2005/2006

Few and far between, and possibly non-existent, are the Broncos fans who don’t understand that Jay Cutler is this team’s “quarterback of the future,” an overused and oft ESPN-mentioned term implying inevitable glory and greatness and playoffs and super bowls and dynasties and perfect seasons. Or at least super bowls. I’m currently a student at Alabama, an SEC program that had to play Cutler’s Vanderbilt every year, and people down here will tell you about how good of a quarterback he was, about how well he played against the nation’s best college defenses, about how he was able to make seemingly gimme games against lowly Vanderbilt much more interesting than they had any right to be. But last Sunday night wasn’t about Cutler, it was about the Broncos QB actually currently starting. So for at least one more game, and almost certainly for the rest of the season, let’s talk about Jake the Snake Plummer.

The headline of the game was certainly the defense, but in a second. The area of real concern for Bronco fans witnessing two games of stagnant offensive production was, well, offensive production. For anyone who watched Jake these last two seasons, his game was unsurprising: stretches of lackluster, inaccurate passing contrasted by bouts of solid, accurate passing, punctuated by a few big-play throws (the perfect laser TD strike to Javon Walker at the end of the second quarter) and culminating in the stats of an average game. Jake has been playing games like that since he’s been Bronco. What made that a very impressive game for Plummer was, just like most of last season, that he did not make a mistake. Rather, for someone seemingly about to lose his job to a hot-shot golden rookie, Jake looked very cool. He played that game business-as-usual, and in this case business-as-usual meant none of the deadly interceptions that hurt the Broncos so badly so many times in 2004. Even more impressive, and what made the game a huge success for Jake, was how well he played when the Broncos seemed stuck on getting the ball inside their own 10 during the third quarter. John Madden kept saying how badly the Patriot defense needed to force a turnover, but Plummer never gave it to them. He did an excellent job of eluding pressure, looking downfield, and either hitting the open guy or throwing it away. That was a crucial performance during a stretch where one interception could’ve easily reversed momentum and lost the Broncos the game. Whatever the critics will say about his stats, (and make no mistake, I do not exclude myself from that group) Jake showed a poise and resiliency that will keep him #1 on the depth chart all season long.

Javon Walker played extremely well, and is clearly a huge upgrade over Ashley Lelie. He offers the deep threat of Lelie, yet with his prodigious size and strength, he is both an effective blocker and can make the muscle catches in the middle of the field, two aspects sorely lacking in Lelie’s game. His TD catch at the end of the second quarter was just ripped from the hands of the DB. Lelie would not have made that catch. His other huge TD catch showed his elusiveness and speed in the open field, and broke the game for the Broncos.

On the ground, Tatum emerged from the Bell controversy as RB #1, and celebrated with a great game. He was able to consistently grind for 5-6 yard gains, and occasionally bust off the 20+ yarder, allowing the Broncos to keep the clock running even as they weren’t consistenly scoring. We haven’t sent the last of Mike Bell, but Tatum will stay #1 as long as he has game like that. More impressive considering the stinginess of the Pats rush defense.

But, like so many times last year and into the playoffs, the defense won this game for the Broncos. The Patriots were never able to establish a ground game, putting all the more pressure on a Tom Brady basically devoid of weapons. Brady was only able to throw for a deceiving 320 yards, much of which came when the Broncos were camping back in prevent. The rest of Brady’s stats were from slants and quick-outs thrown underneath Denver’s safeties. When it was clear that the running came wasn’t working, Belichick looked for the huge pass play to swing momentum and throw up some explosive points. Yet, every time Brady looked downfield, blanket coverage by the Broncos DBs and/or timely help from the safeties stymied his deep throws. Overall, the defense looked excellent, making stellar open-field tackles and taking good angles on almost every play. Rare was the missed Bronco tackle, and Brady’s 7-something yard slants were never given opportunity to develop into big plays. A very impressive performance by the Denver D.

Go back to the beginning of the 2005 season. Game 1: A hugely disappointing loss on the road/a bad performance by Plummer. Game 2: A narrow victory against a division opponent/a lackluster performance by Plummer. Game 3: A defining prime-time victory/a mistake free Plummer. Might as well be the beginning of this season. In 2005, Plummer shook off his lousy start to end up with the best year of his career and a 13-3 Bronco regular season.

Hopefully that 2005 trend can extend to 2006 leading to a super bowl in 2007. If they can’t, there’s always a Cutler-led 2008.

Avs train up

So apparently, the Avs have already started training camp - which means it’s time to get ready for hockey, again. And I’m totally ready. I’m so ready that I’m going to march down to DU and by my Burgundy and White tickets right now. So ready that I’ve already predicted the outcome of this season for the Avs: it’s going to suck.

I hate to be a pessimist, I really do. I like making stupid predictions about the Rockies and Broncos. But when you look at this team from last year to this year, there’s absolutely nothing exciting about the coming season.

We’ve traded away our top scorer for Jordan Leopold, who is in turn expected to replace Rob Blake. The result is that we’re minus one top scorer, minus Rob Blake, and plus someone who’s maybe half of what Rob Blake was. We’ve made no big pickups in the off season, unlike seemingly every other team in the galaxy, including most of the teams in our division, especially last years’ winners, the Flames, and the Stanley Cup runners up, the Oilers (Lupul is a great pickup).

If the off-season tells us anything, it’s that Stan Kroenke has finally arrived in Denver. Like the Nuggets, Stan has installed a penny-pincher at every corner in the Avs’ front office. Pierre Lacroix, who when given the money was one of the best GMs in hockey, has stepped down and now his replacement either no longer has the money to spend, or isn’t willing to spend money, and is constantly looking for bargains to replace superstars (read, Tyler Arnason, Jordan Leopold). The Kroenke Sports regime is content to have mediocre teams good enough to barely make the playoffs, but not good enough to go anywhere. One Team, One Goal has disappeared, and unlike Pat Bowlen and the Broncos, who say the Super Bowl is always on their mind, the Avs are no longer looking for the cup every year.

If we’ve learned anything from the new NHL, it’s the speed, size and youth mean everything. The Avs have done some of that in the youth and speed department, but they’ve heavily downgraded in size, across the board. There are only a few bright points to look forward to. One of them is a healthy Marek Svatos (who we signed on a minimum contract), who was among the Western Conference leaders with 30 goals before being injured in the middle of the season. Another is Paul Stastny, University of Denver standout and Avs’ first-round draft pick who’s made waves in training camp and may make the team as a true Rookie. We’ll also get to see what Wojtek Woslki, who was less than impressive in the playoffs, can do in a full season. (I think Cody McCormick, Brad Richardson and Brett McLean also deserve a nod in this area). And of course, I think we’re all looking forward to the return of quite possibly the most important off-season signing, Ian Laperriere, his antics, and his orchestra.

But there are too many question marks that balance out the positives - something that we haven’t had to say too much in this organization’s history. How Jose Theodore will play given a full season as the starter is one of the biggest questions - not to mention how much of an effect his salary has already had on the team’s apparently limited budget. But the other literally huge gap is perhaps more important: the blue line. If anyone thinks that Ken Klee and Jordan Leopold can pickup the slack left by Rob Blake’s return to Los Angeles, let me know, because I’m not very excited. Leopold eats a lot of time, but neither of the two replacements show the scoring talent that Blake posessed, which was one of the biggest components of the team’s success last year. Match that with the loss of Alex Tanguay, and you have a real problem. The team’s leading scorer last year is being “replaced” (if you can call it that) by Tyler Arnason, a five-year pro who’s never scored more than 55 points in his career. Tyler is fairly quick on the ice, he’s young, and could still potentially develop into a scorer on a good team with some support…but he’s not going to come close to matching Tanguay’s production.

So when you look it all up and down, I can’t honestly say that the team has improved at all from last season. Our saving grace may be Jose Theodore, who can make up a lot of slack if he can return to his old form - but if he’s not perfect, it’s going to be a long season and a long few years to come.

Lesson from FIBA Tournament: Melo Needs a Supporting Cast

It’s been a while since we’ve posted on the Denver Nuggets, and for that, I apologize. We’ve all gone back to school and been quite busy busting out material for the AOL NFL Fanhouse over at AOL, where Sam, Gabe and I have been contracted to write material which you can find here.

Back to the point: The Nuggets, and specifically, Carmelo Anthony. More specifically, the impact playing in the FIBA World Championships has had on Melo and what it means for the upcoming Nuggets season.

If you haven’t been paying attention, Melo has been playing extremely well on the world stage, averaging 19.7 points per game in the tournament. In the game against Italy, Melo scored 35 points, a record for U.S. teams in international play. This tournament is showing the world something many die-hard Denver Nuggets fans already knew: Melo can be a top-rate superstar if he has a supporting cast that can actually shoot the ball.

In last year’s playoff series against the Clippers, it was basically Melo alone who was trying to carry the team into the second round. We all saw how that went for us. But in the tournament there are other superstars — LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, etc. — that can a) pick up the slack when Melo is having an off night, and b) actually lead the way, allowing Melo to supplement an awesome attack.

I know Team USA’s loss to Greece is upsetting to the fans of the team and the team members themselves, but I look at this summer’s tournament as a success in that Melo has emerged as a bona fide threat. A lot of people already knew that around the NBA, but now there’s no denying it and George Karl has the formula for getting the Nuggets over that first-round hump and further into the NBA playoffs.

Okay, okay, I know - they’re done, but…

I know I’m just getting my hopes up to have them absolutely smashed by reality, BUT…

The Rockies get set to play two series against the top two teams in the division. They’re currently nine games back, with little chance at making the post season at all - BUT…if the Rox could find a way to sweep both the Padres and the Dodgers, or maybe lose only one game in the course of the two series, they could pull themselves back to around 5 or 6 games back of the division - and then they play four games against the Nationals.

I’m not saying Washington is bad, but the last time the Rockies played a 4-game set with the DC Boys, they won all of them. The Nationals have been playing better since then, but they’re still not a great team, and apparently Frank Robinson is the most-hated manager in the majors as voted by the players. So what am I saying? If the Rockies are going to try to magically salvage the season with a streak of some sort, this is the last chance they have to do it.

So, we’ll find out tonight at 8:40 if I’m just a useless optomist or if there might actually be some of this hope thing I’ve got.

Broncos Season Preview

Just to let you know, we’re doing our second podcast ever over at the FanHouse. It’s a two-parter that’s billed as a season preview, where we go through the schedule, analyze the matchups, and make our predictions. I think you’ll find it pretty absurdly hilarous.

Anyhow, check out the first part now over at http://broncos.aolsportsblog.com. The second part will be up at the same place around 3:10 p.m. mountain time.

Enjoy!