ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Special teams: The stepchild of the three phases of football, often forgot and rarely talked about. That is until something goes astray.
Unfortunately, and rightfully so, special teams was the talk of the town in the Mile High City after the Broncos 30-27 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
The list of miscues on special teams was obscene: Two Jordan Norwood muffed punts (one lost), an illegal formation penalty on a field goal attempt that allowed the Chiefs offense to comeback on the field and eventually score a touchdown, a free kick returned for a touchdown and finally the missed 62-yard field goal with 1:08 left in overtime.
But these special teams errors weren’t what had Gary Kubiak’s attention during his routine Monday afternoon press conference. Instead, the head coach was left to address how his players dealt with these errors.
In the fourth quarter, with the Broncos down 16-10, Norwood muffed his second punt of the game, this time allowing the Chiefs to recover. On his way off of the field, cornerback Aqib Talib shoved Norwood from behind, showing Talib’s frustration with Norwood’s second error.
Not nice, Aqib Talib! https://t.co/mvdIlgh8zk pic.twitter.com/hm4WtPiwQu
— SB Nation (@SBNation) November 28, 2016
Instead of immediately condemning the physical act against a teammate, Kubiak expressed a different outlook on it. When asked if he was okay with Talib’s shove he responded, “I want our guys to compete, yeah. I want our guys to compete.”
“Let me just say this. We compete at the highest level, and our guys compete all the time—practice, game those type of things,” he added. “I see guys competing; those guys are upset.”
While the incident is already in the past with Talib and Norwood meeting one-on-one Monday morning, Kubiak thinks this was a good learning moment for his team.
“Obviously, emotions get in the way, and those are things we got to talk about and we got to control our emotions,” he said. “But it’s a very competitive environment down there, and there was no harm intended, I can tell you that… We will continue to compete.”
Kubiak’s message: Use that competitive edge against the other team, not your own team.
“They have to handle those situations better,” he said. “Here’s what I tell our players, we battle together, we don’t battle each other, and they understand that. We are out there competing.”
Later on Monday, Talib acknowledged that he apologized to Norwood while Norwood said he understood his frustration and has moved past the incident.
“Jordan and Aqib are fine, I can tell you that,” Kubiak said. “That’s not an issue.”
It seems as if the Broncos have closed the door on this issue, now it is time for them to focus their attention on all of the other special teams misdoings.
