Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

I guess we no longer have to worry about winning those one-score games.

— Peter Campbell, Hotchkiss

Bam. That’s an appropriate way to get this week going, Peter. Indeed, the Broncos came up a mere six touchdowns short of getting back within a score against Miami. The thing about that game that keeps coming to my mind is just how many different ways the preposterous nature of the score and what Miami did can be sliced. And no matter how it gets sliced, it’s still incredible. At some point we’ll mostly stop talking about it, but it will never fully go away. It’s one of those games that’s on the resume of everybody involved for both Denver and Miami. The latest rendition of boggle-the-brain stats that comes to mind is that the Dolphins scored 10 touchdowns in 51 minutes, 59 seconds of gametime.

That’s one touchdown every 5:12 on the clock. The Dolphins had touchdown drives of four seconds, 20 seconds, 49 seconds, 1:20 and 1:23. That’s three touchdowns in a combined 1:13 and five scoring drives that took a total of 3:56, two of them set up by Broncos turnovers.

NFL rule change proposal: If you lose by 50 you automatically get a bye week the next week, via mandated forfeit, to figure your stuff out. What do you think, Parker?

— Jesse, Arvada

Yeah Jesse, or maybe like a comp pick late in the draft or something like that. In all seriousness, though, in the locker room after the game players were so embarrassed several said they wished they could go straight to Chicago to play the next game just to get the taste out of their mouths. They get what is sure to be a very long work week instead.

So, Vance Joseph is gone — again — right? Leading a defense that gave up the most points since the pre-Floyd Little era isn’t a good way to re-endear yourself to a fanbase that despised you the first time you were canned.

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, it certainly seemed like a possibility after Sunday’s game even though we’re just three weeks into the season. Sean Payton said Monday that he wasn’t making any changes — though he did couch it some by saying he wouldn’t ever make that kind of announcement on a conference call. Even still, Payton was pretty quick to lay some — definitely not all of — the blame at the offense’s feet for turning the ball over three times and in those situations hanging the defense out to try.

All the same, 70 points is 70 points and 726 yards is historic. So, yeah, it was bad. It’s been more bad than good so far through three games. Players were adamant after the game that they liked the plan and they weren’t lining up to blame Joseph or the coaches for what happened.

That, combined with what Payton has said about the performance, makes me wonder if there’s at least something of an understanding that this unit isn’t particularly fast and, as such, is going to get exposed at times.

The Dolphins are the fastest team in the NFL. They’ve got the top five moving speeds of the year in the entire league, per NFL Next Gen Stats. That’s not an excuse for what happened, of course. But I’m not sure Payton or the players are ready to say this is all Vance’s fault at this point given where the mistakes are coming — setting the edge, leverage, etc. These are things that NFL defensive players need to be able to do regardless of who their coach is.

Parker, where is our pass rush? We had zero sacks and one quarterback hit the entire game. No wonder Tua Tagovailoa had all day to throw the ball. I thought Zach Allen was supposed to be a significant addition, but I’ve barely heard his name all year.

— Ryan K., Lakewood

Yeah, Ryan, it’s a great question. They’re not getting nearly enough from the front seven in general on the pressure front. The stat sheet’s about as damning as it gets against the Dolphins. No sacks, one pressure on 28 dropbacks (26 from Tua Tagovailoa). They didn’t sack him. They didn’t speed him up. He didn’t have to scramble a single time where he actually kept the ball. The guy didn’t have an incompletion until the third quarter.

So of three games, Denver’s gone sackless in two and the other came against Washington’s Sam Howell, who currently sports the highest sack rate in the NFL. Ouch. Randy Gregory? One sack. Zach Allen’s made some splash plays against the run but hasn’t affected the quarterback much. By one measure, PFF’s pressure tracker, Allen and D.J. Jones have two pressures apiece and no other defensive lineman has one. The collective 5.4% sack rate is tied for 23rd in the NFL.

Hey Parker, it felt like we were completely out of sync from the get-go. Do you think if Sean Payton had challenged that Courtland Sutton catch on the opening drive that it might have set a better tone? I’m not saying that one play would’ve been the reason why we could’ve won, but perhaps we could’ve been a bit more competitive. What do you think?

— Mark, Arvada

You know what’s kind of humorous — not if you’re Payton, probably — about that, Mark? There was a moment in Payton’s postgame news conference where it seemed like he was about to walk off and there was a second of dead air. I had that play written down from well before the game turned a super blowout and so I just sort of started asking about it so he wouldn’t decide enough was enough and head out.

I prefaced it by saying it ended up seeming sort of trivial given the nature of it. And he gave a pretty good “this is really a question after we lost by 50?” look. Which is fair, I guess. But the fact that he stuck around and answered a couple more after that and that you brought it up in the mailbag means it wasn’t a total throwaway question, so thanks! All Payton said about it was they felt they had a clean view of it and didn’t think they had enough to expect an overturn.

Butterfly effect is fun to consider sometimes. That game, though? It was only going the one way.

The other spot that could have potentially made a difference was when the Broncos stopped Miami on downs with 4:47 to go in the first half, trailing 21-10. They took over at the Miami 33 but promptly backed up five because of a Mike McGlinchey false start. It only went backward from there. On third-and-17, Russell Wilson got a double corner blitz. Very similar to the look he hit Marvin Mims Jr. on for a 60-yard touchdown against Washington. This time the pressure got to him more and he airmailed a deep post to Mims, who had run clean past the Dolphins secondary.

You score there or, even better, take a couple minutes off and it’s 21-17 just before the half. The Dolphins still might have added points before intermission. As it actually played out, they scored 14 points in the final 1:55 and went to halftime up 35-13.

Marvin Mims Jr. looks more and more like the real deal every week. The kid is crazy dynamic. Do you see him involved more in the offense next week against the Bears?

Also, how excited are you looking forward to that Broncos-Bears game? Rather, why should we watch that game next week?

— Marshall, Parker

Thanks for the questions, Marshall. I’ve said each of the past two weeks it seems like Mims is due for a big uptick in usage and instead he’s played 17, 16 and 15 offensive snaps, respectively, Weeks 1-3. It’s pretty clear they see him as a big-play producer but also as a guy who fills a role in certain personnel groupings rather than an every-down player. My guess is when that changes, it’ll change quickly. But at this point it’s not clear when exactly that’ll be. He’s been impressive, though. No doubt about that.

As for the excitement level around Broncos-Bears, the 0-3 Bowl, I’m excited about it, but I don’t always get excited about these games for the same reasons fans do. I mean, sometimes, sure, it’s such a compelling matchup that you can’t help but be excited. Wilson going back to Seattle last year was like that. And any day that I’m at a stadium covering an NFL game is a pretty good one, typically. But a trip like this one’s exciting because my family’s not too far from Chicago so I get to stop and see them.

But if you’re looking for Non Beat-Writer’s Midwestern Family reasons to be intrigued by this game, maybe it’s because it feels like a tipping point. The Broncos in recent years have constantly tried to convince themselves that they’re close. That contention’s right around the corner if they can nab a couple of wins. Not sure Denver fans are at the point of hoping for a loss, but if they do drop to 0-4? You’re getting close to the type of rebuild territory that hasn’t been seen around here in a long time. That would be pretty interesting, even if it’s not fun to watch in the meantime.

Ok, a lighthearted, reality-avoiding question for you since asking anything real about the current situation would be too depressing: Why do guys on the kickoff coverage team always sprint all the way to the end zone even though the ball is long out of play and the receiving team is heading to the sideline? Are they being clocked upstairs and trying to set a personal sprint record? Maybe they don’t otherwise touch the field of play and they’re getting some exercise? Told from age 8 to “finish the play”? It’s kind of odd behavior.

Thanks.

— Dave G., Seattle

The tape never lies, Dave. And if you’re loafin’ on kickoff duty, you’re not going to see the field much.

It’s probably a little bit of everything you mentioned. The high angle and end zone cameras will spot any slackers promptly. And the other thing, I suppose, is teams are always looking for the slightest edge.

You know when Payton said they saw a “leverage” opportunity with Las Vegas on the surprise onside kick? It’s not like that guy was turning and bailing out 10 yards. He just started down the field a beat or two early and that was enough to think they could get an onside in behind him because he was cheating by just a step or two. If you got in the habit of not running down the field hard, it’d be easier to get duped on a big return. I’m guessing it’s also better to stride out than slam on the breaks when a returner shows he’s letting a ball go through the end zone. There’s enough hamstring injuries as it is without guys trying to slow up quickly.

Parker, was this the worst weekend in Colorado football ever? CU gets trounced by Oregon, the Broncos get obliterated by the Dolphins and Taylor Swift is now a Chiefs fan.

— AJ, Denver

Last part obviously being the toughest, AJ. Minus-86 on the scoreboard combined and minus-1 on the Global Icon Fan Leaderboard. That’s a rough two days.

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