Broncos Defense Preventing Nothing

Catch the pun in the title? This one's about the defense's play late in games. When the Seahawks got the ball with two minutes left and needing a field goal to win, did anyone not see what was coming? Even though the defense had been dominating for most of the game, they couldn't put the clamps on when it counted - and this is a recurring trend.

Now I know you shouldn't blame the defense for a loss when they allow 23 points and hold an opposing offense to under 300 total yards. But something has to be done about the prevent defense that they're playing late in games. Matt Hasselbeck never got in his rhythm early in the game because the coverage was so good - but when it mattered most, he was able to completely pick apart the Broncos' zone defense.

So something has to be done to give the offense a chance to win these late games. I don't know what it is because I'm not a football genius, and I don't know how to run a successful late-game defense - maybe you do? But it seems to me that it's been a recurring trend this season: this defense cannot shut down an opponent late in the game. And because of it, the offense isn't being given a chance to perform for themselves late in the game and see if they can pull out a close one instead of the other team. I'm not giving the offense any excuses for their lousy play, I'm justing pointing out that they're not the only ones who aren't getting the job done.