The Denver Broncos play on Thursday night and a loss would lead to an 0-4 start.
Four games equal one-quarter of an NFL regular season. Starting out 0-4 leads to a hole that is nearly impossible to dig out of. In fact, in the history of the NFL, only one team that started a season 0-4 was able to qualify for the playoffs (1992 San Diego Chargers).
The Broncos want to avoid having to overcome that daunting task, and all they have to do in order to avoid that is defeat the lowly New York Jets on Thursday night. Sounds simple, right?
Nothing has been simple for this team this season but Vic Fangio simply has to find a way to get his team a victory in this game.
A loss would lead to numerous questions being asked as after just four games, fans and media personalities would already be looking at next year and talk of replacing Fangio, John Elway and even Drew Lock would rule the airwaves.
Since the season just kicked off not even three weeks ago, it’s too early for that.
Despite falling to the depths of the NFL in recent years, the Broncos are one of the league’s proudest and most successful franchises. While teams such as the Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns have found it hard to build a winner, that has not been an issue in Denver.
The franchise began to play in 1960, dating all the way back to the old AFL. In all of those years, the Broncos have not started 0-4 very many times. In fact, you can count each of those seasons on one hand.
1964
Final record: 2-11-1
Head coach: Jack Faulkner
In the early days of the AFL, the Broncos were not a good team. In 1964, they were coming off of a 2-11-1 season but things got off to a rocky start following a blowout loss in the opener to the Jets. That game took place at the old Shea Stadium and the Jets won it 30-6.
The next three weeks didn’t go much better for the Broncos as they were outscored 107-40. Following that start, the team chose to dismiss head coach Jack Faulkner, who was in just his third year with the team.
The Broncos stumbled to the finish line with Mac Speedie as the new head coach that year. An identical 2-11-1 finish to the 1963 season is where the Broncos finished which was good for dead last in the AFC West division.
One of the more notable things from the 1964 season was a news rumor that floated around at the time indicating that Arthur Allyn, Jr., who was the owner of the Chicago White Sox at the time, intended to purchase the Broncos and move the team to Chicago. The plan was for the team to play its games at Comiskey Park.
That sure would have changed history.
It would take a long time to build a contender in Denver and it would not happen until the AFL and NFL merged following the 1969 season. The Broncos never made the playoffs in the AFL.
However, despite a win-loss record of 21-48-1 from 1965-69, the team didn’t start 0-4 again for a very long time.
1994
Final record: 7-9
Head coach: Wade Phillips
Of all of the team’s 0-4 starts, this one was perhaps the most surprising.
The Broncos were a playoff team in 1993 and though they lost in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, they were seen as a team that could be a contender again soon. The team wasn’t loaded with Pro-Bowl caliber players, but John Elway was still the quarterback and that always meant you had a chance.
The season opened on Sunday night against the San Diego Chargers and the Broncos lost a heartbreaker at the end when Junior Seau made a terrific play against Elway to force a turnover as the Broncos were going in for the game-winning score. The Chargers won 37-34.
The following week, the Broncos lost to the Jets by three points before being blown out in Week 3 by the Los Angeles Raiders. In Week 4, the Broncos fell to the Buffalo Bills 27-20, marking just their second 0-4 start in team history.
But unlike in 1964, the Broncos rebounded nicely. The team would win seven of its next nine games before closing the season on a three-game losing streak.
The Broncos finished 7-9 and despite the better play toward the end of the year, it wasn’t enough to save the job of Wade Phillips, who was out after just two seasons. That led to the team hiring Mike Shanahan that offseason.
The Broncos improved to 8-8 in 1995 and it didn’t take Shanahan long to build a winner.
1999
Final record: 6-10
Head coach: Mike Shanahan
The 1999 season was one of the saddest and most frustrating in team history, but it was not a total surprise. What made it so hard to get through was the fact that it was directly after the team was so dominant in the previous two seasons.
The Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, but that joyride ended with the retirement of Elway. Brian Griese had been groomed to take over for No. 7 and things did not get off to a great start.
The ’99 season opened with a 38-21 loss to the Miami Dolphins before the Kansas City Chiefs hung a 16-point defeat on the Broncos.
After a 13-10 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the biggest blow of the 1999 season came in Week 4 when Terrell Davis was injured in a loss to the Jets. Not only did that injury end Davis’ season, it altered and eventually ended his playing career.
Like in the 1994 season, the Broncos bounced back in 1999 to finish 6-10. That included three wins on the road and by the end of the year, there were signs that the team was going to be fine going forward with Griese.
The Broncos went 11-5 and qualified for the playoffs in 2000.
2019
Final record: 7-9
Head coach: Vic Fangio
Just last year, the Broncos started out 0-4 in Vic Fangio’s rookie year as a head coach. This included difficult losses to the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars that absolutely should have been wins.
As the season wore on, Fangio found a way to manufacture some wins. Inserting Drew Lock as the team’s starting quarterback certainly helped, and the Broncos found a way to go 7-5 the rest of the way.
That included winning four of the final five games on the slate which was just one of the reasons there are such high expectations this year. Unfortunately, this season has started just like last season did.
But if Fangio can’t find a way to beat the Jets, he will have the dubious distinction of being one this list twice.
In over 60 seasons, the Broncos have started 0-4 just four times. A loss on Thursday night would not only be the fifth time, but it would be in back-to-back seasons. To this point, the closest gap between such starts is six seasons.
A win over the Jets would stop the bleeding and end all of that talk.