By Mike Klis<
Denver Post Staff Writer<
If emotions had eyes, the 2005 football schedule just got a makeover.
Only in fickle and fanatical Broncoland can the dispiriting season-opening defeat in Miami suddenly seem so far away while the playoffs in January seemingly move to right around the corner.
There is nothing quite like a dominant performance against a division leader to swing the faith in the local football team.
Needing to convince a nationally televised audience and, more importantly, their demanding local fan base that fears of a Denver demise were grossly premature, the Broncos didn’t just beat the Kansas City Chiefs, they thoroughly trounced them, 30-10, Monday night before a sellout crowd of 76,381 at Invesco Field at Mile High.
“We’re football players, the gloom and doom is what’s out around us,” Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, who threw on touchdown pass and bootlegged for another. “When we get in that facility and get on that practice field, it’s us and only us and that’s all that matters.”
Nary a boo was heard Monday night. Then again, ABC-TV and the Broncos never the gave the fans much chance to complain.
Just prior to kickoff, the crowd waved orange pom-poms and helped wrestler and motion-picture celebrity “The Rock” shout the Monday Night Football theme line, “Are you ready for some football?”
Has Invesco Field, in its fifth season, ever been louder?
The exhilarating environment was in stark contrast to the previous week when the Broncos were mercilessly booed while falling behind 14-3 at halftime to the San Diego Chargers.
“I’m not taking anything away from anybody, but this is what the NFL is _ you’ll get your behinds kicked in a minute if you’re not ready,” said Broncos defensive end Trevor Pryce, who drew at least three holding penalties from the injury-riddled Chiefs line. “But then you can also dominate a game like this. It all depends on the swing on how do we feel, how do they feel. It all factors in.”
The Broncos rallied to win the Chargers” game thanks to their hyper-aggressive and opportune defense and they were up 17-0 against the Chiefs before “The Rock” could find his seat.
A short Jason Elam field goal, a long Mike Anderson touchdown run and a medium-range touchdown pass from Jake Plummer to Rod Smith put the Broncos up 17-0 before the Chiefs could say AFC West.
It’s a division they no longer lead, not by themselves they don’t. The Chiefs and Broncos are 2-1. And as those think-ahead Bronco fans well know, the tie-breaker is the interconference record, where Denver just posted a two-week record of 2-0.
“They beat us in every way you can beat us,” said Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil. “The only thing we outscored them on was on penalties, 13-4.”
The Broncos are hardly a perfect team and injuries to arguably their best players on defense and offense _ Champ Bailey (hamstring) and Rod Smith (concussion), respectively _ may raise concerns for their immediate future, which is next week at Jacksonville.
But give the Broncos this: They responded, and then some, to that embarrassing, 34-10, season-opening loss in Miami.
“This organization wants to win and even after last week we weren’t real happy,” Plummer said. ” want to win and win big. Today was a dominating performance on both sides of the ball.”
On defense in particular do the Broncos raise hopes this team is considerably better than those that finished with a 10-6 record and were drilled in the playoff’s first round each of the past two years. The speed and athleticism of Ian Gold has complimented the otherwise bruising linebacker core of Al Wilson and D.J. Wilson. Strong safety Nick Ferguson has been magnificent in holding down the tight-end likes of Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez in consecutive weeks.
And to all those pundits who laughed at the Broncos for restructuring their defensive line with a bunch of Cleveland Brown castoffs? They need to meet Courtney Brown.
After sacking Chargers quarterback Drew Brees four times in the second half last week, Brown, Trevor Pryce and Ebenezer Ekuban, among other Denver defensive linemen, consistently harried the Chiefs” Trent Green into either missing open receivers or settling for short completions.
“For the most part they were bringing one linebacker with four down linemen,” said Green, who was 23 for 44 but for only 221 yards. “They were getting good penetration so they didn’t lean on the blitz.”
As for Green’s Monday night counterpart, never mind what the national audience thinks of Plummer. Broncos quarterbacks have always answered first to the local crowd. The way he played Monday, Plummer should no longer be referred to as Jake the Snake.
How about No-Mistake Jake? Plummer was 13 for 18 for only 152 yards, but he had the 12-yard touchdown throw to Smith, ran a bootleg from the 1 yard line for another score, and had no interceptions.
“I think Jake played one of the best games I’ve seen a quarterback play around here,” said Pryce, in his ninth season. “And I’ve played with Elway for two years.”
Wait a minute, there Trevor.
“Just the decisions he made _ not taking away from the Hall of Fame quarterback, but as far as After John,” Pryce said of Plummer. “He just played an excellent game. He looked so poised.”
And heard no boos. Now the next question Bronco fans have for their team: Are they ready for some Jacksonville Jaguars?
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
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