Denver Broncos: Reactions to loss against Chicago Bears

Garett Bolles’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

The headline here pretty much sums it up.

Garett Bolles had a holding penalty declined in the Broncos’ season opener against the Oakland Raiders, and four holding penalties called against him in this game against the Bears. It’s possible the officials wrongly called Ron Leary for a hold and missed a fifth on Bolles in the second half as well.

I thought the first penalty was a pretty weak call, but it was called and it wiped out Phillip Lindsay’s best run of the day.

Bolles said after the game to reporters that he doesn’t agree with the reputation he’s built in the league of being the guy who holds all the time. I don’t agree that he doesn’t agree.

I don’t even hate all of Bolles’ holding penalties. If he plays with bad technique, it’s probably better to lose 10 yards than to get your quarterback destroyed from the blind side, but neither of those options would be even more preferable.

Bolles settled down in the second half, and the Broncos are still believing Mike Munchak can coach him up. Vic Fangio told the media that Bolles is the left tackle and will remain so.

So, until Fangio gets frustrated enough by Bolles’ play, the Broncos are going to continue to stay the course. It might be a frustrating ride for us all.

Mark Schlereth, who has been openly calling for Bolles’ benching since early last season, said during the broadcast that if Bolles was going to keep tackling guys, they should put him on defense. At this point, it’s hard to defend Bolles and easy to wonder if the alternative is not simply a lesser of two evils.

At any rate, Bolles had 14 games to prove to the Broncos he’s above replacement level. Through two games, he’s not been good at all.