This past Sunday afternoon, the Denver Broncos engineered an exhilarating comeback from down 24-3, eventually defeating the Los Angeles Chargers 31-30 on a walk-off P.A.T. following K.J. Hamler’s first career touchdown as time expired. A mere week after a demoralizing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, seemingly gone are the clamors from many members of Broncos Country for thorough firings, extensive trades, and other similar knee-jerk changes. Clearly, Broncos Country needs patience. It is often said that winning is the cure for all ails, but in the case of Denver’s third victory of the 2020 campaign, it is so much more—it’s a cautionary tale of impatience and it’s a perfect encapsulation of what this pandemic-stricken season truly is for the young Broncos. In essence, it boils down to: when you pray for rain, you have to be prepared for mud.
Denver Broncos Need To Exhibit Patience With Young Team
The Catalyst
When Phillip Lindsay swayed left—expertly leading a previously unblocked inside linebacker into a signature block from a tripped and then kneeling Austin Schlottmann—and shot down the field for a 55-yard touchdown, he did far more than simply ignite the flame that burned behind the comeback bid.
The play was the physical manifestation of the moral of the story of Sunday’s unlikely victory. Throughout the divisional contest up to that point, the Broncos entire offense had proven anemic, with a fair portion of the blame resting on the running game’s shoulders. Melvin Gordon III had accrued an insignificant four yards on four carries prior to Lindsay’s 55-yard catalyst but went on to significantly increase his paltry yards per carry to 5.5 after the fact. Despite the continued failure and ineffectuality of the rushing attack and the deficit, the Broncos continued to run the ball, finally breaking free and igniting the offense.
The Catalyzed
It was their patience with the running game and their willingness to stick with it that allowed the offense to find a rhythm. This patience paid off, as the sudden explosion on the ground forced the Los Angeles defense to play Denver’s offense more honestly. With the linebackers and safeties more likely to bite on play-action, the passing game immediately saw improvement.
Prior to Lindsay’s 55-yard turning of the tables, Drew Lock had completed 10 of his 20 pass attempts for a forgettable 76 yards in essentially three quarters of play. After Lindsay’s score, Lock completed 16 of 20 pass attempts (excluding the spike to stop the clock) for 172 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception. While the interception was certainly regrettable, it illustrated a newfound vigor in the second-year passer, who was taking risks after a conservative and rather banal three quarters of quarterbacking.
By remaining patient with the run game and their quarterback, the offense was able to get back on track and erase the largest deficit the Broncos had successfully overcome since a Peyton Manning-led 24-0 comeback over the Chargers in 2012. The 2012 comeback sparked an 11-game winning streak for the orange and blue.
What can this past Sunday’s comeback do for the future of this team?
Contextualizing Broncos Country’s Need for Patience
No Von Miller. No Courtland Sutton. No Ja’Wuan James. No A.J. Bouye. No Graham Glasgow. No Mike Purcell. No Jurrell Casey. Rivaled only by the San Francisco 49ers in terms of complete and utter decimation by injuries, the 2020 Denver Broncos are one of the youngest teams in football and its offense is even younger. In fact, the average age on the Broncos offense is not old enough to legally rent a car in many states.
When considering Sunday’s victory was only Drew Lock’s ninth career game (for all intents and purposes), most of the 2020 campaign will, in effect, serve as Drew Lock’s rookie season, at least in terms of games played. Missing his number one target from his 4-1 start in 2019 and the team’s best pass-catcher, among countless other players, Lock’s 2020 has been uninspiring for the most part. He has shown flashes of brilliance and that “it”-factor teams look for in their quarterbacks, but he has also displayed sloppy footwork, an overzealousness for escaping the pocket, and poor decision-making.
But in Sunday’s victory, Lock’s true fourth game in Pat Shurmur’s system, the sophomore passer battled through his ineffectual and inauspicious start to show more than enough grit and game for Broncos Country to put away their pitchforks. Until after Denver’s Week 15 clash with the Buffalo Bills,which should prove to be Lock’s 16th career game, it is completely unreasonable to be really impatient with Drew Lock.
This instant gratification era would have benched John Elway after going 4-6 and throwing for a pedestrian 1,663 yards and only seven touchdowns (half of his interceptions) as a rookie. It would have benched Peyton Manning after going 3-13 and throwing for a mere 3,739 yards and a 26:28 touchdown-to-interception ratio—probably even before he had a chance to finish his rookie season. This level of aversion to patience suggests this era would have called for Bill Belichick’s head after going 6-10 in his first year with the Cleveland Browns or 5-11 in his first year with the New England Patriots.
The only way for the Broncos to truly find out what they have in Lock is to let him play.
Last Word
The same could be said for the team as a whole. There is no other way for the organization to find out what they have, other than to have patience and to allow this incredibly young team to develop chemistry and find their collective identity. The greatest quarterback to ever play the game finishing his career in Denver with two Super Bowl appearances and the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy certainly inspired Broncos Country’s affinity for instant gratification, but moving forward, it is unlikely the Denver Broncos even approach the rarefied air of a Super Bowl berth again until Broncos Country, the coaches, and the front office place a premium on patience.
If the exhilaration of Sunday’s comeback bid is any indication, the future of the Denver Broncos shines bright. But nonetheless, if the Broncos and Broncos Country cannot be more patient, they will suffer through the agonizing regret of the same pitfall that befell the Chargers on Sunday:
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Main Photo
