The Broncos lose 34-13 in LA vs the Chargers and I can't say I'm surprised. This feels like a team that has given up on the season and the coaching staff. A positive is that this all but confirms Fangio, Shurmur, and Mcmahon's departure from this team. Here are my 2 takeaways from this game:
Fangio Era in a Nutshell
Everything that has been an issue for the Broncos since 2019 reared it's ugly head in Sunday's loss vs the Chargers. First was special team blunders: There was a muffed punt by Spencer that gave the Chargers a short field and helped extend their lead 17-0 and then to make matters worse the Chargers returned a kickoff return all the way for a TD which made it 27-6. Ball game! Next it was the inconsistency on offense with the inability to make any big plays on 3rd down and in the red zone with very questionable play calling from the goat himself Pat Shurmur. The defense played hard and gave the Chargers some issues at certain moments but never came up big in clutch moments and failed to record a sack or force a turnover. Everything that held the Broncos back the last 3 years came together in this game basically pointing to the fact that Vic has got to go.
2. Lock, Sutton, Fant Shine
Sutton made a couple key grabs including a 44 yard pass play in the second quarter. Fant had a terrific statline with 6 rec for 92 yards and a TD and even though some of the numbers game in garbage time, it was good to see him play an all around good game. Finally, I know no one wants to hear it, but Lock played another solid gritty game. He hurt his shoulder in the first quarter and sat out a possession for Denver and once he came in he threw a 44 yards bomb to Court and flexed to show he still got power in that arm. All game he took many shots including some roughing the passer hits and was put in danger because of Shurmur's play-calling for example being the receiver in the Philly Special. He finished with 18/25 for 245 yards with 1 TD and no INT. Nothing flashy but once again limited his mistakes. He has clearly shown growth since his first snap as a pro but Shurmur and his genius playcalls stunted Lock's development.
One last thing on Shurmur: Ben Albright, who is a co-host of the Broncos Country Tonight radio show, stated in a tweet that Pat Shurmur does not listen to suggestions from players and forces them to run the offense the way he sees fit. If this is true, he should be fired tomorrow!
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