Harris, Chubb air “family” dysfunctions

Some might call it a meltdown. Broncos safety Justin Simmons said it was just family being family.

If the Broncos’ locker room is a family, then all their internal dysfunctions, all their old wounds, got dragged out into the open Sunday afternoon. For everyone to see.

Bradley Chubb versus the offense. Shelby Harris versus Joseph Jones. Shelby Harris versus Melvin Gordon. Shelby Harris versus Simmons. Shelby Harris versus coach Vic Fangio.

“People outside of the locker room will react to what they see and what they hear,” Simmons said after a humbling, 43- 16 shellacking at snowy Empower Field to the Kansas City Chiefs. “But the reality is, when you’re a family, you fight. You get frustrated … no one’s above emotion. Especially when you’re in the heat of the moment.”

The biggest, most memorable moments from Week 7 were ugly. And none uglier than with 3: 59 left in the contest with the Chiefs already up 37- 16 and getting stopped short on a 3rd- and- 11 at the Denver 9. Harris was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct and pulled from the contest as Kansas City was awarded a first down. The Broncos defensive end was steaming as he went to the sideline and visibly upset with Fangio, who returned the emotion in kind as the two jawed.

Both sides downplayed the scrap afterward, with Harris tweeting after the contest that: “Obviously in the game of football, there is a lot of emotion involved. Vic and I spoke and we are on great teams. Families argue but we work it out after. All we both want is to win!”

Harris was not made available to reporters during postgame Zoom calls. Fango said he was “just very disappointed that we would get an unsportsmanlike penalty there and at that point in the game, where the game was out of hand.

“I just don’t want us to be a team

Kansas City’s Chad Henne carries the ball for a fourth- quarter touchdown against Denver’s Bradley Chubb on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High. that gets those types of things late in games — or at any time in a game. But especially a game that turned out the way that one was.”

In a contest Fangio had hoped would be a measuring stick for a Broncos team riding a two- game win streak, his roster fell short in almost every facet to the defending Super Bowl champs. The secondyear Denver coach is now 0- 3 against the Chiefs. Harris hasn’t beaten Kansas City over nine career appearances dating back to his time with Oakland in 2015.

So that frustration boiling over was plenty shared.

“We didn’t play well enough on defense, either, as a whole unit,” Fangio said. “We gave up that first- drive touchdown, which was disappointing…( Then) they got the two non- offensive touchdowns and got some separation there and some other type of turnovers … the whole team didn’t really play well enough to give us a chance to win that game.”

Compounding the aggravation was the fact that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes felt like a comparative non- factor, completing

real.

And

plenty

15- of- 23 passes for only 200 yards and one score on a field slickened by morning snows. It was the first time in six starts against Denver that the Kansas City quarterback finished a game healthy and didn’t throw for at least 280 yards.

The Broncos recorded four sacks and took Mahomes down three times, after he’d only been sacked seven times over his first six appearances. The Chiefs went 0- for- 8 on third down and managed only three offensive touchdowns. They ran away with the game regardless.

Which means this family might need some counseling. And seasoning. On several fronts.

“Shelby Harris, Bradley Chubb, they have the right to express their opinions, without a doubt,” Broncos quarterback Drew Lock said. “They have a right to come up and tell us straight in the face, ‘ You need to pick up your ( expletive).’ And if they were to come up and tell me that, I wouldn’t mind.”