Why Vance Joseph deserves credit for the Denver Broncos’ 24-7 win over the Los Angeles Chargers

Vance Joseph found his trump card.

In the Broncos’ 24-7 beatdown of the Chargers on Sunday, Joseph sent rusher after rusher after rusher at the Los Angeles quarterbacks. Those quarterbacks wound up on the ground 15 times, compared to 22 total completed passes.

The key was the blitz.

Alex Singleton got a sack on a blitz.

Josey Jewell got a sack on a blitz.

PJ Locke got a sack on a blitz.

Ja’Quan McMillian got a sack on a blitz.

Justin Simmons got a sack on a blitz.

Zach Allen’s sack wasn’t on a blitz, but Alex Singleton blitzed on the play, tied the quarterback up and left him in Allen’s sights. The blitz created the sack.

Joseph, the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, called a nearly perfect game.

“VJ is doing a great job of dialing it up,” Simmons said.

Not only is Joseph getting rushers to the quarterback, on Sunday he was getting rushers to the quarterback’s blind side. That’s why Denver came away with a pair of strip sacks.

“Everyone’s competing to make plays, which is definitely a lot of fun,” Allen told Channel 7. “Instead of survival, you’re trying to excel, which is the way defense is made to be played. VJ, he calls a great game. Everyone’s gonna get their opportunities. It’s a really fun defense to be a part of. This is the best defense by far that I’ve ever been a part of.”

Head coach Sean Payton was impressed by how Joseph called the game, too.

“You just can’t sit with one look,” Payton said. “You’re going to go in with pressure, with coverage, walk up. You have to win with a few different pictures or it’s going to be a long day. I think to his credit and our staff and the players, it couldn’t just be one thing, it had to be a mix. The timing was good.” 

Denver’s pass rush has been hit or miss—mostly miss—since the season began. Through 13 weeks, ESPN’s analytics team found that the Broncos had a pass rush win rate of 31%, which ranked 31st out of 32 NFL teams.

The Broncos ditched their starting edge rush duo, Randy Gregory and Frank Clark, early in the season because of a lack of production. They turned to the youngsters—Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and Baron Browning—and while they’ve all had their moments, the total production has underwhelmed.

On Sunday, the Broncos forced an interception on a four-man rush when Browning swooped inside and tipped a pass to Cooper, but all six of their sacks came from blitzes.

Sunday’s blitz-heavy game plan was their most aggressive approach this season, but it follows a trend. The Broncos’ blitz rate has slowly increased since the start of the season. Before Sunday, it had grown to 30%, a top-10 mark in the league. After Sunday, that rate will climb even higher.

Halftime of Denver’s game against the Texans was the inflection point. In the first half, the Broncos sat back defensively and watched CJ Stroud pick them apart. They didn’t have a single sack. In the second half, they blitzed aggressively and sacked Stroud five times.

Denver didn’t wait until halftime to send pressure at the Chargers, and the results speak for themselves.

What we’ve learned over the past month is that when the Broncos blitz, they can have one of the best pass rushes in the league. But when the Broncos don’t blitz, they’re generally going to give opposing quarterbacks too much time.

The question now is whether the Broncos can continue to send extra rushers without repercussions. Justin Herbert is a talented quarterback, but he likes to throw the ball downfield which gives the rush more time to get home. Stroud holds onto the ball even longer than Herbert does.

Next up, the Broncos will play Jared Goff’s Lions. Of the 39 NFL quarterbacks who have received significant workloads this season, only six have gotten the ball out of their hand faster than Goff has. 

The 17 hundredths of a second that separate Goff’s quick release from Herbert’s average release might sound like nothing. But in football, those hundredths of seconds are magnified.

Remember when Ja’Quan McMillian got into the backfield and knocked the ball out of the quarterback’s hand for a strip sack… only to see the call reversed because the referees determined the passer’s hand was moving slightly forward?

Those hundredths of a second were the difference between McMillian’s second sack of the game—this time, a strip sack that he picked up and returned for a touchdown—and a simple incomplete pass. 

When you blitz your way to victory, your margins are slim, and those margins will be tested Saturday night.

But if the Bronco blitz works against the Lions’ quick-hitting, short-game-centric passing attack, they’ll prove that what they’ve found is a sustainable identity. They’ll be an aggressive, hyperactive defense that races into the backfield to create strip sacks or poor passes that their defensive backs can make plays on. They’ll have a defense that can carry them not only through the final stretch of the regular season, but into the postseason, too.

But even if Vance Joseph hasn’t cracked the code and found a perfect solution to any offense, he found all of the answers he needed on Sunday.