The Broncos' locker room has had an interesting feel to it since beating the Raiders

DENVER — As the doors opened to allow the media into the Denver Broncos locker room on Sunday night, there was no ruckus.

There were no players yelling or jumping up and down.

There were no quotes about how the team is back or how they have “mind control” over the division—they used to say that a lot.

Of course, spirits were high, but this did not feel like the locker room of a team that just beat their rival on a game-winning field goal to go 2-0.

Then, on Monday, the locker room at team headquarters was even quieter.

“That’s the cool thing about this team,” defensive lineman Zach Kerr told BSN Denver on Monday.

Why?

“Regardless of if we win or how we win, we’re still upset about the mistakes we made,” he elaborated. “We’re disappointed with how we played in the first half. Regardless of what the outcome of the game was, we know we can be a better football team.”

For a team that has started 2-0 in each of the last two seasons and missed the playoffs both times, that’s exactly what you want to hear.

Last year, after getting a big lead on the Chargers in Week 1 and then blowing out the Cowboys in Week 2, the locker room most certainly did not have this cautiously-optimistic feeling to it. They were feeling themselves and, at the time, it felt justified.

Now, it feels as if the Broncos are watching their every step, trying to avoid falling into that same trap.

Let’s be real, how Denver found a way to win on Sunday is still a mystery. They had a questionable game plan, lost the turnover battle, allowed the Raiders offense to get in third-and-short situations all day, put their offense in third-and-long situations all day and never took control of the field position battle among many other things. Somehow, though, they scored one more point, and that’s all you need.

“You’re obviously 2-0, but you can’t ignore the mistakes,” head coach Vance Joseph said. “You have to go back and fix the mistakes and fix the issues because you can’t be naive… We have to correct the mistakes moving forward, so we can continue to win. If not, then you’re fooling yourself.”

“If you live by the gun, you die by the gun, and if we play like that again, sooner or later it’s going to catch up to us,” Kerr added. “We have to continue to get better and play to our capabilities every week. We like winning, no win in the NFL is easy, but we made it a lot harder than we should have. We aren’t jumping for joy because we’re focused on actually playing to our capabilities and playing to the standard that we need to to keep winning… Yeah we just beat the Raiders, and it’s our first division win, and all of those things, but we have to play better.”

The Broncos are showing that they are looking at this just like most people on the outside are. They know the Seahawks and Raiders aren’t very good. They know they got away with one on Sunday. They know that performances like that against better teams, or on the road, will get them beat. That’s a good sign.

Now, acknowledging that things need to be fixed is step one. Whether or not they can figure out a way to fix them will be the difference between the locker room remaining quiet and the locker room erupting.