Kiszla: Kick-in-the-gut loss says it all for 2-6 Broncos.»

It’s too late now, too late to do anything except softly chuckle at the absurdity of it all, as Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe did after another kick-in-the-gut loss, when he said: “We’re definitely the best 2-6 team out there, right?”

After yet another soul-crushing, lastminute defeat, this one by a count of 15-13 to the Colts, maybe Denver coach Vic Fangio should’ve taken the team bus full of crestfallen players out for ice cream, while telling clueless offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello to walk all the way home to Colorado.

“We’re now a 2-6 football team and we’re like afraid to go for it in a twominute drill. Like who cares if you give the ball back to the (Colts) with one minute, 40 seconds left? They obviously got the field goal anyway,” quarterback Joe Flacco said.

So why didn’t he channel his inner

Peyton Manning? What room did Flacco really have to complain, after he refused to audible out of a ridiculously conservative, run-upthe-middle play on third down, a doomed-to-failure call that handed possession back to Indianapolis for the game-winning drive?

“We’re a 2-6 football team,” Flacco harrumphed. “And it just feels like we’re kind of afraid to lose.”

Well, pardon me for chuckling at Flacco’s little rant. But when did the robot wearing No. 5 for the Broncos grow some … emotion?

It’s at least a month too late for Flacco to get irked with the team’s timid offensive game-planning. Scangarello calls plays the way a painfully shy middle-school boy asks for a first date.

In this franchise’s long and oftenstoried history, the Broncos have seldom been more inept on offense. Their 125 total points are the fewest scored since 1992 through eight games of the regular season.

In defeat, grumbling was heard from the defensive side of Denver’s dressing room about a 17-play, 86yard drive during the first half that stalled out after 7:45 of possession with nothing more to show for all that work by Flacco than a short field goal worth three lousy points. Not to be critical, but perhaps Scangarello should consider something truly innovative and try crowd-sourcing his play calls in the red zone.

It’s too late to waste pity on these Broncos, too scared to beat Indianapolis in a game the bungling Colts practically begged Denver to win.

“Got to keep pounding and keep pushing,” said linebacker Von Miller, trying to put on a brave face in defeat. But know what was more revealing? Miller chose to hide this team’s sad truth and his sadder eyes behind sunglasses as he talked.

The moment that changed everything for Indianapolis began with Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett in full panic mode at his own goal line, wrapped in the arms of Miller.

“I thought I had him,” said Miller. He whiffed on the sack, however, helplessly watching as Brissett completed a 35-yard pass that got Indy’s final drive rolling toward a long field goal by struggling kicker Adam Vinatieri for the victory.

It’s way too late for Chris Harris Jr., burned by Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton on the dagger play of the fourth quarter, to worry about getting traded.

“I’m not going to lie to you. It was the hardest week for me. Hardest week to focus,” said Harris, dealing with the rumor mill while also anxiously awaiting the birth of his fourth child. “It was hard to play the game, but I got through it and I thought played solidly.”

Well, there’s not even two more days for Harris in Denver, unless Broncos general manager John Elway discovers the harsh truth prior to Tuesday, when the league’s annual trade deadline expires. It could well be contending NFL teams don’t value a 30-yearold cornerback in the final weeks of his contract as much as Harris loves himself.

During his first season on the Denver sideline, Fangio has been forced to grin and bear losses during the final 60 seconds of the fourth quarter to Chicago, Jacksonville and Indianapolis.

“We just didn’t do the things you need to do to win these types of games,” said Fangio, before making a checklist of all the ways Denver snatched its latest loss from the jaws for victory.

“We had a chance to get a first down and close the game out; we didn’t do it. We had a chance to sack the quarterback – albeit he’s very good at avoiding – we didn’t do it. We get a late hit, I suppose out of bounds there, and they throw (a flag) at that time of game, which is very questionable. We’ve got to do the things you’ve got to do to win these games, and we haven’t done them.”

Death by inches? That might be another one of those pet phrases coined by Fangio that he will ultimately regret uttering.

Sorry, Uncle Vic. Week after week, this Denver team kills itself with 1,000 paper cuts, most self-inflicted.

Bad teams invent ways to lose games.

Hey, Elway: You can bury these Broncos, along with their regrets, in roses. They still stink.