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Now 5-0 after a hard-fought, come-from-behind win over the Patriots on Sunday, Head Coach Josh McDaniels can really see his team buying into the “do your job” mentality.

“The players are confident, I think,” McDaniels said. “I think they trust our game plans, and I think we trust them to execute our game plan.”

Following the team’s dramatic win, Mario Haggan called the club’s confidence level “sky-high.” Nonetheless, he said everyone within the locker room realizes they have a lot of work to do moving forward.

“I think we’ve been confident for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think you can win a game without being confident. I just think people are starting to notice some of the things that we’ve done.

“We’re only 5-0, we’re not Super Bowl winners and we’re not in the playoffs,” Haggan added. “We’re just 5-0.”

Not only are coaches and players at Dove Valley echoing that sentiment, even Broncos legend Rod Smith, who was on hand for the 20-17 overtime victory, has noticed how well the team has been on the same page throughout its undefeated start.

“Those guys fight for each other,” Smith said. “Talking to some of the players, they said, ‘The one thing I love about our team is that it’s unselfish.’ Everybody on this team is really thinking about the guy next to them, and they’re making some things happen.”

Although victorious, McDaniels knows the Broncos have to clean up miscues committed in Sunday’s game if the team wants to walk away a winner in its divisional road game at San Diego in Week 6.

Once the team returns to the film room later in the week, he and the rest of the coaching staff will pinpoint those errors and hammer home the proper plan. Above all, McDaniels said he will make sure the team stays focused on the task at hand.

“As long as you understand where you are and what you are dealing with, which is we have won five games, (but) we didn’t play our best football game yesterday,” he said. “I think we played maybe one play better than they did, just a little bit better, and that is why we ended up winning the game. Certainly, we left a lot out there on the field in every phase. We can coach better. We can play better, and they will see that on the film. I don’t have to create that, and no coach on our staff is going to have to create it either because we just watch the film and that is the proof.”

Noteworthy:

McDaniels elected to give his team the day off on Monday. With a long week of preparation for next Monday’s AFC West clash with the Chargers on the horizon, he felt his players earned a much deserved day of rest, thanks to the come-from-behind victory.

“You try to give them a little bit of extra rest and also give them a little reward for playing a tough, physical game,” McDaniels said. “(We are) just trying to give them a little bit of a bone as we head into a long week because we are going to have a long week: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday practice.”

– Zach Eisendrath, DenverBroncos.com