tying score late, then two field goals in overtime for a 30-27 victory.
“If you give us an eight-point lead, I would bet my game check that no one would score on us, so I would have been in debt right now,” Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib said, laughing. “I’m going to bet it every time. So we put that (loss to the Chiefs) on us.”
The defense’s focus now shifts toward fixing its problem. Players point to lapses in pass coverage, costly mistakes including penalties, and being too comfortable in their success the past year and a half as reasons for what’s gone wrong.
“You just assume that everybody is going to do their job,” said defensive end Derek Wolfe. “This defense puts everybody in position to make plays. You assume that person is going to be that position at the right time to make that play. That didn’t happen right there at the end.”
Inside linebacker Brandon Marshall added: “That was the second game in a row. I don’t want to say we relaxed. I know we’re playing more zone at the end of the game. We had a few mental errors, the coverage wasn’t tight enough, we didn’t tackle well.”
Denver has allowed only two scores in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter this season, one each in the past two games. Both came on drives where the opponent had three minutes or less remaining and no timeouts left.
rest - http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/01/broncos-defenses-knack-for-closing-games-vanished/