Vic Fangio on Sideline Spat with K Brandon McManus: 'Not his Fault, Not Mine'

In the Denver Broncos' Week 16 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, kicker Brandon McManus could be seen jawing with head coach Vic Fangio on the sideline after missing a 55-yard field-goal attempt in the second half. Some say the public kicker-coach spat is more evidence that Fangio has lost the Broncos' locker room.

If so, it would appear the cracks that have appeared in recent weeks opened up into a gaping chasm in the Black Hole. Broncos Country is sick and tired of being sick and tired and the sound of the fat lady warming up in GM George Paton’s office is growing ever louder.

What’s most puzzling is that what everyone else is seeing and hearing, Fangio appears completely oblivious to. So the embattled head coach's post-game explanation of what went on with his disgruntled kicker shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise.

“They were late spotting the ball,” Fangio said Sunday night. “I wasn’t sure if it was fourth-and-one, fourth-and-two, fourth-and-three. They were late putting the ball down, it happened on the other sideline. It put a delay in the action and Brandon was a little upset that he didn’t know early enough to go out there.”

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The rushed kick on Sunday was comparable to a golfer having to sprint up to a putt without getting the opportunity to line it up properly and go through his pre-stroke ritual. Perhaps McManus' kick was fated to miss wide left by some distance, but Fangio was a little quicker on the draw with his excuses than he was reading the down and distance in crunch time.

“There was nothing anyone could do, not his fault, not my fault,” Fangio said. “We didn’t know the down and distance, whether it was fourth-and-1/2 a yard or less, I was going to go for it and we had to wait for the spot.”

Throughout this season, the Broncos coaches have come up shockingly short on the finer details of game management, especially in key moments. Once again, the failure to have a good set of eyes upstairs to give him a quick heads up on the spot would have made a huge and perhaps game-altering difference.

But in the aftermath, Fangio chose to absolve himself and all parties involved of any wrongdoing — the measure of a true leader. The truth is, the sheer number of botched reviews this year suggests to the vast majority of Broncos fans a completely different story.

All roads lead directly back to the fact that the information being relayed from the box in the sky for Denver is either totally nonexistent or completely useless.

If Fangio's dam hasn’t broken yet, it’s a good bet that it will if McManus eventually gets the chance to share his version of Week 16's comedy of errors. Meanwhile, as fans clamor for Fangio to be relieved of his duties, he was much franker when it came to the topic of his job security on Monday.

“Do I acknowledge that it's out there and could happen? Absolutely," Fangio said.

Follow Keith on Twitter @KeithC_NFL.

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