ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — After Ashley Lelie looked at the film of the Denver Broncos' 34-10 loss last week against the Miami Dolphins, he wasn't too down about his performance.

"It's just little things I kind of messed up on," Lelie said.

Those "little things" included a dropped pass in the end zone, misjudging a deep pass that went over his head and a few more passes that hit him in the hands that he couldn't haul in.

Lelie, a former University of Hawai'i standout, wanted to have a better all-around season than last year, when he emerged as one of the league's best deep threats but wasn't a factor in other areas. He didn't seem to take many steps toward that last week, with two catches for 17 yards.

"Ashley has been very consistent this year throughout the preseason and camp," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "He didn't play one of his better games. He has to look at it, be tough on himself and get ready for the Chargers."

Lelie's poor game was similar to some performances his first and second seasons, when he would make mistakes and hardly have any impact on the game. He seemed to be over that last year. He had only one game with less than 30 yards receiving, when he had one catch for 3 yards against Tampa Bay in Week4.

Then Lelie started this season with his worst game since then getting one catch against the Buccaneers, which was alarming. Lelie said he just made a few correctable physical errors.

"It's not like it was that Kansas City game last year, which was more effort and me not knowing my stuff," Lelie said, referring to a Dec. 19 loss in which Lelie had three catches for 37 yards. "It was just, I was in position to make plays and I didn't make them."

Lelie said he did plenty of things well against Miami. He got open on short routes and blocked well on running plays, which had been lacking from his game at times. He thought he played hard and had the most physical game of his career.

"I blocked well, I was physical, I didn't let myself be guarded," Lelie said. "They didn't do a great job covering me, I just didn't make the plays like the easy catches or the read with Jake downfield."

Lelie didn't see a big problem with the dropped passes. He said he was upset with himself for the drops but he doesn't think it will be an epidemic. And when he watched film of the game Monday, he saw he didn't go in the tank after his dropped passes. He figured that was a good sign.

"If I would have come in and watched this film and not seen myself, even after the drops, just going hard and competing, I probably would lose a little confidence," Lelie said. "But I was still trying to make plays, and that kind of boosts my confidence up."

Lelie should have an opportunity to correct his mistakes this week against San Diego. The Chargers ranked 31st in the NFL in pass defense last year and allowed Dallas' Drew Bledsoe to pass for three touchdowns last week.

Lelie said he doesn't expect to have more games with as many obvious mistakes as he had last week.

"No, no, no, no," Lelie said. "There's going to be dropped balls and stuff like that, but I don't think it's going to be as bad as it was."