ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Drew Lock was slumping coming into the Broncos game against the Chargers and he was slumping even more as play moved deeper into the third quarter.
It was pointed out to Fangio that Lock had gone 44 consecutive possessions without a touchdown pass after he threw an interception near the end of the third quarter. Did Fangio consider benching Lock?
“No. It was never in consideration,’’ Fangio said. “The thought didn’t cross my mind.”
The Broncos were down 24-3 and then 24-10 after Phillip Lindsay’s 55-yard touchdown run. So why not consider it, coach?
“We were struggling as an entire offense in that game obviously,’’ Fangio said before going into his chicken-and-the-egg explanation. “When you’re going three-and-out as many times as we were, your opportunities are not going to be good. You don’t have a lot of plays and it’s not going to look good.
“I thought one of the key plays in the game was the third-and-8 conversion prior to Phillip’s touchdown run to DaeSean (Hamilton for 18 yards). I think that’s the play that got us going.
“It was third-and-8, if we don’t convert that and we punt then the whole tone of this conversation today would probably be different. It just takes one play. That was a big, big play and we had a big run there by Phillip and all of a sudden, we’re back in the game. “We still got a lot of work to do, but there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.”
Lock threw three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter Sunday to rally the Broncos to a 31-30 win against the Chargers.
Overall, Lock stepped up from 33rd out of 33 in the NFL quarterback rankings last week to 31st this week. Chicago’s Mitch Trubisky, benched in game 3, dropped out of qualifying and Lock’s 72.2 passer rating is well ahead of No. 32 Sam Darnold’s 65.9.
Mini bye
Fangio gave the players Monday off for the victory and the entire league is off Tuesday for election day.
“I decided to give them today off in the euphoria of the moment,’’ Fangio said about his postgame decision. “We lost our bye week as you guys know, so when I can give them a crumb and an extra day off, I kind of look for it.”
Fangio also said he’s going to give every player a game ball, instead of just one or two.
Injuries
An MRI revealed tight end Nick Vannett suffered a bone bruise in his foot that was stepped on during the game Sunday but he otherwise shouldn’t miss the next game at Atlanta.
Cornerback A.J. Bouye, who was still shaking off the rust from his shoulder injury in the game against the Chargers, will be in the concussion protocol this week after he was accidentally blasted by teammate Kareem Jackson.
Fangio said reserve offensive lineman Patrick Morris suffered an arm injury on the final-play, game-winning extra point. Morris was involved in a skirmish with a couple Chargers players after the kick went through.
As for the bandaged cut on his nose, Fangio said: “It was on the interception that we threw. A player ran into me and it kind of squished down that shield and my glasses right on to my nose and I got a pretty good cut. You boxing fans know that you bleed pretty good from there.”
Trade not in works
The Broncos were sellers each of the previous two seasons during the trade deadline, dealing receivers Demaryius Thomas in 2018 to Houston and Emmanuel Sanders in 2019 to San Francisco in exchange for draft picks.
This year the Broncos are caught in the middle – not bad enough at 3-4 to give up on the season and trade away, say, a Shelby Harris, Garett Bolles or Justin Simmons – good players with their contracts expiring at season’s end who would be in demand -- but not good enough to surrender future draft equity in exchange for a veteran, pricey player.
With the NFL trade deadline at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Fangio said he didn’t think general manager John Elway had anything in the works.
“No, I haven’t had any discussions with John on that, which means to me that nothing has been talked about seriously enough or imminent enough that he thought worthy of bringing to me,’’ Fangio said.
Halapio visit
That's means after Halapio completes his COVID testing -- which starts Tuesday and lasts a week -- he will already have a good start on the Broncos' playbook.
Halapio, 29, was a former late-round draft selection of the New England Patriots who spent the final two weeks of the 2014 season on the Broncos' practice squad. He was cut following the 2015 draft, but he eventually caught on with the Giants in 2017.
Although Halapio is expected to initially sign on to the Broncos' practice squad next week, he figures to eventually serve as an interior offensive line backup.
