Swaggy Vic. Fired-up Fangio.
That’s who was in the locker room, on the sideline and at the podium as the Denver Broncos’ head coach on Sunday as the team decimated the Dallas Cowboys 30-16.
That was the Vic Fangio the Broncos needed. And that’s the Vic Fangio that needs to stay for the rest of his tenure in Denver.
You can’t tell me the team, specifically the defense, didn’t thrive off Vic’s new-found energy and visible passion.
The knockout fist swing he displayed on the sideline after the fourth-down stop. Sparring with Melvin Gordon in the locker room after the beat down. The fiestyness he showed in the press conference after the game.
“How ’bout them Broncos,” he said, starting off his post-game presser with a sassy smirk after the beatdown.
He went from Vanilla Vic to F-u Fangio.
“For 56 minutes, it was a goose egg. You can answer that question,” Fangio fired back, when asked about the performance of his defense in a near shutout.
In Jerry’s World, Vic turned edgy. Fangio wasn’t afraid to publicly classify Dallas’ two scores at the end of the game as “garbage touchdowns.” He certainly wasn’t wrong.
Th 61-year old’s fiery presence on the sideline and eye-opening remarks after the game earned him some cred outside of the Broncos’ locker room too.
Who said older head coaches can’t bring the sizzle. Just look at 70-year-old Pete Carrol out in Seattle, ripping his shirt off with D.K. Metcalf and dancing on top of lockers.
It’s said a team takes on their identity and personality of their quarterback or head coach. Well, the Broncos have had too many quarterbacks to even count in the past five years, let alone too many to adopt one of their identities.
Up until Sunday’s game, there hasn’t been much of an identity from the head coaches they’ve had since Gary Kubiak retired in 2016. The Vic Fangio we saw on Sunday is the type of identity a defensive-lead team can take on. Denver’s defense certainly did that on Sunday as they shutout the Cowboys for nearly the entire game, held them to 0-for-4 on fourth-down attempts and locked down Dallas to a season-low 16 points.
“Everybody wants to go for it on fourth down, right? Fourth-and one, fourth-and-two, they cite all of the numbers and so on and so forth, but when you don’t get them, it hurts, and we were the beneficiary of the hurts,” Fangio stated with confidence.
No one benefited more from the Cowboys’ “hurts” than Fangio. His hot seat took an ice bath and the faith his general manager showed in him a week before became more legitimate.
The swagger carried over to the post-game presser. Fangio even sprinkled in multiple “oomph’s” into his conversation with the media. It was appropriate because he brought the oomph the Broncos’ so desperately needed.
He was also brutally honest as he called out Denver’s special teams for “taking the day off” after another tough outing for that unit.
On Sunday, Fangio was fired up. He was edgy. He was unapologetically himself. That’s what Denver needs moving forward.
He can even keep the coach speak.
“We’re 5-4. The bar is to get to 6-4,” the head coach stated in classic coach-speak verbiage.
“I’ve always said doing something and accomplishing something gives you confidence and belief,” Fangio said with passion. “You don’t need to go sit outside some psychologist’s couch and get it. That’s just a bunch of bullshit. You’ve got to do it on the field between the white lines. You’ve got to do it with your actions, not with your words. And we did that today.”
On Sunday, Fangio cutout the B.S. and let his passion do the talking.
That’s the type of confidence and belief he needs to have in himself for the rest of the season leading the Denver Broncos.
That’s the Vic Fangio the Broncos need.
