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.

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