Let’s talk about endings. The end of the 2018 season reached its merciful conclusion when the Denver Broncos finally gasped their last against the Los Angeles Chargers. In truth, the season was over long before, but they still have to play the games, even if the Broncos don’t actually show up. In the season’s dying breath, the Broncos showed why there must be wholesale changes to the franchise moving forward.
The 2018 #Broncos season has finally ended. On the latest @MileHighReport Radio Podcast, @AdamMalnati16 & I give it the sendoff it deserves in the hopes of giving Vance Joseph the sendoff he deserves. #BroncosCountry, has Vance Joseph been fired yet? https://t.co/ZW8YXbSPd0
— Ian St. Clair (@IanStClair) December 31, 2018
As Ian St. Clair and I broke down the final game of the season on the MHR Radio Podcast, it was obvious that a theme has run through the season. The theme of the season could not be explained any better than the results of the Broncos second score of the game. At 14-3 in the 4th quarter, Denver finally gets into the end zone. Rather than kick the extra point, Vance Joseph elects to go for a two point conversion.
The most 2018 Broncos thing that could have happened ensues. Case Keenum fires to his left, and Casey Hayward wrestles the ball away from Courtland Sutton, skips out of the tackle and races down the sideline for a pick-2. The Broncos went from out of the game, to back in the game, to out of the game in just this sequence.
That means the defense actually only gave up 14 points. The other 9 came off of the pick-2 and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. And that, Broncos Country, is the perfect metaphor for the 2018 season. There are no stats necessary. No breakdown of individual plays. Only the sad realization that each of us has had to endure not one, but two full seasons of ineptitude.
I am not sitting here telling you that we deserve better, although I might have said it a time or two. I am telling you that what the Broncos have put on the field for the last two years has been the epitome of unacceptable. If it continues, eventually the fans will become numb to it. It becomes expected, if not accepted among the fans. When that happens, it takes a long time to get out of that quagmire.
At this time, I can only offer the same solution that many fans have offered, which is to fire Vance Joseph. He’ll be fine. He is on to Cincinnati anyway. In time, more solutions will come, but with one move, all of Broncos Country will be able to get that bad taste out of their mouth, even if it is just for a brief moment.