The big, red, digital numbers on the clock read 9:55 p.m. in a somber Denver locker room. But anyone who could tell time fully understood the Broncos’ season ended minutes earlier, with a 23-20 loss to Seattle.
As the TV cameras in a nearby auditorium rolled on rookie Jay Cutler, recording his thoughts on the first loss of his NFL career, veteran quarterback Jake Plummer slipped almost unnoticed out the back, pausing only briefly to talk with a teammate.
We can’t blame Plummer for this one. Coach Mike Shanahan made this mess.
“I’m a little disappointed in myself,” said Shanahan, when it was too late, after he had unfairly asked Cutler to learn on the job and do too much in the heat of the playoff drive.
This is a coach who has some explaining to do. Shanahan must look his veterans in the eye and tell safety John Lynch, receiver Rod Smith and center Tom Nalen how the Broncos are supposed to recover from a three-game losing streak that has left the team’s collective mood as exasperated as a heavy sigh.
“I never in my life thought we would lose three games in a row. Ever. It’s pretty shocking right now,” Broncos veteran D.J. Williams said.
This is what happens when you attempt to play practice games in December and get Cutler an education, when everybody else in the league is getting really serious about keeping score.
There was real anger in the locker room on a team whose confidence was already shaken before linebacker and emotional leader Al Wilson went down with a frightening neck injury in the fourth quarter. After Wilson was carted off the field, the Broncos not only surrendered a six-point lead, they collapsed.
For all its character and heart, this is a team that acts as if it has seen too much. Winning the AFC West is out of the question. Making the playoffs as a wild card will be no small feat. The Broncos have lost the faith, and if he’s not careful, Shanahan has lost them.
All you had to see is the competitive rage in the angry gait of receiver Javon Walker as he moved through the locker room.
“I’m frustrated. It is obviously (my) first year here. But I am used to being out there, running around, making plays and something big is going to happen. And I’m not getting that right now,” said Walker, seething after he caught only two passes for 17 yards. Walker wondered aloud why this team can’t find a way to get a playmaker like himself the football.
If Cutler was not inserted into the starting lineup to open up the offense and make big plays, then what was the point of the upheaval caused by switching quarterbacks so late in the season?
For the vast majority of the game, Walker was no different than 76,146 fans in the stands. He could do nothing except watch, hold his breath and pray Cutler did not mess up.
Until Brandon Marshall ran 71 yards with a short pass late in the fourth period, breaking three Seattle tackles on his way to a touchdown that briefly tied the score and set up the Broncos for the disappointment of watching the Seahawks win on a 50-yard field goal with five seconds remaining on the clock, Shanahan too often acted as if he was babysitting Cutler in the second half.
Here was the worst example of coddling: As the Broncos held on tentatively to a 13-7 lead early in the final period, needing 5 yards to move the chains on third down, Shanahan approved a hand-off to Mike Bell off right tackle from the Denver 26. That was no way to show confidence in Cutler. That was the same conservative approach that eventually made keeping Plummer on the field irrelevant.
Cutler was not good. But it would be foolish to blame a rookie quarterback for how the Broncos have lost their groove.
“It wasn’t his fault,” running back Tatum Bell said. “Our offense didn’t come to play.”
Despite the stumbling and the costly mistakes of Cutler in a shaky debut, Walker believes, as most of us do, that the kid will one day be great.
But Cutler’s time is not now. And it is too late for the Broncos.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
