Vance Joseph left no room for ambiguity.<\/p>\n
The marching orders for the Broncos defense this week after back-to-back last-second losses are abundantly clear.<\/p>\n
Games need not come down to Justin Herbert making an all-world play to tie the game with 2 minutes, 37 seconds left. They shouldn\u2019t be collectively holding their breaths as an opposing kicker approaches the ball for a walk-off field goal attempt.<\/p>\n
Joseph\u2019s defense needs to close better, he acknowledges. The Denver defense did it with a flourish Week 1 against Tennessee and has seen Indianapolis and the Los Angeles Chargers score late to win games in the weeks since.<\/p>\n
But that, Joseph says, is not the primary problem.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Closing) has been a conversation, but it\u2019s more about playing a cleaner and smarter brand of football for four quarters vs. waiting for the last series of the game to make our plays,\u201d Joseph said Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re playing hard, we\u2019re playing good football overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re not playing clean enough and we\u2019re not playing smart enough football.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 7.5 minutes at the podium on Friday talking with reporters, Joseph used \u201cclean\u201d or \u201ccleaner\u201d eight times.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not about Herbert stepping away from a sack attempt or Riley Moss losing a contested battle to Keenan Allen in the end zone.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Talanoa Hufanga committing a personal foul to jumpstart the touchdown drive. A third-and-10 miscommunication on the same play. John Franklin-Myers getting tagged for a relatively rare defensive holding. Nik Bonitto lining up offside on a fourth-and-4 punt that handed the Chargers a first down. Pat Surtain II had an illegal contact penalty. Moss and Hufanga both got called for pass interference. So on and so forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalties on defense concern me, and they\u2019re happening in the biggest moments of the game,\u201d Joseph said. \u201c\u2026 There\u2019s two kinds of penalties. Pre-snap, which we don\u2019t want ever, and aggressive penalties that we can accept from time to time. But when they hurt you, you can\u2019t separate them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s costing us games right now. We can\u2019t separate those. We have to, in those moments, play clean football. And if they call them, we have to correct them. We have to deal with it.\u201c<\/p>\n
The Broncos were plus-86 yards in penalty differential Week 1. The past two weeks, they were a combined minus-80. Defensively, they\u2019ve been booked for 16 penalties and had five more declined.<\/p>\n
Key defensive players have drawn special teams penalties, too, most notably Dondrea Tillman\u2019s leverage foul on the deciding field goal against Indianapolis<\/a>, but also Bonitto lining up offside on the punt. That play head coach Sean Payton equated to a turnover earlier this week.<\/p>\n Bonitto said he didn\u2019t think he was lined up offside on the punt in the moment, but when he saw the replay, he realized he was.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just something I\u2019ve got to be smarter about and look to the sideline, make sure I\u2019m good with the ref,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n