After practice, Fangio points out example of “death by inches”
Jul 29, 2019, 6:38 AM
The 21,000-plus fans who filed into Broncos Stadium on Saturday afternoon got to see a pretty good show. Joe Flacco was tossing touchdown passes, Drew Lock was throwing darts to wide receivers down the field, Adam Gotsis was rumbling for a touchdown on a pick-six and more.
All in all, it was a pretty good day of practice. Or so it seemed.
Afterward, Vic Fangio wasn’t thrilled with everything that went down. In fact, one thing in particular seemed to get under the skin of the Broncos head coach.
“We had 12 penalties today,” Fangio expalined. “Eight of them on offense. Four of them on defense. Way too many.”
When he was hired, the coach used a phrase that has caught on in Broncos Country, quipping that teams often beat themselves by making silly mistake. He called the process “death by inches.”
Throughout training camp, there haven’t been a lot of examples of the Broncos falling victim to this recipe for failure. For the most part, the team has cleaned up a lot of the mistakes that plagued them in recent years. But too many yellow hankies on the field remains an issue.
“This team last year was 31st in the NFL in penalties called,” Fangio continued. “That’s got to stop. We’ve got to improve that.”
In other words, the Broncos often beat themselves last season. And the head coach doesn’t want it to happen again in 2019, which is why he’s harping on the subject.
“We’ve emphasized it,” Fangio offered. “Obviously, I haven’t done a good enough job of doing that and obviously they haven’t done a good enough job of listening. That’s got to be a main focus. It has been and has to continue.”
During the rest of training camp, expect the Broncos to focus on cutting down penalties. And during preseason games, expect flags to draw the ire of Fangio.
The head coach told everyone that he wouldn’t let the little things slide. On Saturday afternoon, when everyone else was basking in the glow of a fun day at the stadium, he proved he wasn’t kidding.
Penalties are a prime example of “death by inches.” And Vic Fangio knows it.
