ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Just because Broncos head coach Vic Fangio isn’t effusive in his praise of Von Miller doesn’t mean they don’t get along.
Does Fangio gush compliments to any player? He’ll often say a player does good things, but also how he could be better at other things. With Miller, even though he is the No. 1 star on the team, it’s no different.
Fangio points out the good and not so good. It’s called coaching.
“I kind of look at it like—you know how you’ve got a son he goes out there and has a good game or he has an OK game and you just want him to do better, so you kind of cover it up a little,’’ Miller said. “I think it’s all out of love. It’s all out of love and I think (Fangio) wants to see me do the best.
“It might come off to the media as a little bit different than what it really is, but I know inside here, there’s no other coach I’d rather have right now pushing me to be the best outside linebacker I can possibly be.”
Penalties led Yiadom to bench
Twice in the Chargers’ final series of the first half that ended at the 1 yard line, their drive was kept alive by defensive holding calls on Isaac Yiadom, who was caught tugging on jerseys in coverage.
Even though Yiadom helped blow up the final play end around attempt, he was benched in the second half in favor of Davontae Harris.
“First thing, we’re going to play penalty-free,’’ Ed Donatell, the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, said Thursday at his press conference. “That’s something Vic talked about from the beginning. You have to be assignment and then technique-clean, and he did not do that, so we put in another guy.”
Yiadom was also benched in game 3 at Green Bay and replaced by De’Vante Bausby. Yiadom, DaVontae Harris and Duke Dawson Jr., who was hobbled Thursday by a foot injury, are all competing for playing cornerback playing time Sunday against Tennessee. Chris Harris Jr. is assured to play all he wants at the No. 1 cornerback position.
More script!
The first two Broncos drives went literally according to script. Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello scripts the first 15 plays, give or take. Those are the plays the players practice the most during the week.
First drive, the Broncos went 75 yards in 7 plays. Touchdown. Second drive, the Broncos went 81 yards in 5 plays. Even if Courtland Sutton’s 70-yard catch-and-run touchdown was wonderfully off-script, the play was there on the Scangarello Script sheet.
After the script did its part, though, either Scangarello lost his play-calling touch or the players did a poor job of executing the called plays. The Broncos only mustered two more field goals the rest of the game.
Simple question: Why not write a longer script?
“You’d love to be able to script a whole game out, but a lot of that is D-coordinators adjust,’’ Scangarello said. “I felt like (Chargers Defensive Coordinator) Gus (Bradley) did a good job of adapting and putting us on his heels.
“That’s probably why it affected us a little in the second half. He had a great third-down plan that he really hadn’t shown this year on film. It was something from the past. It led to some struggles on third down. It was a great plan. It probably led to Emmanuel (Sanders) not getting some touches and that’s just the league. You have to adapt.”
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