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Top Tweets F-Bombing Broncos, Vic Fangio After Brutal Loss to Titans

Vic Fangio's clock mismanagement was target one.
September 15, 2020
Image: Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio muses after his team fell to the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night Football.
Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio muses after his team fell to the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night Football. Denver Broncos via YouTube

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Although the start of the Denver Broncos' 2020-2021 season was supposed to offer a much-needed mental escape for Coloradans after more than six months of dealing with the horrific effects of COVID-19, reality turned out to be far grimmer than fantasy. Granted, seeing the squad lose to the Tennessee Titans during the final seconds of the September 14 Monday Night Football game in a manner shockingly similar to multiple defeats in 2019 was marginally better than watching public officials recite horrific statistics for three hours. But it turned out to be a closer call than anyone would have hoped.

No, the Broncos didn't deserve to win. Yet they had plenty of chances to do so, thanks to a staggering four misfires (on three field goals and an extra point) by usually reliable Titans kicker Stephen Gostkowski — and their failure to do so rests squarely on the shoulders of head coach Vic Fangio, whose clock management (make that clock mismanagement) toward the end of the game inspired fans on Twitter to drop more F-bombs than the next seven Migos albums.

Starting quarterback Drew Lock had a few moments during which he justified his status as the designated future of the franchise, particularly during an early scoring march that paid off with a Buzz Lightyear-style laser to tight end Noah Fant. But he also missed not one but two wide-open receivers during a subsequent drive that petered out on the one-yard line, and his inability to maintain any offensive momentum after the Broncos took the lead on a fourth-quarter score by Melvin Gordon (making up for an earlier fumble) set fans up for the agony to come.

The Titans' twelve-play, 83-yard matriculation down the field was capped by Gostkowski's 25-yard three-pointer with just seventeen seconds to go — far fewer than should have been available. Fangio had three timeouts, but inexplicably chose not to use them until it was way too late, leaving Lock and company with no realistic chance to do anything other than trudge to the locker room again covered with the stink of failure.

Social media users reacted to Fangio's inaction with profanities aplenty — and that was appropriate, since the Broncos had taken their minds off the pandemic in the worst possible way.

Continue to count down our picks for the twenty most memorable post-game tweets:

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Image: Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.
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