Broncos react to "bad-blood" onside kick called by former offensive coordinator Adam Gase

MIAMI — Adam Gase wanted to be the next head coach of the Denver Broncos. John Elway wanted his old buddy. Gase didn’t get the gig. Elway got a ring.

On Sunday, now in the head coach’s seat he longed for, the former Broncos offensive coordinator finally got a chance for a counter punch, and he took that chance. Boy, did he take that chance.

With a whopping 24-point lead in the fourth quarter and his foot hovering the Broncos’ neck, Gase put out the call for an onside kick. The Dolphins recovered, and the proverbial foot was firmly pressed down.

“He’s trying to embarrass us,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said of the play. “I mean, that’s what it is. He might be upset playing against his former team. I don’t know if he had any bad blood, but apparently, there’s some bad blood. It looked like he was trying to embarrass us.”

Unfortunately for the Orange & Blue, the man they call “Goose” succeeded. Against a team on a five-game losing streak, the Broncos got embarrassed.

“That’s his choice,” head coach Vance Joseph said. “I tried one also. That’s his choice.”

Gase’s choice was to put his former defensive coordinator on blast for his own personal beef. That blood must be pretty bad.

In the end, the play didn’t directly hurt the Broncos, although the ensuing punt resulted in Isaiah McKenzie’s latest blunder, an egregious return that resulted in a fumble and a safety. But it didn’t matter; the message was sent.

“He’s a shark in the water, if he sees blood he’s gonna try to kill it. That’s what he tried to do,” running back C.J. Anderson said. “That’s Goose, that’s Goose. I love Goose man. That’s Goose, though.”

It was in the aftermath of Gase’s last game as a member of the Denver Broncos coaching staff that John Elway debuted his famous unleashed his famous quote, “Two years in a row, it didn’t feel like we went out kicking and screaming.” Unfortunately for Elway, his Broncos are already way out, and they aren’t kicking and screaming in any sense of the phrase.