Vance Joseph accepts blame for being overaggressive Sunday

Vance Joseph’s lack of leadership and poor coaching led to a Broncos loss to the Ravens in Baltimore on Sunday, simple as that.

There were 13 penalties on the Broncos which took 20 points of the board, and one of then was a 12-men in the huddle call while Denver was trying to come back in the game. Those penalties show a lack of leadership as well as a solid coaching foundation.

Besides those, though, the Broncos head coach used timeouts and challenges poorly in the game. With the Broncos trailing 17-14, Baltimore had the ball with just under two minutes to go until half. Denver called two timeouts, getting the ball back, but after a three-and-out and a terrible punt, the Ravens were set up with a short field and scored a field goal.

“It’s a group of us talking, but that’s on me,” Joseph said of calling the two timeouts during that Baltimore drive. “I could’ve bled it out, but I was thinking, ‘Let’s get these points back. We just lost three points by having penalties.’ I was being overaggressive.

“In hindsight, that was wrong,” Joseph admitted. “I should’ve bled it out and got to the half 17-14. It’s our ball coming out, but I chose to call a timeout, get the ball back—we’re backed up. We missed a 2nd-and-10, and the third down we had a drop and we had a bad punt. All that being said, that’s on me. You go on the road, it’s raining, they’re going to have us backed up, so I should’ve just bled it out and got to halftime 17-14 and not 20-14. That’s totally on me.”

Joseph also wasted a challenge earlier in the game when he challenged Baltimore’s catch on second down, which was upheld. And his team had to use a timeout early in the second half, as well.

Simply, his coaching acumen leaves a lot to be desired, and even if he does rightfully take ownership of the timeout calls as mistakes, Joseph’s coaching set it heating up. The Broncos may be 2-1, but they’re in danger of going 2-2 with the Kansas City Chiefs coming to town this Monday night, and this 2018 version of the Broncos looks far too similar to the 2017 version which went 5-11.