Rookie kicker Brandon McManus missed a chip-shot 33-yard field goal on Sunday that would have put his Denver Broncos within one point of the upstart Miami Dolphins. It was the the Temple product’s fourth miss in his last eight attempts and his teammates were, uh, less than pleased with the result.

In the interest of fairness and journalistic integrity, we can’t say for sure that Manny Ramirez and Demaryius Thomas were reacting to the McManus miss, though their retorts did come immediately after the kick.

But who knows, maybe they were just really upset the last Hunger Games movie wasn’t the conclusion of the series, but a setup for the final film next year. It’s hard to say for sure.

One one hand, the mighty Denver Broncos shouldn’t be relying on kickers to win games. They were down 24-20 at home against the Miami Dolphins. At one point on Sunday, their offense had scored a total of 10 points in the previous six quarters. Peyton Manning had been throwing like he was named Eli. The sports world hadn’t seen so many overthrows since Chuck Knoblauch was playing second base. (Peyton, as he does, quickly got back into the groove.) Heck, there was even an offensive fumble that led directly to a Miami touchdown. Look in the mirror before blaming a kicker.

Then again, come on, bro. The skill players gut it out every day in the trenches, give it their all and do whatever else cliche you want to add. You, Mr. McManus,  are paid to kick a ball through an upright. It’s a difficult job, to be sure, but not from 33 in the thin air of Denver.

Somewhere, Matt Prater is chuckling to himself.

(Getty Images)

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