ENGLEWOOD – Vance Joseph knows what’s up. He doesn’t pay attention to the noise but if he’s breathing he can’t avoid it. It’s in the air. He’s also been part of several NFL coaching staffs before when the head man got fired – including Gary Kubiak in Houston during the 2013 season.
Joseph - perhaps all Broncos - may be fighting for their lives when they play Thursday at Arizona, as general manager John Elway suggested in a radio interview Monday.
“Absolutely, we’ve lost four games in a row – everyone’s fighting for their lives,’’ Joseph, the Broncos’ head coach, said at his weekly day-after-game press conference at the team’s UCHealth Training Center headquarters. “In this league, if you’re not desperate, you don’t win.’’
Joseph was later asked specifically about himself. After going 5-11 last year, and with his team 2-4 with a four-game losing streak so far this year, is he fighting for his job?
“Absolutely. That’s every coach in this league, every week,’’ Joseph said. “If you don’t feel that way, you’re missing something. If we were 5-1, I would feel that way. That doesn’t motivate me. I’m already motivated to win games and fix our football team.’’
Other points from Joseph’s press conference:
*Left guard Ron Leary is finished for the year with a torn Achilles, confirming 9NEWS' report after the game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. Leary is going on season-ending injured reserve. Max Garcia and Connor McGovern will be the starting guards and Sam Jones, a sixth-round rookie from ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch, will dress in uniform for the first time Thursday and serve as the backup center and guard in the Broncos’ game at Arizona.
*Strong safety Su’a Cravens and receiver Jordan Taylor will start practicing this week for the first time since they were put on their respective injured lists prior to the season. Cravens would be eligible to play for the first time in two weeks against the Houston Texans. Taylor has three weeks before the team must decide whether to activate him.
*It’s become abundantly clear the Broncos are not good enough to overcome mistakes.
“I think where we are, our margin for error is small,’’ Joseph said. “We can’t make the normal football mistakes. For instance, Sunday our offense would have had 10 more points without those penalties. Emmanuel’s penalty that was at least 4 points. The (back-to-back) holding penalties was 3 and the interception was probably 3 points. That’s 10 points we didn’t get because of penalties.’’
*The Broncos’ defensive strategy against the Rams was to give Todd Gurley II some rushing opportunities in exchange for thwarting Jared Goff’s passing game. The Broncos played three cornerbacks nearly the entire game and often had a two-deep safety look, leaving a light, six- or seven-man box.
Goff threw for only 201 yards with an interception and no touchdowns for a meager 58.8 passer rating and the Rams only scored 23 points – 11.6 points below their average.
But, Denver’s strategy wasn’t to set a dubious NFL record by allowing Gurley to become the second running back in two games to rush for 200-plus yards against them.
“You pick your poison,’’ Joseph said. “Obviously, that offense was explosive, and they’ve scored their points through the passing game. So, I thought our plan helped to contain the passing game.
“But by no means was our plan to let Gurley rush for 200 yards. That wasn’t the plan. When you’re playing more shell coverage to take care of the pass game, you’re going to allow a little more to the running game. But, fitting in and tackling, that’s no excuse.’’
