Lock lets frustration get best of him
The frustration seethed from Drew Lock’s pores. The Broncos’ game plan stunk. Virus protocols messed with the team’s preparation. The offensive line sprung leaks. So agitated with a 34- 27 loss to Atlanta he wanted to spit, Lock used a finger he could’ve justifiably pointed at Denver teammates and coaches to instead open a vein.
And the young Broncos quarterback let it bleed.
“Everybody wants to be known for something and we need to stop being known for coming back, down three scores in the fourth quarter and almost winning a game,” Lock said Sunday.
His postgame interview was a soliloquy on the lonely suffering unique in the NFL to a quarterback with the weight of a franchise on his shoulders. After this defeat, this was a Lock we had not previously seen. The irritation was unmistakable.
The source of this vexation seemed to be more than the competitive nature of an athlete that hates to lose. Something is not making sense to Lock, whether it’s the mentorship from offensive coordina
tor Pat Shurmur or the inability to digest a game plan when COVID- 19 precautions rob the Broncos of valuable practice time two weeks in a row.
While we like our sports stories to be as BAM! simple and as POW! dramatic as tales of comicbook super heroes, growing up as an NFL quarterback is harder and more nuanced. Few QBs, young or old, dare to draw in more vivid oranges and neon blues than Lock. But he does not color between the lines well. Shades of gray in a game plan are not his thing.
“I do think we’re getting better, although it’s hard to see that when we have a game like we did today.” said Denver coach Vic Fangio, whose team fell behind by at least 10 points at halftime for the fifth time in eight games this season.
The frequency with which the Broncos have made a nasty habit of digging a big hole suggests Shurmur and Lock are having trouble reading from the same playbook, much less getting on the same page together, because starting slow is getting old for Denver.
“Some points need to be scored, that’s for sure,” Lock said. “Pick up a few first downs and you can’t be in third- andlongs.”
What furious fourth- quarter comebacks against the Chargers and Falcons suggest are Lock is more naturally suited to unleashing his cannon than reciting the script. Denver has scored three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes of game clock in backtoback weeks.
Maybe Shurmur would be wiser to go more uptempo with Lock. Or would that only aggravate the young QB’s tendency to sling an interception off his back foot while backpedaling, as Lock did while looking for Jerry Jeudy with the Broncos trailing 27- 13 with nine minutes, 36 seconds remaining in the fourth period against Atlanta?
“If anyone wants to discredit this,” vowed Lock, challenging his doubters, “but I will throw that ball 10 times out of 10 to Jerry on that pick.”
In a nutshell, that’s the challenge for Shurmur: How to teach the student the restraint to not scribble with all 64 crayons at once without breaking his artistic creativity?
When Lock dances, everything in Broncos Country seems brighter. But when he can’t
Broncos quarterback Drew Lock walks off the field after Atlanta’s 34- 27 win at Mercedes- Benz Stadium on Sunday.
dance, Lock gets antsy in his pants.
“I think every great quarterback at some point just comes to the realization that, with you all ( in the media) and everybody else, ( quarterbacks) are 100% going to take the blame and then they are going to go in and talk to the guys that feel like they could have played a little better,” Lock said.
Growing up in the NFL is hard for any quarterback to do. Lock
is not Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes. But would Broncos Country or Lock settle for having the career of Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, who has thrown for more than 50,000 yards and 300 TDs, while leading the Falcons to one Super Bowl during a distinguished
13- year pro career?
Maybe it’s nothing more than a function of being 23 years old, but patience is not Lock’s thing, whether we’re talking about stepping up in a collapsing pocket or allowing the maturation process to run its slow course for a Denver offense with more talent than experience.
“There’s no magical potion for that to happen, it’s going to come with work,” Lock said. “I think we’re all ready to stop the ‘ It’s part of the process’ hoopla. Whatever you want to say: The process. Young guys. Whatever.”
That magical 4- 1 record that put an exclamation point on the end of his rookie season was all roses and Hennessy. What comes next for Lock smells like sweat and aches, like long days of hard work.
All the frustrations, the fits and starts of a young quarterback that festered inside Lock until it all turned him into a football version of Macbeth, baring his soul after this irritating defeat in Atlanta, will form the constant grind of tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
The sum of all those tomorrows will ultimately reveal whether Lock has all the right stuff to be the quarterback that can lift these Broncos back to glory.