Outbursts by three veteran Broncos are a troubling sign

Once is an aberration. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a trend.

When it comes to Broncos players publicly showing their displeasure with the team’s coaching staff, things have moved into the latter category. Through just 12 games, there have already been three instances in which high-profile members of the team weren’t happy with decisions that were being made.

The first came during a Week 3 loss to the Packers. In that game, it was Emmanuel Sanders who was unhappy.

In the final six minutes of the game, the wideout stormed toward the sidelines, took off his helmet and threw it to the ground. Then, he found a seat on the bench and pouted for a couple of plays while his teammates tried to drive down the field to cut the lead to one score.

After the game, Sanders still wasn’t happy, venting in the locker room about his lack of touches. On the day, he had two catches for 10 yards, and was only targeted five times.

Clearly, the veteran was upset about his role in the offense. He didn’t like the way Rich Scangarello was utilizing him. Or he wasn’t on board with the overall philosophy of the Broncos attack.

Fast forward to Week 8. That day, Denver lost another heartbreaker, falling 15-13 in Indianapolis to fall to 2-6 on the season.

The way they lost didn’t sit well with one key member of the team. After the game, Joe Flacco vented about the Broncos lack of aggressiveness on offense. The normally reserved quarterback broke character and fired a few salvos at the coaching staff.

He was upset that Denver ran the ball on third-and-five with a chance to ice the game. Instead of letting him try to secure a win with a completion, Scangarello called a run up the middle to Phillip Lindsay, which was stuffed for no gain.

The Broncos had to punt, giving the Colts a chance to drive for the game-winning field goal, which they did. And for the third time in eight weeks, Denver watched a victory disappear in the waning seconds.

Feeling the frustration, Flacco opened up to the media after the game. In what would turn out to be his final game of the season, the veteran quarterback was beyond frustrated.

“I mean, come on; we’re now a 2-6 football team and we look like we’re afraid to go for it in a two-minute drill,” Flacco said. “It just feels like we’re kind of afraid to lose the game. It’s third-and-five at the end of the game. I just felt like, ‘What do we have to lose?’ Why can’t we be aggressive in some of these situations?”

And finally, jump to last Sunday against the Chargers. In that game, the Broncos had a chance to make history right before halftime.

Denver was in position with :01 on the clock to try a 65-yard field goal. If he made the kick, Brandon McManus would’ve broken Matt Prater’s record for the longest field goal in NFL history.

Instead of taking a shot at the record books, however, Fangio kept his offense on the field. The kicker wasn’t happy about the decision, shouting in the head coach’s direction and throwing his helmet in disgust.

It was a fiery outburst, one that went well beyond the heat of the moment. After halftime, McManus made a point of drilling a 65-yard field goal in warmups, just to prove to the coach that the kick was within his range. And after making a 53-yarder as time expired to win the game, the kicker had no time for a postgame handshake with Fangio, giving the head coach a huge brush off in the locker room.

In each of these incidences, the player can be blamed. Without a doubt, there’s an element of insubordination going on.

Sanders was being selfish, more concerned about his personal statistics than the team’s success. Flacco was putting the blame on play calling, rather than owning up to the fact that the offense he was leading only managed to score 13 points on the day. And McManus was chasing glory, more worried about being in the league’s annals than doing what was best for the team.

All are valid points. All are true, at least to some extent.

But those assessments are better when each incident is examined individually. In a vacuum, the players look bad; they look like “me” guys who are undermining their coach’s authority because it doesn’t help shine.

When all three are viewed together, however, the picture becomes different. Then, it’s a sign of a disturbing pattern.

Just three weeks into the season, a veteran wideout with a Super Bowl win on his résumé was so upset with the offense that he was quitting on his team in the middle of a drive? Midway through the season, a quarterback who never says anything that resembled a juicy soundbite is ripping the coaches after a loss? Before the end of November, a veteran kicker who has never been any sort of distraction is throwing a tantrum on the sidelines?

That’s not good, to say the least. In fact, it’s downright disturbing.

Just a dozen games into Fangio’s first season as a head coach, his players are borderline revolting. Things are close to spiraling out of control. It’s as though Denver is teetering on a mutiny.

Maybe it’s the losing, as a 4-8 record will make players grumpy, especially those who are used to winning. Perhaps it’s the long work weeks, with Fangio’s quirky schedule that gives the players very little time off during the season burning them out in just 12 games. Or quite possibly, it’s a bunch of small things, as the head coach has taken the joy out of the game by nixing music during training camp, offering very little in the way of positive reinforcement to his players and generally being a get-off-my-lawn guy.

Or it could be something else. The head coach is fueling the divide between players and coaches.

When things have gone poorly this season in Denver, Fangio has been quick to point the finger of blame. He has no problem calling out anyone and everyone, from Von Miller to whoever is playing quarterback, from Scangarello to the officials.

At the same time, his much-ballyhooed defense has escaped the blame. Statistically, Fangio’s pride and joy looks good. But in key situations, they’ve fallen flat. The defense has blown late leads against the Bears, Jaguars and Colts, while also squandering large second-half margins against the Vikings and the Chargers; those failures resulted in four losses, the difference between being 4-8 and 8-4.

When something goes right, however, the head coach is quick to pat himself on the back. On Sunday alone, he took credit for the Broncos not taking a knee in the closing seconds of the game, instead throwing the ball down field to draw a penalty that would ultimately set up the game-winning field goal because he decided to air it out. Then, he had the audacity to suggest that not trying the 65-yard field goal prevented McManus from messing up his mechanics, allowing him to make two big kicks later in the game.

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to spread the praise around?

Tell the media that the coaching staff mutually decided to be aggressive in the final seconds. That might go a long way toward lifting the spirits of a much-maligned offensive coordinator.

And take the heat for the missed shot at history. After watching McManus split the uprights on two field goals from 50-plus yards in the fourth quarter, let the world know that you underestimated your kicker. That would defuse the situation in an instant.

Being critical is fine, but it can’t be all the time. A little praise has to be sprinkled in, too. Otherwise, people get worn out in a hurry.

And being demanding is okay, but it has to be a two-way street. The hard-nosed coach has to hold himself to the same high standards.

Fangio has a lot of strengths, but he’s also shown his weaknesses. And they’ve mushroomed into major problems in just 13 weeks.

The head coach can still right the ship, but only if he’s willing to adjust. If not, it’ll be a short stint in Denver.

One outburst by a player is a bad apple. Two is a couple of malcontents. But three is a sign that something isn’t right.

There’s a disconnect between the Broncos players and the coaching staff. And it’s up to Vic Fangio to fix it.

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