‘Worst loss of Vance Joseph era’ has Broncos HC on hot seat again
Dec 10, 2018, 2:20 PM | Updated: 5:34 pm
During the past two seasons, the Denver Broncos have had plenty of tough losses to swallow — from blowouts to nail-biters.
But Sunday’s 20-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers was the “worst loss of the Vance Joseph era,” said “Stokley and Zach” co-host Zach Bye.
“I think it’s the worst loss of his tenure by far because you had playoffs in your sight and you were on top and you were on a three-game winning streak,” said Bye’s co-host, Brandon Stokley, on Monday.
“You were playing really good football, you got back in the race, you got back to .500, you had a chance to go over .500 and continue to play meaningful football games in December, and you looked like it didn’t matter to you in the first half.”
The Broncos struggled mightily in the first half on Sunday, having been shut out on offense and giving up 20 points on defense, much in part to thanks to 49ers tight end George Kittle posting 210 yards receiving — a club record for the position — on seven receptions with a touchdown.
“They looked like they were sleepwalking in the first half. They didn’t look like they were well prepared. They looked like they didn’t really care what was going on out there in the first half,” Stokley said. “In the second half, they came out and they looked like a different team. But it was too late.”
Both Stokley and Bye said the team, especially head coach Vance Joseph, in an instance lost all equity built up within the fanbase over the previous three-game winning streak.
Now, Joseph is fighting for his job in the last three games of the season.
“I thought the three-game winning streak kind of got him off the hot seat and into the cool seat. And if you just kept playing good football and taking care of the business that you should take care of, you were going to be fine,” Stokley said. “But now it puts him on the hot seat again.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
