In 10 feet of Empower Field grass, the Broncos defense found plenty of real estate to make a stand.
They’d played much better than Monday night’s Kansas City disaster class through 30-plus minutes Sunday against a dangerous Jacksonville offense, and yet a 10-3 game felt in danger of slipping out of reach when the Jaguars set up shop, first-and-goal at the 3-yard line early in the third quarter.
Denver’s offense to that point hadn’t figured out how to get out of its own way. Vance Joseph’s group had mostly held Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence in check, but he sliced and diced the Broncos in the red zone back in December on this same field.
Instead of breaking, though, the Broncos bowed up.
A red-zone stop and a Riley Moss interception later in the quarter wrestled momentum to the home sideline for good and jump-started a run of 17 straight Broncos points to flip a tenuous early-season moment into a 20-13 Denver win and a collective deep breath from Broncos Country.
“We’ve been proving that for the past three years now,” All-Pro defensive tackle Zach Allen said after his team improved to 1-1 on the young season. “It was kind of funny how everybody was freaking out after one game. It’s been slow starts four straight years now.
“Luckily we got back on track today.”
Cornerback Riley Moss (21) of the Denver Broncos celebrates his interception of quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) of the Jacksonville Jaguars during the second half a 20-13 win on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
Flushing the Monday night disaster
On a short week, the Broncos didn’t have any use for the old 24-hour rule after getting manhandled by Kansas City in prime time Monday night.
Instead, they opted for about a one-hour rule.
Some Broncos defenders filtered out of the cramped visiting locker room at Arrowhead Stadium quickly after that 31-10 loss, while others lingered. Most were straightforward with reporters, expressing confidence they’d find solutions quickly.
Alex Singleton and others didn’t wait to start the search.
Singleton said he, fellow inside linebacker Justin Strnad and the rest of Denver’s starting secondary got on the bus, fired up their iPads and watched the destruction back immediately.
By the time the buses left the parking lots, they’d seen enough to decide that if the defense tackled better — and how could it tackle any worse, really? — the production would turn around quickly.
“It was embarrassing and we knew it was,” Singleton said Sunday evening. But it was also so elementary that it didn’t require anything resembling wholesale changes.
The Broncos’ charter landed back in Denver shortly after 1 a.m., meaning players and coaches didn’t get back to their cars at the team facility until the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Before heading home for some shut-eye, Singleton and Joseph had a quick parking lot chat.
“It was just, ‘Bring these guys together and we’ll go play our brand of football,’” Singleton said of Joseph’s message. “That’s what we were able to do today.”
From the jump, really.
The Denver defense forced punts on Jacksonville’s first two drives of the afternoon before surrendering a 72-yard touchdown drive that was set up by a 32-yard completion to Parker Washington in which he ran free through the middle of Denver’s defense.
“We believe in what we’re running,” Singleton said. “We made some adjustments early in the second quarter and we were able to pretty much shut them out after that.”
Indeed, the Jaguars took the ball into scoring territory three more times but came away with just six points, including a missed 54-yard field goal, in the fourth quarter.
“I thought they were outstanding,” head coach Sean Payton said of his defenders.
Denver defense is built for ‘the bumps’
The Denver offense turned Moss’ interception and the missed field goal into touchdown drives of their own, revving into gear just in time.
Quarterback Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos throws during the second half a 20-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
In that way, it looked a lot like so many of the Broncos’ wins in 2025. Dominant defense and a late surge from quarterback Bo Nix.
“It’s why a lot of these players are here, from a make-up standpoint,” Payton said of his team. “They’re not here for the wins. They’re here for some of the bumps that we know are going to come. It was much better, obviously, defensively, better in the second half offensively, and on special teams. It was a good team we played.
“It was a good win.”
Perhaps, ultimately, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Broncos defense played well. Overwhelmingly, that’s been the way of the world for them over the past two-plus seasons. At the same time, however, the challenge on this day was two-fold: First, Week 1 wasn’t just bad. It was as thorough a breakdown in basic tackling as you’ll find in the NFL. Then, the not-too-distant visage of Lawrence ripping up essentially this same defense for 279 yards and four total touchdowns in clinical fashion last December loomed fairly fresh in the club’s collective memory.
In that game, Lawrence and head coach Liam Coen engineered four touchdowns in five red zone trips, by far the worst day of the season for the Broncos’ otherwise league-leading defense in that department.
This time around, Denver was much stingier thanks, in part, to a red-zone plan put together by outside linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker.
In that game, the Jaguars converted 8-of-15 third-down chances and rolled to 346 offensive yards. On Sunday, they converted three of their first five third-down attempts but then went just 2-of-7 the rest of the way, finishing with 268 total yards.
On that day, the Broncos’ defense wilted and an 11-game winning streak ended. This time around, it rose to the occasion and kept a losing streak from taking root.
This time, the defense held serve in the home opener.
This time, it helped the Broncos get back on track — and delivered the team to its first normal game week of the season on more stable ground.
“It’s early in the season,” defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike said. “Whether you like it or not, in the first couple of games, there’s going to be mistakes until everybody settles into their role. Definitely, we did a good job correcting a lot of the stuff from last week and carrying into this week.
“We’re going to do the same from this game and carry it into the next game.”
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