The Broncos dropped out of the playoffs, leaving the winning season with a loss to Chargers

The Broncos held only 1-4 single balls in 2021, weakening their hopes for the playoffs. On Sunday in Los Angeles, however, the short-handed Broncos made too many mistakes to keep the game tight, due to numerous positive COVID cases.

They allow two long start-up returns, including a 101-yard start-up return to the touchdown. They gave up the opening drive touchdown and the long touchdown feed to Mike Williams. They failed to get a touchdown for a couple of possessions – first in Kendall Hinton’s gadget feed for Drew Lock and then after an illegal formation punishment blocked the fourth ground – within the 5-yard line of Los Angeles. And they made just one offensive touchdown that came in late in the game, again accounting for less than 30 percent of third-bill attempts.

“We don’t seem to find rhythm and consistency in our attack to keep the runs going, make the first downs and eventually get touchdowns,” Fangio said after the defeat.

The Broncos have remained 4-2 against the Chargers since early 2019 and 2-2 against Justin Herbert, but Sunday’s game was a reminder that Denver must be better against the division’s opponents to return to the post-season. With more matches left against the Chiefs at the end of the year, the Broncos are only against 1-4 division opponents this season.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” said Brandon McManus, the sole holder of the Super Bowl 50. “That’s what, six years of not playing in the playoffs? When you lose a lot of division games, it doesn’t help. That’s what we did. We did the last few years. We gave ourselves a chance. We sat in situation 7-6. Apparently we didn’t do enough to win enough games here.”

And for Drew Lock, this means that a game with a quarterback rating of 116.2 and no turnover cannot be considered a complete success.

“My number one goal is to win a football game,” Lock said. “Taking care of the ball and not winning a football match and a quarter will bring you a donut. There really isn’t much that not winning a game will get you. I personally feel like my game has improved. I think I’ve shown leaps in certain areas where I had to show leaps, but it doesn’t mean much to me if we don’t win football. “

According to Lock – and probably so many others – this means that 2021 was another disappointment despite the progress made in the campaign.

“In the NBA, you play to get into the playoffs,” Lock said. “In MLB, you play to get into the playoffs. In the NFL, the only thing that matters is the playoffs. It’s disappointing. Of course you can do really good things throughout the year. But your main goal was to get in the playoffs.

“… We didn’t do what we wanted to do this year.”