EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It’s a stench that can’t be washed away in the shower. The Broncos stink to the bone. What’s that putrid odor? Hope dying.

Vance Joseph reeks of an NFL coach that can’t do the math and is always late with the answer. Why can’t his boss see it? Can’t John Elway smell it?

It’s impossible for the scoreboard to fully capture this mess, although as the New York Jets crushed Denver 34-16 here Sunday, it shouted how rotten this football team is in big, bright lights.

“We were once a dominant team. Teams once feared the Broncos. It’s not that way anymore,” linebacker Brandon Marshall said Sunday.

Marshall spoke quietly, while deliberately knotting a tie around his neck, after the Jets shredded the reputation of a defense that won Super Bowl 50 with 323 yards rushing. It was the heaviest pounding Denver had taken on the ground in eight seasons. You remember 2010; it was the year Josh McDaniels was fired as coach.

With the benefit of time, defeat builds character. In the moments immediately after a humiliating loss, however, what’s revealed is how an athlete deals with emotional pain laid bare. While Marshall picked through the sad reality like a CSI investigator, Denver teammate Derek Wolfe growled like a hurt animal.

“I’m tired of talking about the same (bleep) for the last two years,” said Wolfe, who employed a four-letter word not fit for print in a family newspaper. “Something’s got to change.”

Since last season, the Broncos have changed the starting quarterback, the special teams coordinator and their travel schedule for road games to the East Coast. Nevertheless, the three-game losing streak Denver is mired in now looks a whole lot like the eight-game losing streak that almost got Joseph fired a year ago.

Any guesses to what needs to change?

Well, I don’t want to mention names. But his initials are V.J.

As Denver trailed by 17 points with more than nine minutes remaining in the final period, facing fourth down deep in Jets territory, Joseph eschewed a chip-shot field goal to chase a touchdown. Really? When your bravado is bigger than your brains, folks call you Tin Cup. Related Articles Broncos scouting report: How Denver matches up against Buccaneers and predictions

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And when the pass from Case Keenum fell incomplete on fourth down, the healthy representation of Broncos Country that had invaded MetLife Stadium began flocking to the exits. Add basic football math to the basic football skills Joseph lacks.

Denver fans behind the visitors’ bench shouted insults at the Broncos, according to Wolfe. Everybody was ticked. Can you blame anyone?

This is the point where it would be easy for a team to turn tail and run. In fact, cornerback Bradley Roby tried to duck out on questions regarding him getting burned by a 76-yard touchdown reception by Robby Anderson.

“”Robe’ has got to show up, man. Make a play or something,” said Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr., who then barked across the locker room, shaming Roby into explaining himself. “You’ve got to face the music, big ’un.”

It’s a sad song. The orange has got the blues. For the fifth time in as many games, Case Keenum got outplayed by the opposing quarterback, and in this case it was Jets rookie Sam Darnold. Worse, the Denver defense ain’t what it used to be.

“We’ve got to start over from square one. Figure out who wants to be here,” said Harris, vowing not to quit, insisting he’s all in.

But can the same be said about all of Harris’ teammates?

“I don’t know. I hope so,” said Harris, who will effort to rally a discouraged locker room. “We’ve got to change something. And we’ve got to win. It’s not looking too good right now.”

In the entire history of the Jets, from Emerson Boozer to Curtis Martin, a storied franchise has never run, run, run for more yards in a single game. That’s no small achievement. “It means a lot to me,” said New York’s Isaiah Crowell, whose 77-yard burst for a touchdown early in the second quarter provided the first score of 24 unanswered points by the Jets.

Denver defensive coordinator Joe Woods certainly had no answer. Where have you gone, Wade Phillips? Asked if it’s time to shake up his defensive coaching staff, Joseph replied: “No. I don’t think we’re there.”

But is scapegoating Woods the answer?

If Elway wants, he can wait to make a bigger move that feels inevitable, because the stench never touches Old No. 7 in Colorado. So Elway can wait, watching the Broncos slowly swirl down the drain.

But Gary Kubiak, now a senior personnel adviser for the team he led to a championship as coach fewer than three years ago, works in the same building as Elway.

The boss at least has to broach the topic with his dear football brother of 35 years, don’t you think?

Or are the Broncos so far gone after only five games of 2018 that even if Kubiak returned to the Denver sideline, it wouldn’t matter?

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