DENVER — The Orange Mush is dead.

“Oh yeah,” Denver Broncos icon Louis Wright told me over the phone Monday. “I mean, their tackling has improved.

“But the Kansas City running back, (Kenneth) Walker (III), he’s probably the best in the NFL right now. So it’s not like you’re just tackling anybody. He’s an expert at what he does.”

Expert? A month ago, the Broncos made KWIII look like Earl Campbell one series, Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson the next.

Walker in Week 1: 173 rushing yards.

Walker in Week 7, at his Seahawks homecoming: 36 rushing yards.

“If you watched Seattle (on Sunday night),” another Broncos great, Karl Mecklenburg noted on Monday, “the same guy (for the Chiefs) wasn’t getting any extra yards.”

And a funny thing happened on the way to Broncos-Chiefs II Sunday at Empower Field, the headlining heavyweight fight on the NFL’s Week 8 card: Your Broncos have stopped giving up a lot of those extra rushing yards, too.

Vance Joseph’s defense missed an eye-gouging 24 tackles at Kansas City in Week 1, per Pro-Football-Reference.com. But get this: According to that same statistical site, the Orange and Blue crew have missed 30 tackles in the six games since that Week 1 debacle.

That’s five whiffs per contest. Which, funny enough, is right on par with last season’s missed tackle totals from Pro-Football-Reference (85 misses in 17 games, or five per week), and 2024’s tackle-whiff rate (78 in 17 games, or 4.6 per week) under VJ.

The site tracked the Broncos with a 10-missed-tackle game in a home win over the Rams and another three weeks later vs. the Seahawks. Over Weeks 2-7, a stretch that’s seen the Broncos (5-2) put up a 5-1 record and pull within shouting distance of Kansas City (5-1), they’re giving up 118.8 rushing yards per game.

That number’s a little high, true, but the trend lines are improving. The Broncos held a Cardinals offense that ran for 120 at the Rams and 123 at the Giants to 94 this past Sunday.

Wrap up. Win. Simple, right?

“Tackling is not something that’s just automatic,” Mecklenburg said. “And if you don’t tackle in practice, and you don’t play a lot in the preseason, that one’s not an easy thing to do.”

Two of the greatest defenders in Broncos history watched Week 1 at Arrowhead with one hand over their eyes and the other holding their noses.

“Pathetic,” Mecklenburg said.

“Horrible,” Wright added.

On “Monday Night Football,” the Broncos laid an egg that could feed half of Berthoud. Behind Walker, Kansas City ran for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries, as Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid ran away — literally — with a 31-10 laugher.

“It was hard to watch. It really was,” Mecklenburg cracked. “It was like two-hand touch.”

Mecklenburg knows about those kinds of love taps better than most. The Albino Rhino collected 1,104 solo tackles as a Broncos linebacker from 1983-94, including six 100-tackle campaigns. He earned six Pro Bowl selections over a 12-year career, while Wright, the Pat Surtain II of his era, landed five Pro Bowl berths from 1975-86.

“(Week 1) really was bad,” Wright chuckled. “Like, ‘Come on, somebody, just set the tone, just get him one time and bring him down so that he knows it can be done.'”

Legendary Orange Crush defensive coordinator Joe Collier used to tell his defenses the goal for individual defenders was no more than three missed tackles in any game, Wright recalled.

“You can do a lot of stuff,” the former Broncos great said, “but you can’t miss tackles. And three was our limit.”

Mecklenburg and Wright both placed the bulk of the blame for that Chiefs stinker on three things: 1.) Coach Sean Payton; 2.) On the lack of tackling, comparatively, over the last few weeks of the preseason; and 3.) On new league protocols that limit full-speed contact in an effort to enhance player safety.

The end result? A tackling “sticker shock” that takes defenders two games, and maybe three, to ease back into their usual mechanics.

“That’s a learned thing. You have to practice it,” Mecklenburg said. “You have to work at it.

“I’m a hunter, and if I don’t go shoot some sporting clays or shoot some clay pigeons before the season starts, I miss a lot of birds before I start hitting them. It’s just this complicated combination of taking the right angles and driving your legs and doing all these things that aren’t automatic, even if you’re a very good player.”

Today’s players are stronger and faster than those in the ’70s and ’80s. Yet even if you’re quick in pursuit, finishing the job is as much an art as it is a science. Mecklenburg recounted that one of his best offseasons for raw strength gains eventually led to one of his worst as a tackler.

“And (the difference) was hand strength,” the former Broncos defender explained. “I had been lifting weights with straps and all this stuff, and I could throw 400 pounds around, and whatever. But my hands couldn’t (grip properly). So I went without the straps the next offseason and missed fewer tackles the next year because my hands were strong. It’s figuring out what your weak spot is and working on that.”

The Rhino and Wright don’t see much of that early-season rust in VJ’s crew anymore.

“If you can stop the run and you can run the ball, you’re going to win,” the ex-Broncos cornerback said. ” So that’s really on the defensive line and linebackers. Everybody (chips in). Denver is actually stopping the run now.”

Those wise owls know. Revenge is a dish best served bold. And the secret to tackling is the same as winning the AFC West: It ain’t how you start. It’s how you finish.

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