NFL teams
Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Broncos look to keep pedal to the floor on defense

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Always be closing.

That’s what the Denver Broncos defense wants, from defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio all the way through the depth chart, the Broncos want to keep doing what they’ve been doing, but slam the door a little harder when they get the chance.

This past Sunday, the Broncos had held the Oakland Raiders to 125 total yards in 55 minutes, 30 seconds worth of football time. The Raiders had 11 three-and-outs and no Oakland possession had gone for more than 26 yards to that point as the Broncos were in the fast lane with a 41-10 lead.

And then the Raiders' rookie quarterback, Derek Carr, led an eight-play, 97-yard drive for a touchdown with 48 seconds left to play. In the big picture, the touchdown meant little beyond a first-year quarterback getting some game-speed snaps in an end-of-half situation. Carr was 7-of-7 passing on the drive for 89 of his 192 passing yards in the game.

The Broncos know a late-game score would sting plenty when the games get bigger and the Broncos' margin for error gets smaller.

“And that’s something we talk about a lot,’’ said cornerback Chris Harris Jr. “We want to always finish it out. We had a good day, but we shouldn’t allow somebody to go down the field like that.’’

“I never want to get to the point as a coach where I don’t enjoy the good,’’ Del Rio said. “I think if I do that it would be time to retire. So you need to enjoy the success, enjoy the good, appreciate the effort that’s being put forth. I think the preparation, the way we go after each opponent has been very strong. Even in the ‘miserable performance’ a couple weeks ago (in a 43-21 loss to the New England Patriots), per play it was pretty good. We just didn’t do as well in some key moments. So there is always something to look at. There are usually positives if you look and there are negatives always that you want to correct, so I don’t feel any differently.’’

And while Del Rio did enjoy what went right on defense that is still No. 1 in the league against the run, the Raiders’ last possession was still anĀ irritant.

“I just let them know that over the first 14 drives, they had (125) yards and then they got 95, or whatever it was, on the last one,’’ Del Rio said. “So if you don’t like that, do something about it. I don’t like it.’’

Several Broncos players cited the Broncos' 35-21 victory over the San Diego ChargersĀ as another example of not quite closing the deal the way they had hoped. In that game the Chargers had just 121 yards worth of offense on their first seven possessions.

San Diego then put together back-to-back 75-yard scoring drives to first close out the third quarter and open the fourth quarter to close the gap. It took a Rahim Moore interception at the Broncos’ 4-yard line with just under five minutes to play to stop the rally.

“Look at those last drives … we’ve really talked about it, you don’t want teams, even if you’re beating them, it’s that moral sort of victory of saying no matter what the situation is, no matter how far we are ahead of a team, we always have to keep the pedal to the metal on defense and close games,’’ said Broncos defensive end DeMarcus Ware. “We did better (Sunday) than we did against San Diego, but there’s always room for improvement.’’

The Rams have had just one fourth-quarter comeback this season -- their 19-17 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2 -- but they did score 10 points in fourth quarter of their 34-31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys and 14 points in the fourth quarter of their 34-28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“We always want to finish strong, we don’t want to be out there playing how we want to play for most of the game,’’ said Broncos linebacker Von Miller. “We want to play how we want to play for the whole game.’’

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