ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — He is easy-going Joe, not fiery Flacco.
As the Broncos’ offense was digging further into previously unreachable depths of ineptitude in the game last Thursday against what had been a poor Kansas City Chiefs’ defense, the pace slowed to a crawl.
There was a drive late in the third quarter with the Broncos down three touchdowns when they approached the next play as if they were ahead by three touchdowns. They walked to the huddle. They took several seconds in the huddle. They walked up to the line.
Down, 27-6, it appeared the Broncos were milking the clock.
TV color commentator Troy Aikman, who knows a thing or 20 about what it takes to play winning NFL quarterback, implored Flacco to display more energy, show a little more life as the quarterback, get on his players if need be.
What'd ya know, Joe? Flacco deflected such commentary with a Popeye account.
“You’re going to keep saying that if you want to and at the end of the day, I am who I am,’’ Flacco said. “Listen, in this league guys are fired up and ready to play and sometimes you don’t play good games. Things like this happen and you’ve got to be able to rebound and go out there and play football. I know that we’re going to be able to do that.’’
And then Flacco hit on something that explains it all.
“If I’m being somebody that I’m not, nobody is going to respect me in that huddle,’’ he said.
Besides, who has to fire guys up when Flacco has Phillip Lindsay lining up behind him?
"The thing is everybody has different personalities,’’ Lindsay said. “Everybody is different. You can't tell somebody to be somebody they're not. Joe's not a ra-ra dude, but he's smart and he handles his business. We have to help him out.
“Everybody wants to say 'Joe this. Joe that,' but we have to get open for him. We have to protect longer. Everybody gets paid to do a certain job and we have to do our job. Joe's not going to be one that's going to get in your face, talk a lot, but he is one that talks to you.’’
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