The Broncos’ night went from ideal to nightmarish in about 15 seconds. Cornerback Bradley Roby nearly picked off a Tom Brady pass on the New England Patriots’ opening drive Sunday and sealed a three-and-out, sending a message that maybe the Broncos’ defense of old was back with a vengeance.

And then disaster struck.

Rookie returner Isaiah McKenzie muffed his fifth punt of the season and the Patriots recovered, setting them up for a quick seven points.

Easy.

“That’s not the first punt McKenzie’s muffed this year,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said afterward. “We had one chance on the kickoff return and took advantage of it.”

The Patriots didn’t have to try very hard in their 41-16 victory. Four huge blunders from the Broncos’ special teams led to 24 points for the Patriots, including allowing a kick return for a touchdown, and the team that has historically struggled in Denver left with its largest victory here since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

The Broncos problems’ have gone from bad to worse, and as coach Vance Joseph scans the disastrous last five weeks, the task of untangling the web they’ve weaved is daunting.

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“We have to find a formula that helps us win, obviously, but when you’re game-planning for an opponent, you can sometimes have so many answers that it costs you somewhere else,” Joseph said Monday. “We’re making too many small mistakes within the game plans. So sometimes you have to scale it back and not have so many answers, but play a cleaner brand of football.

“Our guys played hard yesterday. You can watch the offense and I showed the guys about 15 plays of the offense from yesterday and it’s explosive, it’s efficient and it’s right on. And we’ve got 15 others that are not. That’s lack of detail.”

The Broncos hope they made it through the most difficult stretch of the season after a three-game road stretch and a home game against the Patriots. But they can’t shake their toughest opponent: themselves.

The Broncos’ 21 turnovers have led to 78 points by opponents, the most in the NFL by a wide margin. (Chicago and Washington are tied for second with 60 points from giveaways.)

Glimmers of improvement in one area are often masked by a drop-off in another. A fumble here. An interception there. A missed tackle, a drop, a muff, a blocked punt, an avoidable penalty, an early deficit, red-zone inefficiency, defensive miscommunication and on and on.

But on Sunday night, the spotlight hovered over the floundering special teams and a defense that has fallen fast in recent weeks.

Fridays for the Broncos’ first-year special-teams coordinator, Brock Olivo, have become weekly mea culpas as he apologizes for his inability to create “a culture of (butt)-kicking.” After the loss to the Patriots, no seat seemed hotter than his. But Joseph said Monday he still has confidence in Olivo.

“I do, and here’s why,” Joseph began. “I’m in these meetings every day, and he’s a detailed guy. He goes over those guys’ assignments over and over again. Lots of energy. He’s a very, very bright guy. He’s learned under a guy (Kansas City’s special-teams coordinator Dave Toub) who’s the best in the entire league. So I watch him work every day and the mistakes we’ve had, obviously Brock’s responsible and I’m responsible, but he hadn’t muffed the punt.

“I watch him work with our returners every day — before, during and after practice. I work with the returners also, so I know what’s being taught there. So I’m not down on Brock.”

Joseph reiterated he has crossed out effort from his players as a potential issue, too.

“I watched the last four plays of the defense and everybody is still playing hard. Everybody is still chasing the ball,” Joseph said. He added: “I think we’re disappointed of where we are. I am. But we’re not broken, by no means, because we believe we can win and we’ve worked that way each week. We just haven’t had the results that we want after four weeks.”

One change Joseph is exploring is in the return game. McKenzie has returned 20 punts for 186 yards to rank fifth in the NFL. But he’s muffed five and lost two. Joseph left his options open heading into another week of preparation, but it’s reasonable to believe that McKenzie’s opportunities may soon end.

“That goes back to my first point about figuring out how to minimize those huge errors and to play a cleaner brand of football,” Joseph said. “So if that means having someone to just go and get the ball caught and possessing the ball after a defensive stop — if it happens, it happens.”

One change Joseph is not exploring, however, is at quarterback. If there was a bright spot to the Broncos’ latest blowout loss, it was the improvement of an offense that had been hindered by turnovers and inefficiency.

So Brock Osweiler will get his third start Sunday when the Broncos’ host the Cincinnati Bengals.

“In my opinion, Brock played a solid game again yesterday,” Joseph said. “Offensively, we moved the ball. In the red zone, it wasn’t great … but as far as moving the ball, it was efficient, it was right, we made some explosive plays on that side of the ball, so I was very pleased with how he played.”

Back to the drawing board the Broncos go after five consecutive losses, still in search of a needed victory and answers to their many questions.

“Until we find a way to not spot good teams 14 points, we can’t win,” Joseph said. “I told them I’m disappointed because that’s my job to figure out a way to play a cleaner brand of football. That comes from game-planning, that comes from game-management — all those things. We have to figure out how to get back to an even game.

“And I’ve said it for the last month. But it hasn’t happened.”