Broncos linebackers weigh in on yet another disappointing loss

It’s just painful to see how many ways the Denver Broncos can throw a game in their current state. Even with their defense holding Derrick Henry to just 53 yards, and even after ending the first half with a strong lead, they couldn’t bring it home.

Of course, the offense wasn’t without its bright spots today. There was Jalen Virgil’s first career catch, which resulted in a 66-yard touchdown.

When Virgil met with the media on Sunday, he excitedly broke down the moment of the score. “Russ saw something and he checked it. I had like a wide end vertical route and they kind of lost me in coverage. Russ hit me at the perfect time and I was able to execute it.”

Hopefully, this will be the first of many personal successes for Virgil.

“It feels like a great starting point for me,” he said, “Obviously, it was my first game, my catch and everything like that. So, it feels like it’s a great starting point for me. I want to do everything I can to build off of it and just keep the momentum going.”

Unfortunately, we all know how the bulk of the game went. Russell Wilson was sacked six times for a loss of 39 yards. We sustained more injuries. For the defense’s part, linebacker Josey Jewell shared that they could’ve forced more turnovers. “I think we could have had another one or two. We just need to keep on striving for those turnovers,” he said.

I’m not sure how much I agree that the defense needs to be working harder, although I commend Jewell’s humility and sportsmanship. And since I mentioned earlier that this defense held Derrick Henry to just 53 yards, I’ll circle back to that. Henry was the defense’s main focus, according to Jewell.

“Yeah, that was our rule number one for us,” he admitted, “Take him down first and then hopefully play off the pass on that one.”

Asked how it feels to be 3-6 now, Jewell shared some words from Courtland Sutton’s post-game talk. “Court had a great talk today after the game about not just coming in here and checking a box off,” he said, “And that’s what we’re going to do...we’re going to go to work and we’re going to try to hone our craft as best as possible and keep on grinding every single day and try to get better.”

While sharing his own frustration with the results of the game, LB Jonathon Cooper also praised the opposing team’s efforts. “Obviously, you saw they knew us down the field and got to where they wanted. They made plays too. You got to give credit where credit is due. We’re a good defense, but they’re also a good offense and a good team.”

Cooper didn’t seem to think it was easier to handle the losses because they were such close scores. He did, however, mention finding inspiration from Courtland Sutton’s speech just as Josey Jewell did.

“It’s frustrating. Losing sucks and everybody just embraces that, we know losing sucks. We know we’re a better team than what our record shows,” he confessed, “But I feel like Courtland said exactly what we needed to hear after the game and just was talking to us. We’ve got to take it week by week and work hard.”

“Obviously these five games are one-score. And it’s frustrating, but we got to take it week by week and keep working hard, and at the end of this thing we’ll look up and see what we did.”