Broncos' alarming trend is rearing its ugly head for the second-straight year

The Denver Broncos just allowed 60 points to their opponents at home in Weeks 15 and 16. That is simply not something that can happen again if the Broncos hope to go far in the playoffs, as the offense is clearly not always going to be able to pick up the slack.

And it's not that the offense can't, it's that the unit is clearly missing a go-to pass-catcher and is also missing their starting running back. The defense regressing late in the season is not a new thing for the Denver Broncos, unfortunately.

Vance Joseph's unit did this same thing in the 2024 NFL Season, and unless something major changes, Denver will again go one-and-done in the playoffs. The stats that show how badly the unit has regressed are almost unbelievable.

The Denver Broncos' defense is again collapsing late in the season

Here are the points per game allowed splits before the bye and after the bye for the Denver Broncos:

This is over a touchdown per game more after the bye than it is before, which is just an insanely brutal reality for this unit, which did something very similar near the end of the 2024 NFL Season. Last year's defensive regression could have also been attributed to losing Riley Moss for a few weeks, but the entire unit did take a step back overall.

Luckily, the Denver Broncos are set to face third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun in Week 17. The Kansas City Chiefs are now down to their third-stringer, as both Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew tore their left ACLs in back-to-back weeks.

With how bad the team played, you better believe that this unit is wanting to get back on track in a big way, and hopefully being able to tee-off on a bad team that has nothing to play for can help things. This defensive regression also puts a lot more pressure on the offense, and we did see the offense be able to perform in those circumstances in Week 15, but not in Week 16.

Denver's identity has been playing strong defense and doing enough on offense to win games - that is a sustainable model in the NFL, but with the unit taking a step back, that offense really needs to carry more weight than they should have to. The offense also does not have an elite, go-to weapon, so that's a huge negative on that side of the ball.

The simple answer for why Vance Joseph's defenses are regressing late in the season could be something like opposing offenses figuring out Denver's tendencies on that side of the ball and Joseph not being able to adapt. It is surely way more complicated than that, but that line of thinking is likely what the issue is, simplified.