Struggling defense faces Chiefs challenge
The Denver Broncos’ new-look “No Fly Zone” is showing some cracks, and there’s no letup in sight for the Broncos secondary, which faces the NFL’s hottest quarterback in Monday night’s matchup against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cornerback Chris Harris Jr. continues to anchor the right side for Denver, and cornerback Bradley Roby has taken over on the left side for Aqib Talib, who was let go over the winter. Justin Simmons begins his second season as free safety and Darian Stewart returns as strong safety. But Denver turned to free agency to bring in Adam Jones as a nickel back, with veteran Tramaine Brock, Will Parks, and rookie Isaac Yiadom providing depth in the secondary.
Yet the stress put on that unit has been evident, particularly in the last two weeks. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr seemingly completed passes at will during the Raiders’ 20-19 loss to the Broncos on Sept. 16, going 29 of 32 for 288 yards, and Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco went 25 of 40 for 277 yards and a score against a Broncos defense that struggled to get off the field.
Injuries were a factor in the secondary’s defensive breakdowns in Baltimore as Jones missed the game with a thigh injury and Brock was out with a groin strain. Both players returned to practice on Wednesday, and it is anticipated that they will be able to go Monday night.
Even if Denver’s secondary returns to full strength, the vulnerabilities in coverage the Raiders and Ravens exposed in recent weeks need to be addressed and pronto heading into the matchup with the Chiefs, whose offense is lighting it up under Mahomes. In his first year as a starting quarterback Mahomes has thrown 13 touchdown passes in his first three games, the most in that span in NFL history. Nine different Chiefs players have caught scoring passes from Mahomes. On top of that, the Chiefs are averaging 39.3 points per game, tops in the league.
Harris said recently that the Broncos need to do a better job of disguising and mixing up their coverages, and Broncos coach Vance Joseph agreed, adding that pass defenders also have to do a better job of shadowing opposing receivers in 1-on-1 situations to buy time for Denver’s vaunted pass rush to break through.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to obviously play better, especially in man-to-man situations,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to coach better and help those guys play more shell defense on certain downs. We can coach and play better.”
SERIES HISTORY: 116th regular-season meetings. Chiefs lead series, 61-54. Kansas City has won the past five meetings, including the most recent, on Dec. 31, 2017, in which Mahomes drove the Chiefs to a game-winning field goal in the late going in his first career start.
