Rewatch: Broncos at Lions 10/7/84

Live from the Pontiac Silverdome it's Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy bringing you the 1-4 Lions and 4-1 Broncos! I'm a little bit interested to know if there was ever a Broncos game on NBC in the mid-to-late 80s that wasn't called by either Criqui and Trumpy, Enberg and Olsen, or Charlie Jones and whoever he was paired with. I'm sure there was but it must have been rare because I don't remember.

The quality of this recording was not great and neither was the game. But I'm still thankful to have been able to watch it.

Lions QB Gary Danielson was kind of off to a hot start statistically in 1984. They mentioned how he came into the game with zero interceptions on the year. That's about to change...in a big way. 

Broncos get an early touchdown drive and then after the Lions' Billy Sims bobbles a pitchout and it pops in the air with help from Louis Wright, Rulon Jones grabs it and rumbles in for a touchdown to make it 14-0 which would be all the Broncos would need to win this one.

Rulon Jones reaches for loose ball

Kind of a brutal second quarter. Lions center Steve Mott suffers what turns out to be a season-ending injury late in the first half and has to be carted off. After the 3rd or 4th Lions turnover, John Elway goes deep to Steve Watson for a TD and a ref gets plowed over at the goal line by a Lions DB.

The Lions were really aggressive at the end of the first half - bringing in their backup QB, Mike Machurek, to throw a hail Mary with under 30 seconds remaining. I don't feel like we'd see that today.  In any case, Dennis Smith picks it off for the 5th turnover.

Not much happened in the second half. Neither offense was doing much of anything. The Broncos couldn't move the ball and the Lions couldn't hold onto it. Ken Woodard picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown, the fourth interception of Danielson on the day, to put the Broncos up 28-7.

The only thing that was suspenseful about this game was the turnover count. I knew before watching that the Broncos defense set a team record with 10 turnovers in this game, but we passed the two minute warning and they were only at 8. How was this thing going to happen?

Here's how. Machurek is back in the game at QB and throws two interceptions in the final minute to give him three on the game, nearly matching Danielson's total. First, Tony Lilly picks him off, but then fumbles it back to the Lions on the return. Then Karl Mecklenburg comes up with an interception and has some running room. It looks like he has a chance to go the distance for the Broncos' third defensive touchdown of the game, but is brought down after a 63 yard return on what turns out to be the final play of the game.

Other Broncos defenses have received more acclaim, such as the Orange Crush of the late 1970s and the No Fly Zone of 2015. However, the 1984 unit was special in its own way and has kind of been forgotten through the years. Although they gave up a lot of yards, they only allowed 15 points per game on the season, which ranked second in the NFL that year. 

But their trademark was turnovers. Thirty-eight years later, this unit still holds team records for total takeaways in a single season (55), turnover differential (+21), most recoveries of opponent fumbles in a season (24), most defensive touchdowns in a season (8), most yards on interception returns in a season (510), and most turnovers in a single game (10).  Additionally, they hold the team single-season sack record with 57.

Winding Up the 2022 Broncos

Last month I wrote a post exploring the potential of the 2022 Broncos offense to be the worst in franchise history. And after 12 games, they were right on target. However, the trend reversed somewhat in the final five games.

Now we're at year end I thought it worthwhile to see how they wound up on a few of the metrics.

Points per game. They were at 13.8 after 12 games, but after averaging 24 points over their final five games, they raised the season average to 16.8 per game. That lifts them above the 14.0 average of the 1966 team as well as three others, so this wound up as only the fifth-worst average in team history.

Total touchdowns. They only had 14 through 12 games, but somehow scored 15 in their final five games to get them to 29 on the season. Still not great, but well beyond the franchise's low mark set in 1971.

They failed to reach 18 points in only one of their final five games (the Christmas day debacle), which was enough to match them with the 1966 team for the most sub-18 point games in a single season. However, the 1966 team played three fewer games.

Three squads shared the record for lowest high point game with 27, shared by the 1971, 1982, and 1992 teams. The 2022 Broncos beat that mark twice in the final five games, including in the season finale, when they topped 30 for the first time all season. 

It is notable that the defensive and special teams units scored zero touchdowns in 2022. I haven't verified if this is a first.

They still finished last in the NFL in total points. So although not the worst in team history, it was the worst in the league for this season.

Although this was a discouraging year and I was pretty down on my team for most of all of it, the win over the Chargers on Sunday felt really good. I'm glad they could end the season on a high note.

The Broncos achieved a couple of milestones with the victory. It was the 500th win in the team's 63-year history, and also the 300th home win. And they avoided a couple of bad footnotes - if they had lost it would have been the first 13-loss season in team history and the first time being swept by the AFC West.

Rewatch: Broncos at Raiders 10/28/84

Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen welcomed us to the L.A. Coliseum along with the 90,000 plus in attendance. They purported that it was the largest crowd to see an NFL game to date that season, although it appears a 49ers-Raiders game from earlier that season eclipsed it by a few hundred.

Both teams were 7-1 entering the game, but both starting QBs were on the sidelines due to injury for this one, so it was Gary Kubiak vs. Marc Wilson. 

The Broncos didn’t have a great first half and trailed 12-0, but the Raiders’ sloppy play kept them in the game. 

First, a Raiders interception of Gary Kubiak was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty, then the Raiders’ Greg Pruitt muffed a punt which the Broncos recovered and turned into three points. On the ensuing drive, Marcus Allen fumbled it away, and the Broncos kicked another field goal to make it 12-6 at halftime. 

When Jim Nantz and Phil Simms were teaming up for CBS broadcasts of Broncos’ games in the mid-2000s, Nantz would often bring up Simms’ Super Bowl MVP performance when the Giants beat the Broncos. I always found it a little annoying. Well, it turns out Nantz didn’t invent the technique of flattering your broadcast partner. Dick Enberg never seemed to miss an opportunity to bring up Deacon Jones and the famed Rams defensive line that Olsen was a part of. 

In the second half, the two teams traded touchdowns, but the Broncos botched the extra point after their touchdown to make it 19-12. The missed point after was partially due to an injury to Denver guard/long snapper Keith Bishop who was not on the field for the attempt.

The rest of the game was a series of events that often left me thinking, “I know the Broncos pull this out in the end….but how?”

The first of these came on a Raiders’ punt. The ball bounced past Broncos returner Zach Thomas and the Raiders pounced on it inside the Broncos 10 yard line. However, the ruling on the field was that Thomas did not touch the ball. The instant replay on the broadcast was inconclusive - the video quality was just not good enough back then and there wouldn’t be any provision in the rules for a replay review by the officials until 1986. Dick and Merlin suggested that Thomas may have touched it based on how he reacted after it got past him, but nevertheless the Broncos kept possession. 

A few minutes later, Chris Bahr had a chance to put the Raiders up by two scores but missed the field goal. However, Sammy Winder fumbled moments later to give the ball right back. From this point, the Raiders were attempting to run the clock. If they could manage at least a field goal on the drive, they would lead by 10 with two minutes to play, an almost insurmountable margin. However, Dennis Smith stripped Marcus Allen, and the Broncos recovered at the Raiders 15. 

The Broncos marched downfield, and Kubiak hit Steve Watson for six points. If the Broncos hadn’t missed the earlier point-after try, they would have been in a position to take the lead. Keith Bishop, though injured, came in to snap the ball for this extra point. Rich Karlis connected, and the game went to overtime tied at 19. 

The Broncos’ luck seemed to run out when Malcolm Barnwell beat Louis Wright for a 41-yard completion early in overtime to get the Raiders in scoring position. Dick & Merlin wondered aloud if Tom Flores should send out the field goal unit right away. However, they opted for another play and Mike Harden stripped Frank Hawkins of the ball, and the Broncos recovered. 

After the teams exchanged punts, and the Broncos moved into position for a game-winning field goal, but Karlis missed from 44. Raider Shelby Jordan patted Karlis on the helmet following the miss. 

The two teams again exchanged punts, with the Broncos’ punt coming with only 1:18 remaining.

However, this one also bounces off Greg Pruitt, and the Broncos’ Roger Jackson recovered. 

When Pruitt muffed the punt at the end of the first half, there was a non-call for interference on Ricky Hunley. This time, however, the refs flag the Broncos because Pruitt had signaled for a fair catch. 

At this point the game seems destined to end in a tie. However, just moments later Marc Wilson is intercepted by the same Roger Jackson who just had his heroic fumble recovery nullified. The Broncos run a single play to set up Karlis for a 35-yard field goal attempt, and with Keith Bishop again coming in to snap the ball, Karlis boots it through as time expires. 

Jackson’s interception was the Broncos’ seventh turnover of the game. Although not a team record, the Broncos have not had that many in a single game in the last 38 years. 

This game is the one that hooked me on the NFL as a kid. I’m so thankful for the miracle of YouTube making it possible for me to go back and watch again. Otherwise the main memories I had retained from childhood were Kubiak hitting Watson for the touchdown in the fourth quarter and Karlis getting the helmet pat after missing the field goal. It wasn’t the best played game and was a little short on star power with Elway on the sidelines. But it certainly had everything else you could ask for as a fan. Heated rivalry? Check. Historic venue? Check. Legendary broadcasters? Check. Twists and turns? Check. Controversial calls? Check. Late game drama? Check.

Rewatch: Chargers at Broncos 12/9/84

For my next rewatch, I perused the games that came up in a YouTube search for “1984 Broncos” and decided that the Chargers/Broncos tilt from 11/11/84 made sense if I wanted to keep it in a chronological order.

However, there were several things said early on in the broadcast that had me confused. There was a lot of playoff talk, such as the Broncos were on the brink of clinching the AFC West. In Week 11? Then they were doing score updates from around the league and the Chiefs were just polishing off a 34-7 upset win over the Seahawks. But during my rewatch of the 11/4/84 Broncos game there had been several updates on a Seahawks rout of the Chiefs. Surely they didn’t play in back-to-back weeks?

It was then that I realized that the video was mislabeled. I was watching the Week 15 Chargers/Broncos matchup. I suppose it was an easy enough mistake to make on the titling as both of the teams’ games from 1984 ended with an identical final score. 

The outcomes of their two games would lead you to believe these teams were pretty evenly matched - both were decided by a field goal - yet the Chargers were headed for a last-place finish in the AFC West while the Broncos were in control of their own destiny for the AFC West title when the game kicked off. This Broncos team had a tendency to play tight games - seven of their 14 games to date had been decided by three points. 

In the first half, the Broncos set a team record with their 51st sack of the season. They finished 1984 with 57 sacks and the record still stands today.  

The Broncos didn’t do much offensively early on. Four first quarter drives resulted in two punts and two turnovers, which the Chargers converted into a pair of Rolf Benirschke field goals. However, after Benirschke missed a 53-yarder that would have made it 9-0, the Broncos responded with a drive that resulted in a Rich Karlis field goal that cut the Chargers’ lead to 6-3.

Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen were on the call for this game and one of the main story lines they had to work with was the barefoot kicker Karlis, who was coming off consecutive games in which tying field goal attempts had bounced off the upright in losses to Seattle and Kansas City, dropping the Broncos’ record from 11-1 to 11-3. But after the Broncos put together a drive in the final two minutes of the half, Karlis was good on a 50-yard attempt as time expired to tie his career long and seemed to prove he wasn’t shaken by the unfortunate misses.

The Broncos put together an efficient eight play, 85-yard drive in the third quarter that ended with Sammy Winder scoring on a 4-yard run to give them their first lead of the game at 13-6. Earlier in the game Winder went over 1,000 yards for the season, the first 1,000 yard rushing season for the Broncos since Otis Armstrong in 1976. The seven-year drought remains the longest for the Broncos since they joined the NFL.

The Chargers responded with a long drive that gave them first and goal at the Broncos 1-yard line. Two rushing attempts at the end of the third quarter and two more at the beginning of the fourth resulted in zero yards, and the Broncos took over on offense after the successful goal-line stand. However, Winder fumbled on the second play and San Diego recovered. This time, they tried a pass and scored to tie the game at 13. 

The Broncos offense responded with another long drive which included a 4th & 1 conversion and Merlin Olsen’s retelling of the story from earlier in the season in which Broncos WR Clint Sampson was “hit so hard in the Buffalo game they thought initially he might even be dead.” The Broncos got to the San Diego 5 but Elway was sacked and fumbled on a third down blitz. The Chargers recovered, their fourth turnover of the game. 

Although the 1984 Broncos set a franchise record with a +21 turnover differential that still stands today, they were -4 in this particular game. 

However, the Chargers didn’t capitalize, and the Broncos again drove deep into Chargers territory. Karlis came on to boot his third field goal of the game with just over two minutes remaining and put together the Ghost of Uprights Past once and for all. San Diego quarterback Dan Fouts didn’t play in this game and with USFL-bound Ed Luther leading the two-minute drill, the Chargers went nowhere. 

During the final minutes of this game, NBC showed updates of the Rams’ Eric Dickerson going over 2,000 yards for the season and breaking O.J. Simpson’s regular-season record.

Karlis and Benirschke post-game

Cameras focused on the two kickers, Karlis and Benirschke, on the field after game. Apparently they were good friends and Benirschke had helped Karlis through a rough couple of weeks. 

The Broncos’ victory tied them for the AFC West lead with Seahawks at 12-3, and the two teams would play the following week for the division title. The Chargers record against AFC West opponents dropped to 0-7, and they would finish 0-8 after a week 16 loss to Kansas City. Yet they would finish the year with a 7-9 record due to a 7-1 record outside the division. 

Rewatch: Patriots at Broncos 11/4/84

A fun activity when you are a fan of a bad team is to rewatch old games on YouTube. I first got into football back in 1984 when I was a third grader. I remember the outcomes of games but not many details. While I probably “watched” some of these games at the time, I didn’t totally understand everything that was going on and didn’t have the attention span to sit through an entire game. 

I just finished a rewatch of the Broncos and Patriots from November 4, 1984 which pitted John Elway against Tony Eason, both members of the famed quarterback draft class of 1983. The Broncos were clearly a team on the rise, coming into the game with an 8-1 record. The Patriots had just made a mid season coaching change, with Raymond Berry taking over the reins. It was mentioned on the broadcast that Berry believed the Patriots were ready to win now. And he proved to be right as the Patriots were in the Super Bowl the following season. Combined, these two teams won four of the final five AFC championships of the 1980s.

The Patriots dominated much of the first half and yet didn’t have much to show for it. Three trips into the red zone resulted in only three points. A goal line fumble and a missed field goal were missed opportunities. The game was tied 6-6 at halftime, even though the Patriots had 200 total yards to the Broncos 116, with most of the Broncos total coming on a single drive.

The two teams exchanged third quarter touchdowns, but the Patriots held a 13-12 lead after three quarters after Rich Karlis missed his second extra point of the game. The Patriots extended their lead to 19-12 on a pair of fourth-quarter field goal drives which were sandwiched around a Broncos possession which featured 8 passes and resulted in an interception after only 22 yards. Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy were on the broadcast for NBC and Trumpy was becoming increasingly incredulous about the inability of the Broncos to run the ball. For the game, the Broncos managed only 28 yards on 18 rushing attempts and failed to get a first down running the ball.

Even though the threat of the run was nonexistent, Elway’s passing arm could not be stopped. The Broncos took possession with just over eight minutes remaining and put together a 78-yard touchdown drive in which Elway was 5 of 6 passing and the ground attack yielded zero yards on two attempts. Elway found Butch Johnson for the touchdown, concluding the best day of Johnson’s 10-year career. He hauled in nine passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns that afternoon. 

The score was again tied, but the Patriots had the ball with four minutes remaining and the chance to move into position for the winning score. Two completed passes and two runs by Mosi Tatupu got them to the Broncos 37-yard line at the two-minute warning. They went back to Tatupu on the next play. The ball was punched loose by Steve Busick and Dennis Smith scooped it up and raced 66 yards for a touchdown.

Dennis Smith scores decisive touchdown

The Patriots had a final chance and again crossed midfield, but this time Steve Foley intercepted Tony Eason to clinch the victory.

The game was characteristic of many Broncos victories from that era. An offense which relied heavily on Elway’s arm (40 passing attempts netted 315 yards and three TDs) and a defense which bent-but-didn’t break (they gave up 484 yards of total offense but only yielded 19 points, held the Pats to three points on two goal-line stands, and forced three turnovers). 

18 Below

The 2022 edition of the Broncos has been a profound disappointment. Most of the blame has been directed towards the offense, and with good reason - it currently ranks 32nd of 32 teams in points scored. A few weeks ago it was suggested that if the offense had managed at least 18 points in each game, the Broncos would have been 8-1. I don’t know that it’s quite that simple, but it's a remarkable though dubious possibility that the Broncos may finish the season with the top ranked scoring defense (currently #2) and dead last in scoring defense. 

So I started wondering if the 2022 edition was in fact the worst offense in the 63-year history of the Denver Broncos. I limited my study to the teams that failed to average 18 points per game.

You don’t have to go that far back to find the first one. In 2019, the Broncos hired Vic Fangio as head coach, brought in Rich Scangarello as the offensive coordinator, and traded for QB Joe Flacco. Despite fielding a top-tier defense, the Broncos ended the season with a disappointing 7-9 record, due in part to an offense that averaged just 17.6 points per game. However, they did show some potential by scoring 20 or more points in seven games, with a season-high of 38. If they had managed a bit more than a combined nine points in a pair of losses to the Chiefs, they probably would have finished above 18 points per game. Nevertheless, neither Flacco nor Scangarello survived to see another season in Denver.

Back in 1992, Dan Reeves passed on using the team's first-round draft pick on a wide receiver to fortify John Elway's weaponry, and instead used it on a potential successor - Tommy Maddox. The Broncos stumbled to an 8-8 finish and managed only 16.4 points per game. Driving down the average was a stretch from Week 3 to Week 6 when the only two touchdowns the Broncos scored came in the final two minutes of a comeback win over the Chiefs. The Broncos turned things around and averaged 25.5 points over their next four games and were leading the AFC West with a 7-3 record when Elway was sidelined due to injury. The next week, they were shut out by the Raiders with Maddox as the starter, and they lost four straight until Elway returned. However, it wasn't enough to make the playoffs or save the job of Dan Reeves.

The year before Elway arrived on the scene in Denver, the Broncos scored only 148 points on their way to a 2-7 record during the strike-shortened 1982 season. Steve DeBerg played most of the season at quarterback and although they did have four games of 20 or more points, they averaged just 14.6 points over the course of the season. Two of the team's 14 touchdowns came on Rick Upchurch punt returns.

By losing to Baltimore this past Sunday, the Broncos clinched their sixth consecutive losing season, their longest such streak since they posted 10 consecutive losing seasons from 1963 to 1972. The last three sub-18 offenses are from that dismal era.

In 1971, the Broncos scored just 203 points, an average of 14.5 per game. They scored just 18 touchdowns in 14 games, and scored 17 or fewer points in 10 of them. They only had one game in which they scored three touchdowns, a 27-0 win over the Browns, but one of those three was scored by the defense. Steve Ramsey and Don Horn shared the starting quarterback duties and both finished with sub-50 passer ratings. Coach Lou Saban was fired mid-season, never recovering from the famous "half a loaf" tie with the Dolphins in the season opener and the team ultimately finished 4-9-1.

The 1966 Broncos started the season with one of the worst offensive performances in pro football history. In a 45-7 loss to the Houston Oilers, they gained only 26 net yards and had no first downs. The only touchdown came on a kickoff return. Head coach Mac Speedie may have decided he wasn't up to the challenge and resigned a week later after a loss to the Patriots. Things didn't get much better under interim coach Ray Malavasi. The Broncos averaged 14.0 points a game for the season and finished 4-10. They failed to score more than 17 points in 11 of their games. John McCormick and rookie Max Choboian were the primary quarterbacks. McCormick started one game for the Broncos in 1968, but otherwise neither of them appeared in an AFL or NFL game again.

Pro football in Denver was languishing in 1964, and the sale of the team to a group in the eastern U.S. seemed imminent.  The 1964 team averaged 17.1 per game, but only topped 20 points twice (scoring a combined 72 in two games against the Chiefs). The defense was equally bad. The Broncos finished dead last in scoring offense and scoring defense and set a team record for negative point differential (198) that still stands today. The team finished 2-11-1 for the second consecutive. However, the Phipps brothers purchased the majority share of the team following the season and kept the team in Denver.

How do these bad offenses compare with the 2022 Broncos?

Through week 12, Wilson & Co are averaging 13.8 points per game, which is the lowest of all time, just a notch lower than the 14.0 per game posted by the 1966 squad.

This year's Broncos are on a pace for 20 total touchdowns, which would be lower than any year besides the strike-shortened 1982 season ( which was only 9 games) and the 1971 season (18 total touchdowns).

They have failed to reach 18 points in 10 games, one less than the 1966 crew. However, these Broncos have been at 16 or less in all of those games. In 1966, the Broncos reached the 17 point mark on three occasions. 

The Broncos haven't topped 23 points in a game this season. The lowest high-point game among these other squads was 27 (shared by the 1992, 1982, and 1971 teams) The two teams from the sixties, bad as they were, each had at least one game of 30-plus points.

And although the offense gets the brunt of the blame for the lack of points, neither the defense nor the special teams have contributed a touchdown this year. The six other teams discussed all had at least one touchdown not scored by the offense.

The season isn't over yet, so the current group still has a chance to redeem themselves, but at this point it appears this is in fact the worst offense in team history. What makes this fact more amazing is that this is a team worth $4 billion in the modern NFL. This isn't the ragtag outfit from the early days of the NFL that wasn't sure if they would survive. And they have as their quarterback Russell Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowler who has started on two Super Bowl teams. It's not Steve DeBerg used as a bridge between Morton and Elway or an obscure rookie named Max Choboian.

Let’s Ride Into the Ditch

I kind of took a hiatus from following the Broncos the last two years. Part of it was all the politics, but the other part was knowing I wasn’t missing anything. Vic Fangio’s Broncos were no better than Vance Joseph’s Broncos and Teddy Bridgewater was just a continuation of the quarterback carousel that began after the Broncos won Super Bowl 50 way back in February of 2016.

As expected, Fangio and Bridgewater were sent on their merry way after the season. And the Broncos franchise went up for sale, signaling that the ownership limbo that had seemingly paralyzed the team for the past several years was about to end. 

Nathaniel Hackett was hired to be the head coach. There was some hope that Aaron Rodgers might follow him out of Green Bay to become the new quarterback. Although that ultimately did not happen, disappointment was dispelled when GM George Paton worked a deal with the Seattle Seahawks to trade for Russell Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback who had been on the winning side of Super Bowl XLVIII, in which the Seahawks crushed the Broncos 43-8.

The price was steep - two first round draft picks, two seconds, and three players. But it seemed worth it since finding elite-level passers is so difficult.

In August, the sale of the team to the “Walton-Penner group” was finalized for a price of $4.65 billion, so in more than one way this season seemed like the beginning of a new era of pro football in Denver.

I attended the first preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys a few days later at Empower Field. Reports were indicating that starters would not see any action in this game because Hackett wanted to keep their bodies healthy for the stretch run when they would certainly be contending for playoff position. Even so, it seemed like a missed opportunity to me. The fans have suffered through five consecutive losing seasons, but now they have hope that fortunes are about to change. For the sake of public relations, it seemed like they could have at the very least sent Wilson and the starters out for a couple of series.  Instead, we were treated to the Josh Johnson show, a quarterback who didn’t even wind up making the team. It was a little odd, but certainly forgivable if it paid dividends in the long run.

The Broncos haven’t had much of a national profile since Peyton Manning left, so when they were scheduled to open the season on Monday Night Football in Seattle, I was there for it. We quickly found out that the Broncos could have used a little more preseason action. They showed an inability to score in the red zone and lost two fumbles on the goal line. They also committed 12 penalties. Still, it really felt like the Broncos would figure out a way to win. They had the ball at midfield with less than two minutes to go, plenty of time to get in position for a game-winning field goal. Three passes netted only five yards. I ran to the restroom when they called timeout, expecting to come back out and see a do-or-die, climactic, 4th & 5 play. Instead, I was surprised to see Brandon McManus lining up for a 64-yard field goal. It was a little odd not only because there had only been two successful field goals from that distance in all of NFL history, but also because they had just signed Wilson to a $245 million contract just 11 days earlier and he now had a chance to stick it in Seattle’s ear. You finally have the quarterback who could make a big play in crunch time, and instead you’re making him stand and watch while you take a chance on a nearly impossible kick? 

Of course, he missed it, and the Broncos lost. Hackett’s questionable decision was debated almost nonstop in the media for days afterwards. Yet, even though the Broncos struggled offensively in their next two games, they squeaked out tight wins over the Texans and the 49ers to get their record to 2-1, which at the time was good enough to put them in a tie with the Kansas City Chiefs for first place in the AFC West.

From there, it’s been downhill. They went to Las Vegas and lost to the Raiders who were 0-3 at the time. The Broncos pulled within 25-23 in the fourth quarter but the defense was unable to get a stop and give Wilson another shot to win it. Four days later came one of the ugliest games ever played, on national television for all the nation to see. The Broncos had a 9-6 lead and the ball deep in Colts territory with just over two minutes remaining - and somehow figured out a way to lose the game in overtime.

Eleven days later, the Broncos again failed to hold a fourth-quarter lead on national TV (this time on Monday Night Football) and after a muffed punt late in overtime, lost 19-16 to the Chargers after Dustin Hopkins kicked his fourth field goal of the game even though he had an injured hamstring. 

Wilson sat out the next game, which the Broncos lost 16-9 despite outperforming the Jets offensively. They went to London and broke a four-game losing streak by beating the Jaguars, but following their bye week they blew an early lead against the Titans to drop to 3-6 on the season. 

However, they weren’t in last place in the division, which was an honor reserved for the Raiders, who were a lowly 2-7 and coming to Denver. For the Broncos, it was a very winnable game. And they led 16-13 with two minutes remaining. However, once again they figured out a way to give the game away. An incomplete pass on third down stopped the clock and left enough time for the Raiders to get in position for a field goal to tie the game. The Raiders won the coin toss, and moments later scored a touchdown to end the game. The way they lost was bad - but the fact that it came at home, to the rival Raiders, who had beaten no one outside of the Texans and Broncos, and completed a season sweep at the hands of their former dumpster fire of a head coach, Josh McDaniels - compounded the embarrassment.

The Colts loss confirmed our fears that this was a season headed nowhere. The Raiders loss made it official. The Broncos have seven games remaining. Two are against the Chiefs and one against the Ravens. All three of those are certainly losses. They have two road games remaining against the Panthers and the Rams and a couple of home dates against the Cardinals and Chargers. Those latter four are all winnable, but then every game on Denver’s schedule to date has been “winnable” and here we are in last place at 3-7. So it’s beginning to look a lot like 5-12, which would make it the worst Broncos season since 2010, incidentally the year they fired McDaniels. 

So who’s to blame for this disaster of a season?

Is it Melvin Gordon, who the Broncos waived on Monday after another costly fumble? 

Or is it Wilson, who has performed far below expectations and seems to be more concerned with selfish desires than winning football games?

Perhaps it is Hackett, who seems woefully unqualified to be an NFL head coach?

Maybe it’s Paton, who conducted the coaching search and went with Hackett, perhaps for no other reason than to lure Aaron Rodgers to the Mile High City? 

It could be the defense, which has been somewhat culpable in the late-game failures.

We could also bring up the trainers and strength and conditioning people…how else do you explain the endless parade of players to the season-ending injured reserve?

In reality, we’re here because we lost one of the great owners in NFL history. It all starts at the top and the culture started deteriorating along with Pat Bowlen’s health. You can bring in a quarterback or a new coach or accumulate draft picks or spend on free agents, but if you’re weak at the top it probably won’t matter. 

The Broncos, the Eighties, and Monday Night

Monday Night Football was a much bigger deal in the 1980s than it is now. Basically it was the only game broadcast to the entire country every week in prime time, the "showcase" if you will. Sunday Night Football was a cable TV novelty and there was no Thursday Night Football, no Sunday Ticket, no satellite, no internet, no streaming. 

If your team was halfway decent, you would probably see them on Monday night at least once per season. If they were a serious contender, you'd probably get them a couple of times. However, if they were bad, you probably wouldn't see them at all.

Fortunately for me, the Broncos were good in the 1980s, and so as a young fan I was able to see them every year on the big stage. And these were rarely "typical" games, which is the reason for this post. Every year had a Monday night game with a story worth retelling.

I was on the cusp of becoming a big football fan in October 1984 when the Broncos played the Green Bay Packers on Monday night in the midst of a driving Colorado snowstorm. I remember the spectacle of the blizzard on our television.  Steve Foley and Louis Wright returned fumbles for touchdowns on the first two plays from scrimmage to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead before even a minute of game clock had expired. Those two scores plus a field goal by barefoot kicker Rich Karlis were all the points the Broncos needed to secure a 17-14 win. Although I didn't sit and watch that game, my interest was piqued to some degree and I've seen the replays of those two fumbles dozens of times.

I really got into football over the next year and so I was excited when the Broncos' next Monday night matchup rolled around. On Veteran's Day 1985, the Broncos hosted the defending champion San Francisco 49ers, which pitted young John Elway against Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana. I remember being frustrated that the broadcast team did not seem properly familiar with my Broncos. Joe Namath kept mispronouncing Rich Karlis as "Karlos." The Broncos jumped to a 14-3 lead but the 49ers drove deep into Bronco territory at the end of the first half. When the 49ers were unable to get in the end zone, their field goal unit came onto the field. Remnants of a recent snowstorm were in the stadium, and opportunistic fans in the north end zone had been taking advantage of the situation and firing snowballs onto the field. A perfectly placed snowball landed a few feet in front of holder Matt Cavanaugh a heartbeat after the snap, causing him to bobble the ball. Kicker Ray Wersching hesitated, and Cavanaugh was forced to scoop the ball up and attempt an errant pass towards the goal line to end the first half. At the time I was only allowed to stay up until halftime of the Monday night game, and so I did not get to see the conclusion. However, the Broncos held off the Niners for a narrow 17-16 victory, meaning that a snowball may well have decided the outcome of the game.

The Broncos visited Three Rivers in Week 2 of the 1986 season to face the Steelers on Monday night. I still had my 8:30 bedtime, but our family now had a VCR and I was able to tape the game and watch the second half later. A couple of notable things I remember. After the Steelers scored 5 minutes into the fourth quarter to cut the Broncos' lead to 14-10, the Broncos began their next drive on their own 20. Elway tossed a lateral to Gerald Willhite, who then squared up and launched a pass to a wide-open Steve Watson, who scored on an apparent 80-yard touchdown play. However, the officials called it back, ruling it an illegal forward pass. The television replay showed that Elway's toss to Willhite had not been a forward pass and that Willhite had been 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage when he threw his pass. This was the first year of instant replay in the NFL, and the kinks weren't yet worked out. The Broncos ran another play before communication was established with the replay booth, and so it could not be overturned. Nevertheless, the Broncos went on to win the game after Elway tossed a touchdown pass to Sammy Winder late in the fourth quarter. Before the advent of cell phones and social media, "Hi mom!" moments used to be a thing during football games, and after the clinching touchdown, the cameras went to Elway on the sideline and he shouted, "Hi Mom hi Janet, hi Jessi! Wooo!" and then flashed his index finger and a grin. I thought it was hilarious and replayed it again and again. Al Michaels was like, "What about dad?" because Jack Elway was coach of Stanford at the time, and they had beaten Texas the previous Saturday.

The 4-3-1 Broncos hosted the 7-1 Chicago Bears for a Monday night clash in November 1987. I remembered the game but not a lot of specific details. Fortunately, I was able to rewatch the whole thing thanks to the magic of YouTube. I had forgotten what a great game it was. The Bears got out in front early and were about to go up 21-7 when Refrigerator Perry fumbled on the goal line. The momentum shifted and the Broncos turned around and scored two touchdowns to take a 21-14 halftime lead. The Bears owned the third quarter but botched two extra-point tries, which allowed the Broncos to rally in the fourth and claim a narrow 31-29 victory. Elway was fantastic in this game - 341 yards and 3 touchdown passes, one to each of the Three Amigos. Steve Sewell scored the winning touchdown on a leaping four-yard run, and the Broncos defense held off the Bears in the final minutes. The broadcast team clearly thought the Broncos were really holding onto narrow playoff hopes at this point of the season and the AFC West was out of reach because the San Diego Chargers were 8-1. This big win over an NFC power on Monday Night was the turning point of the season for the Broncos. They won five of their last six, including two wins over the Chargers, who went 0-6 down the stretch. The Broncos went on to not only win the division but to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, and John Elway won his first and only league MVP. Speaking of Super Bowl XXIII, during the broadcast there was a rather ominous mention of Doug Williams subbing in for Jay Schroeder the previous day and leading the Redskins to victory...

By Halloween 1988, I was in junior high and bedtime restrictions were relaxed. I elected to spend the evening at my grandpa's house passing out candy. I was too old for trick-or-treating and I wanted to watch the Broncos play the Colts on Monday Night Football. However, it was not a game that I wanted to watch past halftime. In a rowdy Hoosier Dome filled with costumed fans celebrating the first-ever Monday Night game in Indy, the Colts scored the first 31 points of the game, 24 of them coming on four touchdowns by Eric Dickerson. A couple of long touchdown passes followed, and the Colts led 45-10 at halftime. It was a barrage of points reminiscent of the Super Bowl nine months earlier in which the Redskins put up 35 points on the Broncos in the second quarter. Truly a nightmare for a young fan like myself, yet the "Halloween Massacre" was only one of multiple blowouts the Broncos suffered on the road in 1988 - they also lost big at Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Seattle. The Broncos missed the playoffs, and longtime defensive coordinator Joe Collier was fired at the end of the season.

The Broncos went to Washington in November 1989 to play the Redskins on Monday Night. However, John Elway came down with the stomach flu the morning of the game, and so backup Gary Kubiak got the start at quarterback. The Broncos turned the ball over on their first possession and the Redskins turned it into a touchdown. The night at RFK stadium was cold and windy, but the Broncos scored two touchdowns to take a halftime lead. The Redskins cut the lead to three following another turnover, and then the Broncos clung to a four-point lead as they played the field position game. Kubiak pooch punted a couple of times and neither team moved the ball much until the Broncos managed to run out the last 6:45 of the game clock. Even though it was low scoring, I remember it being great drama to watch the Broncos manage to pull out a win on the road against an NFC opponent with their backup QB in prime time.

The Kansas City Chiefs came to Mile High in week 2 of the 1990 season for a Monday night battle. They featured Christian Okoye, aka the Nigerian Nightmare, a 260 pound running back with 4.4 speed who had rushed for 1,480 yards the previous season and seemed somewhat unstoppable. Early in the game, Okoye took a handoff and went up the middle only to be met head-on by Steve Atwater. Okoye landed on his backside and suddenly the entire country knew about Steve Atwater, who was only in his second year. The legendary hit probably overshadowed what was a pretty entertaining game. The Broncos were trailing by two points and had a 4th-and-10 from their own 17 yard line with a minute remaining when Elway hooked up with Vance Johnson on a 49-yard completion, which put the Broncos in position to kick the game winning field goal as time expired. 

However, the Broncos finished the 1990 season 5-11, which led to them not being invited to Monday Night Football in 1991, which kind of broke the streak of my Broncos Monday night memories.

It's a Wrap - Season's Done

Well, my early-season optimism proved that once again, I tend to view things through orange-tinted glasses. Not that I was expecting all that much...I had them pegged for 8-8!

After last night's demoralizing 30-6 loss to the Chiefs, who played most of the game without Patrick Mahomes, it's obvious the Broncos will finish with their third consecutive losing season. Much of Broncos Country (including myself) was hopeful that last night would prove that these Broncos were capable of competing for the playoffs. If they could extend their winning streak to three games, at home, against the reeling Chiefs, they would find themselves only a game out of first place in the AFC West! And from there, anything could happen!! After all, the Broncos should have won those games against Chicago and Jacksonville!!!

Instead, the Chiefs win their eighth straight against the Broncos, extending all the way back to 2015, the year the Broncos won Super Bowl 50.

The knock against the Chiefs has been their defense, and yet the Broncos offensive line and Joe Flacco made them look like the Steel Curtain. Eight sacks of Flacco, and one more of Colby Wadman on a botched fake punt.

The Broncos offense was putrid. They actually scored minus one points. Although they scored the six points on the opening drive (although assisted by Kansas City penalties), they handed the Chiefs seven points on Flacco's fumble shortly after Mahomes exited the game. I didn't even need to pay attention in the second half because I knew the result of their drives would be three-and-out.

It was almost like they knew they had no business being on the field with Kansas City. What was the deal with going for two after their touchdown on the opening drive? I didn't understand the call. It was like they knew they weren't going to be scoring again so they might as well get what they could when they could.

I examined the remaining schedule after the game finally ended. Five road games left: Colts, Vikings, Bills, Texans, Chiefs. If the season ended today, four of those five would be in the playoffs, with the Colts losing a tiebreaker on the final wildcard in the AFC.  The five teams have a collective record of 20-9 at this point in the season. The Broncos probably will not win any of those games.

The remaining home schedule is a little more manageable: Browns, Chargers, Lions, Raiders, with a collective record of 9-12-1. Yet the Broncos haven't done that well at home thus far, winning just one out of four. Even if you say the Broncos win three of their four remaining home games, that still leaves them at 5-11 on the season, which is not even as good as last season, and would beg the question: why did we get rid of Vance Joseph and Case Keenum, if their replacements yielded no better results?

I feared that if the Broncos had a rough start, the Drew Lock debates would begin. And so here we go: how long before they decide to play the rookie?

Denver Broncos 2019 Outlook

The two biggest changes in 2019 are new head coach Vic Fangio and new quarterback Joe Flacco. Fangio has received good reviews thus far, but he's still unproven as a head coach. Flacco has a nice resume, but he's also 34 years old.

Otherwise, this is more or less the same team that went 6-10 last year. They've added some veteran help in the secondary, so the defense figures to continue to be solid. Most of the question marks are on the offensive side. Will the offensive line perform any better? Will any tight ends be able to stay on the field? Is Emmanuel Sanders healthy? How will RB Phillip Lindsay perform coming off a Pro Bowl rookie season? Will any of their young talent, such as Royce Freeman, Noah Fant, or Courtland Sutton, break through to stardom?

My guess is that we'll be disappointed in the answers to some of those questions. However, if Fangio's leadership and Flacco's experience make a difference, we could be in for a nice surprise. It's not out of the question that we could see their record flip to 10-6 in 2019.

And really, who are the insurmountable threats in the AFC, beyond the Chiefs and the Patriots? Are you really terrified of anyone else? The new-look Jets? The Titans or Texans? The Luck-less Colts? The Steelers and old man Roethlisberger? The San Diego Los Angeles Trash Cans? Some are expecting the Browns to make a leap forward, but are you sure about that?

Sure, a couple of really good teams will emerge as the season goes along, but we don't know who those are just yet. So why wouldn't you give the Broncos a shot at a wildcard spot?

If they can get to Thanksgiving at 6-5, they're definitely in the mix with three home dates in December. But if Flacco gets off to a rough start, people are going to get impatient really quick and the Broncos could be drafting in the top 10 next year.

Honestly, I think it seems like this year will be a modest improvement to 8-8. They'll look really good at times but will also lose some that they shouldn't, and will likely fall short of the playoffs in what looks to be a tough AFC West.

The Quarterback Transition

I'm okay with the Broncos quarterback situation. It was time for Peyton Manning to retire. I'm glad he chose to retire a Super Bowl champion rather than try and last another year in the NFL at age 40.

And I'm glad Brock Osweiler is gone. Although I think he proved himself a capable professional quarterback over the course of his seven starts last year, he showed us his true stripes. Rather than humbly accept his role on the team and enjoy the ride to the pinnacle of professional football and be grateful for the opportunity to help a first-class organization defend their title in 2016, he chose to essentially extend his middle finger to the team that drafted and developed him for four years and take a big fat check and move down to Houston. Maybe he'll help tranform the Texans into an NFL power. Or maybe he'll fail to even surpass the modest accomplishments of Matt Schaub. No one really knows. But it's better that he's not here if he feels that entitled. Millennials.

The Broncos traded for Mark Sanchez, who was a high draft pick of the New York Jets all the way back in 2009. He won four playoff games in his first two NFL seasons, but the Jets lost in the AFC championship both years.  His career fell on hard times afterwards, and he is somewhat unfairly judged by a single play in a game against the Patriots in 2012. He ran into the back of his offensive lineman and the resulting fumble was returned for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the play took place on national television on Thanksgiving night. I wonder if the "butt fumble" would have gained such notoriety if it had occurred on a Sunday afternoon in mid-October. He spent the past two years playing for the Eagles and after they signed Sam Bradford to a big contract, he was traded to Denver for a conditional draft pick.

He has a fun nickname - "The Sanchise" - which doesn't really fit him anymore. He's brought a good attitude to Denver and seems genuinely excited to be here. I hope it works out for him - something along the lines of a Jake Plummer-ish renaissance. Perhaps a change of scenery is all that he needs - he's spent the past seven years playing in New York and Philadelphia in front of a bunch of angry, ungrateful jerks.

I was going to say that the New York and Philadelphia fans were also "hard to please" but unfortunately for him, that is no different than being here in Denver. We're just wrapping up a season in which the Broncos won 15 of 19 contests yet a lot of folks were unhappy with the caliber of quarterback play. Some of that is carryover from the championship teams which featured three current Hall of Famers on offense (John Elway, Gary Zimmerman, and Shannon Sharpe) and a couple of potential Hall of Famers in Terrell Davis and Rod Smith. Broncos fans got used to seeing a lot of points on the board and what Peyton Manning did in 2013 didn't help.

Another thing that doesn't help Sanchez is the fact that the Broncos spent a first-round pick on Paxton Lynch. Now, I don't know much about Lynch. I've never seen him play as I don't watch college football. I have no idea if he'll end up being the guy.

But I do know this: the very fact that Lynch will presumably be the backup means that Bronco fans will have no patience with Sanchez. Unless he goes out and passes for 3,500 yards and 30 touchdowns and puts up 30 points a game on a fairly regular basis, the Bronco faithful will be hollering for Lynch by the end of September. We can learn this from history. Back in 2006, the Broncos drafted Jay Cutler in the first round. Even though Jake Plummer won nearly 70% of his starts during his four seasons in Denver and nearly got them to the Super Bowl in 2005, the Denver media and fans could not wait to get Cutler on the field as soon as possible. Because they didn't think the offense was productive enough even though the Broncos were 7-4 when Plummer was benched. Cutler's "big arm" and ability to "make all the throws" were going to solve everything. It didn't, and Cutler was gone within three years.

So that's what you have to look forward to, Mr. Sanchez. I wish you all the luck, but history tends to repeat itself. Unless you play at a Pro Bowl level, you won't make it to the end of the season as the Denver quarterback.

Super Spread!

A huge bowl of nacho cheese Doritos

Orange Fanta lined up and ready to go

Orange and blue M&M's

Pot roast was prepared in honor of Terrance Knighton

Not orange, but cookie bars!

Orange chicken in the Pro Pot!

None of this tasted as good as it looked once the game started.

All-Western Super Bowls

The Super Bowl XLVIII matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks is just the fourth Super Bowl to feature two teams from west of the Mississippi facing off for the world championship.

The last one was nineteen years ago, when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.

The Broncos played in the other two. They were crushed 55-10 by the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV and beaten by the Dallas Cowboys 27-10 in Super Bowl XII.

Let's hope they fare a little better in this one.

Memories of Super Bowl XXI

The first time I experienced the Broncos in the Super Bowl was January 1987, when they earned a spot opposite the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena, California.

I was eleven years old and in the fifth grade, a relatively new football fan. I had only watched two Super Bowls up to that point, so to have my favorite team playing in the big game was a pretty big deal. I remember that I did a rendering of the rose-themed Super Bowl logo (the game was played at the Rose Bowl) and a teacher came over and sneered at my work.

I don't know that we really had Super Bowl parties back then. I remember pretty much just watching the game by myself. I even taped it to watch again later. I remember my parents leaving sometime in the second quarter to go over to the school for some reason or another. Why they thought my mom's job was more important than the game I am not sure.

The first half, of course, was pretty close. The Broncos even led 10-9 at halftime, and should have perhaps led by more. Shouldacouldawoulda.

The wheels came off in the third quarter, however, as the Giants piled on touchdown after touchdown and the Broncos were unable to stop them. The final score was 39-20. I don't really remember how I felt. I'm sure that I was disappointed by the loss. But it was still pretty awesome that they had made it that far. The magic of their AFC Championship win over Cleveland and "The Drive" had kind of put a spell over everyone where it was okay that we had just been hammered in front of a worldwide audience.

Because with a young John Elway at quarterback, the Broncos would certainly be back again.

Legacies

People like to talk about legacies in the NFL. For example, every game that Peyton Manning wins from here on out is "big for his legacy." And it's true, if he wins the Super Bowl next Sunday he goes down as one of the greatest passers of all time, a member of a select group of quarterbacks with two rings, and the first quarterback to win Super Bowls with two different franchises. If he doesn't, he's still just a really good quarterback who hasn't even won as many titles as his little brother.

You know whose legacy took a big shot last weekend? Mike Shanahan.

For some reason, the unseen powers that decide things such as football legacies determined some time ago that Mike Shanahan needed to win a third Super Bowl (without John Elway) to cement his legacy as a legendary NFL coach. He was never able to do it - not with Brian Griese, not with Jake Plummer, not with Jay Cutler, and not with Robert Griffin III after moving on to the Washington Redskins. In fact, the Redskins fired him earlier this month after they finished with a 3-13 record. It's possible, at the age of 61, that Shanahan will never be a head coach in the NFL again.

Last weekend, the Denver Broncos advanced to Super Bowl XLVIII. Part of the credit is due to their vice president of football operations, who helped rebuild the Broncos into a contender. His name is John Elway.

So not only did Mike Shanahan never make it back to the Super Bowl, but also John Elway made it back before him. Oh, and there's the part where John Elway wasn't even working in the NFL for more than a decade before taking the job with the Broncos.

I'm not sure why the unseen powers decided Shanahan needed to prove himself again. No one ever said to Bill Walsh that he needed to win another without Joe Montana to prove himself. No one is going to tell Bill Belichick that he needs to win another without Tom Brady, because he can't even win another one with Brady right now.

It's probably not fair. Mike Shanahan is one of only seven coaches to win back-to-back Super Bowls, which is a pretty remarkable achievement. Sometimes I think we forget how good a job he did with those two Broncos teams, just because he was never able to replicate it. But I guess that's why "what have you done for me lately?" is a phrase often heard around the NFL.

Josh McDraft

Josh McDaniels practically destroyed the Broncos franchise during his less-than-two-year tenure as head coach of the Denver Broncos. Or did he?

I was kind of wondering what he was thinking as he stood on the sideline watching the Broncos beat the Patriots to claim the AFC championship. (He's now the Patriots' offensive coordinator.)

His draft strategies were widely panned while he was in Denver. . . and with good reason. Trading a first round pick next year for a second round pick this year is generally a bad idea, unless you hit a home run and Alphonso Smith turns out to be an All-Pro. (He didn't.)

But not all of his picks were busts. The following players played key roles during the Broncos' win and were all draft choices from the McBronco era.

• Knowshon Moreno. He had a 28-yard run on 3rd-and-10 in the second quarter which set up the Broncos' first touchdown of the day, and was the game's leading rusher with 59 yards.
• Robert Ayers. He sacked Tom Brady for an 11-yard loss on 3rd-and-8 from the Broncos 18 with about three and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter, forcing the Patriots to settle for a field goal on their only effective drive of the first half.
• Demaryius Thomas. He had 7 catches for 134 yards and a third-quarter touchdown reception which gave the Broncos their largest lead of the game.
• Zane Beadles. He started at left guard and was part of an offensive line that didn't give up a sack and kept defenders away from Peyton Manning all day.
• Eric Decker. He had 5 catches for 73 yards, all of them for first downs.

I should also mention David Bruton, a reserve safety and special teams player. Although he played a less significant role, he was credited with one tackle in Sunday's game and was also a McDaniels selection.

McDaniels might have felt a little bit of pride yesterday, even though his team was thoroughly beaten on the field. He might have thought, "Hey, I wasn't such a bad judge of talent after all!"

So while John Elway gets the lion's share of credit for constructing this Super Bowl team, let's take a moment to thank Josh McDaniels for 10 percent of the roster. However, I don't think that they will give him a Super Bowl ring if the Broncos win.

My Manning Manifesto

Here's the deal. Twenty-nine years ago, as a young boy, I became a Denver Broncos fan. The year was 1984, John Elway was in just his second year as a pro, the Broncos won thirteen games, lost just three, and took the AFC West. I've been with them ever since, through Super Bowl defeats and Super Bowl triumphs, through Josh McDaniels and Tebowmania.

Peyton Manning was an enemy. The Colts crushed the Broncos in the playoffs in consecutive seasons (2003 and 2004) and were a major obstacle to AFC supremacy for most of the decade. I tired of hearing about Peyton Manning and the Colts and how great they were. I didn't care about Peyton and his commercials and SNL appearances. I cheered when Tracy Porter intercepted his pass in the Super Bowl and returned it for a touchdown, thus depriving him of a second Super Bowl ring.

On March 20, 2012, these two worlds collided when Peyton Manning, having been released by the Colts after sitting out a year due to injury, signed a free-agent contract with the Denver Broncos.

I was definitely in favor of the move and thrilled that he picked the Broncos over 30 other NFL teams. After all, we had just suffered through the turmoil of 2006-2011 which included Jake Plummer's benching, Brandon Marshall's continuous off-field drama, the murder of Darrent Williams, the firing of Mike Shanahan, the ill-advised hiring of Josh McDaniels, the trade of Jay Cutler, and the Tim Tebow Experiment. The Broncos didn't make a playoff appearance from 2006 through 2010, their longest stretch since the 1970s. And even though John Fox, Von Miller, and Tim Tebow led the Broncos to a playoff win over the Steelers in 2011, it was apparent that John Elway wanted Tim Tebow as his quarterback about as much as he wanted Dan Reeves as his offensive coordinator.

However, I remained very reserved in my excitement. Who knew how he was going to come back from his injury? And who knew how things were going to mesh together in Denver? I certainly didn't rush out to buy a #18 jersey.

Things got off to a rough start last season, but once the Broncos finished the year with 11 consecutive wins and earned home-field advantage in the playoffs, I finally decided that I was fully on board with these Manning-led Broncos, and I was excited to follow them on their journey to the Super Bowl.

But then came January 12, 2013, when the Baltimore Ravens came to town and upset the heavily favored Broncos 38-35 in double overtime. I lashed out at Peyton Manning on Facebook after the game, calling him the "greatest regular-season quarterback of all-time." Because what had happened to Colts fans so many times had just happened once again, to Bronco fans. After watching our team put on a show all season, we suddenly found ourselves flat on our backs, the rug to yanked right out from beneath us. I was mad Peyton couldn't come through in the clutch and win a cold weather came on his home field. I was frustrated that despite all of the fanfare that came with his arrival, he didn't get any further in the playoffs than Tim Tebow had the year before.

So my feelings towards Peyton Manning have been much like the weather was on that day - icy.

On Sunday there's a big game, with Peyton Manning returning to his old stadium to lead the undefeated Broncos against the 4-2 Colts on Sunday Night Football. Colts owner Jim Irsay made some remarks this past week that some construed as a shot against Manning and his postseason failures. Will Peyton use the remarks to go up and light up his old team on the football field?

It will be entertaining if he does. But it won't prove anything.

We all know Peyton Manning can dominate the NFL's 16-game regular season like no other. Some great things have happened already this season. Seven touchdown passes in a game. Setting a new Broncos single-game scoring record. Back-to-back 50-point games. Winning a shootout against Tony Romo and the Cowboys. An 11 to 1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. A seventeenth consecutive regular-season win. Whatever they're going to do to the Colts tomorrow night. 

Barring an absolute disaster, the Broncos will make the playoffs this season. But what will happen when the calendar flips over to January?

Based on how the early part of the season has gone, here are some possible locations for Broncos playoff games in January: Denver, Kansas City, New England, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Only Indianapolis has a dome, and there is a good chance the weather will be cold in the other cities. The Super Bowl, should the Broncos make it that far, will be held in New York. Peyton and the Broncos will probably have to win at least one playoff game in adverse conditions if they plan on hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February.

The passing game will not be as effective in cold weather. Do the Broncos possess a good enough running game? Knowshon Moreno has put up some decent numbers, but how effective would he be without the threat of the passing game? Would the combination of Moreno, Ronnie Hillman, and Montee Ball be able to carry the team on their backs if needed? I don't think Bronco fans can feel good about the answers to any of those questions.


I'm not getting too excited about anything these Broncos do right now. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but Peyton has to prove to me that he can win big in the postseason in order to win me over completely. (How's that for a spoiled fan? That's what Super Bowls and Hall of Fame QBs do to you.) I hope he can pull it off - he needs another Super Bowl for his legacy. I'm a fan all the way, but I have my doubts about this team. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

My Annual Mile High Excursion

Once per year, I usually have the opportunity to attend a Broncos preseason game. My boss and his friend have seasons tickets, and like most season ticket holders they prefer to unload them for free on whoever wants to go. He offered me tickets for the preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals. You know, the game where the starters play very little, if at all. The seats aren't too bad - they are in the east stands, upper level, 50-yard line. And I got the parking pass - which is more awesome than it sounds - it makes getting home so much easier than messing around with the light rail.

The Broncos have a huge new video board. Here's a picture. It's truly enormous.

Here's a fun picture of the sun setting behind the stadium. As the saying goes, "If God's not a Broncos fan, then why are sunsets orange?"

This was part of the halftime festivities. It's a kid's team playing some Mascot All-Stars. Of course Miles was there, along with Rocky from the Denver Nuggets. I guess Dinger was busy, or too much of a loser. Also, that's Arby's Curly Fries straddling the 10-yard line. He had no arms.

Here's a shot from the real game. Peyton Manning didn't play at all. Brock Osweiler started at QB, and gave way to Zac Dysert in the second half. The Broncos came from ahead to lose this one. Usually when I go to these preseason games you can spot several jerseys of the opposing team throughout the stadium. However, there were precious few Cardinals fans there. I could have probably counted the ones I saw on my two hands.

Here we are enjoying our time at the game. Maybe someday I'll luck into some regular season tickets.

Elway & Kosar

Bernie Kosar is in the news, and it's not good. I saw Bernie on an ESPN documentary called "Broke" a few months ago discussing his bankruptcy. You could say post-football life has not been good to him.

Meanwhile, the last time I saw John Elway was this past Sunday, standing on the sideline at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, watching the Denver Broncos close out a 52-20 thrashing of the Philadelphia Eagles. He's in his third year as an executive with the Broncos, having helped rebuild them into a Super Bowl contender.

When I was a boy, I had a book about John Elway and Bernie Kosar - I believe I acquired it from a school book fair. It gave details of their lives and athletic careers - one half was devoted to Elway, the other to Kosar. I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere at my parents' house. Although it would be unfair to consider them equal in athletic skill, the two were at the very least contemporaries, rivals forever linked by two football games in the late 1980s.

On January 11, 1987, Bernie Kosar had his Cleveland Browns five minutes away from the Super Bowl. The Browns were leading the Denver Broncos 20-13, and the Broncos were backed up against their own goal line, surrounded by an exultant Cleveland crowd. But then, John Elway executed what became known simply as "The Drive", directing his team 98 yards for the tying touchdown. The Broncos went on to win the game in overtime, 23-20, and advanced to Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena, California.

The Broncos lost that Super Bowl, but both the Browns and Broncos were back the next year, and this time the AFC Championship was being decided in Denver. This time the Broncos were leading by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but the Browns were in position to tie the score. Browns running back Earnest Byner took a handoff from Kosar, but lost the ball inside the Broncos' five-yard line. His fumble was recovered by the Broncos, who held on for a 38-33 victory and earned a second consecutive Super Bowl trip. The play went down in history as "The Fumble".

The Browns and the Broncos met once again in the AFC championship, two years later. This time the Broncos won easily and headed to the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons.

Although the Broncos did not win any of those three Super Bowls, Elway played another nine seasons in Denver and finally won two Super Bowls following the 1997 and 1998 seasons. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XXXIII and retired a few months later. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and was hired as the executive vice president of football operations for the Broncos following the 2010 season, and persuaded Peyton Manning to sign with the Broncos in 2012. The Broncos have a 17-4 record with Elway and Manning on the payroll, and have won 15 consecutive regular season games.

Kosar was released by the Browns midway through the 1993 season. He went to Dallas, and earned a Super Bowl ring as a backup quarterback. He then finished his career with three seasons as a backup on the Miami Dolphins. Cleveland temporarily lost football when Art Modell moved his team to Baltimore following the 1995 season and renamed them the Ravens. Although the Browns returned to the NFL a few years later, they still have yet to play in a Super Bowl. And they haven't even advanced as far as the AFC championship game since the loss to the Broncos in January of 1990.

I've done all this setup to ask one question:

What if "The Drive" had never happened?

What if Elway's 3rd-and-18 pass to Mark Jackson had fallen incomplete? What if Elway's famous touchdown pass to Mark Jackson had been batted down at the line of scrimmage, bringing up a 4th-and-1? What if the Cleveland defense had managed a goal-line stand to stave off the Broncos threat? Would we instead be talking about "The Stand"?

The Browns may not have fared any better than the Broncos against the New York Giants in the Super Bowl that year, but what kind of momentum would the franchise have gained from the victory? Would they, like the Broncos, have repeated as AFC Champions the following year? Would Kosar have finished his career in Cleveland, like Elway did? Would he have won a Super Bowl at some point? Would Art Modell still have needed to leave town in order to get a stadium built? Would Kosar still be experiencing the same post-career problems?

And what about the Broncos? It's hard to imagine, given the remarkable ability of John Elway, that he wouldn't have found success anyways. But could have been him, instead of Kosar, who was forced out of town in the early 1990s? Would the Broncos have Peyton Manning as their quarterback today?

It's impossible to know the answers, of course.

But I believe the events of January 11, 1987 most certainly had an impact in determining the trajectory of these two franchises. However, the degree of the effect remains up for debate.

I will submit that up to that date, Cleveland and Denver were both good-but-not-great NFL franchises. But once we experienced "The Drive" it put the Broncos on a course to become one of the truly dominant franchises in modern NFL history. The Browns have regressed over the last two decades, their recent history littered with failure and busted draft picks. So you decide.

As for the two men, that's even harder to determine. They had different upbringings, different skills sets, and their success was somewhat tied to the quality of the team around them and the ability and willingness of team ownership to invest money in winning. Kosar had the game won for Cleveland, and then had to stand by and watch his defense allow the opponent to march 98 yards for a touchdown. For Elway, "The Drive"  became the foundation of his legendary professional career.

What about us? Can one singular event change the course of our lives? Sure it can, either through our own good or bad choices or through the intersection of our lives with the lives of others (right place at the right time, or wrong place at the wrong time). Sometimes we realize these divergent paths, and other times it may not even occur to us. What we never know is what was really behind Door #2.

Thoughts on the New Bronco

I've never really been a Peyton Manning fan. Although I liked him better than Tom Brady.

How DO you like a guy who destroyed your team consecutive years in the playoffs (2003 and 2004)?

Plus, I always got tired of hearing about how great the Colts were and so on and so forth.

It should be noted that the Colts were a garbage-dump NFL franchise before Peyton showed up in 1998, however.

I am honestly suprised by the developments of the past two weeks. I didn't think that Peyton Manning would give the Broncos the time of day. Even after his visit, I thought it was SO CUTE that the Denver media actually thought he would pick Denver. Because there certainly seemed to be better options out there.

It wasn't until it got down to Tennessee and Denver that I thought they had an actual chance to get him. But when it came out that San Francisco had secretly worked him out a few days prior to working out for the Broncos, I thought that was the ballgame. For sure he would pick the 49ers, who came up just short of the Super Bowl last season. And when it kept dragging on day after day, I started to think he would pick Tennessee.

Am I excited? Sure, I guess so. Who wouldn't want one of the Top 10 all-time quarterbacks, who should still have at least a couple of good years left?

Plus, it meant a certain end to the banal arguments about Tim Tebow that occur on a daily basis on the Denver airwaves. Now, don't get me wrong - I became converted to Tebow during the 2010 season. He can play. I just wish we didn't have to be discussing his quarterbacking acumen every second of every dang day.

A lot of people are exultant about the acquisition, because it certainly means that Super Bowls are in the future.

I prefer a more cautious approach. Let us not forget:

1) When Joe Montana made the switch to the Chiefs late in his career, while they were much improved, he could not get them to a Super Bowl.
2) Similarly, Brett Favre came up just short of getting the Vikings to the Super Bowl after leaving the Packers.
3) All the talk is how all of Peyton's old buddies from the Colts are going to come play for the Broncos. Let's not forget how well the "Denver Patriots" worked out a couple of years ago.
4) Even when Peyton was in his prime and the Colts were firing on all cylinders, they only made it to the Super Bowl twice and only won it once. It is true that Tom Brady and the Patriots were often the roadblock during the Colts' best years, but guess what? Tom Brady is still QB of the Patriots.
5) The Broncos aren't close to being a championship-caliber team, in terms of talent. Remember that just one year ago, they were coming off a 4-12 season and picking second overall in the draft.

That's what worries me the most - Broncos management was all fired up a year ago to start rebuilding the team through the draft. What are they going to do now? Forget player development! We need to load up on veterans and make a run for the Super Bowl! We only have Peyton for a little while, so we need to win NOW!

The Broncos were probably going to draft a defensive tackle or a cornerback with their #25 pick in the upcoming draft. But with Peyton on board, will that still be the case, or will they instead look to load up on more offensive talent? I don't know.

Denver has a serious case of wanderlust when it comes to their quarterbacks.

After Elway retired, we had Bubby Brister who it seemed would be the one to lead the Broncos juggernaut to a third straight Super Bowl. Only he didn't make it to the regular season, because we had Brian Griese, who was the next Joe Montana!

Only it turned out that he wasn't, so we moved on to Jake Plummer, who was going to be awesome once he escaped Arizona! And he wasn't too bad, winning over 70% of his starts in Denver.

But that wasn't quite good enough, so we moved on to Jay Cutler, who was FINALLY the replacement we needed for John Elway! He was going to be our guy for the next 10 years. Only, then he got in a tiff with management and was shipped off.

Kyle Orton was never well-liked in Denver, but how about that Tom Brandstater, who looked really good in the preseason game against Arizona!

And then the events of last year, when fans chanted "Tebow" until John Fox gave in and let him play. So unless the Broncos make the Super Bowl really quick with Peyton at the helm, everyone will be back to talking about what QB is available in the draft.

It will be fun, though. The Broncos are switching back to orange jerseys next year, Peyton Manning will be the quarterback, they should be on Sunday or Monday night football at least five times, with a heavy dose of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on every other broadcast.