The good, the bad and the ugly in Sunday night’s loss to the Chiefs
Dec 7, 2020, 6:58 AM
The Broncos could not pull off the upset victory over the Chiefs in Week 13. Instead of doing what many thought would be impossible, Denver fell short in their efforts and now have a record of 4-8. This mark almost certainly means the Broncos will finish with a record below .500 for the fifth-straight season.
The defense came up big against the Chiefs. They weren’t perfect, but anytime you hold an offense that averages almost 32 points per game to just 22 points you’ve done something right. The party to blame – once again – is this Broncos offense. They only average 19 points per game this season and for the seventh time this year, the Broncos could not score 20 points even though they are desperate to do so.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio doesn’t think his team’s performance was due to desperation.
“I wouldn’t call it desperation. I just think our team played extremely hard with a lot of might, and that’s what they’ve been doing all year to be honest with you. I think that’s well established here, and that’s what they did. We gave ourselves a chance against a really good team. Wwe made some first downs on offense; we had some good drives. So, a little better performance all around by everybody, but you got to be better than the way we played against this team. They’re really, really good,” Fangio said.
How does the team bounce back from another loss? Up next, the Broncos are back on the road traveling to play the Carolina Panthers. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Week 13 loss.
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The Good
It was good to have Shelby Harris back on the field in Week 13. The Broncos had not had Harris on the field since Week 8 and he spent a month on the COVID-19/Reserve List. Harris was able to come back against the Chiefs and his presence was almost immediately felt.
Harris was one of the best performers in the game against the Chiefs, swatting down two passes for the Broncos defense, snaring a couple of tackles and getting one hit on quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Those batted passes are what made him really stand out as they were well-timed leaps to prevent potentially scoring plays.
It was the effort from Harris and the Broncos defense in the red zone that gave the team a real chance to win a game against one of the best teams in the entire league. Without Harris on the field, the Chiefs might have been able to do more offensively and widen the gap of their eventual victory.
After the game, Fangio didn’t go overboard (he never really does) praising the return of Harris.
“It’s hard for me to say in specifics, but I talked to him in between series a couple of times and he was into it. I’m assuming that he played pretty good. I don’t think he showed any aftereffects, other than we couldn’t play him the amount of plays that we wanted to play him, but I think he did fine,” Fangio said.
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The Bad
Drew Lock can’t stop throwing interceptions. In each of the last seven games he’s played, Lock has thrown an interception and that streak was extended on Sunday night. In four of these last seven contests, Lock has thrown more than one interception.
Lock began the game with an early pick and then had the bookend late interception that sealed the victory for the Chiefs. His 13 interceptions in the 2020 season rank second in the NFL only behind Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz (15) who was benched on Sunday. While Wentz was sent to the bench on Sunday – perhaps only temporarily – there is no real threat of Lock getting benched for anyone at any point this season.
Fangio didn’t say much when asked about Lock’s first interception and how he played after that moment in the game.
“Yeah, I thought him and really our entire offense responded well. We had some nice drives. We converted some third downs there, had a higher percentage than we have all year and gave ourselves a chance to win. But we didn’t finish it and ultimately that’s what we came here to do is to win, and we didn’t get it done,” Fangio said.
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The Ugly
Fangio has made some bad decisions during his head-coaching career. There have been plenty of times in his time as the top man with the Broncos that Fangio has failed to issue a challenge on a play or mismanaged his timeouts. On Sunday night, we saw a few issues that caused fans and the media to call into question Fangio’s decision-making ability.
The Broncos head coach will pass the buck and point the finger if he can, but these instances that arose against the Chiefs all come back to him. There was the decision to go for a two-point conversion after the third quarter touchdown pass to Tim Patrick. There was Fangio’s decision to go for a field goal at the end of the first half that was missed – leading to a Chiefs field goal with time expiring in the second quarter.
The decision most fans question was Fangio’s decision to not go for it on fourth-and-three at midfield with six minutes left in the game. The Broncos were driving late in the game and ended up with the ball around midfield when this down-and-distance came into play. Instead of calling up a great play to move the chains, the Broncos punted with the lead and the Chiefs scored two more times at the end of the fourth quarter to come away victorious.
Fangio explained after the game why he didn’t trust in his offense to move the chains at the end and seal the victory.
“I gave it a strong consideration, but at some point in the game, we’ve got to get a stop and we weren’t able to there. We held them to a field goal, but that made it a touchdown game and burned out some of the time there. So, in retrospect, (we) should have probably gone for it, but I did give it serious thought.” Fangio said.
