This is the 10th anniversary of an ‘absolute disaster’ in Denver Broncos history

January is filled with anniversaries to remember in Broncos history:

• Jan. 1: The Broncos’ first AFC Championship win, 1978
• Jan. 3: Peyton Manning comes off the bench, 2016
• Jan. 4: The Drive II, 1992
• Jan. 11: The Drive, 1987
• Jan. 17: The Fumble, 1988
• Jan. 25: Super Bowl XXXII, 1998
• Jan. 31: Super Bowl XXXIII, 1999

But Jan. 12 brings an anniversary of pain.

Because it was ten years ago today that Rahim Moore leapt, lost his balance and saw a Joe Flacco pass to Jacoby Jones sail past his hand. That pass tied the Broncos’ divisional-round playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens with 31 seconds remaining.

Some anniversaries bring back warm memories. Others, not so much.

Ten years ago today came what is known in Baltimore as the “Mile High Miracle” … but in Denver, it is remembered as one of the most crushing losses in Broncos history.pic.twitter.com/QzN92TYHgY

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 12, 2023

And after a Peyton Manning interception in overtime, the Broncos fell on Justin Tucker’s 47-yard field goal 1:42 into the second overtime.

In Baltimore, they call it the “Mile High Miracle.” It is regarded as a game for the ages. One ranking of the best games of the 2010s put it behind only Super Bowl XLIX.

In Denver, it is something else entirely.

“One of the darkest days in Broncos history,” said Brandon Stokley, who played in the game.

Stokley spoke at length about the contest with Zach Bye during Thursday’s edition of Stokley and Zach.

“Just an absolute disaster in how it ended,” he said. “It’s not like they just whipped us. We had that thing won.”

Moore absorbed the blame in the locker room.

Sound of the locker room: Rahim Moore, emotional, taking the blame: "It was my fault."

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 13, 2013

But the loss was more than that.

It included two Flacco touchdown passes to Torrey Smith at the expense of Champ Bailey, who had one of the most frustrating days of his career. And it saw two Manning interceptions, including one to set up Tucker’s game-winning field goal.

Manning looked for Stokley. But Corey Graham stepped in front of the pass.

“I went back across the field — which you’re not really supposed to do. [Manning] was rolling to the right,” Stokley recalled. “He tried to get it to me, and I just felt like, ‘Man, I’m gonna catch this thing and I’m gonna house-call it.’

“It was right around midfield, the 45-yard line … and the guy (Graham) undercut it and intercepted it.”

And that wasn’t all.

“It wasn’t just the Rahim Moore play. There was a few other plays before that,” Stokley said. “There was a third-and-long they converted in overtime where we could have had them stopped, and had great field position.”

As I wrote for Mile High Sports 10 years ago, it took a “chain reaction” of circumstances to set up the upset loss.

For Baltimore to win, the Ravens had to establish the run game. They did; Ray Rice joined Jamaal Charles as the only running backs to gain 100 yards on the Broncos since Week 6. They had to win the turnover battle; they finished plus-3. The Ravens had to force the Broncos’ defense to back off with deep completions; they struck twice in the first half to Torrey Smith, leading to coverage tweaks.

But even those weren’t enough.

If Matt Prater’s right foot doesn’t clip the trampled-down grass a half-yard behind Britton Colquitt’s spot on a 52-yard field-goal attempt, the odds are good he would have drilled it and put the Broncos in front 24-14. Instead, he missed and Baltimore turned the good field position into Smith’s second touchdown, effectively a 10-point swing.

If Knowshon Moreno isn’t sidelined with a knee injury, the Broncos have one of their two premium running backs for the situation when they’re needed most: to grind down the clock. (Note: Willis McGahee, the No. 1 running back that year, was on injured reserve at the time.)

And then there were the inconsistencies from Bill Vinovich’s officiating crew, which even [the] restrained Tony Dungy criticized via Twitter. There was a pass-interference non-call on Chykie Brown that was missed; that allowed Corey Graham to intercept a deflected Manning pass and return it 39 yards for a touchdown.

A call against Bailey in overtime kept a Ravens drive alive, costing the Broncos field position for their ensuing possession.

This doesn’t even encapsulate the holds of Elvis Dumervil that went undetected, and the holding call against Chris Kuper that should never have been whistled.

Trindon Holliday’s two touchdowns on returns were the examples of something that went unexpectedly right. Far more went awry — some of it within the Broncos’ control, some of it not.

And all of that doesn’t even include then-coach John Fox’s decision to take a knee with 31 seconds remaining in regulation after Flacco’s heroics.

Denver had two timeouts remaining. But to the eternal consternation of some fans, they let the clock run to triple-zeroes.

A day later, Fox defended that choice.

“You watch a 71-yard bomb go over your head, there’s a certain amount of shock value, a little bit like a prize fighter who gets a right-cross on the chin at the end of a round,” Fox said then. “You’re looking to get out of the round. That may not be the ideal time to go for the knockout punch.

“One of the things when you coach players and you’re around them … you get a little bit better feel for where they’re at. The look in their eye, it was pretty devastating. It just didn’t seem like the right time, it wasn’t the right look understandably to go for the jugular right about then.”

John Elway concurred, saying, “Where the team was and the situation we were in, I thought it was a good move.”

In the aftermath, some Broncos asked themselves, “Wanna get away?” Their nearest and dearest did, too. Stokley noted that his wife compelled him to go on vacation.

“Hey, let’s get out of town. Let’s just get out of town,” she said, as Stokley remembered.

“So, we went to California. We went to [Disneyland]. Hung out with her family for, like, four or five days — just to get out of town.”

But even the bright California sun could barely pierce the darkness in Broncos Country.

“How dark those days were, and that feeling of losing that football game where you never thought about losing,” Stokley recalled.

“And I was 36 years old, and I felt like I was 22. I could have kept playing for another six months. The body felt great. We were rolling, having so much fun, and then it just comes to an end, like, — BAM! — like that. The season’s over, you’re going back home, and you never expected that. You never thought about that. It was like, ‘Wait, what, it’s done?'”

And Stokley has never relived it.

“I have never gone back and watched that game,” he said.

One can’t blame him. Even seeing clips on social media triggers nightmares in Broncos Country.

“When you play on a great team, and you know you’re a great team, and it ends that way — that’s just devastating, man,” Stokley said. “It never goes away. It doesn’t really ever go away.”

And for Stokley, what came next exacerbated the pain of the day. The Broncos didn’t re-sign him, adding Wes Welker in free agency to work as the slot receiver. Ironically, he moved on to Baltimore for his second stint as a Raven.

“And then I was never back with the Denver Broncos again. Which, obviously, was not ideal,” he said. “I wish I’d had another crack at it.”

But that’s not how life — and sports — work.

Sure, plenty of Broncos remained with the team through 2015. They eventually earned that Super Bowl ring.

But for key players like Moore, Knowshon Moreno, Orlando Franklin, Zane Beadles, Jacob Tamme, Joel Dreessen, Champ Bailey, Matt Prater, Eric Decker and others, they never got to experience that high.

And that 2012 team which lost to Baltimore on a frigid afternoon might have represented their best shot at winning it all.

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