Broncos’ defense vows to finish all four quarters

Good morning, Broncos Country!

For the first half of Sunday’s game against Seattle, the Denver Broncos’ defense and special teams proved the offseason hype was for real.

The defense had two sacks, held Geno Smith to 8 of 12 completions for just 59 yards, allowed just one (out of five) third-down conversion, and most importantly, kept the running game in check at 56 yards — 34 of which were from a long QB scramble, meaning the two running backs had just 22 combined rushing yards over two quarters.

But then the defense unraveled.

In the third quarter, the Seattle Seahawks’ run game broke open. After the Broncos went three-and-out on the opening drive, Seattle’s offense marched down the field and right into the end zone off the heels of Kenneth Walker III, who gained 53 yards of the 61-yard drive.

“Seattle came out with a lot more tempo in the third. They hit a couple of runs. They kind of had us reeling a little bit with their play mix, run, play pass,” head coach Sean Payton said. “I’m sure they looked at halftime of just trying to create more tempo because they were struggling in the first half.”

Payton noted on Monday that momentum often shifts in a game, but more experienced teams are able to keep the momentum shift on their side a little longer.

“The teams that become more battle-tested and experienced are able to keep the momentum a little longer,” he said. “Then when the pendulum swings back, they can quickly correct it.”

The second-half let-down, coupled with the Broncos’ unproductive offense, led to 17 unanswered points before the Broncos finally put together a decent drive with just over four minutes to play.

“It sucks to lose a game,” inside linebacker Alex Singleton said after the game. “There’s a lot to learn from. Stuff that we preached in the offseason was there. Defensively, obviously, we want that third quarter back. I think it wasn’t how we wanted to play.”

Singleton and his fellow defenders all reiterated that “it’s just week one” — which is true — but after putting so much energy into improving the run defense, it was a shame to see the effort erased so quickly in one quarter.

“One game doesn’t define you. We’re going to come back, get better,” Singleton said, adding that his big lessons were “stopping the run” and “not losing the momentum for as long as we did in that game.”

Zach Allen said the defense needed to do a better job adjusting to the up-tempo, four-minute offense the Seahawks brought after half.

“It’s just football. Again, it’s week one and we’re a very good team,” he said. “We have a lot of high-end, high-paid players so I’m not worried about it. ...We have to do a better job of making those adjustments. We’re going to get there.”

Jonathan Cooper believes the fixes won’t be too tough; it’s just a matter of keeping the momentum after halftime.

“It was just that second half and as long as we address that, as long as we come out with that same energy and get even better and clean up some things, we’re going to be a really solid defense,” he said, adding that he’s not discouraged. “We can’t give up some runs as much as we did. That has to be an emphasis for us going into next week. And we’ll stay on that for the rest of the season. ...It’s a really good opportunity to get better. As long as everyone sticks together and has that type of mindset and learns from this, the sky’s the limit.”

Pat Surtain, who did his job holding DK Metcalf to three catches for 29 yards, pointed out the defense plans to keep starting fast and just learn from Sunday’s mistakes and move forward.

“That’s how we’re always looking to start the game off, always creating momentum for us,” Surtain said. “But the main goal for us is just to finish those crucial downs where we need to get off the field. I think we can be better that way. Overall, we can correct those.”

Surtain also wasn’t going to blame being on the field a lot in the second half. Whatever the situation with the offense, he wants the defense to be accountable for itself.

“When we go out there, we expect to do our job no matter what the situation is. We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable at the end of the day. I mean, no one else is out there playing for us,” Surtain added. “We’ve just got to finish off all four quarters of the game, all four phases. That’s the main thing.”

Broncos/NFL News

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