DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Broncos suffered the first loss at home in week 1 since 2011 Monday night to the Tennessee Titans with an eerily familiar final score: 16-14.
Last season, the Broncos lost 16-14 in the home opener against the Chicago Bears.
One concern following the game was an injury to Phillip Lindsay. He did not return to the game after the first half.
According to a tweet from NFL Insider Adam Schefter on Tuesday morning, Lindsay is dealing with turf toe.
“Broncos’ RB Phillip Lindsay is dealing with turf toe that the team hopes is “mild”, per source. But Lindsay’s status now in question after exiting Monday night’s loss to Tennessee.” shared Schefter on Twitter.
Broncos lose season opener after Titans field goal in final seconds
But who is to blame for the close loss? Many believe the Broncos should have capitalized on the 3 missed field goals and missed extra point by Titans’ kicker Stephen Gostkowski.
Gostkowski missed three field goals: wide left, wide right and a block, and he missed an extra point.
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The game came down to a 25-yard field goal in the closing seconds, which Gostkowski made, sealing the Titans 16-14 point victory.
Before the field goal was kicked, Broncos’ head coach Vic Fangio had opportunities to stop the clock with under 2 minutes in the game. The decision not to use a timeout sent social media users into a frenzy.
So, what was Fangio’s explanation?
“It was two-fold. One, their field goal kicker had obviously been having his problems. I didn’t want to extend the drive so they could get closer,” Fangio said. “No. 2, we would’ve used the timeout but we got the running back out of bounds. We would’ve used the second timeout but they threw an incompletion, which would’ve given us one left when we got the ball back. That was part of our thinking there.”
Here is some of the reaction from social media:
You can watch Fangio’s full explanation during the post-game press conference:
