HOW WELL WILL JOSEPH HANDLE ADVERSITY?

Now we find out if Vance Joseph can coach in the NFL. “It’s a hard league,” Joseph said Wednesday. “It’s early in the football season. Every team is going to have adversity, as far as losing football games, as far as having injuries. It’s our turn.”

The Broncos are banged up, from the twisted ankle of receiver Emmanuel Sanders to the bruised shoulder of linebacker Brandon Marshall The offense is hazardous to itself. Beating the Chargers at Los Angeles feels like a must-win, because Denver is about to enter the toughest stretch of its schedule, with trips to Kansas City and Philadelphia followed by a visit from New England, three first-place teams with a combined record of 14-4.

Now we find out how well Joseph handles adversity as a head coach. Stuff happens in the NFL. The difference between making the playoffs and missing out is often defined by how a coach manages all the football crises along the way.

“I knew it was going to come,” he said. “It’s here now, so I’m not surprised it’s here. But we can’t panic and we can’t blame. We have to do more (as) coaches and players. It’s here, so let’s deal with it and get through it.”

Way back in April, so long ago T.J. Ward was a key member of the No-Fly Zone rather than a safety for Tampa Bay, he was asked his impression of Denver’s rookie head coach. Ward said something that stuck with me: NFL coaching is about more than X’s and O’s, teaching and strategy. The mettle of coaches is revealed during times of trouble.

“As a player you like to see their mannerisms under fire and in game-time situations. Then

you can really get a grasp on how a coach is,” Ward said. “I’ve had coaches I thought would be great in the preseason. You get into a game and they are on the sideline losing their mind and just not being great game managers.”

Remember Josh McDaniels? As hard as Broncos Country has tried to forget, the indelible image of McDaniels is his sideline meltdown on Thanksgiving 2009, when his profanity-laced rip job of players on the bench made it clear to a national television audience the pressures of the job were more than he could handle.

To his credit, Joseph maintains a consistency in his management persona and realizes football is more about the athletes who score touchdowns than the coaches that draw up the game plan, two valuable traits that would have helped McDaniels last longer than 28 games in Denver. Although Jo- seph demands accountability from players, he doesn’t throw them under the bus when they fail.

But the jury is out on Joseph as a game manager.

Down 20-16 late in the third quarter to Buffalo, the call of a fake punt deep in their own territory was a panic move by the Broncos. When there was confusion by his players prior to the snap, Joseph’s inexperience showed when he didn’t step in, call timeout and use his discretion to stop an unnecessary gamble.

While Joseph takes every opportunity to remind us the Broncos are a run-first team, Denver abandoned the run as soon as New York took a 20-3 lead in the third quarter of a loss to the previously winless Giants. During the final 23 minutes and 8 seconds of the game, the Broncos had zero sense of offensive balance, dropping back quarterback Trevor Siemian to pass 30 times, as opposed to only four designed running plays, including when C.J. Anderson was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

“You look around and see the best teams figure out ways to win, different ways to win almost every week, or when they need to,” said Siemian, who believes the Broncos have the proper mind-set to adapt. “We’re not always going to be able to run it for 200 yards every week. When you can’t do that, how do you win the game? How do you figure it out?”

Go beat a team that the City of Angels has forgotten, return home with a “road” victory against the Chargers, and the Broncos will be 4-2. All will be well in their world. Lose and the season can spiral quickly out of control, and the team’s 3-1 start could swirl down the drain with a losing streak that would lead to a quarterback controversy.

Joseph likes motivational T-shirts.

At a crossroads, where it’s probably more about leadership than strategy for the Broncos, here’s a suggestion for a T-shirt for Joseph. Print it up and wear these words on the chest, next to the heart: Keep Calm and Carry On.