Why Vance Joseph's first "rookie mistake" as a head coach is actually a good sign for the Broncos

The Story

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On Sunday, Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph smelled blood in the water.

Up 21-7, with less than two minutes on the clock in the second quarter, the first-year head man was hungry for a knockout punch. With the Cowboys in possession of the ball, looking to drive and tighten the game, “VJ” had ideas of flipping the script.

“I had three timeouts and, offensively, we were rolling pretty good. There was like 1:50 so I was going to stack the timeouts,” he explained. “I was hoping to win the first down, call a timeout, put them in second-and-long, timeout again, put them in third down, timeout again and get the ball back with 1:10.”

Just one problem—the Broncos didn’t win first down, and Joseph still called for time.

“I thought it was a four-yard gain versus an eight-yard gain. I was standing back from the (line of scrimmage). That was a rookie coach making a rookie mistake… That was strictly on me.”

Sometimes a rookie head coach makes a mistake. The Cowboys went on to notch a field goal on the drive. Luckily, VJ had his buddy Bill Kollar there to let him know he messed up.

“I heard it from Kollar, ‘What’re you doing?!’ Joseph explained with a laugh, perfectly imitating the powerfully-voiced defensive line coach. “I was chastised for it by Bill Kollar. So that won’t happen again.”

“He keeps me in line,” the coach said with a laugh and a shaking head, “I’ll tell you that.”

Why it was a good sign for the Broncos

January 12, 2013: With 31 seconds to go in regulation, a first-and-10 at their own 20-yard line and two timeouts in a tie game, Denver Broncos head coach John Fox elects to take a knee and send the 2012 AFC Divisional Playoff Game to overtime.

You know what happens next.

(Sorry for bringing this up.)

While the stakes were much higher and the pressure was on, known conservative head coach John Fox did exactly what anybody would have placed money on him doing by taking the knee. He was conservative to the core. The early returns on Vance Joseph tell you he would have turned ol’ Peyton loose on that freezing January day.

On Sunday, with a comfortable lead, heading for a break, Joseph wanted more. In the Monday-night season opener, with the NFL’s best defense on his side, Vance Joseph wanted the ball when he won the coin toss.

“I want to be attacking defenses,” he said of that decision. “Let’s get a return off, let’s go score points and let’s go hunt the quarterback. That is my mindset.”

That mindset of Joseph’s is refreshing—it’s not like Fox’s replacement was a riverboat gambler—and it’s exactly what the Denver Broncos needed.

You don’t think Von Miller, Aqib Talib, Chris Harris, Derek Wolfe and the bunch want to go after teams? Do Garrett Bolles, Emmanuel Sanders and C.J. Anderson strike you as the type that wants to play it safe and sit back?

The team is made up of a bunch of guys who want to go out there and punch somebody in the mouth, and now they have a head coach who wants to do it, too.

“Once we get somebody down, we need to put our foot on their throat, choke them out and kill them,” Derek Wolfe said last week. “That’s what we have to do.”

So, yeah, Vance Joseph got a little too aggressive on Sunday afternoon trying to choke the Cowboys out, and may have cost his team three points. You’ll thank him for it later.