Emmanuel Sanders anticipated a few growing pains under new Broncos coach Vic Fangio and his staff. He just didn’t expect that so dang many of those pains would be self-inflicted.
“Obviously, we can’t keep hurting ourselves,” Sanders, Denver’s veteran wide receiver, said after the Broncos suffered a last-second 16-14 setback in their home opener to the Chicago Bears.
“So many times we got in that mid-range, midfield (area), you know, one more 10-yard gain and you’re in field-goal range. Or we’d be in field-goal (range) and get a penalty and get out of it. We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot.”
The bullets were especially painful Sunday, as the Broncos were whistled 10 times for 81 yards in losses and had other penalties declined. Four flags were thrown left tackle Garett Bolles‘ way for holding calls, two of which were enforced.
With two games of the regular season already in the books, the Broncos have been charged with 16 penalties for 125 yards. After the first two games of 2018, they’d been flagged 13 times for 95 yards.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, whether you’re young, or not listening, (or) we’re not disciplined,” said Sanders, who snagged a game-high 11 balls for 98 yards, including an acrobatic 7-yard touchdown grab with 31 seconds left. “But something’s going on because we’ve definitely got talent. It’s just a lack of discipline right now. We’ve got to get better.”
In a league of fine margins, Sanders noted, the Broncos have proven they aren’t good enough yet to beat two teams — the opposition and themselves — on a given Sunday. Denver has notched touchdowns out of only two of their first seven red-zone opportunities and were 1-for-3 in those situations against the Bears. One of those red zone opportunities for Sanders, a potential touchdown pass with 4:45 left, wound up being poorly thrown and intercepted by defensive back Kyle Fuller near at the goal line.
“He’s a fighter until the very end,” quarterback Joe Flacco said of Sanders. “He just wants to go out there and play football, do his thing (and) rely on everybody else to do their thing.”
Everybody else — especially along the offensive line — was touch-and-go against the Bears. But Sanders was huge early and late, with two catches for 23 yards on the Broncos’ opening drive, setting up a Brandon McManus field goal, and two more for 14 yards on the final drive. Once the Broncos had cut the Chicago lead to 13-12 with 31 seconds left, Sanders squirted free for a catch on the ensuing 2-point conversion that most of Mile High expected would be the game-winning points.
“I’ve played in plenty of football games; penalties are going occur,” Sanders said. “You’ve got to be able to bounce back from those. It sucks when you’ve got a 20-yard gain and then it’s a penalty. It sucks when you’re in field-goal range and get a penalty.”
