Clayton: Vic Fangio’s brutal honesty about the Broncos is refreshing

The more I follow Vic Fangio, the more I respect his honesty. Ask Vic a question he will give you an honest answer and back it up with details.

He’s not going to call out a player and say negative things about him. But if a guy isn’t playing well, he will say he needs to play better. I respect that.

It’s the same thing when he talks about the whole team. In the preseason, Fangio called out the Broncos special teams for not playing well.

Despite their 3-0 start, Denver has struggled against Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Everyone knows they have to play better to stop the two-game losing streak.

I loved how he was honest about talking about third-down conversions. He was very specific about some of the problems.

“Well, defensively, we had too many third-and-shorts the other days – third-and-three and shorter,” Fangio said. “Even on third-and-seven-plus, we gave up the 50-yard touchdown pass, gave up the other touchdown pass in the red zone and the pass interference. We need better technique defensively. All three of those are stoppable with what we were in, but you have to go do it.”

The Broncos are giving up 43.1 percent on third-down conversions about three percent above the league average. But things are even worse on offense.

The Broncos rank last in the league giving up 28.6 percent on third-down conversions. Denver has converted only 18 of 62 opportunities. On third-or-seven or less, they are nine for 40.

“Offensively, we’ve had too many third-and-longs, but you have to be able to convert come of those. Lately, we haven’t been able to do that. We did it the first few weeks. We were at 50 percent on third-and-seven-plus. The last two weeks, not so. I don’t know if we’ve gotten any or gotten one. We have to get more manageable third downs and no matter what third down we’ve we’re in we have to go convert.”

How’s that for honesty? Everyone knows the problem.