The Broncos were once firmly in the playoff race, but they’ve now lost back-to-back games to teams with losing records, and it’s time to make a change — specifically regarding head coach Vance Joseph.
Joseph is wrapping up his second season as head coach, and it’s becoming quite clear that this “experiment” — promoting a defensive backs coach who had nothing more than one year of experience as a defensive coordinator — was a failure. He’s a players’ coach, so he hasn’t yet lost the locker room, but he’s in over his head.
It’s clear that Joseph has no feel at all for the offensive side of the ball, and it’s resulted in some low-scoring, winnable games — but unfortunately, they’ve lost most of them. All five of the team’s previous losses have come by a touchdown or less, with a few of those being decided by only a field goal or less.
And Joseph’s game management shows he’s just not fit to be a head coach. One of the costliest decisions of the season came in Saturday’s must-win game — which ended up being a 17-16 loss to the Browns — and it hurt the team big-time. Joseph’s team was on the Browns’ six-yard line at the time, faced with a 4th-and-1 scenario, trailing by four points. Only five minutes remained in the game, and Joseph, for some reason, elected to kick the field goal, which resulted in his team still trailing. They never scored another point after that, and ended up losing. Had Joseph gone for it on fourth down and not gotten it, the Broncos defense still could’ve gotten the offense the ball back with great field position. It’s poor decisions like that one that prove Joseph is better suited to make decisions involving the defensive side of the ball.
Going forward, the (6-8) Broncos are still in the playoff hunt — barely. They could even wind up being slight underdogs in their Week 16 matchup in Oakland — which will likely be the the Raiders’ final game there. You can get betting advice for that game here, if interested. The Broncos will end the season with a difficult game against the Chargers, a contest they’d have to win to even have a shot at the postseason.
The experiment has run its course, and it’s time for the Broncos to make a change, while some viable candidates — Jim Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy, Lincoln Riley, Jack Del Rio and Bruce Arians — are all available.
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