The Broncos lost an overtime game against their division rival, Kansas City Chiefs. The call of the game from Coach Kubiak was for Brandon McManus to try for a 62-yard field goal. The kick flew wide left and gave the ball back to the Chiefs with enough time for them to charge down the field and win with a field goal of their own last time expired.
The Broncos are now in third place in the AFC West and have lost three of their four division games this season. The Broncos seemed to control the game three out of the first four quarters. In the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were able to capitalize on some errors made by the Broncos defense to tie the game with 12 seconds left.
The big question for Denver fans waking up on Monday morning is, what happened?
“You can’t put one thing on it, honestly,” Brandon Marshall told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Afternoon Drive on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7. “I’ll say we stopped executing, and we stopped tackling as well. They capitalized on our mistakes.”
It was a long game, not just because of the extra period but because of the stakes at hand. Those 75 minutes were draining, and even the most hardened athlete would have been feeling the powers of fatigue by the end of it. But the same can be said for both sides; tired is not an excuse.
“In a fourth quarter and overtime game, everybody is tired,” Marshall said. “We try not to use that as an excuse. Everyone is tired, we just have to execute and we didn’t.”
As of today, the Broncos are out of the playoff picture, which is unfamiliar territory for this team. With five games left, though, they still control their own destiny. Win out, and they’re in.
“This is my fourth season here and we have never been in this position,” Marshall said. “It’s kind of hard to believe, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. We’ll be in there at the end.”
Kubiak’s decision to go for the win in overtime didn’t pan out the way Denver would have liked, but the team isn’t second guessing his thinking.
“It’s tough, do you play for the tie or do you play for the win,” Marshall said. “I think most people are going to go for the win, especially when you know a guy like Brandon McManus and the leg that he has. If we would have punted, we would have played for the tie. Not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m not going to question his decision.”
To listen to the entire interview with Brandon Marshall, including his thoughts on not being in the playoff picture as of today, click the podcast below…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/11-28-16-brandon-marshall-weighs-in-on-kubiaks-call-to-kick-the-fg-with-eric-and-les-1
Catch Afternoon Drive with Goodman and Shapiro Monday-Friday from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.