The only thing the Broncos are really good at is ripping the hearts out of the people who love them most.
A 15-10 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday reminded us of everything thatap wrong with a football franchise whose holes in the roster are exceeded only by the lack of accountability for this hot mess. When Bengals defensive end Khalid Kareem ripped the football from quarterback Drew Lock in the fourth quarter, it felt like he reached inside the chest of every Broncos fan and stole the last vestiges of hope.
When is enough finally enough? For three years, coach Vic Fangio has given us an excruciatingly slow death by inches.
Put the team up for sale. Why wait until January?
The bickering between Beth and Brittany Bowlen has been an embarrassment to their late father’s legacy and a disservice to all the paying customers who have paid their hard-earned money to support the Broncos. With silver spoons, the Bowlen kids threw dirt on a civic treasure they weren’t worthy to oversee.
If general manager George Paton has the guts to do right by apountry, he will fire everybody in charge of this disaster on the field, from Fangio to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Letap send prayers to Bridgewater as he recovers from a frightening head injury, but is there any compelling reason for him to be back in the Denver huddle ever again?
Enough of the heartache. Get a broom and sweep up the shards of the poor souls still foolish enough to believe Fangio when he analyzes the playoff picture and claims: “We’re not out.”
Put a lid on it, Uncle Vic. The Broncos might be mathematically alive. But they’re emotionally wasted.
“We want to win just as bad as everyone wants us to win. We want to win more than fans want us to win,” said safety Justin Simmons, after the Denver defense held Cincy quarterback Joe Burrow to 157 yards passing and limited running back Joe Mixon to 57 yards rushing. “It just (stinks) when you play close games like this. You have to find a way to make it happen.”
Good teams find a way to make the playoffs. Denver keeps inventing new ways to lose, with Lock keeping the football on an option play and handing it to Kareem on a platter with the Broncos nine yards from the end zone and a fourth-quarter lead pure slapstick that was so funny it could make you cry.
“When you’re losing a game, itap hard not to feel as a quarterback that you need to go and do it yourself,” Lock said.
He has learned to be self-critical but still can’t get out of his own way, because thatap not the way Lock is wired. “It is in my DNA,” he said, “to go out there and do a little bit more than I’m asked of, maybe.”
After this defeat, you could go to that internet thingy and find a gloomy analytical forecast for the team’s playoff chances, now pegged at less than 10%. Want a Christmas miracle? Pray for snow for Colorado ski resorts.
What are the odds the Broncos will sweep the Raiders, Chargers and Chiefs and get the help needed to earn a postseason invitation? Frosty the Snowman would have better luck living a long and prosperous life in Death Valley.
After 9,028 fans ate their tickets instead of showing up to Empower Field at Mile High on a sunny, 61-degree Sunday in December for what was billed as the most important game played by the Broncos since Super Bowl 50, you, I and team president Joe Ellis know it would make zero economic sense to try to reheat this garbage and sell it again next year.
I get paid to watch this hot mess but do feel your pain. We’re all tired of the woulda, coulda, shoulda excuses and the endless three-and-outs. We’re sick of receiver Jerry Jeudy being a spectator in uniform, as well Lock stumbling over his own bloated ego. The Denver offense is a delusional figment of Pat Shurmur’s imagination, and his hiring was a fireable offense, a far bigger mistake by Fangio than any misuse of timeouts or blind-squirrel challenges of questionable calls by the refs.
Itap not only time to turn the page, this sad book needs to be closed and tossed in the fire.
Paton shouldn’t wait until tomorrow or the day after Christmas. Get on with the serious, hard business of building a better future and get started today.
The NFL now allows teams that dismiss their head coach or issue notification that he won’t be returning for another year to begin the interview process for replacements during the final two weeks of the season.
Thatap one of the many reasons why it made sense for Jacksonville to part ways with Urban Meyer and get on with the process of finding a coach who would relish the opportunity to develop young quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
By the same token, might it make sense for Paton to dismiss Fangio and elevate Mike Munchak to interim head coach? Be upfront about the coaching vacancy in Denver. Change is coming. So why wait?
Enough is enough. Bury the heartbreak. Letap get on with shaping a brighter future for the Broncos.
