Miami – Back home, expectations may be getting an adjustment after hype just took a forearm to the chin strap.
The darkest nightmares in Broncoland could not have imagined a more abysmal start to a season.
The Broncos not only were defeated by the underdog Miami Dolphins 34-10 on Sunday at Dolphins Stadium, they were disgraced. Insult was rubbed into their many wounds on the final play. The Broncos were trying to pick up some garbage points at the Dolphins’ 6-yard line when defensive end Jason Taylor stripped quarterback Jake Plummer of the ball, picked it up and rambled 85 yards for a touchdown on the last play.
Off went the gun. The embarrassment was complete.
“This is going to be a hard one for them,” said Dolphins quarterback Gus Frerotte, who played for Denver in 2000 and 2001, still calls the city his offseason home and beat his old team by completing 24-of-36 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns. “It’s going to be a hard one for Bronco- land, coach (Mike) Shanahan and everyone in Denver. I’m sure they had high expectations. But it’s early in the season. You never get down.”
The notion the 2005 schedule has only one down, 15 to go is about all the Broncos were clinging to as they shuffled sore, tired and beaten out of sweaty South Florida. While the Dolphins’ Nick Saban celebrated his jump from college to the pros by winning his NFL head coaching debut, Shanahan was trying to deal not only with his team’s horrific season-opening performance, but potentially season-affecting injuries to starting tailback Mike Anderson and star cornerback Champ Bailey.
Anderson tore rib cartilage while reaching back for a pitch early in the first quarter, and Bailey suffered a separated shoulder while making a tackle on the first play of the second half.
“We’ll see what kind of character we have now,” Shanahan said.
The Broncos were doomed almost from the time they set their 45-man active roster for the game. They dressed two tailbacks, and Anderson got hurt early. They dressed four cornerbacks, and at one time in the second half, three of them were down. Besides the Bailey shoulder injury, Lenny Walls and rookie Darrent Williams were sidelined by severe cramping and dehydration.
That left the Broncos with backup safety Sam Brandon playing one corner – the first time he played that position since he was a sophomore in high school – and rookie Domonique Foxworth at the other corner.
Have at ’em, Gus.
“We couldn’t even go nickel,” Broncos defensive end Trevor Pryce said.
The defeat was so thorough, Denver was long past shocked by game’s end.
The Broncos were coming off back- to-back 10-6 playoff seasons and vowing improvement. To a man, their stated goal on the first day of training camp was reaching Super Bowl XL in Detroit. At the moment next week’s game against San Diego is daunting enough.
The Dolphins, meanwhile, sought nothing more than improvement on their 4-12 record from a year ago and a sense of order after a change of coaches.
“We want everybody to forget about last year and talk about the new Dolphins,” said Zach Thomas, the Dolphins’ superb middle linebacker.
It was clear from the start the Broncos were hoping to trample the Dolphins on the ground. Even on passing downs, the Broncos preferred the double-tight end to the three-receiver set. That plan, however, quickly gave way to disaster. Anderson got just 5 yards on four carries before departing. Tatum Bell came in and immediately broke free for a 30-yard gain, but later couldn’t get 3 yards when the Broncos needed them most.
The turning point came in the second quarter, when the Broncos had five chances, counting a do-over play on a defensive offside penalty, to score from the 3-yard line on in. Anderson territory. And while Anderson was missing, so too were the points.
Down only 6-0 thanks to their defense that stiffened at critical times, the Broncos gave the ball three times to Bell, who was stopped for zero, zero and minus-1 yards. On another goal-line down, the Broncos put such brutes as linemen Cornell Green, Dwayne Carswell and Gerard Warren into pass patterns. Three was a crowd as the ball fell incomplete.
And on the defensive penalty, the Broncos gladly would have declined had Ashley Lelie not let Plummer’s pass zip through his hands.
Unable to get a running game going, Plummer spent most of the first half trying to convert third-and-fairly long. He didn’t complete a pass of any length in the first quarter and was only 8-of-23 for 89 yards with no touchdowns entering the fourth quarter.
“It wasn’t fun,” Plummer said. “On third down we did nothing, and in the red zone we did nothing.”
These were two areas the Broncos feverishly attempted to address in the offseason. But they’ll apparently need at least one more week to show improvement, because they were 1-for-12 on third downs against the Dolphins and scored a touchdown on only 1-of-4 trips inside the Dolphins’ 20-yard line.
With the Broncos unable to keep the ball for sustained periods, their defense wilted in the second half.
“Shocked? I’m not shocked by anything that happens in the NFL,” Pryce said. “Disappointed, but shocked? No.”
Dirty dozen
The Broncos converted only 1-of-12 third-down attempts against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday:
FIRST QUARTER
Third-and-7 at the Denver 32: RB Mike Anderson run for minus-1 yard
Third-and-7 at the 50: QB Jake Plummer pass to WR Ashley Lelie incomplete
Third-and-10 at the Denver 46: Plummer run for 7 yards
SECOND QUARTER
Third-and-8 at the Denver 22: Plummer pass to RB Tatum Bell incomplete
Third-and-1 at the Miami 34: Plummer pass to TE Stephen Alexander for 8 yards and first down
Third-and-1 at the Miami 1: Plummer pass to Alexander incomplete
Third-and-4 at the Miami 9: Plummer pass to Lelie incomplete
THIRD QUARTER
Third-and-5 at the Denver 42: Plummer pass to TE Jeb Putzier incomplete
Third-and-4 at the Denver 44: Plummer pass to Alexander incomplete
FOURTH QUARTER
Third-and-10 at the Denver 37: Plummer pass to Putzier incomplete
Third-and-1 at the Miami 1: Bell runs for minus-1 yard
Third-and-10 at the Miami 49: Plummer pass to Lelie incomplete
TURNING POINT
Start the bus, Gus
With 4:47 remaining in the third quarter, Miami quarterback Gus Frerotte threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Randy McMichael, giving the Dolphins a 13-3 lead with Olindo Mare’s extra point and ending a nine-play, 61-yard drive against a wilting Denver defense. “The bottom line is they beat us,” Denver coach Mike Shanahan said. “We didn’t perform like we were capable of.”
CRAZY PLAY OF THE GAME
Nice try, but …
It didn’t work, but it looked good. At the goal line in the second quarter, the Broncos used backup offensive linemen Dwayne Carswell and Cornell Green and defensive tackle Gerard Warren as eligible receivers on third and fourth downs. On third down, Green and Warren went out as receivers. On fourth down, they stayed in. In a preseason game against Indianapolis, this set worked for a touchdown on a Mike Anderson run.
HIT OF THE GAME
Hit ’em high, hit ’em low
Late in the second quarter, Denver safety Nick Ferguson stopped Miami tight end Randy McMichael – who outweighs Ferguson by 54 pounds – by taking down his legs. Just as McMichael was going down, Denver defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban came high to complete the play, sending McMichael flipping in the air. McMichael still got a first down on the play.
BESTS
9/11 remembered
Tribute: All NFL stadiums participated in a simultaneous tribute to the United States and the memory of Sept. 11, 2001.
Escape: Denver quarterback Jake Plummer looked like a dead duck in the first quarter, but escaped a sack twice, bouncing out of a defensive player’s grasp. Plummer then threw an incomplete pass.
Trick play: From their 18 in the first quarter, the Dolphins pulled a perfect reverse as wide receiver Chris Chambers ran 61 yards to the Denver 21, setting up a field goal.
Effort: On the same drive, Chambers made a diving catch in the end zone, but he was out of bounds.
Save: In the third quarter, Plummer dived over a defensive player to recover a fumble by running back Tatum Bell at the Broncos’ 37-yard line.
WORSTS
Plummer off mark
Start: Jake Plummer didn’t complete his first pass until 9:45 of the second quarter, an 8-yard strike to wide receiver Rod Smith. Plummer missed on his first six attempts.
Injury: Mike Anderson went out in the first quarter with a rib injury, and his presence was missed at the goal line. The smaller Tatum Bell was stopped three times short of the end zone, including fourth down from the 1 in the second quarter.
Penalty: In the first quarter, the Denver defense was dominating and had just sacked Gus Frerotte at the Dolphins’ 7. But defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban was called for holding, giving the Dolphins a first down. Chris Chambers broke a 61-yard run on a reverse on the next play.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
