The Denver Broncos’ defense again carried the night in a 10-7 win over the Raiders — and the standard inside that room is simple: zero. That’s the expectation safety Talanoa Hufanga laid out at halftime, according to The Denver Post, after Las Vegas punched in an early touchdown. Hufanga told teammates “we gotta be better… everybody,” and set the bar where he believes it belongs.
“It’s set every week that — they can’t score at all,” Hufanga said postgame, via the Post. “It’s tough for us to even give them a touchdown. We want to hold teams to field goals, or get off the field if we can’t get turnovers.”
Halftime Message, Full-Game Mentality
GettyTalanoa Hufanga believes the standard for the Denver Broncos’ defense is to never give up a single touchdown.
Per the Post, Hufanga gathered the locker room at halftime of a 7-7 grind and put the onus directly on the defense. The group responded by blanking the Raiders over the final three quarters, finishing with six sacks and a stretch of nine straight third-down stops after an early lapse. The report notes those stands came even when short fields appeared, with Denver repeatedly denying points in sudden-change situations.
The headline standard wasn’t bluster. It was operational. Hufanga’s “no touchdowns” line might read like bravado, but the Post’s game details support the mindset: Denver entered the night tied for the fewest red-zone touchdowns allowed in the NFL and played to profile in the second half.
‘Bend, Don’t Break’ — Minus the Excuses
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Riley Moss distilled the approach in plain terms, telling the Post that great defenses accept bad field position and still get off the field.
“It’s — ‘All right, this is what we’ve been dealt, and we’re going to get off the field,’” Moss said. “And that’s what makes a good defense, is being able to bend in situations that aren’t advantageous for you. But you grind it out, and you don’t make excuses, and you get it done.”
That’s not just posture. As summarized by the Post, Denver’s defense has been the engine during a seven-game win streak peppered with one-score finishes. The identity is clear: control early downs, constrict the red zone, and let coordinated rush and coverage finish drives.
Standard > Scoreboard
Even with the win, Moss told the Post there’s another level to reach: “We can be a lot better than what we put out there tonight. I can be a lot better than what I put out there tonight. And everyone on the defense believes that, too.”
That line lands because of the context provided by the Post: the Broncos are winning without 2024 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II in the lineup, leaning on safeties and the front to close space and speed up quarterbacks. In that frame, “better” doesn’t mean changing who they are; it means shaving the handful of snaps where spacing, leverage or tackling angles slip.
What It Means Going Forward
Again, credit to the Denver Post for the on-scene reporting and quotes from Hufanga and Moss. Their account paints a defense comfortable living on the edge of one-score margins because the standard they’ve set is harsher than the scoreboard. If “no touchdowns” is the bar, a 10-7 survival act isn’t a fluke — it’s the intended result.
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