Glendale, Ariz. – Champ Bailey knows a little something about quarterbacks’ psyches. He has been ruining them for years.
Bailey, as astute as he is athletic, noticed something unusual just a few days into training camp about Broncos rookie quarterback Jay Cutler.
The kid never goes in the tank.
“He’s rare because of that poise,” Bailey said. “He can throw interceptions and just shrug it off. Not all quarterbacks can do that. He just doesn’t seem to care. He just goes back out there and makes plays.”
Thursday night, Cutler, facing the Cardinals’ first-unit defense in the first quarter but playing with Denver’s second-team offense, carried that practice field demeanor into his most important NFL playing time to date.
Highlighting an entertaining battle between the former Vanderbilt star and Arizona’s Matt Leinart – the Southern California Heisman Trophy winner was taken No. 10, one pick ahead of Cutler in the April draft – the Broncos’ quarterback of the future engineered a brilliant two-minute drill, culminating with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Todd Devoe with six seconds remaining in the first half of Denver’s 29-23 victory.
The touchdown drive came immediately after Cutler made his first major mistake of the preseason. Looking for tight end Nate Jackson, Cutler, making his first preseason start and playing the entire first half, saw Arizona cornerback Robert Tate step in front of the receiver. Tate intercepted the ball and ran 24 yards in for the touchdown, giving the Cardinals a 20-9 lead.
Cutler trotted off the field and immediately began talking to quarterback coach Pat McPherson. Then Cutler returned to the field and promptly engineered a nine-play, 70-yard drive in one minute, 54 seconds. Cutler completed 6-of-8 passes on the drive. One of the incomplete passes was a drop by Devoe, who was wide open and would have scored a touchdown.
“It’s never a good thing (to throw an interception), but it was good the way he reacted,” assistant head coach Mike Heimerdinger said of Cutler’s work. “He showed a lot of poise and we knew he would.”
What was expected to be the game in which a Denver running back – Mike Bell, Tatum Bell or Cedric Cobbs – established himself as the primary back instead turned into Cutler’s show. Cutler was superb once again as he completed 13-of-19 passes for 201 yards. For the preseason, Cutler was 40-of-62 for 561 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception.
With starting quarterback Jake Plummer and most of the starting offense on the bench, it became evident early that Cutler was going to have a big night. He led a field-goal drive on the first series of the game. On the Broncos’ next series, Cutler – still playing against the Cardinals’ first-unit offense – hit receiver David Kircus on an 84-yard touchdown bomb.
But Cutler is enough of a realist to understand that his playing time will be severely curtailed now that the start of the regular season is at hand.
“I may be chilling the rest of the season. It’ll be sort of like a redshirt year,” he said.
Leinart, who suffered a shoulder injury on his right, non- throwing arm in the third quarter, completed 10-of-15 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. The extent of his injury was not immediately announced.
Bill Williamson can be reached at 303-954-1262 or bwilliamson@denverpost.com.
