ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- People can't say Vance Joseph didn't warn them.
Before the season, the Denver Broncos' defensive coordinator was asked about the lofty expectations for the team's defense this season and how his group would handle them. Joseph answered how he often does, saying that the top defenses don't have one play, one half, one game or even one month with consistency. The best defenses, he has always said, have a body of work that goes from the beginning of the season to the end.
"Defensively, we can't punt," Joseph said. "We can't just go out there and play bad for two downs and then punt. We have to get them stopped. ... We have a good scheme. Guys play hard. We have the right pieces in the right positions. [But] in this league, every play matters. Someone can fall. Someone can miss a tackle. ... So it's a fine line. It's day-to-day, week-to-week."
The Broncos' defense has already felt the pendulum of inconsistency swing during the first two weeks of the 2025 season, from an elite effort in a Week 1 win over the Tennessee Titans to a host of red flags in Sunday's loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Those are problems the Broncos don't want to see when they play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday in SoFi Stadium (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS).
The Colts had four plays of at least 40 yards against the Broncos this past Sunday. To put that into context, Denver surrendered eight such plays the entirety of last season. And no play rattled the Broncos' defensive sensibilities more than the 68-yard run Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor snapped off early in the fourth quarter. Taylor had only 38 yards rushing on 11 carries at halftime but finished with 165 yards on 25 carries. That's more rushing yardage than the Broncos allowed to any team last season (149 yards, perhaps fittingly to the Colts).
The loss to the Colts was an alarming stumble given that Joseph and the Broncos defensive players routinely talk about the need to stop the run, even in today's pass-happy NFL. They believe that run defense is what provides the best down-and-distance situations to rush the passer. And that there is a certain physicality in defenses that stop the run, a toughness the Broncos (1-1) will need Sunday as they try to avoid falling into an early two-game hole in the AFC West.
"I felt like we had a lot of mental mistakes [Sunday]," Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto said. "Things that just kept boiling over and kind of led to us losing ... myself included. We have to be better than that."
The Chargers (2-0) will be the Broncos' first division opponent this season and make physicality their hallmark. Los Angeles likes to employ heavy formations featuring one of the biggest offensive lines in the league. The Chargers often use six offensive linemen in addition to 296-pound Scott Matlock, who the Chargers formally list as a defensive lineman and fullback.
Los Angeles is not among the league leaders in rushing offense -- its 85.5 rushing yards per game rank 25th in the NFL -- but it might be one of the league's leaders in muscling up to do whatever it needs to do on offense. And that includes keeping quarterback Justin Herbert out of harm's way. Herbert led the Chargers in rushing in Monday night's win over the Las Vegas Raiders -- with all of 31 yards -- and his 19-yard scramble on a third-and-14 just before the two-minute warning sealed the Chargers' Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Broncos will need to get home on Herbert better than they did against Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. While they were able to generate pressure on Jones -- he ranked 27th in average time to throw in Week 2 (2.65 seconds) -- they sacked him only once and didn't force an interception. Jones completed three passes of more than 40 yards, including a 44-yarder to Alec Pierce, 43-yarder to Taylor and 41-yarder to rookie tight end Tyler Warren.
The Broncos know they have a lot to clean up, but Pro Bowl defensive tackle Zach Allen is confident in the defense's ability to do that and took some positives out of Week 2.
"Guys were accountable," he said earlier this week. "We invest a lot of time on red zone and third down. I think historically when you see teams perform well in those areas, they're usually the top teams in the league.
"Third down wasn't where we wanted it to be, but the red zone was encouraging. Hopefully we can just build off of it."
Whether building off it means fixing missed tackles, missed assignments or missed opportunities, the quick start Broncos coach Sean Payton wants to assemble still hangs in the balance -- as does the quest to use the first four weeks of the season to improve as quickly as possible.
"It's hard to sustain success in our league as a yo-yo team, up and down," Payton said. "So that's the race we're in right now."