Vic Fangio addresses where Drew Lock stands with one game remaining in the season

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Drew Lock was, well, Drew Lock on Sunday.

In his second-to-last audition to be the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback for the future, a familiar player showed up under center to face the Los Angeles Chargers. According to Vic Fangio—who will return in 2021—the evaluation on Lock after the game is “still the same” as it was entering Sunday.

“You said it was a microcosm of the season—I kind of agree with you,” Fangio said about his evaluation of Lock, who threw for 264 yards on 51 percent completion, no passing touchdowns, two interceptions and a 50.3 passer rating on Sunday. “There’s a lot of good, and there’s some that have got to get cleaned up and disappear.”

The good? Orchestrating a 13-point fourth-quarter rally to tie the game with 2:47 left—an aspect Lock has displayed multiple times this year.

The parts that need to get cleaned up? Zero total points at halftime.

And the parts that need to disappear? The forced red-zone interceptions.

“You can’t throw red-zone interceptions, especially one that there really wasn’t much there or [you] throw it sloppily out there,” Fangio said about Lock’s interception in the end zone on Denver’s first drive. “If you try and hammer one in there and the defense makes a great play that’s one thing, but if you make a bad choice, that’s another thing… From day one you talk to him about that.”

In Week 13, Lock had a very similar game to the one he had on Sunday. After a poor decision led to a red-zone interception on the first drive, Lock calmed down and played mistake-free against the Kansas City Chiefs until throwing a game-clinching interception on the final drive.

In Kansas City in Week 13, the encouraging flashes were a pair of well-timed and perfectly-placed touchdown passes to Tim Patrick. On Sunday in Los Angeles, the bright spots were displayed in three fourth-quarter scoring drives.

But in both games, the good from No. 3 wasn’t enough.

Against the Chargers, after Fangio’s defense kept the Broncos in the game for over three quarters, Lock willed the offense to a game-tying field goal as he threw for 135 yards in the fourth quarter.

But in the first three quarters, Lock was only able to muster 129 passing yards—an average of 43 yards per quarter.

“It is all about consistency at this position and at this level, so to say,” Lock stated after Denver’s 19-16 loss. “I’ve got to find a good balance of being level, but quite honestly, I’m going to try to be hot all the time. I understand what I can do with the football.”

On Dec. 23, four days before Sunday’s game, the second-year quarterback admitted one of the best qualities of his game, which sometimes comes back to bite him, is his ability to turn a bad play into a good one.

“I’m figuring out how to balance both of those to be able to help us extend drives and make the plays that I know I can make to help us keep moving the ball forward. It’s about knowing the timing and when to do it, and really realizing if that play is actually there,” Lock stated on Wednesday. “Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting more comfortable with this offense and being able to make plays that maybe in the earlier weeks I wouldn’t have made.”

Despite tossing the red-zone interception on the first drive on Sunday, Lock remained confident in his ability to limit bad plays.

“I am starting to see this speed, these defenses and know this offense well enough to be able to go out and feel really confident going in there to be able to make the throws that I need, see the defense and put the ball where it needs to go,” Lock stated on Sunday. “I feel a lot better than I did I would say at the beginning of the season with just how many reps we’ve gotten this year in games, but it is about me finding the steady tempo of a game.

“I need to be okay with just getting it down and extending drives,” Lock continued after the game, circling back to his mindset before Sunday.

After Sunday’s game, Lock was tied with Carson Wentz for the most interceptions in the NFL with 15. However, up until Sunday, Lock hadn’t thrown an interception in his past two games.

The flashes are there. There are parts of his game that need to be cleaned up. And there are parts of Lock’s game that need to disappear.

On Sunday, with only one game remaining to prove he’s the guy moving forward, Drew Lock didn’t move the needle in Vic Fangio’s evaluation.