ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — So the final practices of this month have to be the start of Locktober, right?

Joe Flacco will not play Sunday because of a disc injury and could miss a significant amount of time. Injured reserve is a possibility and has not been ruled out in the wake of an afternoon that saw him receive neck treatment on the sideline before he was crushed into crumbs by Colts rookie edge rusher Ben Banogu on the final play of Sunday’s 15-13 loss.

It is understandable that Vic Fangio decided to start Brandon Allen this Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. Allen has practiced for the last eight weeks; Drew Lock has not.

While Lock probably should have been practicing last week in preparation for his return from injured reserve, he didn’t.

That decision is the scoop of ice cream that landed on the floor. It’s dirty. It’s melting. It’s done. You can’t do anything about it, and it would be ridiculous to pick up the scoop and eat it.

So you just reach back into the freezer and retrieve another helping.

In that freezer, there’s a treat from Columbia, Missouri. Tiger Stripe ice cream, resplendent in black and gold, developed and sold on the Mizzou campus where Lock matriculated.

You look back at the scoop of Tiger Stripe that landed amid the dog hair and bread crumbs that collects on your kitchen floor.

After cleaning it up, you don’t walk away and say, “Oh, I didn’t want any ice cream, anyway.”

No. You bailed on your Barcalounger with a purpose: a sweet treat. So you’re going to reach in and grab another scoop to satisfy.

Unless something happened to change your mind.

Unless you opened the freezer and saw something amiss.

Maybe the ice cream was freezer-burned from being stored in there too long. Perhaps there was bacteria that set in from the last time you pulled it out and let it thaw. Or maybe it was moldy because the freezer itself didn’t work properly.

Is this what is going on with Lock?

Lock is healthy. Keeping him sidelined no longer has anything to do with his thumb injury; Fangio said that Lock was “fine” in that regard.

But just last week, John Elway told KOA-AM 850 during his weekly interview that Lock was “not ready” to practice.

“I will say this: The most important thing for a young quarterback is not to put him out there before he’s ready,” Elway said last week. “So that is the most important thing and if he’s not ready, we’re not going to put him out there …

“So we have to make sure that Drew is ready when he does get in there, if he does get in there. We’re still in the process of evaluating that. He is not ready to go right now; I will tell you that.”

Yet it doesn’t take long to find other rookie quarterbacks who were ready to at least hold their own — Kyler Murray, Gardner Minshew, Daniel Jones. Some of those week-to-week scoops went along the rocky road. But others were filled with pleasant surprises, like cookie-dough ice cream stuffed with swirls of peanut butter.

What is the difference?

If Lock isn’t ready, is it about his own struggles, which were amplified by an up-and-down preseason? In other words, is it the bacteria or freezer burn?

Or is it a balky freezer that housed him — a scheme that takes years to grasp, and isn’t tailored to play to what his strengths were as a quarterback who worked in spread schemes throughout his years at Missouri?

Make no mistake, if Lock is not activated to practice this week, it will represent the most damning comment possible on his progress.

Even though Lock could not practice during his first six weeks on injured reserve, his development in the cerebral aspects of learning how to be a professional quarterback continued.

He participated in meetings. He stood on the sideline with a radio receiver in his ear for all games. He was a fixture at practice, often seen during the open-to-media periods near the quarterbacks and their coaches. Last week, as the quarterbacks would work on their drops, Lock would be several feet away, going through drops of his own, even though he wore a workout T-shirt while his teammates wore practice jerseys.

There seems to be little more he can do while he waits.

So it’s time for a scoop of Lock, right? He remains the putative quarterback.

Unless he’s not.

Unless something changed.

Unless the Broncos glanced into the freezer where the Tiger Stripe has been stored and quivered at the sight.

That can be the only explanation for extending the wait to get him on the practice field.