Derek Wolfe wants to see Denver Broncos clean up ‘dumb’ penalties and mistakes

The Denver Broncos have won a single game in the last two months and its beginning to wear on veterans like Derek Wolfe.

“I think it’s those one or two plays a game that we usually make that we haven’t been making,” Wolfe said on Monday. “We’re losing a ton of close games. That shows you that we’re a lot better team than we were last year. It’s just one of those things where the ball doesn’t roll our way sometimes. We’re losing by two or three points—dumb penalties, dumb mistakes and just things that we need to get cleaned up. Us leaders need to step it up.”

He’s right about the dumb penalties and dumb mistakes costing the Broncos more than a couple of games during this losing streak. Whether its a drive-killing offensive holding call or a third-down defensive penalty to extend opposing teams’ drives, it has been the little things that have held the Broncos back in 2018.

Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic asked Wolfe earlier this week about his time with Denver and you could sense his frustration with losing was getting to him.

“I thought we were going to have a quarterback. I thought we were going to keep a lot of the guys on the defense,” he said. “That’s why I took that haircut. A huge haircut, because I wanted to stay here and be a part of the best defense to play it. I didn’t know that Wade (Phillips) was going to end up leaving. I thought I would have Wade for a while. Nothing against Joe Woods, I just was really comfortable with where I was at. Then everything changed.”

Wolfe may be disappointed with the direction the Broncos have taken since winning Super Bowl 50, but he’s here and wants to find a way to make it work. He wants to win.

“It feels like forever since we’ve won a game,” Wolfe said. “I don’t care who it is, I just want to win. I just want to win next week and take it one game—one play, one series—take it one game at a time.