Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles burned the Broncos the last time the Chiefs were in town, notching  259 yards rushing and scoring two touchdowns.
Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles burned the Broncos the last time the Chiefs were in town, notching 259 yards rushing and scoring two touchdowns. ( Associated Press file photo )

Broncos players spent plenty of time watching film of their first eight games in the eight days between the team's last game and Tuesday's first practice after the bye.

It wasn't always easy to watch, especially for veteran members of a prideful defense that has been run over and around in recent losses to Oakland and San Francisco.

The Broncos have allowed opponents to rush for an average of 4.6 yards per carry this season, and only twice have the Broncos held the other team to less than 120 total rushing yards.

"It stings a little when we look at the film," linebacker Mario Haggan said Tuesday. "A lot of things that happened — not to take away from other people — but a lot of times it was more about us than it was about them, and if we can eliminate that, we'll put together a good second half of the season."

There is no bigger test then their first one back from the bye, with Kansas City and its No. 1-ranked rushing offense. The Chiefs torched the Broncos for 317 rushing yards in the 2009 season finale, and are rushing for an average of 179.6 yards per game.

Yet Broncos defensive players and coach Josh McDaniels said Tuesday that they have confidence in their core defensive schemes, and that the unit's struggles against the run have been a matter of execution, not scheming. The key, then, to fixing the problem isn't throwing away the game plan, making personnel moves or coming up with gimmicky new blitz packages. The answer is finding the unit's strength, eliminating what doesn't work, and just playing better, they said.

"It was us, a far as I can see. Missed tackles and just plays, third down, getting off the field and just little things. There are always little things," defensive end Kevin Vickerson said. "A lot of people want to point the finger because we're 2-6 in the first half, but the season isn't over with. We have a lot of games left, and that's all we can do is play games and try to turn the thing around."

The team has lined up in its base 3-4 (with three defensive linemen and four linebackers) but were forced into a 4-3 when injuries depleted the depth at outside linebacker. McDaniels said it is clear the team plays its best run defense out of that 3-4 alignment.

But its best defense came with Robert Ayers lined up at outside linebacker, and his return from a foot injury is at least another week away.

In the three games since Ayers was injured, the defense has struggled to "set the edge" — the term used to describe keeping an opposing running back from getting outside, and then around the first level of the defense.

McDaniels said he would like his defense to be primarily in that 3-4, but wouldn't commit to it because of those lingering injury issues.

"You don't ever want to throw out your scheme at this point in time of the year. You want to try and make a decision on what is the cost of continuing to work at something. Will you see the benefit soon or will you see it by the end of the year? If there are some things that you have been working on that just aren't getting better, I think that you make a smart decision at that point to say, 'You know what, let's put our time into something better,' " McDaniels said. "You are not going to see a dramatic change in terms of what we try to do or how we are playing or the scheme that we are using, but there are some small things that we are hoping to get some results from."
