The Denver Broncos will face Matthew Stafford this weekend, and Vance Joseph has faced MVP QBs before.
The Denver Broncos are running a gauntlet with their early schedule, and perhaps the biggest reason the schedule is so tough is because of the quarterbacks they’re facing. It’s a murderers row of MVPs, with Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams being the latest to step up and challenge the Denver defense.
But Vance Joseph has been there, done that. Jeff Legwold of ESPN did a piece looking into Joseph’s background in this area, and the defensive coordinator said that every week there’s a quarterback waiting who can “punish you.”
This week it’s Matthew Stafford. He’s the reigning MVP, and Stafford will come into this one with 69 300-yard passing games in his career, and he also has 22 career games with at least four touchdown passes.
Joseph has also faced Patrick Mahomes,Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen in his MVP collection, and the Broncos have gone 5-5 in Joseph’s tenure against those QBs.
As cornerback Pat Surtain II noted, every team has players who can make plays, but those quarterbacks are special when they’re at the top of their respective games. They force defenses to pay attention to all the details, and when they find a flaw they don’t go away from it.
The flaws were everywhere against the Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1, but the Broncos tightened things up and played good defensive football last week aganist QB Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The key to the shift was winning on first down, according to linebacker Alex Singleton, but Stafford is considered by many to be the best pure passer in the league.
The Broncos will also have to contend with WR Davante Adams, who went off for the Rams against the New York Giants on Monday night with eight catches for 195 yards and two touchdowns.
The running game will be another issue for Joseph and his defensive charges. The Rams’ two running backs, Kyren Williams and Blake Corum, both averaged at least 6.6 yards per carry, which means the Broncos can’t afford to forget how to tackle again.
Various members of the Denver defense have talked about playing up the team’s standards, but they may have to do better than that this week. The Broncos offense remains very much a work in progress, with three running backs at least nicked up and possibly out with an injury, and quarterback Bo Nix has played just one good quarter in two games so far.
