Less than half of Broncos Country believes their team is headed in the right direction after that Monday Night Football embarrassment. Talk about a quick trigger, right? Coach Sean Payton is already telling everyone to pump the brakes on that sentiment, and honestly, he’s got a point. Losing one game, even in horrendous fashion, is still way too soon to lose overall confidence in the team’s path forward.
Broncos Country’s Early Season Meltdown
I get it, we all overreact in the moment sometimes, like after that Monday Night Football absolute clinic in how *not* to tackle. But come on. Unless you really think Sean Payton and his coordinators have zero clue what they’re doing, that MNF loss should be seen for what it was: one really bad game, no sugar coating it. Until this team has a *string* of those stinkers, it feels super premature to bail on the overall direction. We seriously need a few more games this season to actually figure out if they’re falling off the rails or if it was just a blip. But man, the complaints about *why* that MNF game was so atrocious? Totally valid, and honestly, pretty predictable.
The Brutal Truth About Denver’s Defense
The real talk since Monday has been all about Denver’s absolutely abysmal tackling. Coach Payton himself said it’s “all of the above. It’s technique, attention to detail. It’s all of those things.” He wasn’t spilling secrets on *how* they’re gonna fix it, saying, “I won’t get into the drills, and the sequencing of how we handled it, but we are fixing it. Certainly there was a lot we had to clean up.” You gotta respect the directness there, even if he’s holding back the playbook.
But the players? They’re spilling. Defensive lineman Dondrea Tillman is calling for “more hats around the ball. Everybody is making sure they’re running to the ball and working on their angles.” He added, “Honestly, just putting a body on a body instead of just wrapping up. You’ve got to put bodies on people.” All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain went even further, blaming it on plain old poor effort and a lack of intention to hit hard. He said, “Tackling is one of those things where you have to be intentional with it. You have to bring pads, feet and you have to wrap your arms.” Surtain felt they were “assuming that the ball carrier was going to go down at the moment rather than finishing at the end of the day.” Edge rusher Que Robinson backed him up completely, saying guys were going about 80% and just couldn’t wrap up to bring people down. “Instead of just chasing the ball and hoping we get them on the ground, we’ve got to be more intentional,” Robinson stated. Ouch. Eighty percent effort? That’s a gut punch, right?
So yeah, the tackling was an unmitigated disaster on Monday night. The players know it, the coach knows it, and the fans definitely know it. The question now is whether Payton’s mysterious “fixing it” plan, combined with players actually bringing full intention and effort, can turn things around. Because if those tackling woes don’t get cleaned up ASAP, and these guys aren’t putting “body on body” with “pads, feet” and wrapping those arms, that “string of bad games” might show up sooner than anyone in Broncos Country wants. Get intentional, fellas, and hit hard, or those confidence poll numbers are gonna keep dropping like a stone. No more 80% effort, alright?
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Mile High Report.
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