Coach Gary Kubiak insists "there's no division" between the Denver Broncos' offense and defense after Sunday's postgame shouting match between the offensive line and defensive backs.
One Denver player told NFL Network's Mike Silver that the locker-room outbreak with left tackle Russell Okung and cornerback Aqib Talib at the forefront was "pretty much your classic offense vs. defense divide."
Kubiak downplayed that notion Monday, attributing the emotions to natural frustration in the wake of a loss.
"Defensively, they should feel really good about themselves and how they played," Kubiak said, via ESPN.com. "Offensively, we should look at it and say, 'Damn, we did some good things, (but) we should have scored some points.'"
The offense had five consecutive three-and-outs in the second half of a 16-3 game, extending a stretch of futility that includes just two touchdown drives in 37 possessions over the past three weeks.
"That's a great team we were playing," Kubiak continued. "We played good enough on defense to give ourselves a chance to beat them, but we didn't play good enough offensively to do that. That's football."
Now one game behind the Miami Dolphins for the final wild-card spot with tough matchups versus the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders over the final two weeks, the Broncos can't afford a locker-room schism.
"I would never let something be divisive, I would never let that happen," Kubiak explained. "If I didn't see guys in there bleeding and working and battling each other, those type of things, it wouldn't be football. That doesn't bother me."
The players appear content to sweep the issue under the rug. Okung said he and Talib have "definitely made amends." Talib is prepared for the team to "stick together" because "beefing with the offense (is) not going to get us nowhere."
To hear Kubiak tell it, the brokered peace between the two sides of the ball is overrated.
"They didn't need to. It was not a big deal," Kubiak offered. "I've been in NFL locker rooms 400-plus times. It was nothing. That was frustration that we just lost a game."