Fangio says focus on curbing Broncos’ skid, not his future
Coach now 15-24 since hiring in 2019
ENGLEWOOD — Fans looking for immediate terminations following the Denver Broncos’ fourth consecutive loss were likely disappointed as they watched or listened to coach Vic Fangio’s 11-minute news conference Friday afternoon.
The summation of Fangio’s message: Nobody has been fired, everybody needs to keep grinding and the losing streak is unacceptable.
The Broncos’ season is in disarray after Thursday night’s 17-14 loss at Cleveland, a defeat marred by the continued collapse of the defense and the inability of the offense to provide any first-half production.
The injuries continue to pile up — five rookies played snaps on defense against the Browns — and so will the pressure on Fangio if the losses do, too.
Good teams overcome the common NFL attrition. Teams that don’t undergo sweeping changes, starting with the head man. It can never be overstated enough that general manager George Paton didn’t hire Fangio.
“I’m not worried about my coaching status,” said Fangio, who is 15-24 since being hired in 2019. “What I’m worried about is this team and doing anything and everything to get our guys coached up to play better. That’s my only focus.”
Fangio’s focus during the Broncos’ mini-bye may revolve on his coaching staff and not by sending any of them packing. He was asked if there are any blind spots on his coaching staff about important details not being covered.
“What’s most concerning is our fundamentals were lacking in (Thursday’s)
game, particularly on the defensive side of the ball and when that’s lacking, that’s poor coaching on our part and that starts with me,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting the fundamental things taught and executed.”
That will be about as close as Fangio will ever get to criticizing his staff.
Does that entail assignments and lining up in the right spots pre-snap, details that should be drilled during the week, but is apparently being overlooked?
“Not so much the assignments and lining up, but being where you are at all times and being there for the different types of plays,” Fangio said. “If they run the stretch play, you have to stay in your gap. If they run the boot play, you have to be there for the boot. You need to have good eyes and be disciplined when you play a team (like Cleveland) that’s good with boot game, good with the screen game, good with the play-action game and we didn’t get that done well enough.”
The Browns gained seven yards on Thursday’s first play on a bootleg play by quarterback Case Keenum and 34 yards on a tight end screen to Austin Hooper soon after.
“I don’t have a problem with our efforts and intents,” Fangio said. “We just need to do a better job.”
Do a better job or else. Ten games remain and the Broncos are again looking up at every team in the AFC West. The accepted external assumption is that Fangio would only get a fourth season from Paton is if the Broncos made the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Fangio said he has had “very constructive and productive,” conversations with Paton, president/ceo Joe Ellis and president of football operations John Elway about the state of the team.
“We all want the same thing,” Fangio said. “We want to get this team back to winning.”