Frustrated Broncos fans roast coach Vic Fangio over poor clock management in loss
So who’s had it worse since the start of the 2019 season: fans of the Lions or Broncos?
Detroit has seemingly blown winnable games* more often than any other team, but ESPN noted Denver has lost four games under coach Vic Fangio where they held a lead with 30 seconds remaining in regulation. Detroit has only had it happen twice.
*Sunday’s loss to the Bears was particularly brutal
On Monday night, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 25-yard field goal with 17 seconds to play as the Titans beat Denver 16-14. Tennessee drove 83 yards in 2 minutes, 48 seconds to set up the winning kick.
Many Broncos fans and others around the NFL think the drive shouldn’t have taken that much time. Denver didn’t use any of its three timeouts as Tennessee was driving for the go-ahead score.
Why didn’t Fangio use the timeouts?
“It was two-fold there,” Fangio said, per the Denver Post. “One, their field goal kicker had obviously been having his problems so I didn’t want to extend the drive to where they could get closer.
“And we would have used a timeout but we got the running back out of bounds, and we would have used the second timeout, but they threw an incompletion.”
Fangio was roundly criticized for his decision to let Tennessee bleed the clock.
“All other things being equal, if Fangio had used two time outs after the two Henry runs that finished in bounds, the Broncos would have gotten the ball back with 1:07 to play and a timeout on the board,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote.
“With only 17 seconds, the Broncos got to their own 43 — close enough for what would have been a 74-yard field goal attempt in the thin air. ... Even if the Broncos had time for only one more play from scrimmage, they could have gotten close enough for (Brandon) McManus to send a football flying through the mile-high air. They didn’t, in large part because they didn’t use two of their timeouts when they should have.”
Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports wrote: “While using those timeouts may not have led to a Broncos win, it would have changed the conversation. At least we wouldn’t be talking about how Fangio didn’t use one of his most important tools as a coach while the opposing team took its sweet time setting up a game-winning field goal.”
Broncos fans were also upset, and other NFL observers questioned Fangio:
