All season, the Broncos proclaimed they had the pieces in place to break the team’s playoff drought and return to NFL relevancy.
Instead, Denver’s simply trying to play spoiler heading into the finale against the Chiefs on Saturday. The Broncos were eliminated from playoff contention for the sixth consecutive season with Sunday’s loss to the Chargers.
So where was the disconnect in another lost year, the third in Vic Fangio’s tenure?
Running back Melvin Gordon is stumped about why an offense loaded with skill talent was unable to complement the league’s third-best scoring defense (18.4 points per game).
“If I knew the solution, we would’ve had the problem fixed,” Gordon said. “We just haven’t been making enough plays… We’ve got to be better, hands down. We’re too talented. Especially (down the stretch), we just made too many mistakes to put ourselves in position to win.”
Three weeks ago, the Broncos were 7-6 and in control of their playoff destiny. But Denver’s dropped three consecutive games since then, cementing a fifth straight losing season while leaving Gordon feeling “really frustrated.” In Gordon’s seven-year career, he’s played in two playoff games, both in 2018 with the Chargers.
Gordon compared this year’s Broncos team with some of the talented-but-couldn’t-execute teams he played on with the Chargers. On paper, Gordon said, the Broncos are “such a well-built team; it’s a Super Bowl team.”
“You sit back and you get frustrated, because we’re so much better than our record showed. And we know that,” Gordon said. “We showed glimpse of amazingness at times, but to not consistently put that out there, it’s frustrating as a player, as coaches, as an organization.”
Fangio, who could very well be coaching his final game for Denver on Saturday, said the last three losses are an indication that the Broncos’ arrow is up since last year. He pointed to the recent defeats to the Bengals and Raiders as proof.
“We played three teams that are probably going to be in the playoffs (or are contending for it this week), and fought them tooth-and-nail and had some tight games,” Fangio said. “A four-point game, a five-point game. To me, that shows that we’re close, we’re close to being there (in the playoffs). We’ve got a find a way to get over the top.
“I believe in this team, and we’re on the cusp of getting to the point where we want to be.”
Saturday’s game might also be Gordon’s final game in orange and blue, as he becomes a free agent after the season. Gordon has expressed his desire to be back in Denver in 2022. Gordon’s cap hit is $8.9 million this year. He has 191 rushes for 808 yards and nine total touchdowns.
“I don’t know my future — it’s really up in the air,” Gordon said. “If this is my last game in a Denver Broncos uniform, I’m hoping to make it a special one.”
For that to happen, Gordon acknowledges the Broncos have to get the ground game going again after the Broncos were held under 100 yards rushing for consecutive weeks for the first time all season in losses to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Denver managed only 18 yards rushing in the defeat to the Raiders, tied for the third-worst single-game mark in franchise history, and the combination of Gordon and rookie Javonte Williams were held to 73 yards against the Chargers.
Still, the Broncos are the only team in football with two rushers who are each over 800 yards on the season.
“We are kind of the lone wolves (together),” Gordon said. “We would’ve been well over 1,000 yards (by ourselves). Me or (Williams) would’ve been one of the top three rushers in the league this year, because we’ve been splitting carries and both have 800 yards. And we really haven’t been running as much as we both would’ve liked, especially for us to be splitting the ball.”
