Why the Broncos are boasting a “we don’t care” attitude this week

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Against the Oakland Raiders in Week 2, the Denver Broncos cared.

In fact, they cared too much in the first half.

And that was a bad thing.

On the defensive side of the ball, Denver’s defense by no means was bad, but they did allow four scoring drives.

But head coach Vance Joseph wasn’t happy with them. Despite his offense putting up a whopping zero points in the first half, Joseph singled out the defense in the week following the game.

“You want to start faster. I thought [Sunday], defensively, that we didn’t play aggressive enough in the first half,” Joseph said.

“I thought defensively that we were too cautious about No. 30 (RB Jalen Richard), No. 12 (WR Martavis Bryant), No. 87 (TE Jared Cook), No. 89 (WR Amari Cooper), the running back (RB Marshawn Lynch). We played way too cautious. Our defense is based on rushing five and playing press-man coverage, and in the first half, we didn’t do that. It showed, we were really non-aggressive and they took advantage of us.

What they did in the second half to correct the issue sounds simple, but it worked.

“In the second half, we got more aggressive, and it showed, and we played better. But, that’s on me,” Joseph said, shouldering the blame on multiple occasions.

Simply put, the Broncos got back to “Bronco-Country football,” as Von Miller put it after the game, focusing on themselves and what they do best — I.e., their five-man rush and playing press-man coverage — instead of worrying about all of the Raiders offensive weapons.

In the second half, they buckled down, only giving up one scoring drive and doing just enough to pull off the come-from-behind victory.

Since it worked, the team is rolling with their new approach and mindset as they head out for their first road game of the season against the Baltimore Ravens.

Just don’t care.

“It’s all about mindset. We’re not going to worry about how far we’re traveling, what time the game starts—we don’t care,” Joseph firmly stated. “It’s going to probably rain on Sunday. We don’t care.”

Instead of flying out on Friday, a day earlier, due to it being an east coast road game, Joseph is sticking with the Saturday travel day. The purpose behind it is simply he doesn’t care about the circumstances.

In fact, in the week leading up to their first road game, Joseph isn’t changing a thing about how the Broncos are preparing.

“Pushing it back and just going on Saturday is all about our mindset and not worrying about going east, who we’re playing or where we’re playing. It’s worrying about the Broncos playing the best we can play,” Joseph said with conviction. “Our attitude this year is, ‘We don’t care about where we go or who we play or when we travel or where we travel.’ We’re just going to go play.”

This certainly doesn’t mean the Broncos aren’t game planning for what Baltimore will bring to the table. Denver will be ready for a Lamar Jackson package, they know Joe Flacco likes to go deep, and they are aware of the touchdown threat that Alex Collins can be, to name a few surface-level topics. It just means they won’t change who they are and what they do best based on who they are playing.

“The Patriot Way” out in New England has blossomed success, to say the least.

Vance Joseph hopes the same success comes with “Bronco-Country football.”