Mel Gibson and the Denver Broncos: Road Warriors

Decked out in protective equipment and leading his band of warriors into an alien environment, the leader of our pack faced down a formidable foe and vanquished him into the good night.

No, I'm not talking about Mad Max or even the real life Mel Gibson. I'm talking about Broncos' quarterback Jay Cutler, captaining his band of merry men into the Meadowlands of New York and returning home with an impressive victory and a stranglehold on the AFC West Division title.

Nobody picked the Broncos to have a chance in this game. To hear the talking heads at ESPN tell it, the Broncos would have been better off taking in the beautiful snow here in Denver this weekend rather than facing the first place New York Jets.

But that, as they say, is why they play the game.

In the same way that the Oakland Raiders shocked the Broncos Country faithful with their 31-10 shellacking of Denver last Sunday at Invesco, the Broncos returned the favor to the Jets in a windswept day in front of their hostile home crowd.

All the talk leading up to this contest was the matchup of quarterback gunslingers: the old maid Brett Favre and the young rapscallion Jay Cutler.

Showing no ill effects from the rainy conditions, Cutler upstaged his aging counterpart by throwing for 357 yards and two touchdowns while Favre could only muster 247 yards through the air while amassing zero touchdowns and one interception.

The much maligned Broncos defense forced the balanced Jets' attack into three turnovers on downs, the aforementioned interception, and three fumbles, one of which Broncos safety Vernon Fox returned 45 yards for a first quarter touchdown.

The real story of this game, and of the 2008 season, has been the Broncos' utter ineptitude at home and their collective poise and performance on the road.

The Broncos now stand at 4-2 on the road coming off comeback wins against Cleveland and Atlanta and this commanding victory against the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.

Road warriors, perhaps, but New York fans should be very familiar with inconsistent teams who get hot at the right time due to their ability to perform at a high level in front of belligerent opposing fans.

The 2007 New York Giants were muddling around in mediocrity for much of their Super Bowl season. After ripping off six straight wins, they lost two of three to drop their record to 7-4.

Then, after notching three straight road wins and snatching a Wild Card spot with a 10-6 record, the Giants went on the road for three playoff wins against the Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Packers before knocking off the perfect Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Now, this is not a Super Bowl guarantee for the Broncos, far from it, but teams that find ways to beat good teams on the road are able to gain the confidence needed to continue their streak of solid play into January.

With a three-game lead on the San Diego Chargers with four games left in 2008, the Broncos seem headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2005.

The four remaining games include two home bouts with the 2-10 Chiefs and the free-falling Bills and two roadies against 9-3 Carolina and the hated rival Chargers to end the season.

Though it would take a mini-miracle for the Broncos to not make the playoffs, there is no time to get cocky, not with the way these Broncos have built us up one week only to break us down the next.

If they take care of Kansas City at home next week, like they should, they could make the end of the season drama with San Diego a moot point.

But the last two weeks have proven that on any given Sunday, anything can happen

Cutler Mistakes Bye Week for Spring Break, Runs the Table

I woke up this morning to find this article on the front page of Deadspin and just had to post the link. Thank Elway we now know how Cutler spent his bye week.

http://deadspin.com/5070210/cutlers-beirut-arm-is-stronger-than-elways

Reviewing the playbook? Naw. He's just getting that competitive fire back to take on Miami on Sunday!

Cutler Chasing Consistency

Jay Cutler came into the 2008 season destined for stardom. Blessed with a Howitzer for an arm and the short term memory of a Labrador puppy, Jay seemed to have all the tools needed to crash the party of the league's upper-echelon of quarterbacks.

When the season officially started the compliments and comparisons to a certain Denver Duke kept coming as Cutler led the surprising Broncos to a 3-0 start and boasted the highest scoring offense in the NFL. In the season's first month, Cutler completed 102-157 passes (64.9 completion %) for 1,275 yards notching nine TDs to four INTs in being named the AFC Offensive Player of the Month. The Broncos owned a 3-1 record and were top dogs in the AFC West.

Fast forward to today. The Broncos are still on top of the AFC West, but at 4-3 and coming off one of the worst performances in Broncos recent history, a 41-7 drubbing at the hands of the Patriots on Monday Night Football, there is definitely some unrest in Broncos Country.

Though Cutler cannot singularly be faulted for the recent missteps (the defense harbors the most culpability by far) his play, and his mouth, in recent weeks have opened Cutler up for criticism at the hands of the national media and his own fans here in Denver. The Broncos have gone 1-2 in October due in part because their explosive offense has suddenly sputtered.

In the last three games, Cutler has gone 61-97 for 587 yards with four touchdowns compared to three interceptions. He has also lost a fumble. One has to ask: why the about-face?

Cutler and the Broncos offense have been bitten by the injury elephant with starters Eddie Royal, Brandon Stokely, Tony Scheffler, and Selvin Young all missing time on the infirmary list. That's not even mentioning number 1 receiver Brandon Marshall's suspension for the first game of the season.

While the offense hasn't been playing with a full deck for much of the team's recent downturn, Cutler will be the last Bronco player to use that as an excuse. When he speaks to the media, he speaks bluntly and with an implicit confidence that borders on arrogance. Though those tools are indispensable for a successful quarterback in the NFL, his comments have gotten him in some hot water in recent weeks.

In a recent Sporting News article, Cutler made a comment that he had a stronger arm than Broncos legend John Elway and refused to back down from the statement even when national media prognosticators more or less told him to keep his mouth shut and back up his statements with his play on the field.

He has also fueled the fire in an ongoing feud with Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers. Rivers was seen jawing at Cutler during the Broncos-Chargers Monday night game last Christmas Eve and Cutler has responded by going public with comments that he doesn't like the way Rivers carries himself on the field.

After the bye week, Cutler will have to try and rejuvenate this offense that has become more of a Jekyll and Hyde act than a run and gun. The Broncos are still in the driver's seat in the AFC West, but they have shown the last few weeks that maybe these players are not quite ready for prime time.

LL Cool Jay Still Hates Philip Rivers

Well it seems our beloved robot of a quarterback, Jay Cutler, is once again in the news for what comes out of his mouth rather than the numbers he puts up on the field. Last night on the Best Damn Sports Show Period host Chris Rose, in an attempt to bait Jay into saying something he'd regret (like that he has a stronger arm than Denver deity John Elway perhaps?), asked Jay about his icy relationship with San Diego Chargers douche-in-chief Philip Rivers. Instead of being diplomatic about the whole situation and saying the usual stump speech about how Rivers is a great quarterback but they just don't talk much and blah blah blah, the Cut man shot from the hip in the same way he slings footballs on Sundays:

“We're not best of friends at all. We don’t really have a lot of contact with each other, you know, it’s become a nice rivalry," Cutler said. "We’re both younger guys and both on pretty good teams in the same division and get to see each other twice. I’m just not that big of a fan of the guy.” Cutler continued, “I don’t like how he carries himself. I don’t like some of the stuff he does on the field.”

I have to admit, while Cutler shows virtually no emotion when he does anything (I think he could have the same outward appearance when speaking about his grandmother's death as when he talks about a game that we won in which he threw 32 touchdowns), it's what makes him a great quarterback. He doesn't let anything rattle him and he's got unwavering confidence. While he's mastered the cliches of the postgame interview, if you ask him an honest question, he's going to give you an honest answer. That's what happened in the now infamous quote about Elway's arm, and now he's come under fire for it. To be honest, I love that kind of calm arrogance in my quarterback. He thinks he's the best quarterback in football and he believes it so matter-of-factly that you're not really sure that you disagree with him. Is he the best QB in football? Not yet. But I have no doubt that he'll be there within the next few years. Plus, I mean, have you seen Philip Rivers? That guy's a total jackass.

"Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser" -Paul Newman

So, I guess you could say that my prediction (see below) about the Broncos Week 4 matchup with the Chiefs was, I suppose, a bit misguided at best. I was assuming that the Broncos were going to actually play NFL football instead of the ABC sitcom worthy performance they put on the field today. To say it was hard to watch would be like saying that Paul Newman was only a semi-decent actor (may he be partaking in a few cold ones at the afterlife party.) There wasn't just one culprit that brought doom upon our beloved Broncos. I hate writing about the Broncos when they play shitty, but as is usually the case, writing can be cathartic for the wounded soul. So here goes, let's see if I stomp away in anger in the middle of the post...

1) Jay Cutler looked like Jay Mohr.
- Ok, that's a little harsh. It would be tough to look that pitiful in a made for TV performance, but the Jay Man looked rushed, impatient, and indecisive. He locked onto Brandon Marshall on what seemed like every pass play (not even noticing a wide open Tony Scheffler on one of his interceptions) to which any NFL defense, yes even the Chiefs D, was able to predict eventually. That led to his two costly interceptions which (not directly, per se) cost the Broncos valuable momentum (after the Champ forced fumble against Larry Johnson) and eventually the game. He was a shell of the player that we saw the first 3 weeks of the season. In the end, it will probably be better that he experiences a bit of adversity in the early weeks of the season so he's able to bounce back quickly from it, but to be honest, I'm going to throw something out there: The Kansas City Chiefs suck. Their defense sucks, their quarterback sucks, they have 3 good players: Larry Johnson, Dwayne Bowe, and Tony Gonzalez. This is a game we should have owned and Cutler among others didn't show up to play today. If we're on the outside looking in come January, we can easily look back to this game and wonder what the frick happened.

It must be said that, in by far his worst game of the season he still managed to throw for a season high 361 yards. It was still offset by 2 INTs to 1 TD, but still he racked up the yardage.

2) The defense needs a stern talking-to
...or failing that, a visit from Tony Robbins, Dr. Phil, or any other TV psychologist that can diagnose their back-breaking problems with a witty comment or biting remark. First it was our pass defense that was taken advantage of in the first three games, now it's the rush defense that needs an adult in this one. Larry Johnson, who hasn't had a decent game since 2006 and leads the league in whiny post game comments, rushed for almost 200 (200!!!!!!) yards against us with two touchdowns. We were unable to contain his rushes on the outside and it was an even more fruitless endeavor to try and wrap up our tackles when he rushed through the middle. The defense couldn't be bothered with such petty foibles. Tackling? Pshaw! We just wanted the big hit. Executing the fundamentals or wrapping a guy up when you have him in your hands? Pssssshhh! What are you, one of them sissy liberal types? Spencer Larsen had the biggest hit of the game on special teams (then fucking blew it on the most perfectly executed onside kick in the history of onside kicks) and Champ of course had himself his most complete game of the season. Other than that, our execution was abysmal, our tackling was putrid, and results were excreble at best. Grade? F---------------

3) It was the CHIEFS
I heard they hadn't won in a year. That's not a lie.

4) Whoever didn't fumble in the game was apparently subject to a hefty fine by Mike Shanahan
I mean, seriously, 3 fumbles? Call it what you will. Good plays by the Chiefs defense, lack of concentration on the part of the Broncos receivers, a misguided idea on the part of the Bronco players to add a KY wrestling match as part of their pre-game ritual, but what was with the fumbling party going on throughout the game? Was fumbling actually going out of style because the Broncos sure played like it was. I want to know what Shanny was thinking putting Marshall in at running back right before he fumbled away our momentum. Marshall at running back has been a historically risky move. Last year when he lined up there, he either tried to make too many jukes and ran sideline to sideline eventually losing mass amounts of yards, or he fumbled the football. Sometimes, he did both in the same play. Yeah, he's one of the best in football at yards after the catch, but if the catch doesn't happen first, he struggles to even gain positive yards. A questionable coaching decision for sure put the Broncos in a precarious position and gave the Chiefs the football at the Bronco 2 yard line. Not what you want when you travel into enemy territory.

4) Failure to establish any sort of running game
We couldn't get anything going on to the ground today which directly led to our struggles on offense. The running game, a staple of the Mike Shanahan offense, gained a grand total of 94 yards against a defense that allowed over 200 last week against the Raiders. We looked like we weren't sure whether or not we wanted to pass all over their young secondary or try to pound the ball up the middle. That indecision killed us on so many plays when we had a 3rd and short and didn't really make much of an attempt at either a short pass or tough run. When our running game is non-existent, it makes the play action pass (another key component to our offensive gameplan) virtually ineffective. If the defense doesn't believe we're going to run the ball, or at least run the ball with much success, it won't bite on the play-action pass and won't give our receivers the opportunity to gain separation from the defensive backs.

5) Quote of the Day
Regarding Chiefs rookie fullback Mike Cox as told by broadcaster Dan Dierdorf...
...."Mike Cox was smothered by Champ Bailey on that play."

Say his name fast and think about it.

Talk about letting the air out of the balloon. Looking to go 4-0 on the season with what looked to be a sure-win, the Broncos came out and laid an egg. Nothing went right on either side of the football and the Broncos have no one but themselves to blame for this loss. We have Tampa Bay next week, another 3-1 team who outlasted a tough Green Bay team today. Their rush defense is strong, but their secondary is a bit weak. Which Bronco team will show up next Sunday? The one who led the league in offense the first three weeks of the season? Or the one that got in their own way one too many times on Sunday? The answer will determine whether or not we come out of next week 4-1 or 3-2.