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DENVER – Just over 24 hours after the Denver Broncos pulled their three-quarters from the training field due to COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, they opened a game with running back Phillip Lindsay taking a direct shot and spent most of the day with a practice team wide receiver as the team’s quarterback.
And then things went according to plan in a 31-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints at Empower Field in Mile High as the Saints emptied the bench in the dying minutes.
Head coach Vic Fangio said after the game he was disappointed with quarterbacks – Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles – which put the team and the league in a position where Denver had to play without QB.
“We are counting on them to be the leaders of our team, the leaders of our offense, and these guys made a mistake.”
Kendall Hinton, who finished 1-for-9 passing for 13 yards and two interceptions, was the Broncos quarterback for much of an unprecedented day. It was the Broncos’ lowest offensive performance – 112 yards – since finishing with 128 yards in an Oct. 12, 1992 loss to Washington.
Hinton attempted his first assist since facing Clemson in 2018 as Wake Forest’s quarterback / wide receiver.
The same Hinton who worked in sales just a few weeks ago. The same Hinton who went to practice on Saturday with no earthly idea that he would be a quarterback in an NFL game the next day. The same Hinton who hadn’t taken a center shot in any practice since he’d been with the Broncos.
The Broncos, now 4-7, withdrew Lock, Rypien and Bortles, who are on the team’s practice squad, from Saturday practice and told them to self-isolate after being named as close “high-risk” contacts of quarterback Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
The Broncos had asked the NFL to move the game to Monday or another day so that quarterbacks, all of which tested negative this week, including Saturday’s test, could be in uniform, but that request was denied. The team then asked if two assistant coaches could be put on the roster to line up as quarterback for Sunday’s game, but that request was also denied.
Lock apologized earlier today for his ‘mistake’ in breaking COVID-19 mask protocols during a quarterback meeting last week and there will certainly be plenty of past conversations in the weeks coming up on why the game was being played at all, especially after Lindsay (knee) and cornerback Bryce Callahan (foot) left the game injured in the second half.
It all put the Broncos, but especially Hinton, in the most uncomfortable football positions.
The 23-year-old rookie had been with the Broncos at training camp before being called off when the league’s roster grew to 53 in early September. Since there were no preseason games this summer, Hinton’s first appearance for the Broncos was against the Saints.
He had been reinstated to the team’s training squad on November 4 and on November 28, Saturday, he was promoted to quarterback in a pandemic emergency.
But the Broncos have tried a bit of everything, at least a bit of everything that didn’t include a forward pass, with Lindsay and Melvin Gordon taking direct shots with great help from staff groups when they tried to use three wide receivers with two backs. or two tight ends and two backs. It was a bit difficult as the Broncos didn’t pull off their second first until their first possession in the second half.
They kicked seven times and scored their only runs on a 58-yard field goal by Brandon McManus with 7 minutes and 7 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Broncos’ defense was on the spot after repeated three-and-outs from Denver’s offense continued to give the Saints the ball, often in a relatively comfortable field position. Saints QB Taysom Hill had just 43 yards at the end of the third quarter, 78 for the game, as the Saints had run the ball 32 times by the end of the third quarter on the way for 229 yards rushing.
The Saints’ 112 offensive yards were the lowest total in franchise history.
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