Offense needs to be better, but it will still be defense that must beat the Chiefs

It’s no secret that it is Vance Joseph’s defense keeping the Broncos in first place in the AFC West at 8-2.

And when the Broncos host the Chiefs next weekend, a victory will probably come down to the defense again.

After all, this defense has the most sacks in the NFL (46) and making Patrick Mahomes uncomfortable will be key to any chance at beating the Chiefs.

While that 46 team sacks is very cool, don’t think for a second that Broncos’ defenders aren’t keeping tabs on who has how many sacks each game.

“As a defensive lineman that’s your favorite stat. The fact we are getting them is very special. The guys win their one on ones,” said defensive lineman Zach Allen. “Obviously, I’d like to have a little bit less half sacks with [Nik] Bonitto and all these guys. But it’s a good problem to have, and we are in a good spot.”

Jonathan Cooper actually thinks the defense needs to be doing more.

“Sacks are huge. Sacks are huge, and we’re getting there,” he said. “I feel like we need to get the ball off the QB, we have to get more sack fumbles, more turnovers and stuff. But we are definitely putting pressure on the quarterbacks that we are playing.”

After games like Thursday night, it feels like the defense is doing everything. But the players don’t see it that way.

It’s a team game, so it’s a team win.

“One thousand percent. We don’t look at what the offense does, what special teams does. Our job is to go out there and get stops every week,” said Nik Bonitto. “We have that mentality, and we have the right guys that come in with that mentality every week. I think we’ll keep having good success defensively.”

In fact, the defense almost prefers to have the pressure of the game on their shoulders – literally.

“I mean, us, we just have to do our job in whatever the situation is. We kind of pride ourselves on that whether it’s a red zone stop or whatever. It all comes in ebbs and flows. Everyone forgets now, against the Chargers and Colts, they picked our butts up. We’ll be fine.”

Still, Bo Nix is the first to be grateful that the defense has “picked their butts up” time and again.

“We just have a tough, resilient football team. We find ways to win, usually right now it’s the defense leading the charge,” Nix acknowledged. “They just continue to get us the ball back. [They got] a bunch of sacks [Thursday], a few that were in field goal range that knocked them out. You’ll win a lot of games with a defense playing like that.”

But he knows their current production is not sustainable for winning the division.

“We have to do better,” he said. “At some point, 10 points isn’t going to be enough. We have to score more.”

JK Dobbins believes this Broncos team is the best he’s...