Note: All post-game updates will be on Mondays this yearIn a game eerily similar to last year's Week 1 loss to Miami, the Broncos once again had an inability to get the ball into the endzone on Sunday. It's only Week 1 and the season is obviously not over, but the things that we were shown in this loss give the impression that this team is not a championship contender. I'm wondering what Mike Shanahan does during training camp and the preseason instead of getting his teams mentally prepared to play. They certainly didn't look ready this week and they didn't look ready last year in the Week 1 loss to Miami.
Javon "I just dropped it" Walker, the darling of the Denver media during the preseason must have decided to dip his hands into cement before the game. He looked terrible out there. Wasn't the bash on guys like Lelie and Watts that they couldn't catch balls? Man, Javon Walker sure looked like an improvement in that regard.
As for Jake, I didn't see his first interception. The pick by Chavous was not his fault, as he threw a pass that Todd Devoe should have caught and Devoe just flat out missed it. The ball that was picked by Brown was off of a tipped ball, Jake threw into coverage but sometimes you have to do that when your team is losing. All day Jake had seemingly no pass protection and Leonard Little was running him over like he was behind the wheel of an SUV after a night at the bar. The offensive line and the wide receivers led by all-star-super-offseason-pick up Javon Walker flat out let Plummer down yesterday.
The calls for Cutler to start by his cheerleaders in the press led by Mark Kiszla who has done everything short of proposing to Jay to show his love and affection for The Gunslinger are comical at best. The geniuses at Orange Mane are just as funny and some of the more clueless clammoring for us to trade Plummer to a division rival to get rid of him. The Gunslinger is just flat out not ready for the NFL, nothing he showed in college gives us the impression that he could have done any better against the Rams than Jake did. Especially with the pass rush that was breathing down his neck all day. Cutler threw two picks to Middle Tennessee State for crying out loud. If the games were played in the weightlifting room, if you could win a game by benchpressing, I'd be all for subbing in Cutler but they're not.
The bright spot this week was clearly the play of the defense who as Bill Williamson points out were so good they managed to turn Jeff Wilkins into a fantasy god for the week. If they play half that well for the rest of the year, we'll be in fine shape for the regular season. The playoffs are once again an entirely different matter.
