He has been here as head coach for 11 seasons. And this 22-3 victory over the Raiders gave Mike Shanahan his third AFC West title.
Only three titles in 11 years?
On the surface, there is nothing magical about that.
Who cares, he asks, because there is nothing magical about division titles.
Shanahan’s intellect when considering anything of value often takes him to the end of a subject, then backward.
His football thinking starts with the Super Bowl.
He works backward from that.
He owns two Super Bowl titles. Now, he can zero in on getting a third. This one. The XL one. Much has been done to set the table for it. Now he can talk about it like he has been thinking about it.
And this man has repeatedly played the necessities and the scenarios over in his mind. And he is one step closer to it today than he was the day before.
His team kicked the Raiders sideways Saturday, with the Broncos scoring all their points before the Raiders gained their fourth-quarter field goal. Jake Plummer threw it 29 times, Kerry Collins threw it 41. The Broncos ran it 40 times, the Raiders 17.
That tells you plenty.
It says the Broncos have more balance, more smarts, more focus and more fun, and they are a team heading places. Shanahan clinched the division and AFC’s No. 2 seed in the playoffs against the Raiders; though time heals wounds, it never gets old for Shanahan to smack the Raiders and their owner, Al Davis.
During Shanahan’s Broncos stay, the Raiders have presented five head coaches. San Diego has had five, too. Kansas City has had three.
Toss in Seattle, now in the NFC, and 15 head coaches have toiled for AFC West teams during Shanahan’s Broncos stay.
There were times this season seemed like 11 in 1 for Shanahan. There were disappointments from which to rebound, from the very start in Miami.
“I don’t know if people appreciate how smart the man is – he’s brilliant,” said Larry Coyer, the Broncos defensive coordinator. “He spurs you and makes you scramble to keep up with his thinking. He tells it like he sees it, and he is a fierce competitor.”
Those traits have helped the Broncos recover from each loss – at Miami, at the Giants and at Kansas City – with winning football.
“We had a team here that was 13-3 and had home-field advantage in the playoffs that lost to Jacksonville,” Shanahan said. “I think people thought we were never going to recover from that. We came back and won the next two Super Bowls. I think since then we learned how to come back from things.”
Last year about this time his team was on the way to a second straight 10-6 record and would win the regular-season finale against the Colts to make the playoffs. It ended with another playoff loss at Indy, and there was plenty of thinking that Shanahan should move on, that he was stale here, that his power was eroding, that his team was stuck.
Shanahan surveyed things and snatched a few hungry players, weeded out others who were not and gave ownership of his team to his veterans.
That is his smartest move.
Building a team of character and talent that does not require overt policing in discipline, teaching and performance has created a worthy and dangerous team.
“He has vets who know what they are doing and vets who are not going to let the young guys screw it up,” defensive end Marco Coleman said. “You have to be a mature player to play for him.”
Rookie cornerback Darrent Williams added: “I’m more afraid when I screw up of Al Wilson than I am the coaches. That is how much accountability there is with the players before you even get to the coaches.”
It is an old formula tested and true but difficult to obtain.
When you have it, you ride it.
Together, Coleman and tackle Gerard Warren were asked what they thought of Shana-
han. Together they answered: “I love him!” They certainly sounded like they meant it. They understand, as most of the Broncos players do, that they have a head coach who trusts himself, first, but trusts this bunch in ordinate ways.
Shanahan rules the AFC West once again.
Who cares? He is not flipping over it. Why should we?
It only gives him a boost, a lift, to peek over the fence and fixate on what lies on the other side.
He has a shot, a real shot to climb that fence.
He can sense it. He can smell it.
Staff writer Thomas Georgecan be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
