Keeler: Remember those “inches” Vic Fangio talked about when he was hired? They just killed Broncos’ playoff dreams.

The inches are still killing them.

Softly, in Sunday’s case. The Broncos were a Drew Lock fumble away from perhaps beating the Bengals late. They were a Courtland Sutton drop away from perhaps taking a lead early.

Is that good enough?

Is that progress?

“In the NFL, in the fourth quarter, 1-score games, the good teams find ways to win those games,” Denver safety Justin Simmons said after another heartbreaker at home, a 15-10 setback to Cincinnati, dropped the up-and-down Broncos to 7-7. “And we didn’t find a way to win.

“I think that’s what hurts the most, is we played a really good Bengals team and we had a chance to win. We just couldn’t get it done.”

The Broncos are 1-3 this season in games decided by eight points or fewer. They’re 9-13 in those situations since 2019.

Consider this: From 2016-18, the three seasons that preceded coach Vic Fangio, they went 8-13 in those 1-score tilts.

So what’s changed?

Fangio promised, when he was hired three Januarys ago, that “death by inches,” the blood lost from 1,000 paper cuts, would be a thing of the past. And yet we’re still here. We still get moments such as the last four minutes of Sunday’s first half at Empower Field burned into our retinas.

With 3:30 left in the second quarter, in a 3-3 game, the Broncos dinked and dunked from their own 20. Three runs and a penalty gained 11 yards. It also ate about two minutes off the clock.

Faced with a first down at their own 31, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur dialed up six throws on the next seven plays. The second went for 11 yards to the Denver 45. None of the five tosses that followed netted more than nine yards.

The Broncos used their second timeout with 17 seconds left after a 9-yard pass to Tim Patrick put the ball at the Cincy 33. Two plays later, Brandon McManus’ 51-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left.