Not only is the shine of the 7-0 start to the season quickly fading from the mind of Broncos fans, but the players are facing a reality check, too. At 10-4, this is no longer the elite team we may have once pegged them to be; they’re good, but they need a lot of improving.
Before, when the Broncos stumbled over the Colts and Chiefs, at least they could use the excuse of Peyton Manning‘s health. Even against the Raiders, the defense could hold their head high and say they did their job.
But after collapsing to the Steelers on Sunday, there’s nobody to blame but themselves, and that goes for every single man on that roster.
From Gary Kubiak to Brock Osweiler to Chris Harris, the Broncos understand that they’re not going to accomplish their goals (winning the Super Bowl) if they don’t take some major steps forward in these next two weeks. On Monday, they said as much.
Let’s read between the lines and analyze what the Broncos had to say following their fourth loss of the season.
Gary Kubiak on Vernon Davis‘ drop:
“You’re going to get hit in this business every time you catch the ball. You have to make great plays to be successful. We made a lot of great plays in the game. Brock was trying to fit a ball in there. It would be a great throw—it was a great throw. It would be a great catch. That’s part of football. We have other plays that we need to make, too. There are a lot of positive plays that we need to hang on to. A lot of positive things going on that we need to build from and not try to attack some negative here or there. We’re going to stay focused on the positive and move forward.”
Yesterday, Mike Pritchard came on Mile High Sports Radio and condemned Davis’ fourth-quarter drop, questioning whether he had any allegiance to the Denver Broncos. He even went so far as to wonder whether his lack of effort could lose him the support of the locker room.
Based on Kubiak’s comments, I think he may be right.
It’s not often that a coach comes out and publicly criticizes a player for not making a play, but that’s exactly what Kubiak did, and he’s absolutely right. Nobody wants to ever question a player’s effort, but that drop, if you want to call it that, was so egregiously embarrassing that Kubiak, Pritchard and the fans couldn’t let it slip, especially when you take into account that his teammate, David Bruton, was playing with a broken leg.
Really, the only thing Kubiak was wrong about was that, “It would be a great catch.” Nope. Actually, it would have been a fairly routine reception on an outstanding throw by Brock Osweiler.
My guess is that we’re going to start seeing a whole lot less of Vernon Davis on the football field in the coming weeks.
