As John Elway sits behind his well-kept desktop, to his right are sliding glass doors to a walk-out balcony that overlooks the Broncos’ practice field.
With a swivel of his chair, Elway looked out Tuesday to watch the team he built tune up with a bye-week practice.
It’s a bit early for a state-of-the-team reflection from the Broncos’ general manager and director of football operations, but the bye week shows up when the schedule says so.
Just three games in, the Broncos are predictably 2-1. What’s unusual is how the mood regarding the team’s long-term prospects improved with defeat. The Broncos were doomed at 2-0 because they were expected to dominate their home games against Indianapolis and Kansas City — and they didn’t.
Faith was restored, however, after the Broncos lost 26-20 at Seattle on Sunday, because fans feared they would get humiliated — and they didn’t.
“Mental toughness, we’ve shown that,” Elway said. “Mental toughness is not worrying about losing, it’s figuring out how to make the plays to win. The competitiveness and the gumption this team has, to me has shown a lot.
“The first two weeks, we had to get out of ‘fourth down’ to win those games. And then to go up to Seattle, we don’t play well and then in the fourth quarter we’re able to light the fire and make some plays offensively and get us into overtime. We kept competing. That’s a good sign.”
Not that everything was swell with the Broncos’ overtime loss. The rushing attack averaged less than 2.0 yards a carry.
“The line’s OK,” Elway said. “They know we’ve got to get better (running the ball), and there are a lot of things we can do better as a unit. That will keep coming.
“The first two weeks, it wasn’t bad, but to go up there to Seattle, it’s a different story. The noise up there is stifling. Obviously, we know we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got some scheme things we need to continue to work on. But we’re not going to give up on it, and we’re going to continue to run the football, show some balance and just get better.”
Most of Elway’s offseason moves already seem shrewd. Emmanuel Sanders is leading the league in receptions. DeMarcus Ware has 2½ sacks.
“I do know that we have to start doing the little things within each side of the ball better than we have been,” Elway said. “A little bit more disciplined. We’re not consistent, because we’re not doing the little things right all the time. I’m talking about things like whether the depth on your route is deep enough, or setting the right way, knowing where your help is. Just little things.
“Defensively, knowing where to line up, certain defenses we have technique where we’re either taking the inside or outside away and being able to know within the defense which are those little technique things we are supposed to be doing. We need to start doing those things 100 percent. We’re not doing those little things 100 percent of the time, so therefore it’s causing the inconsistency.”
Two Broncos players who aren’t tearing up anyone’s fantasy leagues are receiver Demaryius Thomas and running back Montee Ball. Thomas is tied for 45th with 13 receptions and tied for 53rd with 141 yards.
“We all experience some slumps here and there, and Demaryius might be going through a minor slump for him,” Elway said. “But he’s going to come out of that with flying colors, there’s no doubt in my mind. I’m not worried about Demaryius at all. He’ll get through this. He’s too valuable to us.”
Ball ranks 18th with 165 yards rushing but on just 3.4 yards per carry.
“Montee’s making some people miss,” Elway said. “He’s getting more confident, making some strides. It would be nice for us to give him a little more space. Even in that Kansas City game, he made a lot of runs on his own. But I think all the backs are doing fine.”
Mike Klis: mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis
