In these rare moments I find myself smiling about the crazy uncertainties of life. A few days ago I said in no uncertain terms that the Broncos were going to take the Superbowl. File that under things I thought I knew but actually had no idea. 43-8 is a shockingly different outcome from what I expected. Sadly (and strangely) there was a moment early on when they flashed on the Offensive Coordinator and he had this look on his face–the same look I had the other day in the game I was coaching and lost handily. Clearly we aren’t talking about the same stakes or the same level but we are talking about the same sense. In that instant that coach recognized that his players wouldn’t be able to do a single thing he wanted to do on offense, because the guys on the other side had that something special working for them and his guys absolutely did not. This feeling is akin to despair and is very tough to shake. In truth it can be a contagion as you saw it transfer through the entire offensive coaching staff and emboldened the defensive play calling. To paraphrase Coach Dennis Allen, They are who we thought they were.
Now comes the next steps. In a video game you hardly get the chance to celebrate before you are resigning restricted free agents and making flight plans for the annual rookie combine. Real life is starting to look like a video game thanks to the tons of media coverage that every aspect of the off season gets. Now is the hour of our discontent, if you are a Broncos family member. In this time of defeat and dejection, you now have to figure out how to hold on to the talent that got you this far. With Decker already announcing plans for free agency, holding on to the core people might be hard to do.