EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - After Sunday's 34-16 loss to the New York Jets, the Denver Broncos now have a three-game losing streak that seems to increase in ugliness after each subpar result.
And for a team with a locker room full of players who lived through last season's eight-game losing streak on the way to a 5-11 finish, there is an air of desperation and frustration, and more than a few questions to go around.
"Obviously, I'm pissed off," defensive end Derek Wolfe said. "We come off a short week, we're busting our ass, we're playing hard, practicing hard, lifting hard, doing everything we can to be a good player.
"To come out here and lose, the investment is too big. You invest so much money into your body just to take care of your body all week long, thousands of dollars to make sure you're healthy for the game, and come out here and lose, that s--- pisses you off, yeah. It really pisses you off."
Asked if he feared the team was spiraling into another streak like last season's, Wolfe added: "It's the same s--- every week, I'm tired of talking about the same s--- the last two years."
After a 2-0 start, the Broncos have now been dominated on the road twice -- by the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 23 to go with Sunday's dismal defeat to the previously 1-3 Jets -- and let a 10-point lead get away Monday in a 27-23 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
And now at 2-3, the Broncos face the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday.
"Last year we just kind of sunk to that place, expect bad things to happen," cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. "We've just kind of got to turn that over, expect good things to happen and try to maintain it."
The Jets shoved around a once-proud Broncos defense for 323 yards rushing, the fifth-highest single-game total in Denver's franchise history. New York averaged 8.5 yards per carry and rookie quarterback Sam Darnold had just four completions late in the first half, but two of those were for touchdowns.
"We've got to start out from square one, figure out who wants to be here, who wants to change this," Harris said. "I'm all-in, I'm studying, preparing my body, doing whatever it takes to win. ... Once [players] get on the field they've got to execute. It's a one-on-one job. In this defense, it's a man-to-man job, we've got to win our one-on-one battles and we're not doing it."
Wolfe, Harris, coach Vance Joseph and others around the team were once again left with the empty feeling that work done during practice they all described as a "good week" went without reward. It was much the same week-to-week mantra the team had last season.
"Absolutely we can regroup," Wolfe said. "We tried to regroup this week. We tried. We had great energy in practice, great energy coming out to the game, started the game hot. Something -- something much deeper is happening here that I can't even really understand ...
"And it's sad because we got fans behind our bench talking s---, talking about how we don't play with heart and don't play as hard as we can. Bulls---. We're playing as hard as we can every single snap. This is our livelihood. We're playing for our life out there. Playing for my family, playing for my wife, playing for my brothers beside me. So for someone to say we're not playing with our heart, it's bulls---."