Gary Kubiak has Broncos better prepared for success

Let’s take a painful but crucial trip back to a frigid Jan. 12, 2013 at Mile High.

The Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens were entwined in the ultimate game of chicken – what you can do, we can do better. The team that flinched first would leave the loser.

The first flinch came on third-and-long for Denver. If the Broncos got a first down, the game would be over. A running play was called … for Ronnie Hillman.

With under a minute to go and third-and-long for Baltimore, it appeared the Broncos would advance to the AFC Championship Game despite that flinch on their previous possession. Then in a sudden punch to the gut, Denver flinched again and the game was tied.

With two timeouts remaining, the ball on around the 30-yard line and Peyton Manning and a kicker who could hit easily from beyond 50 yards … John Fox took a knee.

After the game, Fox gave the quote that defined his time in Denver and career as a coach: “We were caught off guard.”

How the Broncos got to this point is clearer than it’s ever been, as is why they’re now better prepared for success under new coach Gary Kubiak.

Last week at practice, Kubiak was asked a harmless question about working on field goal returns. Why does a team work on something that probably never happens in a game?

The answer should make Broncos Country, John Elway and the entire organization seething with rage.

“The season’s about recall,” Kubiak said. “You can’t stand out here every day and keep your guys out here doing those things every day, but you’ve got to throw it to them and talk about how you handle situations. There has to be great recall during the course of the season. We’re going to hit it all. We’ve got what we call ‘mock situations’ all the time where we’re putting players through mind games, in a lot of ways, and coaches. So I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve got (Director of Football Analytics) Mitch (Tanney) out there with me. If we’re moving the ball or we’re doing formatting, I’ve got Mitch with me because he’s going to be on the headset, so we’re trying to practice. Everything’s going to happen on game day.”

Read Kubiak’s quote again and then look at what Fox said after the Baltimore game. Or the playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

“Hindsight, we probably could have done something different and didn’t.”

Then you travel back to other failures in big games and it becomes as clear as a summer day in Colorado why the Broncos under Fox couldn’t win the Super Bowl despite being the most talented team in the NFL.

Unprepared.

Terrible game plan.

No emotion.

No fire.

No heart.

Under Fox, the Broncos were the machine with no plan or heart. Sort of like the Tin Man, only the Tin Man gives better quotes.  

Fox’s teams in Denver lacked the ability to show up in the big moments.

They were caught off guard by a Hail Mary, the crowd noise at the Super Bowl and a one-dimensional inferior opponent. They never made adjustments (Aqib Talib on T.Y. Hilton comes to mind).

Don’t let Fox’s record of 49-22 fool you. You have to dig a little deeper to get the full story.

The Broncos were 1-7 against the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

They were 12-16 against playoff teams and 17-17 against teams that were .500 or better. That means 75.5 percent of Fox’s victories came against teams that didn’t make the playoffs.

What exactly did his teams do during the week before those critical games? It’s clear based on the results that they just went through the motions. There was a belief and expectation under Fox that sheer talent would get them to where they wanted to go.

Contrast that to Kubiak, who practices field goal returns.

He wants to put his players and team in the best possible situations to have success. The only way to have success is to prepare – even if it’s something Denver will probably never encounter. No matter the situation the Broncos face, they’re ready because they recall the time they worked on it in practice.

Over time, the players start to realize Kubiak and his coaching staff know what they’re doing and how to win, and that makes them work even harder than before.

Kubiak gets it.

You won’t hear him utter the words, “We were caught off guard.”

Too bad when we travel back to that frigid day in January 2013, the Broncos can’t put Kubiak on the sidelines.