The latest Broncos loss falls squarely on the shoulders of one man

DENVER — There was the loss to the Giants when they had no receivers, and the Broncos were double-digit favorites.

There was the next week when they got shutout in a Los Angeles soccer stadium.

Then, there was the debacle in Philly, when the would-be Super Bowl champions dropped a 51-burger on a once-proud defense.

You can’t forget the 35-9 drubbing at the hands of the Jay-Cutler led Miami Dolphins.

This season, you had a 34-16 tail-kicking courtesy of the now 3-6 Jets.

But none of those losses looked as bad on second-year head coach Vance Joseph as Sunday’s 19-17 loss to the Houston Texans.

It started in the second quarter. With the Broncos trailing by just three, set to receive the ball in the second half, the offense had the rock at the Houston 45-yard line. With less than a minute on the clock, Denver had a golden opportunity to put points on the board heading into the half.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, the offense stalled. Devontae Booker slipped before Case Keenum could get the ball to him, Emmanuel Sanders only got one yard on a quick pass and then Keenum missed Booker again, leaving 22 seconds on the clock and the Broncos now only at the 44.

That’s when Vance Joseph made his first glaringly bad decision, the decision to kick a 62-yard field goal. Of course, the attempt went wide right.

Now, of course, hindsight is always 20-20, but this wasn’t exactly a tough decision. As a coach, you have to know that if you miss that very deep attempt with more than 20 seconds on the clock, you are at a high risk of spotting your opponent three points of their own with a starting field position at the 48-yard line.

With the way things have gone for Vance Joseph, it shouldn’t surprise you that Houston easily drove it down to the 28 and set up for a 46-yard attempt. To make things worse, just before the ball was snapped, Joseph called the Broncos’ last timeout. Naturally, Houston kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn still attempted the kick and, naturally, it went wide right.

A few moments later, he set up for his second attempt and crushed it right between the uprights. A crushing turn of events into the locker room.

As Texans’ coach Bill O’Brien ran off the field shortly after the kick sailed through, he appeared to yell, “Good job, Vance. You dumb f**k.” And if he didn’t say it on the sidelines, you can be sure it was said somewhere else in the stadium.

“That’s totally on me,” Joseph said after the game. “I’m trying to be greedy and get three more points there, and it cost us three. I get that.”

The biggest problem with the call is that it appeared as if wasn’t made until the last second. Coaches have to always be thinking one step ahead. If Joseph was comfortable with kicking the 62-yarder, he could have run the ball on third down to one, give Denver a chance to shorten the attempt and two, run the clock down. Instead, it appeared as if he made a reactionary decision in the heat of the moment.

Reactionary decisions lose you games, and for Joseph especially, it always seems like his reactionary decisions go wildly wrong.

Fortunately for the Broncos, they put up an admirable effort in the second half and with 3:29 left in the game, had the ball in their hands down just two points.

Unfortunately for Joseph, things got worse for him from there.

With 43 seconds left on the clock, Keenum found Emmanuel Sanders for a massive fourth-down conversion, getting Denver all the way down to the Houston 37. Denver burned their second timeout to stop the clock in great position to pick up another chunk of yards and set up kicker Brandon McManus for a chip-shot game-winner.

On first down, Keenum found tight end Jeff Heuerman for five yards, and with the clock running, Joseph decided that was enough for him, declining to call a timeout. On second down with 13 seconds left on the clock, Denver simply handed the ball off to Phillip Lindsay, who was pushed back a yard.

With three seconds left, Joseph called his final timeout and set up McManus for a 51-yard field goal. The kick, of course, went wide right and the Broncos lost their sixth out of their last seven games.

Now, let’s start by saying it was a pretty brutal attempt by McManus and it should also be noted that he’s been money from 50-plus in his career. With that being said, Joseph coached scared in the final 43 seconds.

“Our line was the 35,” he said afterward. “We were there, so it was time to kick the ball.”

If you watch any good team at the end of a game, they don’t simply set a mark to get to and sit on the ball once they get there. They, as it seems obvious to do, use all of their opportunities to increase their chance of winning by working to move the ball closer.

With more than 30 seconds on the clock, Joseph could have called his last time out and put together a plan to drastically improve the positioning of their field goal attempt. They had plenty of time to run plays in the middle of the field with the idea that they could spike the ball instead of using a timeout.

As is appeared, the Broncos head man was more afraid of something bad happening—a sack, a hold or an interception—than he was confident his team could make a couple more plays.

On one hand, that’s a bit of an indictment on the team he has to coach. After all, he had made it all the way to that point without Keenum’s interception du jour or Garett Bolles’ holding du jour. But coaching scared is coaching to lose. You have the guys you have, and you have to be confident that they will make plays.

Depending on how you want to look at it, Joseph either cost the Broncos nine, six or three points, and the scoreboard says the Broncos lost by just two. To put it simply, that’s flat-out unacceptable and many players on the team were not happy about it.

In the past, there have been times where you could tie Vance Joseph to the reason the Broncos lost, whether it was penalties and discipline or something else, but Sunday was the first time in which the loss was squarely his fault, and that makes it the most damning loss yet.