Circus Giganticus

In one fateful play in Tennessee, John Fox brought his coaching career in Denver tumbling down. He managed, in one play, to create a situation that will force his hand to start Tim Tebow for the rest of the season. He managed, in one play, to reveal that Denver Bronco ownership and management made another serious head coach hiring error that will haunt this team for this season and years to come. He managed, in one play, to reveal that he has no real familiarity with the Denver Bronco team he was hired to coach or the AFC West mindset that characterizes all the long term and serious Denver Bronco fans. He managed, in one play, to demonstrate to Denver Broncos’ fans that this season is over by week three and that the Denver Bronco’s corporate apologists will see more real playing time than the team itself.

No one, no one is criticizing Fox for getting gutsy and going for the touchdown on a fourth and one goal line situation that would have put the Bronco’s up 21-10 over  the Tennessee Titans. The decision to go for it was not the problem. It was the play Denver Bronco Head Coach John Fox decided to run that made every Denver Bronco fan watching shout, “No!” He ran the ball straight up the middle. The ball carrier was stopped and this fateful play will prove the undoing of John Fox.

Here is the play every Bronco fan would have called. Line up in the same formation. Fake the hand-off to McGahee and as the defensive line collapses to the center the quarterback bootlegs out right. Run it in or pass it in, but you’ve created a dual scoring option package. Problem with this play is: Kyle Orton. He can’t pull this play off. He doesn’t have the speed for the rollout or the instincts for the setup.  So instead of running the play that would a). create a dual scoring option, b.) appeal to the fans as the kind of football they know and like, c.) reveal John Fox as the type of coach wha can read the need and call the most potent offensive play, he opts instead to run the most one dimensional offensive play in football. But John Fox was faced with a real dilemma because John Fox really had two gambles going at once: Choose to bet on play selection and Kyle Orton or choose to bet on play execution and Willis McGahee? He chose execution and he lost. He could have made an altogether different gamble and doubled down by playing his joker, Tim Tebow.

John Fox might have gambled alone but so many others lost as well as a result of that one fateful play in Tennessee. Kyle Orton will be benched and traded. He has to be. He doesn’t play a style of football that works in the long shadow of John Elway. Orton does not play like a Bronco quarterback in any Bronco fan’s estimation The season will be over by week six for fans and all the businesses that rely on Bronco fans. Fox himself will need  to be dismissed, his contract bought out and an interim/caretaker coach appointed. The franchise will continue to degrade its prestige becoming something as lowly as say, an Arizona Cardinals or a Cincinnati Bengals. The only winner in all this is Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow will soon become the Denver Bronco’s starting quarterback and all that will be expected of him is to make exciting, improvised action. Not even disciplined play or winning results will be expected of him, just do enough exciting stuff to rekindle notions of Elway and the good old days. Lou Saban wanted half a loaf back when he was a Bronco’s head coach. John Fox got himself a wish sandwich.

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