Snow What?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the fairest one of all?
Certainly not the Broncos.
Sunday was another Grim Bros. ending in Denver, where the Broncos haven’t won once this season.
Rain or shine, snow or heat, the Chiefs are the team the Broncos cannot beat.
The Broncos’ 43-16 defeat before a scattered group at Mile High was the 10th in a row to the Chiefs — and the worst by margin. The 11th is expected to occur Dec. 6 in Kansas City when the temperature and the results will be colder than a coal miner’s axe.
The Broncos don’t belong in the same division or the same league with the defending Super Bowl champions.
And Patrick Mahomes didn’t even have an overwhelming performance — 15 of 23 completions for only one touchdown, but a 107.2 rating.
He was replaced late, in an Andy Reid charity move, by Chad Henne, who ran for a touchdown for the first time since 2012 and actually hadn’t played in a game of meaning, for the Jaguars or Chiefs, since before the Broncos last whipped the Chiefs.
For the Broncos, Drew Lock was like a poison apple Snow White ate. He was on target for 24 of 40 passes — at least he was accurate on more than 50 percent this week — for 200 yards and two … two interceptions (one pick 6), no touchdowns.
Lock took responsibility, but Melvin Gordon III also should take blame for the mess, and the rest of the offense and the special teams were culpable for the snafu in the snow.
The Broncos’ defense actually played respectably, although the Chiefs’ 43 points doesn’t seem so. But when Gordon fumbles twice and Lock throws two disgusting passes, and the Broncos allow a kickoff return for a touchdown, and Brandon McManus (AFC special teams player the past two weeks) can’t kick beyond the end zone or between the goal posts for an extra point, it’s obvious that the Broncos didn’t deserve to win.
Welcome to the Broncos’ world, where they are 2-4 and tied with the dreadful Chargers at the bottom of the AFC West and with six other conference teams that also have no chance at the playoffs.
Yet, the Broncos who paraded afterward to the Zoom conference — including Lock, Garret Bolles and Justin Simmons — talked about “turning around’’ the season.
Turnover to turnaround?
Not a chance.
Not when Daniel Sorensen returns an interception 50 yards and Byron “Potato Chip’’ Pringle returns a kickoff more than twice as far and Le’Veon Bell, back from the dead with the Jets, ran six times for 39 yards. And not when, on a flea-flicker play, Gordon flips the ball back over Lock’s head, and not when the Broncos have no solution anywhere at home and never looked like they could break the Curse of the Chiefs.
As usual, Simmons is the calm voice of reason at game’s conclusion, saying that the Broncos can’t use injuries and the coronavirus as excuses, that every other NFL team is enduring the same issues. “We have to fight through adversity.’’
Bolles no longer is the goat and lamb of the no-nothing fans and media. Scapegoat and sacrificial lamb. “We need a gut check,’’ said the left tackle, who has been on the field for seven of the consecutive setbacks to the Chiefs. “We’ve got to step up.’’
Lock said all the Broncos “need to be a man about your business.’’ The quarterback of the present said he “can play a lot better, and I will.’’
The Broncos rarely seem involved and invested, and coach Vic Fangio said they “have a lot of growing to do,” but the Broncos have “the right players and the right coaches’’ to turn around the season.
They do have four lousy teams — Chargers, Falcons, Raiders and Dolphins — ahead, so if the Broncos are planning to do a switchabout, this is when. They can get over .500 or just continue to drift into NFL oblivion.
Andy Reid earned his 216th regular-season victory and will soon pass Curly Lambeau, who has a stadium named in his honor. “Overall, it was a great win,’’ said the coach who has dominated the Broncos since 2015.
If the Chiefs stay elite and the Broncos don’t improve drastically, the mirror on the wall’s response will be the same after 10 more games.
More from The Woody Paige Sports Network:
- Woody Paige: That time I played blackjack with Michael Jordan in Monte Carlo
- ‘Most losses in 2020’ prop bet offers NFL bettors huge value
- It’s time for the NFL to go to a limited bubble approach
- In new world, there’s nothing wrong with knowing point spreads and rewarding your backers
- Ignore the Polls – ranking college football teams this season is pointless
- Woody Paige: Broncos need Drew Lock to prove he’s THE guy
- Lewis Black rants on Dan Snyder — the worst owner in pro sports
