Lindsay expected to return for Week 5 at New England
Broncos coach Vic Fangio expects running back Phillip Lindsay to return from his turf toe injury to play Oct. 11 at New England.
Lindsay has missed three consecutive games since being injured in Week 1 against Tennessee.
“Phillip could have played ( in Thursday’s 37- 28 win over the New York Jets),” Fangio said during a video conference Friday. “He was ready to play mentally and physically, but I didn’t feel comfortable playing him without any practice. He essentially hadn’t practiced since sustaining the injury. I didn’t think it would be the fair thing to play him.”
Cornerback A. J. Bouye ( shoulder) has also missed the last three games and is eligible to be activated from injured reserve next week, but Fangio said Bouye is “less than 50- 50,” to face the Patriots.
he status of receiver KJ Hamler ( hamstring) and tight end Noah Fant ( ankle) for next week is uncertain after they were unable to finish the Jets game.
“They may or may not miss some time,” Fangio said. “We’ll probably have more of a definitive answer when we come back on Tuesday.
It’s iffy whether they’ll be ready to play this week, or it could be, could not be a couple of weeks for both of them.”
Fangio said Hamler’s injury is to the same hamstring that sidelined him in camp and for Week 1, “but in a different place. A totally new injury.”
Fangio, Gase speak. Fangio and Jets coach Adam Gase didn’t shake hands after Thursday night’s game, but they did exchange text messages and spoke via phone on Friday.
Fangio directed his team off the field as time expired because to avoid a confrontation between Broncos players upset with the Jets’ late hits on quarterback Brett Rypien.
Rypien took three kneel- downs, but Gase called timeout after first and second downs. In an effort to use the final seconds, Fangio had Rypien throw incomplete downfield on purpose. Both plays were negated by Jets penalties. The game mercifully ended with a kneel- down.
“It’s pretty common when you get to fourth down in those situations and you decide not to kick,
be it a punt or a field goal, you’re going to drop back, get deep, throw it high and as far as you can out of bounds to try and burn what could end up being six or seven seconds or more and just leave it at that,” Fangio said. “We would do it again under the same circumstances.”
Fangio and Gase were on the same staff in Chicago and Fangio said they are on good terms.
“Adam and I are friends. Have been. Will continue to be,” Fangio said. “I was just trying to avoid the situation there at the end of the game from escalating into something out in the middle of the field. Unfortunately, by the time I decided to try and get everybody in, I had only about 10 seconds to get it done and couldn’t obviously get everybody, but we did get a good bunch of our guys into the locker room quickly.
“I didn’t want a situation to happen there that would be an embarrassment to the league and the teams. That’s what I was trying to avoid. I know I was doing the prudent thing. It had nothing to do with Adam.”
Footnotes. Rypien became the first quarterback to throw three interceptions in winning his first start since San Francisco’s Jim Druckenmiller in September 1997. It was Druckenmiller’s only career start. … Running back Melvin Gordon posted his 10th career 100- yard rushing game ( 107 yards). … The Broncos were minus3 in turnover ratio, only the second time since 2003 they’ve won with a margin of at least minus3.