ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — With one game remaining in the 2016 season, the Denver Broncos have already started to evaluate this season and what went wrong.
After the 33-10 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night the Broncos chances at making the playoffs were eliminated, making the Week 17 game against the Oakland Raiders essentially meaningless.
However, before looking forward, head coach Gary Kubiak looked back to what when wrong and when it went wrong.
“We had an opportunity in Week 11 to have our confidence really take off,” Kubiak said during his Monday press conference.
During the Broncos Week 11 bye week they were 7-3, tied with the Kansas City Chiefs, only half a game back of the Raiders for the AFC West lead. Then, in Week 12, Denver lost at home to the Chiefs in a 30-27 overtime thriller. According to Kubiak, that loss was where the Broncos season shifted and went from a 7-3 start to an 8-7 finish going into the final week of the season.
“I’m not saying that [our confidence] went the other way, but we come out of [the Week 12 Chiefs] game, and we lost Trevor [Siemian] for a week,” he explained. “We did some good stuff with Andy [Janovich] with part of our team [and] we had some things we were doing better and then all of a sudden we lose Kapri [Bibbs].”
Not only did Denver lose to the Chiefs in Week 12, Siemian suffered a sprained foot that kept him on the sidelines in Week 13 and Janovich also suffered a season-ending ankle injury. The very next week against the Jaguars, while the Broncos did win, they lost Bibbs for the season with a high ankle sprain. These three injuries on the offensive side of the ball had a drastic impact on the offense for the rest of the season, according to Kubiak.
“We had some things going on to me that all of a sudden we started playing a little differently, and not playing well and it just hurt us,” he said. “We were still playing good enough defensively to maintain and hang in there and get out of [Week 14 game against the Tennesse Titans] with a win, or something like that, that could still propel you.”
However, the offense just wasn’t there. Since the start of Week 14, Denver’s offense has managed just two touchdowns in three weeks. Kubiak pointed to a shift in the offense around that time for the shortcomings.
“I would say what we became a little bit. From two back to one back to some of the things that we did a little different,” he said. “It’s not an excuse; I’m not telling you that. We became that last year and found a way to survive and still be successful, so that’s part of football. When you lose people you got to adjust, you still got to go out there and move the football and do things, and we didn’t get that done.”
After starting 4-0, the Broncos have gone 4-7 in a quest to defend their Super Bowl championship. However, since the beginning of October, the Broncos season has merely been a letdown.
“It’s been disappointing since then, but we were in pretty good shape at one time,” the coach said. “But that’s this league; it’s a marathon and not a sprint. I know we’ve all heard that one before and over the long haul we just haven’t been good enough.”
Although the season officially will come to an end on New Years Day, it all but ended on Sunday in Arrowhead, and according to the coach the Broncos were doomed the weekend after Thanksgiving.
