Mike Shanahan tried to let his team know the dangers and the potential disaster of losing Sunday’s game.
Plain and simple, it was a football disaster.
Wednesday morning, as the resurgent Broncos gathered to prepare for the already eliminated San Francisco 49ers, Shanahan showed the team what could happen in such games. It was there in black and white, but the ploy didn’t work.
Shanahan showed the Broncos that five teams in the past four seasons with a playoff spot or a seeding spot at stake lost to teams with nothing to lose in the final game of the regular season. Make it six.
“There’s not much to say, other than it’s brutal,” Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams said. “We just blew it.”
While the Broncos’ 26-23 overtime loss to the 49ers on Sunday at Invesco Field at Mile High might not rival the January 1997 home playoff loss to Jacksonville, it will have its place in the team’s disappointment annals.
All Denver had to do was win and it was the No. 5 seed in the playoffs and a trip to New England just five games into the Jay Cutler era. Instead, the loss begins a long, hollow offseason, with the memories of a 7-2 season that turned into a 9-7 waste. The loss evened Denver’s home record at 4-4.
“We didn’t do what it takes,” tight end Stephen Alexander said. “And that goes for the entire season.”
For a home team with a playoff berth at stake, playing in cold weather for one of the few times this season, many breakdowns were necessary for a collapse.
The Broncos were broken all game long.
“Way too many mistakes,” defensive end Kenard Lang said.
The Broncos – who led 13-0 late in the second quarter – can point to several mistakes. They had separate first-and-goal situations, at the 49ers’ 1-yard line and 3-yard line, in the first half. Both times, the Broncos settled for field goals by Jason Elam. In the third quarter, Denver had the ball at the 49ers 4, yet settled for another Elam field goal. Rookie Mike Bell, who scored eight touchdowns this season, was stopped three times on those situations.
“We had to find a way to score on those plays,” Bell said. “But we couldn’t. … It really hurts.”
It wasn’t just the missed touchdowns that hurt Denver.
Late in the second quarter, San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith fumbled at Denver’s 28. Lang came in near the 49ers’ sideline and tried to scoop up the ball. He failed to secure it, and the ball squirted out of bounds. On the next play, San Francisco kicker Joe Nedney – who won the game in overtime with a 36-yard field goal – hit a 46-yarder to put the 49ers on the scoreboard to pull within 13-3 at halftime.
“That’s three big points,” Lang said. “That’s my fault.”
The mistakes kept coming.
Broncos middle linebacker Nate Webster, playing for the injured Al Wilson, missed a tackle on fullback Moran Norris, who scooted 32 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 13-10.
Four plays later, Cutler, groggy after suffering a concussion in the first half, threw an interception to 49ers cornerback Walt Harris that was returned 28 yards for a touchdown that gave San Francisco its first lead.
In the fourth quarter, a 5-yard penalty on the Broncos’ Ebenezer Ekuban helped Nedney hit a 46-yard field goal rather than attempt a 51-yarder. That increased the 49ers’ lead to 23-16.
The miscues just kept coming and coming. In overtime, the Broncos failed on third-and-1 at their 46.
“Obviously, (it’s) very disappointing that we weren’t able to put it away early,” Shanahan said.
It’s why he had issued his team that warning early in the previous week.
Bill Williamson can be reached at 303-820-1262 or bwilliamson@denverpost.com.
