Following a week off to rest and prepare for their next opponent, the Denver Broncos have seven games remaining on the 2021 slate.
That starts with a home game in Week 12 against the Los Angeles Chargers, a game that has to be seen as a must-win for the Broncos to keep pace in the AFC West division race and the playoff race.
The Chargers were impressive in their Sunday Night Football win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which they posted 41 points. The Broncos will need to find a way to slow down an offensive attack led by Justin Herbert that is capable of scoring against anyone.
But the team needs to come out looking much different in several different areas, starting with Vic Fangio being open to trying new things.
In addition to eventually benching Teddy Bridgewater in favor of Drew Lock, Fangio and his offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur need to focus much more on rookie running back Javonte Williams. But will that happen?
Fangio seems determined to roll with Bridgewater and Melvin Gordon until the wheels fall off.
Bridgewater is an average quarterback so he has played the average level of football that you would expect. You can say what you will about Lock, but there’s not really any reason not to turn to him if you lose to the Chargers.
Gordon is still an effective runner in certain situations, but he has fumbled the ball a couple of times this season and Williams is quite clearly the better player right now.
But Fangio has shown no signs of changing what he likes to do.
He has had opportunities to go to bench Bridgewater. At halftime against the Cleveland Browns, where Bridgewater was clearly not 100 percent and the Broncos looked horrible against a depleted team was a perfect chance, but he didn’t even consider it.
Vic Fangio’s stubbornness is beyond frustrating
It seems clear that Fangio is not going to change. He is going to stand by his guys, regardless of the outcome.
To a point, that’s admirable. But for a team that is technically well within the playoff hunt, it seems that switching some things up would be something fans of the team would respect more, at least then he’s making what seems like a concerted effort to find something that works.
Because what he has right now doesn’t work. Let’s be honest, the Broncos are a very fortunate 5-5. Outside of one unexplainable road victory over the Dallas Cowboys, they have been a mostly bad football team.
That is not going to suddenly change if changes are not made within the team.
Rather, the team will limp to the finish line far outside of the playoffs. Once again.
We can list several reasons why the tenure of Fangio as head coach of the Broncos has been frustrating and should almost certainly come to an end if the team misses the playoffs. But his insistence to keep doing the same thing over and over again might be at the top of that list.