This Broncos season began with all eyes locked on their finish. Fast starts and slow finishes have ruined their hopes in recent years.
Denver began this season 6-2.
Four games into the second half, the Broncos are 3-1.
That makes 9-3, as good as any team in the AFC besides the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts.
I see a disconcerting trend, though. The Broncos while solving their late-season swoons have developed fourth-quarter blackouts.
They are being bashed in fourth quarters.
In eight of 12 games they have been outscored in the fourth quarter. They have lost the fourth quarter in three of their past four games and six of their past eight.
In six fourth quarters this year, they have scored three or fewer points. In three of them, they scored nothing.
They lost the fourth quarter 7-3 to the Chiefs on Sunday, and that proved the margin of their 31-27 defeat.
They rank third leaguewide in first-quarter point margin at plus-34.
They rank 28th in fourth-quarter point margin at minus-28.
They have easily outscored their opponents in every quarter – except the last one.
This should make the Broncos scratch their heads and search their hearts. A 9-3 team should not be dominated in such a decisive manner in the fourth quarter.
It indicates that these Broncos are setting themselves up for pure heartbreak in the postseason.
They will reach the playoffs.
But a team that cannot finish is one that will be finished.
In a fourth-quarter instant.
What is going on here?
Some options:
The Broncos do not handle early-game prosperity. The Broncos put so much emphasis on initially scripting plays and winning the game planning battle from the start that their cupboard is bare at the finish. The Broncos lack killer instinct. The defense is worn and frazzled in the final minutes. The entire team is spent in the final minutes. The Broncos are simply not physical enough to pound extensively on either side of the ball late in games.
These are concepts being kicked around the league by the Broncos’ peers.
Maybe coach Mike Shanahan has considered one or two. I imagine he could add 20 more to the list.
But Shanahan and his staff must find the answer.
There is a fourth-quarter problem with his team that cannot be ignored.
I loved the way Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil two-stepped around the subject when asked after the game about the difference between his team from the first to the second half. He said something about taking the Broncos’ best shots early and then late they lacked potent shots.
And he said this: “It’s a well-conceived offense and they always have tremendous game plans. They always do a very good job in the first quarter, and they come out and have scored on five opening drives of the third quarter. … Sometimes you run out of those plays. … Then, all of a sudden, all those plays that are chunks down the field are no longer there. So, you’re repeating.”
Basically, Vermeil is saying what many NFL coaches and teams believe about the Broncos – just hang with them early, because they will cross you up and slap you down at the start, but in the end they have little staying power. In the fourth quarter, once all their newfangled jive is complete, it gets down to football, blocking and tackling and hitting and dispensing big-play shots with confidence. And they simply are not as interested in that.
That is a slap to the Broncos.
They can change that thinking.
Maybe they need to start holding up four fingers like some college teams do as they enter the fourth quarter, a reminder that the fourth quarter belongs to them.
Maybe they need to begin scripting plays for the fourth quarter, as they do for the first.
More than anything, it is a head game.
If these Broncos are built to last, showing it in the fourth quarter is a mind-set.
Quick leads are nice.
But winning fourth quarters brings you closer to a championship.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
