Cleveland
Loyalty isn’t a word that gets used very often these days in professional sports. And, truth be told, NFL coaches – witness the sudden departures of assistants in Phoenix and Baltimore last week – can be the worst offenders when it comes to choosing self-preservation over allegiance.
However, here at Cleveland Browns Stadium, Mike Shanahan and Romeo Crennel put their faith in a couple of embattled members of their organizations. And while the performance of one, Cleveland offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon, certainly made it a lot easier for the second, Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, by the end of Denver’s 17-7 victory, you could certainly understand why it can be so hard to stand by your man.
“Sometimes just getting a win isn’t enough,” Plummer admitted about his role in turning what should have been a rout into yet another exasperating “What’s the deal?” afternoon.
It certainly didn’t have to be that way. On a day when an ESPN report said
Shanahan was contemplating jettisoning his starter for backup Jay Cutler, Plummer had a great chance to put any potential quarterback controversies to rest.
Late in the first quarter, the Broncos faced a first-and-10 from their own 2.
Every fiber in any offensive mastermind’s makeup would scream “PASS!” The question was, did Shanahan trust Plummer, 3-for-9 with an interception at that point, enough to make the call. He did, and the resulting 19-yard play to Rod Smith seemed to loosen up the offense, not to mention a playbook that had shrunk noticeably since the season-opening loss in St. Louis.
By the end of the first half, Plummer had thrown 26 times, just four off his season high. There were nine completions combined to Smith and Javon Walker, Tatum Bell already had 68 yards rushing and the Broncos had a 10-0 lead.
When the quarterback found Brandon Marshall in the end zone for the rookie’s first NFL score on the first possession of the third quarter, it seemed Denver’s offense would be able to name its score for the first time this season.
For the rest of the day, however, Plummer was abysmal. There was another interception that gave the Browns a short field and led to their score, and at least two other passes that should have been picked off, either of which could have made things rather uncomfortable for the visitors.
While Plummer willingly took the blame for the collapse afterward in the locker room – “It goes on me, first and foremost,” he said – Shanahan took the high road.
“We never single anybody out, it is a team,” he said.
But in its way, Sunday’s riches-to-rags tale had to be just as maddening as any of the feeble efforts that preceded it. A dominant performance against the Browns and the Broncos could have carried that much more confidence into Sunday’s home game against Indi-
anapolis. A repeat effort against a Colts team that allows well over 300 yards a game and you take some serious juice into an upcoming schedule that includes Pittsburgh, San Diego, Kansas City and Seattle.
Instead, Shanahan once again found himself wondering, seven weeks into the season, when his offense would reach its potential for an entire 60 minutes.
“The game is about consistency,” he said. “We are not where we want to be.”
Chances are there won’t be any firings in Denver, but you can expect to see news of Carthon’s dismissal on the transactions page of the paper any day now. Even if Crennel were inclined to try to stay the course, the scores of empty seats here – the joint was literally more than half empty shortly after Marshall’s touchdown – speak to a bottom line that ownership won’t tolerate.
And while the Broncos actually yielding a touchdown seemed to be big news, if you want a true referendum on how good the “D” really is, the polls open Sunday when Peyton Manning hits town.
Thanks to a pathetic offense that couldn’t march 60 yards with John Philip Sousa, let alone Charlie Frye, leading the way, all that was proven Sunday is Denver knows how to take candy from a baby.
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
