Despite the excitement that comes with winning his first two games as head coach of the Denver Broncos, Vance Joseph wants to keep his team level-headed.
“We’ve won two games, but it’s early,” Joseph said during a press conference. “We don’t want to be too overconfident right now. It’s a hard league, it’s a long season, so being humble is the key right now.”
Despite the two victories, Joseph knows that the team still has several things it needs to work on in order to remain successful, and fnishing the fourth quarter is foremost among them. The Broncos have given up touchdowns in the fourth quarter in both games.
“It’s tough to finish games when you’re ahead,” Joseph explained. “If you’re too conservative, you allow a team to get back in the game. If you’re too aggressive, you may turn the ball over. We have to focus and not turn the ball over.”
Defensively, Joseph wants the team to focus on stopping touchdown drives off of turnovers as well. “We have to stand up and hold them to field goals,” Joseph said. “It’s been four turnovers, four touchdowns. We’ve got to fix that issue on both sides of the ball.”
Joseph even admits to having a few things he needs to work on as well. An ill-advised time out in the first half gave Dallas the opportunity to continue a drive that eventually turned into a field goal.
“The time out was on me,” Joseph explained. “It was an eight-yard gain (actually seven yards), so I shouldn’t have called the timeout. I was hoping to win the first down and call a timeout, put them in second and long, timeout again, put them in third down, timeout again and get the ball back with 1:10. So that was strictly on me.”
Despite the mistakes, the Broncos have brought themselves to a 2-0 start, tied with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders at the top of the AFC West division. Joseph likes what he has seen out of the team so far, and hopes to continue developing their abilities moving forward.
“If we have a great gameplan and guys dive into the gameplan and do it right, we can be a good group,” Joseph said. “Very pleased with all three phases. But we can get a lot better in all of those phases. Excited, but still a work in progress.”
The Broncos will play their first road game of the season against the Buffalo Bills this coming week. Coach Joseph won’t discount the Bills despite their 1-1 start. Bills head coach Sean McDermott brings a stout defense that ranks fourth in points against.
“Defensively, no one’s scored a touchdown on them,” Joseph said. “Their front seven is a really, really stout front seven. It’s going to be a challenge. It always is. It’s an NFL game; it’s going to be a tough challenge for us on both sides of the ball.”
The Broncos will travel to Buffalo for their first morning game of the season, then will return home to face the in-division rival Oakland Raiders before having their bye week.
