Other than that, how was the game Sunday, Broncos?
The Broncos’ intrepid effort in defeat would have been honored by an Alfred, Lord Tennyson narrative poem.
Nevertheless, there is no joy in Broncoville, and the team’s complications exacerbate. The Broncos play in Kansas City next. It won’t matter if they have zero, three, four or a dozen quarterbacks at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs have the world’s No. 1 quarterback – Patrick Mahomes.
The Broncos are 3-18 in December games in K.C.; they have lost 10 straight to the Super Chiefs (the team, not the train); the Chiefs own a 10-1 record while the Broncos are 4-7 and heading toward a 10-, 11- or even 12-defeat season, and when the teams played in late October, the Chiefs waxed poetically 43-16.
Before Christmas, it’s Death by Grinches for the Broncos.
Sunday’s 31-3 loss to the Saints seemed like the worst ever.
To be kind, it wasn’t. On Oct. 9, 1967, in Oakland, when two NFL quarterbacks (sort of) were utilized, the Broncos were blown away, 51-0 and ended up with minus-53 yards passing (2 of 16).
The Broncos would have been better off forfeiting to New Orleans and losing 2-0. A forfeit never has happened in the modern NFL, but commissioner Roger Goodell actually uttered the word publicly recently, and “forfeit” is mentioned once in the league rules.
As a protest, the Broncos might have considered not showing up, but as a unit of highly skilled athletes, they wouldn’t have done it (and wouldn’t have been paid) – even though Kareem Jackson said after the game that the players didn’t totally understand what occurred and believed there should have been a postponement.
“I think the league made an example of us,” the safety stated.
If nothing else, the NFL made a mockery of its own sport by penalizing the Broncos more than any other franchise in the pandemic-spiked season.
The Broncos had to play Sunday without any of their four quarterbacks and with two running backs and an unqualified, but plucky, practice squad wide receiver lined up as quarterbacks.
Phillip Lindsay actually started as a wildcat back, and Royce Freeman primarily took over in the role with practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton, who managed to complete only one of nine passes for 13 yards. Freeman, Lindsay, Melvin Gordon III, Hinton and KJ Hamler combined for exactly 100 rushing yards.
Kendall was the modern-day equivalent of the Bible’s Daniel – thrown into the lion’s den late Saturday.
Even though the Broncos’ thought they had a chance, they didn’t. The Saints are too good, and the Broncos are not so good.
The NFL is the valid villain in this sordid episode, and there should have been a solution, as I wrote Saturday, to postpone or cancel the game. However, the Broncos – from CEO Joe Ellis to Executive VP John Elway, coach Vic Fangio, the medical and training staff, assistant coaches and, obviously and principally, the four quarterbacks – must be blamed for breaking coronavirus protocols and policies.
Sunday evening Fangio held quarterbacks Drew Lock, Brett Rypien, Blake Bortles and Jake Driskel responsible for the mess.
“I’m disappointed the quarterbacks put our team in this position, and I’m disappointed they put the league in this position,” he said.
The coach clearly was more than disappointed. The team attempted for months to control a virus breakout as professionally as possible, but still had several players, two coaches and Ellis and Elway test positive.
Last Tuesday, on a team off day, the quarterback quartet gathered at their meeting room in the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse to watch film. They weren’t careful enough to wear masks and socially distance throughout the session. Also, according to reports, they were not totally truthful to league officials. Driskel tested positive Thursday (following a Wednesday test) and was put on the COVID-19 reserve list. The other three tested negative, but were judged to be “high-risk close contact.”
Lock has issued a statement apologizing for the incident and the consequences. Jackson talked to the players, “and I know they are regretful, and probably felt worse (Sunday) than we did about what happened in the game.’’
What happened was the Broncos didn’t have one true pro quarterback, and the light brigade played and felt awful and was overrun by the Saints, who have been fined $500,000 and lost a draft choice for their own violations of the protocols.
The NFL has a crisis and a conundrum that couldn’t be fixed Sunday – and can’t.
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