Broncos Coached Not to Lose in Minnesota & it Cost Them a Massive Upset Win
One would think that after the Denver Broncos' previous losses to the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Indianapolis Colts, where a fourth-quarter lead was squandered, that the coaches would know this already, but we saw this conservative game-management rear its ugly head again vs. the Minnesota Vikings.
The Broncos offense got out to a 20-0 lead at halftime, only to see the defense blow it in the second half. Vic Fangio stopped being aggressive with his defensive play-calls, which coincided with Denver's miscommunication issues and the Broncos allowed 27 points in the second half.
This pumping of the brakes has to stop. It's hard to understand why this happened when the Broncos defense is built to be aggressive, especially when they have a big lead. That doesn’t matter if the play-calling stops being aggressive.
Despite giving up 27 points, a lot of blame falls on the offense and the play-calling in particular. The Broncos were aggressive, taking shots and being creative throughout the first half, which led to 20 points. So why change that?
You want to run down the clock? Great, but you can do that while continuing to be creative and aggressive. The two priorities aren't mutually exclusive.
If the Broncos offense continued to be aggressive in the second half, and even managed to put more points on the board, it's obviously a different outcome than the seventh loss of the season. Denver saw what worked in the first half, but completely went away from it as the game wore on.
Yes, the Vikings made adjustments, but they didn’t take the foot off the pedal for the Broncos. That falls on OC Rich Scangarello, who has been a problem for this offense all season long.
Denver's coaches need to watch some other teams play. Fangio and Scangarello need to recognize how teams that get up 20 points only continue to put their foot on the gas and don't let up. Playing not to lose, just loses you games.
Check the video above for the full story on the comedy of errors that led to Denver's Week 11 collapse.
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