Following another loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Denver Broncos now sit at 7-8 and will almost assuredly miss the playoffs for a sixth straight season.
The Las Vegas Raiders were able to defeat the Broncos 17-13 on Sunday despite another strong performance from the Denver defense. Even with Drew Lock at quarterback, the team couldn’t muster up enough points to get the victory.
And that has been the problem for what seems like forever. The Broncos play great defensively, but you just can’t win games scoring less than 20 points, which this team routinely does.
Lock completed 15-of-22 passes but threw for just 153 yards on the day as the team just couldn’t move the ball down the field, going just 1-for-10 on third down. Denver also rushed for just 16 yards on the game.
It was another game where Denver’s opponent did not play particularly well, they just played good enough to get the win over a lethargic team. That has been the case all season.
So yes, the Broncos still have two games to play this year, but now sitting well outside the playoffs, it doesn’t really matter. Instead, the team needs to start focusing on what changes should be made during the offseason.
And there should be a bunch of them.
Firing Vic Fangio as the team’s head coach has been a popular topic of conversation among many that follow this team for some time now. But it’s not a question of if that decision should be made anymore. It absolutely must happen.
Most, if not all, of the coaching staff, needs to go with him.
The Broncos then need to decide how to obtain the quarterback that is going to lead this team next year, because that guy is not on this roster unless some sort of miracle worker can come in and still make something out of Lock.
It’s a bad football team that does have some good talent. It’s imperative that those in charge start to find the right mix of leadership to pull this team together and get it headed in the right direction.
We can argue that Fangio could succeed if the team were able to land a quarterback such as Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson. But those guys can play for anyone. Fangio has had three full seasons and he is going to have missed the playoffs in each of those. His team has yet to evolve hardly at all since he arrived as well, at least offensively.
It is still a team that just doesn’t score points.
Since the beginning of the 2019 season, the Broncos average less than 20 points per game
Remember the days of offensive explosion when Peyton Manning was around? Well here is a stat that should open some eyes:
Since the beginning of the 2019 season, when Fangio took over as head coach, the Broncos are averaging 19.2 points per game. That covers the 47 games that he has been head coach, where he has posted a 19-28 record. Even if he wins the last two games of the year, he’s still 21-28.
How many coaches get the benefit of that doubt? It would be one thing if this team was exciting, competitive and just losing games because it hasn’t yet learned to win the tight ones.
But this team is losing games because of incompetence on several levels and a lack of offensive creativity. When you watch the team play, there is nothing that makes you feel the team has a chance to win the game, even when it’s a 4-point differential, like it was here.
We have seen quite enough, haven’t we, Broncos Country?