Broncos Camp Day 3 report: Defense dominates with takeaways

[Miles]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- With the Broncos working in a goal-to-go, red-zone period Saturday morning, safety Justin Simmons knew he had an opportunity for a big play.


The first-team offense had a third-and-goal from the 8-yard line after two previous goal-to-go plays went askew via a bad shotgun snap and Josey Jewell stuffing Phillip Lindsay for no gain.


Joe Flacco took the shotgun snap and spotted rookie tight end Austin Fort down the seam approaching the goal line. Simmons saw his chance.


"I just saw a little spot up in the front line -- there's front-line and back-line routes -- and I saw [Flacco] looking, staring it down and winding up, and it's practice, you just go for it. If you make the play, you make it. If you don't, you don't and you learn from it."


Simmons did. Later in practice, he tacked on another interception of Kevin Hogan as the defense finished with four picks, with Will Parks and Josey Jewell notching the others. The defense also forced a Juwann Winfree fumble that Su'a Cravens recovered.


A good day for the defense equaled a frustrating day for the offense.


"Every interception has a story behind it, but no, [I'm] not OK with it," Head Coach Vic Fangio said. "You don’t want to turn the ball over."


"In my opinion, we had a rough day today. Too many turnovers," said wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who continues to do individual repetitions as he works his way back to full participation.


"The defense is going to be good this year. Obviously, we know that," Sanders added a moment later. "But still, we've got to hold on as an offense and take care of the football. It starts with the quarterbacks and the wide receivers."


One play that jumped out to Sanders was Winfree's fumble, which came via a strip after a 20-yard reception.


"Juwann made a great play but then he got stripped," Sanders said. "It was a great play, but it was a bad play.


"We can't do that if we want to win football games. So I'm looking forward to just keep improving every day. Hopefully we do better tomorrow."


But the defense also believes it can -- and will -- do better as the days progress.


"This is only Day Two. We've got a long ways to go. There were a lot of good plays that were made, but a lot of mistakes, too," Simmons said.


"Coach Vic talks about it all the time: 'We want to eliminate the sloppiness.' You take it with a grain of salt. The plays are great, but we want to eliminate the mistakes as we go."