Few conversations in football are more painfully awkward than the one between a head coach and his defensive coordinator after surrendering 70 points. That 70-20 embarrassment against Miami in 2023 still hangs over Denver as a franchise low. And this week, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph finally revealed what he told head coach Sean Payton in the aftermath of that brutal contest.

“That Miami game was a terrible performance,” he said in an interview with Guerilla Sports. “When it’s good, the coaches high-five. They smile. When it’s bad, no one wants to take it. I’ll take it. That game was embarrassing for all parties involved, and my name is on it. I am okay with it. I appreciate that game because it allowed me to make the right changes.

“Sean [Payton] and I had a great talk after that game. And I told him, I said, ‘Let me be me, and I promise I’ll help you win. Just let me be me, and I’ll make you play offense a lot easier. I’ll take the ball away. I’ll hit the quarterback’. Once he and I had that meeting, it’s been good ever since,” he said.

They needed something to change after that debacle. The Dolphins hung more than 700 yards on them and became the first team in nearly six decades to hit 70.

Miami’s quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, threw four touchdowns, and backup Mike White added another. It was almost a scorigami for the Dolphins. But for Denver, it was a defensive performance that went on to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

For Joseph, though, the embarrassment ran a little deeper. The Broncos had already fired him once, back in 2018, after two losing seasons. They brought him back, expecting stability. Instead, his defense gave up more points in one Sunday than the Broncos offense had scored in the first two games that season combined (the Miami game was in Week 3).

It might’ve been even more embarrassing for the fans. Monday morning at work, at school, anywhere they went wearing orange, they had no comeback for what happened on the field. Their confidence in their team shook, and many wanted Joseph gone.

Then, there was Sean Payton, who sounded like a broken man. His post-game press conference was a loop of “What’s the question?” It was a coach trying to gather his thoughts while the ground still felt like it was moving beneath him. For someone who built his reputation on discipline and toughness, he had just watched the worst performance of his career unfold in real time.

But Vance Joseph’s speech might have worked. Fast forward two years, and the Broncos have the best defense in the league.

The Denver Broncos won’t make the same mistake!

After that meltdown in Miami, the only loss that comes close in terms of embarrassment might be last season’s 31-7 collapse in Buffalo in the Wild Card round. But that was a different Broncos team. This year’s group doesn’t carry the same shakiness, the same fragility. They don’t look like a team waiting for the next avalanche. They look like one built to prevent it.

Sitting at 9-2, Denver has the league’s most disruptive, consistent defense. They’re giving up just 17.5 points per game, and every week, when things start to tilt, that unit finds a way to level the field again.

The numbers paint a clear picture: best red-zone defense in football at 35.7% allowed, best third-down defense at 28.9%, and a pass rush that might be the most relentless operation in the league.

No quarterback has come out of a Denver game talking about a clean pocket. They also lead the NFL with 49 sacks.

Sure, QB Bo Nix deserves the praise he is getting, but the truth is simple: Denver’s defense is dragging games into their preferred style. They’ve turned close matchups into street fights, and they usually win the last punch.

As for Vance Joseph, it’s fair to wonder whether Sean Payton truly “let him be him,” the way Joseph said he asked after the 70-point disaster in Miami. Whatever the dynamic is, it’s working. He seems to have successfully turned things around.