Complacency costs Broncos

Denver Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels’ inability to move the ball with his offense in short yardage situations caused the Broncos to lose yesterday to the Oakland Raiders. 

After the forgotten receiver Brandon (Stokley) caught and ran to the Broncos’ four-yard line, getting a horse collar penalty on the tackle resulting in a first and goal at the two, all the Broncos had to do was move the ball two yards to assure themselves of a win. 

McDaniels went to Tony Scheffler twice and ran KnowShow once, and settled for three points, and more importantly just a six-point lead with just under six minutes remaining. 

The Broncos did get the ball back and needed a sustained drive to run the clock down, but they turned in another three-and-out, taking only 30 seconds off the clock, giving the ball back to the Raiders with 3:29 left in the game Ń that’s a lot of time. The Raiders were led on their winning drive by JaMarcus Russell Ń no, I’m not kidding Ń and for one play J.P. Losman of all people, who came off the inactive list only to get knocked on his can.  They marched down field, used up the clock, and scored the winning touchdown with just 45 seconds left in the game.

This was actually a hard-hitting game Ń the Raiders quarterbacks were in so many collisions they should have installed airbags in their uniforms. 

In the end, though, the Broncos let the Raiders hang around by not getting into the end zone and kicking field goals instead of touchdowns. 

When the Broncos allowed Sebastian Janikowski’s 54-yard field goal to take a 10-6 lead in the middle of the second quarter, the Broncos offense should have come out breathing fire, but only followed with a three-and-out. 

The play-calling seemed to have no purpose Ń just random plays linked together by the diminishing clock, which eventually ticked away. 

The Broncos dominated the first quarter in scoring and time of possession, but things went Oakland’s way the rest of the game.

It started looking like Broncos fans weren’t going to be getting the Royal treatment at Taco Ding-Dong, because they kept going to Matt Prater for the points. How about a Royale with cheese instead? That’s a “Pulp Fiction” reference Ń that’s how boring this game was at the time that I was writing pop culture references.

Champ Bailey got his taco bell rung as well in the middle of the third quarter, but the Broncos recovered a fumble on the next play. It was only then that McDoubtful remembered he had Brandon Marshall on the team. Three catches, a touchdown and a mini brawl later the Broncos were in the lead 16-13, and most likely on the way to victory. 

There was a Peyton Hillis sighting yesterday Ń his photo was spotted on the side of an EAS supplement bottle. I’m not sure what Hillis did, but his days as a Broncos running back are numbered. McDaniels is stubborn, and getting off his $#!+ list is nearly impossible. 

The game finally got interesting when the Tom Cable, who is in desperation mode trying to save his job, decided to go for in on fourth and goal from the three. Mario Haggan, David Burton and Andra Davis made a spectacular stop on the goal line. 

It appeared that things were coming together, but the Broncos never really believed they could lose this game Ń that is until it was too late. When you don’t bury a team when you have the opportunity, it’ll eventually cost you in this league, and that’s what happened to your Broncos yesterday. 

Gil Whiteley writes sports columns and movie reviews for the Denver Daily News. Listen to Whiteley every weekday at noon on “The Sports Nooner” on AM 1510 KCKK.

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