Fire everybody. But start with coach Vance Joseph.

Is that too harsh?

With his job on the line, Joseph turned gutless. And his lack of nerve cost the Broncos in a 17-16 loss to Cleveland Saturday night.

Two games remain on the schedule, but it’s all over for Denver except the pink slips. Cornerback Chris Harris Jr., center Matt Paradis, receiver Emmanuel Sanders and hope are all gone. There’s nothing left for this team to lose in 2018. As dispirited fan Christian Jordan put it: “The Broncos are becoming the fabric of sadness.”

Under pressure, Joseph unraveled like a cheap Christmas sweater.

Trailing 17-13 in the fourth quarter, Denver made a gritty, 12-play drive down the field to Cleveland’s 6-yard line. At that point, the Broncos faced a critical fourth-down situation with roughly five minutes remaining on the scoreboard clock. They needed one stinking yard to move the chains, one stinking yard to keep hope alive, one stinking yard to stay in the playoff hunt.

And Joseph settled for a field goal.

Gutless.

“I wanted points there,” explained Joseph, who put faith in his defense to make a stop after the field goal and give quarterback Case Keenum one more shot at victory. “We had about 4:35 to go in the game with one timeout and the two-minute warning … If we don’t get points there, a touchdown has to win it.”

If Joseph does not trust his players to gain 36 inches on fourth down, the Broncos are broken worse than we feared. Fire the offensive coordinator and the quarterback.

Is that too harsh?

General manager John Elway signed Keenum in the belief he could bring savvy to the most critical position on the field. Well, during his first season as a starter in Denver, Keenum had been outplayed – and beaten – by young, relatively inexperienced NFL quarterbacks named Patrick Mahomes, Sam Darnold, Deshaun Watson and even Nick Mullens.

Add Browns rookie Baker Mayfield to the long list.

For much of the evening, Keenum did more damage to the crowd’s festive mood than the Cleveland defense. For example: When the Broncos opened the game with two drives that sputtered three-and-out, what was that sound heard throughout the stadium? Rather than booing, I’d prefer to think fans were ho, ho, ho-ing.

After Denver and Cleveland slogged through two quarters, only to remain tied 10-10, the halftime entertainment in the stadium consisted of plopping giant Frosty the Snowman and Grinch inflatables on the field, while Christmas carols played on the loudspeakers. If it were up to me, I would have instead staged a snowball fight between Beth and Brittany Bowlen … just to find out if they have better throwing arms than Keenum.

On 48 passing attempts, Keenum produced 257 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns. He’s a back-up quarterback in this league. Given one last chance to pull out a victory in the final minute of the fourth quarter, Keenum couldn’t get it done.

“A lot of anger at myself,” he said.

I second that emotion. Broncos Country has seen enough of Keenum.

When the Broncos fired Josh McDaniels back in 2010, his record was 11-17. With this embarrassing loss to Cleveland, Joseph’s record is 11-19.

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The harder question: With no good answer at quarterback and contentious instability in the owner’s box, what hot coaching candidate in his right mind would even attempt to fix everything wrong with the Broncos? At age 66, is Mike Shanahan too old to make a comeback?

That is Elway’s unenviable task. He made this mess. Yes, Elway has a track record of pulling off impossible comebacks. So it would be foolish to count him out.

Failure is not an option. If Elway cannot find the right coach for the job, then a year or two down the road, the Broncos might have to do the unthinkable and fire the most legendary icon in the history of Denver sports.