T-post Tom
01-04-2010, 02:48 AM
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[Not that the Chiefs had anything to do with the donks' loss. ;)]
Paige: No need for review: Broncos flat-out quit
By Woody Paige
The Denver Post
The Broncos are quitters.
They had 10 scenarios for getting to the playoffs, but the Broncos suffered the most contemptible, despicable and reprehensible, all's-quit-on-the-Western-front, worst-case scenario Sunday.
The Broncos were beaten like borrowed beasts of burden by the chump-change Chiefs 44-24. No postseason, no winning season, no season of reason, rhyme or reliability.
Josh McDaniels and these Broncos finished with a dubious achievement unequaled by the past eight coaches and 43 teams.
They lost their final four games.
And they were responsible for one of the worst choke-job, cave-in collapses in modern NFL history. They defeated the other AFC West teams on the road and were dumped by all three at home (by a cumulative score of 96-46).
The Broncos have not reached the playoffs in four consecutive seasons and own a 32-32 record in that span. They are merely mediocre unmentionables.Kansas City showed no quit, just as Oakland showed no quit two weeks earlier.
Jamaal Charles wouldn't quit running on Sunday. He had 259 yards and two touchdowns. It was impressive and embarrassing.
After the Broncos quit in the second half on two interception returns for touchdowns and quit on a 56-yard run for the last humiliating score, and quit on the season, and after the coaches quit on the players, I asked McDaniels how he felt.
"Disappointed."
The rest of us are feeling disillusioned, dissatisfied, disgusted.
In 2009, the franchise changed the coach, the general manager, the assistants, about 60 percent of the players — including the quarterback, the running backs and linebackers and cornerbacks and more — the defensive scheme and the offensive playbook, but nothing really changed — another 8-8 record and a cruel end. I asked the young coach concluding his first season, "How are you going to change the mind-set?"
"That's a good question," he replied. "I think we have to look at what may be the common denominator (with recent years) in terms of why we are not finishing better. I can't speak for years prior, but I can speak for this year, and we certainly didn't play nearly as well in the second half of the season. . . . This isn't an acceptable ending to the season."
But the state of mind remains the same.
Quit.
Jay Cutler quit on the Broncos — after McDaniels was trying to quit on him (and acquire the quarterback on the winning team Sunday). Brandon Marshall quit on the Broncos at the beginning of the season, and again at the end. McDaniels quit on Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis, Ben Hamilton, Brett Kern, Jack Williams and most of the other Mike Shanahan players.
The Broncos quit quickly in Baltimore and quietly against Pittsburgh. The players and McDaniels quit in Washington when Orton was injured. They quit even before the game with the Chargers here started.
But, mostly, they quit in the final month of Sundays. Knowshon Moreno ran like an indifferent man — and wound up 53 short of a thousand yards. On Sunday, Kyle "Pro Bowl" Orton threw for 431 yards, but he also threw three passes for touchdowns — two to the other side. From Nov. 1 on, Orton had no comebacks for his critics. What would Jay have done? We'll never know because he and McDaniels quit on each other.
The wide receivers were supposed to make up for Marshall's absence on Sunday. Broncos receivers caught 32 passes but dropped nine.
And the defense quit playing tough and mean, allowing 27 or more points in seven of the last 10 — after permitting 17 or fewer in the first five.
McDaniels quit. His game-planning was ordinary. Third-and-1, Moreno run. Second-and-8, a pass for 4. The feisty McDaniels who fist-pumped after the Patriots victory, trash-talked before the Chargers game, screamed at his team during the Giants game and pushed the Broncos against the Cowboys, looked lost on the sideline during the slide, deferring rather than attacking, deciding to dink rather than bombard.
The longest pass completion of the season was a fluke. The Broncos had one run over 36 yards. They had two returns for TDs — in the same game by the same fellow who wasn't really part of the Broncos' plot line for most of the season.
The Broncos fooled everybody when they began 6-0, but no opponent was fooled in eight of the last 10 games.
They quit worse this year than the 2008 Broncos did. That team lost only three in a row — and the last one was on the road.
"I think we're better than 8-8," wide receiver Jabar Gaffney said late Sunday.
No, the Broncos are 8-8 and going nowhere . . . again. They are out of scenarios and season.
It's quitting time.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
ROFLROFLROFLROFLROFL
[Not that the Chiefs had anything to do with the donks' loss. ;)]
Paige: No need for review: Broncos flat-out quit
By Woody Paige
The Denver Post
The Broncos are quitters.
They had 10 scenarios for getting to the playoffs, but the Broncos suffered the most contemptible, despicable and reprehensible, all's-quit-on-the-Western-front, worst-case scenario Sunday.
The Broncos were beaten like borrowed beasts of burden by the chump-change Chiefs 44-24. No postseason, no winning season, no season of reason, rhyme or reliability.
Josh McDaniels and these Broncos finished with a dubious achievement unequaled by the past eight coaches and 43 teams.
They lost their final four games.
And they were responsible for one of the worst choke-job, cave-in collapses in modern NFL history. They defeated the other AFC West teams on the road and were dumped by all three at home (by a cumulative score of 96-46).
The Broncos have not reached the playoffs in four consecutive seasons and own a 32-32 record in that span. They are merely mediocre unmentionables.Kansas City showed no quit, just as Oakland showed no quit two weeks earlier.
Jamaal Charles wouldn't quit running on Sunday. He had 259 yards and two touchdowns. It was impressive and embarrassing.
After the Broncos quit in the second half on two interception returns for touchdowns and quit on a 56-yard run for the last humiliating score, and quit on the season, and after the coaches quit on the players, I asked McDaniels how he felt.
"Disappointed."
The rest of us are feeling disillusioned, dissatisfied, disgusted.
In 2009, the franchise changed the coach, the general manager, the assistants, about 60 percent of the players — including the quarterback, the running backs and linebackers and cornerbacks and more — the defensive scheme and the offensive playbook, but nothing really changed — another 8-8 record and a cruel end. I asked the young coach concluding his first season, "How are you going to change the mind-set?"
"That's a good question," he replied. "I think we have to look at what may be the common denominator (with recent years) in terms of why we are not finishing better. I can't speak for years prior, but I can speak for this year, and we certainly didn't play nearly as well in the second half of the season. . . . This isn't an acceptable ending to the season."
But the state of mind remains the same.
Quit.
Jay Cutler quit on the Broncos — after McDaniels was trying to quit on him (and acquire the quarterback on the winning team Sunday). Brandon Marshall quit on the Broncos at the beginning of the season, and again at the end. McDaniels quit on Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis, Ben Hamilton, Brett Kern, Jack Williams and most of the other Mike Shanahan players.
The Broncos quit quickly in Baltimore and quietly against Pittsburgh. The players and McDaniels quit in Washington when Orton was injured. They quit even before the game with the Chargers here started.
But, mostly, they quit in the final month of Sundays. Knowshon Moreno ran like an indifferent man — and wound up 53 short of a thousand yards. On Sunday, Kyle "Pro Bowl" Orton threw for 431 yards, but he also threw three passes for touchdowns — two to the other side. From Nov. 1 on, Orton had no comebacks for his critics. What would Jay have done? We'll never know because he and McDaniels quit on each other.
The wide receivers were supposed to make up for Marshall's absence on Sunday. Broncos receivers caught 32 passes but dropped nine.
And the defense quit playing tough and mean, allowing 27 or more points in seven of the last 10 — after permitting 17 or fewer in the first five.
McDaniels quit. His game-planning was ordinary. Third-and-1, Moreno run. Second-and-8, a pass for 4. The feisty McDaniels who fist-pumped after the Patriots victory, trash-talked before the Chargers game, screamed at his team during the Giants game and pushed the Broncos against the Cowboys, looked lost on the sideline during the slide, deferring rather than attacking, deciding to dink rather than bombard.
The longest pass completion of the season was a fluke. The Broncos had one run over 36 yards. They had two returns for TDs — in the same game by the same fellow who wasn't really part of the Broncos' plot line for most of the season.
The Broncos fooled everybody when they began 6-0, but no opponent was fooled in eight of the last 10 games.
They quit worse this year than the 2008 Broncos did. That team lost only three in a row — and the last one was on the road.
"I think we're better than 8-8," wide receiver Jabar Gaffney said late Sunday.
No, the Broncos are 8-8 and going nowhere . . . again. They are out of scenarios and season.
It's quitting time.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com