Joe Flacco goes off on the Broncos' conservative approach

 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Joe Flacco lived up to his nickname of Joe Cool on Sunday. During the game, that is.

But right after the game, Joe Cool was no more.

“We are now a 2-6 football team, and we’re like afraid to go for it in a two-minute drill,” Denver’s quarterback said with a baffled grin after the team fell to the Colts 15-13 on Sunday afternoon.

“Like who cares if you give the ball back to the guys with a minute and 40 seconds left. They obviously got the field goal anyway. And, once again, we’re a 2-6 football team, and it just feels like we’re kind of afraid to lose the game.”

Joe didn’t mince his words. He didn’t stutter. He didn’t backtrack. Joe Flacco sent a direct message to Vic Fangio and Rich Scangarello, while at the same time reminding both of them twice that their football team is on pace to finish 4-12.

Coming out of the two-minute warning, clinging to a 13-12 lead, the Broncos faced a 3rd-and-5 on the Colts 43-yard line. With Indianapolis down to one timeout, a first down would have ended the game—Broncos win.

But instead of going for the aggressive first down call, the coaching staff decided to run Phillip Lindsay up the gut. He was stuffed for no gain, the Broncos elected to punt, and the rest was history.

“It’s 3rd-and-5 at the end of the game. Who cares if they have a timeout there at the end or not?” Flacco said, flat out publicly questioning his coaches. “Getting in field goal range isn’t that tough. So you’re just putting your defense in these bad situations.”

Even more damning, however, was this wasn’t an isolated situation in Flacco’s mind.

“I just felt like what do we have to lose? Why can’t we be aggressive in some of these situations? That’s kind of how I feel about a lot of the game today,” the typically unassuming Flacco said as his quotes quickly spread around the nation.

During the game, Flacco didn’t keep his frustrations inside. The veteran quarterback, “of course,” talked to the coaching staff during the game to express his will of wanting to be more aggressive.

“You talk on the sideline about what’s happening, but there’s only so much you can do,” Flacco said with irritation. “As players, you have to go out there and execute what’s given to you—we’re playing situational football, and as players, we’re just trying to execute the best we can to get those situations over with and help our team win. I just feel like sometimes those situations are tough, and we can make it easier on ourselves by not being afraid to be aggressive.”

One specific suggestion Joe made was tossing more and more long balls to his No. 1 receiver, Courtland Sutton.

“I felt like at some point we just got to start going up to him and taking some shots, so I kind of mentioned it at halftime,” Flacco said. “He’s a really good wide receiver. If you’re going to leave him one-on-one, you can’t not at least take some shots at him. Even if you don’t hit him. Obviously, from what you guys can see today, there are a couple great catches he made, and then you get a couple PI calls. Just good things happen, so that was the big thing with him. I think any time you get him one-on-one, you’re going to feel pretty good about what you have.”

The team’s undisputed No. 1 receiver finished with a mere six targets and only three catches, despite averaging a whopping 24 yards per catch and showing off his big-play ability with a 33-yard catch and run to get in Indy territory in the second quarter.

This was the same receiver who said after the game that the corner guarding him, Rock Ya-Sin, “couldn’t guard me.”

When asked specifically if he wishes he threw the ball to Courtland more, Flacco simply said, “Well, it’s just one of those things. Yeah, maybe if we would have had the opportunity to then we probably wish we would have.”

It wasn’t just Joe that was frustrated by the conservative approach to the entire game, either.

“Joe’s right, we’ve got to be more aggressive,” Phillip Lindsay stated after the game without hesitation. “And when that’s coming from your quarterback, that’s saying something. Joe is our leader, and we’ve got to find ways to win games.”

It’s especially saying something since this is Joe Cool—the Joe Flacco that rarely strays from his lane. After cruising in the right-hand lane clocking a perfect 55 MPH in a Honda CRV through the first eight games of the season, Joe Flacco busted out the hot-rod red Ferrari, swerved over to the far-left hand lane and punched it to triple digits on Sunday afternoon.