Flacco rips late-game play-calling: Broncos are 'afraid to lose'

Denver Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco questioned his team's late-game play-calling after Sunday's 15-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

The Broncos' defense kept the Colts' offense in check for most of the contest. But with the AFC West club leading 13-12 entering the fourth quarter, its offense relied heavily on runs and short passes to try and secure the win.

After the game, Flacco said he believes the conservative approach ultimately led to the loss.

"I just look at it like, we're now a 2-6 football team and we're afraid to go for it in a two-minute drill, you know?" said Flacco, according to Ryan Koenigsberg of DNVR Broncos. "Like, who cares if you give the ball back to the guys with 1:40 left? They obviously got the field goal anyway. Once again, we're a 2-6 football team and it just feels like we're kind of afraid to lose the game.

"It's third-and-5 at the end of the game, who cares if they have a timeout there at the end or not? Getting in field-goal range isn't that tough. You're just putting your defense in these bad situations and I just felt like, 'What do we have to lose, why can't we be aggressive in some of these situations?' That's kind of how I feel about a lot of the game today."

A frustrated Joe Flacco after the loss: "We're now a 2-6 football team and we're afraid to go for it in a two minute drill... I just felt like, what do we have to lose? Why can't we be aggressive in some of these situations." pic.twitter.com/SYfqGPKqFE

- Lindsay Joy (@LindsayJoyTV) October 27, 2019

In the fourth quarter, the Broncos went three-and-out twice and had just 19 yards on their last meaningful drive of the game.

Denver's lack of aggression opened the door for the Colts to engineer a last-minute comeback. Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett hit receiver T.Y Hilton for a huge gain to set up Adam Vinatieri's game-winning 51-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining.

The Broncos face the Cleveland Browns next Sunday before heading into their bye, where Flacco will presumably hope the team can find some answers for the struggling offense.

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