Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio and his coaching staff are holding the fans in Broncos Country hostage with the way they are running things.
Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos brass have stubbornly met every press conference after a disappointing loss with the same generic, “Everybody needs to play and coach better,” response rather than making any meaningful changes to a team that is far underachieving its potential.
The Denver Broncos came into the season with loads of hope many around the country believing they were a quarterback away from a deep playoff run. That produced a quarterback competition that would leave the coaching staff and GM to claim that they had two quarterbacks that could come out and win football games for the team.
They chose the veteran route over seeing how much Lock had developed and it hasn’t gone as planned. Yet Fangio refuses to make the switch after a competition he called “even-steven”.
The Broncos, namely Fangio, owe the fans the opportunity to see the other side of the QB coin. Can the Drew Lock offense outperform Teddy’s and give them an opportunity to compete for the playoffs? Who knows, but the Bridgewater ship is shot to pieces and I for one would like to see if there is a quarterback on the roster (Drew Lock) that can make them contenders, or are they really waiting until the next offseason to try and find one.
The time is now or more specifically a change during the bye to give Lock his sample size to answer those questions. Staying the course with Bridgewater is simply pushing back admitting that the Broncos suffered another disappointing season.
Let us remember how we got here. Three weeks in the veteran Teddy Bridgewater was 3-0 behind solid play and a defense that figured out and suffocated opponents by the second half. After that, for four weeks each game exposed weaknesses/limitations as well as Bridgewater and the offense’s inability to keep the team in the game against any formidable competition.
Getting whipped by the Ravens, Steelers, and Raiders despite some late scoring that made the box score look more competitive. The offense was never competitive in those three games.
The exclamation point came when a seemingly hobbled Teddy Bridgewater couldn’t manage to get anything going against the Browns to even keep up with a team missing their starting quarterback and top two running backs.
Trailing 10-0 at halftime most watching the game thought Denver would look to Drew Lock for a spark in relief of the hobbled starter. It never happened and the Broncos fell in what really wasn’t an all that close 17-14 loss.
The Broncos followed that up with an uninspiring victory over Washington and then in a surprising turn they dominated the Cowboys with the defense pitching a shutout for three quarters to enter the 4th up 19-0 as they coasted to a 30-16 victory.
For a week the naysayers didn’t have much to complain about, but then came last week’s performance against the Eagles in which Bridgewater and the offense never challenged Philadelphia other than when Albert Okwuegbunam turned a short throw into a 64 yard gain.
Bridgewater continually checking down for short gains even on 3rd down rather than throwing to move the chains. Only further exposing the weaknesses that brought Denver four straight losses with Bridgewater under center. The Broncos’ offense with Bridgewater and Shurmur scares absolutely nobody.
It is a boring game management approach that simply can’t keep Denver in contention especially with five tough division matchups coming within the next seven weeks along with visits from the Bengals and Lions.
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Fangio’s refusal to try anything new to help the team is stubborn and selfish. Do I “know” that Drew Lock will ignite the offense? No, but an attempt to better a team that I would dub “pretender” is what he owes the fans and players.