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The pain of this defeat by the football gods who absolutely hate us will leave no trace of their defeat and leave a permanent mark on the souls of the Broncos.
Looking at a goal scored on a 53 yard field beat them 16-14, the Broncos were certain to have already won, after the officials gave a lousy second to the scoreboard, was more of a football madness as Denver linebacker Bradley Chubb. Out of anger and disbelief, Chubb threw his helmet like an inconsolable child as the victorious Chicago Bears danced around him.
Shaking his head, the Broncos veteran, Derek Wolfe, walked slowly to the middle of the Denver locker room, 15 minutes into the match, looking for someone, no matter who, to tell him that everything it was a bad dream.
"Have we really lost this match?" Wolfe asked, looking me in the eye. "Tell me, because it's as if this one had not hit me yet.
This defeat was enough to break the heart of a strong man, but the direct blow was felt much further, below the belt, because the Broncos thought they were dirty with cruel appeals and a cruel fate.
"I have never been part of something so crazy," Wolfe said. "It's crazy."
The agony of defeat has been exacerbated by the fact that Vic Fangio's first win in Denver would be one of the happiest final finals in the team's history.
After posting almost total incompetence in possession of the ball during most of the Sunday afternoon, when the loudest noise produced by the offense was the crowd that took advantage of the penalties inflicted by scorer Garett Bolles, the Broncos finally scored a touchdown 31 seconds into the fourth quarter. , with Emmanuel Sanders making a breathtaking seizure in the right corner of the end zone for the score.
And then Fangio did something that should have been an instant classic in the franchise tradition. Trailing 13-12, he avoids the tie, as NFL coaches usually do with the prospect of overtime at home, and orders a two-point try for the win.
"It's my kind of coach here," said linebacker Von Miller of Broncos, recalling that at the team's first meeting in the spring, Fangio had promised the players he would be tirelessly aggressive. "He talked about winning now, not playing for later. Yes, I liked that. It was drugs.
It was as crazy as the chorus of a Post Malone song when Uncle Vic's gamble paid off: quarterback Joe Flacco hit Sanders with a pass that gave the Broncos two points and a lead.
What happened next is the stuff of football nightmares, as strange as any end I've witnessed in my 35 years of Broncomania's highs and lows. Facing one of the league's elite defensive units, the Bears ran 40 yards in 31 seconds to put the decisive referee on the line by Eddy Pineiro.
"Did they move the football?" Asked Denver cornerback Chris Harris Jr. defiantly.
Well, I explained to Harris, Chicago was greatly helped when Chubb was punished for mistreating quarterback Mitch Trubisky for a not-so-vicious shot to scramble the contents of an egg box.
"That was my question. And you answered it, "retorted Harris, in the manner of a district attorney in charge of the case.
While sitting in front of his locker, he was shown a repetition of the penalty call on a cell phone. The normally loquacious corner-half was reduced to murmuring his incredulity: "Oh, my God. They called it roughness the smuggler?
Blame the referees for this defeat if you want. You would not be wrong.
But it would be foolish to ignore the misfortunes of a winless Denver team that stinks as badly as last place in AFC West.
Although the Broncos bit into Chicago territory on eight of the nine offensive possessions, they scored just two touchdowns in eight quarters in the 2019 regular season. The name on the back of the Bolles jersey should be replaced by large block letters that were shouting "HOLDING 72". And, as Harris pointed out with disgust, there was no excuse for the Chicago receiver. Allen Robinson "ran wide open, naked" for a 25-yard steal in the middle of Denver High School and created that free kick that left a mark in the Broncos' collective soul.
In defeat, not only did Chubb lose his head and throw his helmet, but he rushed to the Broncos bench with blind rage and suppressed his fury on a large storage bin, causing him to fall to the ground. . I asked the linebacker if he had already been so upset after a defeat.
"No," Chubb replied, "I would not do it."
Yes, football is only a game. But what I saw in the eyes of Denver players is the NFL version on PTSD. All hopes and dreams of a successful season now clash with the harsh reality of a bad team accusing referees of their problems. If the Broncos are not careful, the flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety of this defeat will devour them.
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