Winners and losers from Broncos' season-changing win over Chiefs

Winner: Vance Joseph

The last game ball has to go to defensive coordinator Vance Joseph who has completely transformed this defense after the team was absolutely embarassed in Miami.

The Broncos couldn't stop anything at one point this season. They were giving up huge plays in the passing game, they were a turnstile on run defense, they couldn't tackle and the pass rush was almost non-existent. Add to that the fact that the team could not produce any turnovers and it legitimately looked like one of the worst defensive units to ever take a professional football field.

But that has not been the case in recent weeks. Even in the loss against the Chiefs in the first meeting this season, the defense played well. After a 10-day rest, that unit played quite well against the Green Bay Packers and this week, again against the Chiefs, the defense was incredible.

The defense forced four turnovers (the special teams got another one) and three of those were by Mahomes.

Justin Simmons got his fifth career interception of Mahomes as well, a number Broncos fans have to love because very few players get the better of him. Chiefs fans will point to the fact that Mahomes had the flu and needed IV treatment before the game but we know that if he would have had his standard Mahomes performance, we would have been hearing about another Michael Jordan flu game.

Give this defense a lot of credit. Joseph may not be a favorite in Broncos Country, but it would have been easy for him to throw his hands up and place blame elsewhere. He regrouped and put in the work to make some improvements and at this point, it's clear that he figured something out.