The Denver Broncos suffered a devastating loss to the Cleveland Browns on Saturday night, dropping them to 6-8 and on the verge of postseason elimination. Some are blaming Broncos head coach Vance Joseph for the loss.
Why?
Well, with four minutes and 39 seconds remaining and Denver trailing 17-13 with the ball at the Browns' 6-yard-line, Joseph sent out his field-goal unit to trim the lead to one. Boos came down from the crowd at Mile High Stadium, and the Broncos ended up losing by a score of—you guessed it—17-16.
Joseph defended his decision afterward, saying he was just playing it safe and putting faith in his defense, according to Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com:
“I wanted points there,” Joseph said. “Had about 4:35 to go in the game. We had one timeout and the two-minute warning. I trust our defense to get a stop there, OK. If we don't get points there, a touchdown has to win it. It was my decision — take points.”
It's one of those situations where if Joseph went for the touchdown and got it, he would be heralded as a genius, but if he did so and failed without any points at all, the crowd still would have booed.
So, can we really blame Joseph for trying to take the points? After all, there was plenty of time left in the game for Joseph's group to get a stop and then get the ball back.
And you know what? They did get a stop, but they just couldn't put any more points on the board.
Sometimes, that's the way the game goes.
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