Bronco_Beerslug
01-23-2006, 06:37 AM
Lincicome: Even at home, Broncos look like lost cause
January 23, 2006
How convenient for the Broncos that next year does not require a new calendar. Or even a plane ride home. But next year it is, all the same and all of a sudden.
Another Broncos season ends in January, this one at Invesco Field instead of back there in Indiana, the third short sheet in a row, a few weeks later but still a numbing redundancy.
Home cooking, splendid weather, encouraging worshipers, the merest of opponents, none of those advantages helped the Broncos any more this time than the last two. The team that might have been champion, with a chance to be, if not a team for the ages, at least the team for a season, let practically a free pass to the Super Bowl pass.
Sorry to use that word. Pass. It conjures up the flailing, failing Jake Plummer, asked finally to do something, unable to do enough, except to help Pittsburgh, which didn't really need it.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/a9g7y
------------------------------------------------
Krieger: Can Plummer work without a safety net?
January 23, 2006
If you are big on football gods and karma and spiritual stuff generally, you could look up at the darkening sky and shrug at the inscrutable powers that be.
Champ Bailey let an interception bounce off his hands. Domonique Foxworth saw one slapped from his. John Lynch felt one slip from his. Nick Ferguson watched one fly between his.
Plays the Broncos normally make. Plays they could have made. Plays that might have turned the tide.
"A lot of it's karma, quite honestly," said Trevor Pryce. "Think about it. Two guys break on the ball and it just happens to go through both of them. Hines Ward is standing there. That's karma, dude. That's luck. Quite honestly, that was a very lucky play on their part. But the one thing John Elway always said, 'The good one's always lucky.' "
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/946ea
--------------------------------------------------------
Littwin: Hindsight has way of saying, 'Told you so'
January 23, 2006
And so, it was all a big tease.
We should have seen it coming. But we never do, do we?
If you feel like a sucker now, don't worry. I just saw a guy heading toward the exits with a fake Jake Plummer beard and with fake Jake Plummer hair. The only way he could have looked, or felt, worse is if he had been the real Jake Plummer.
(Remember Good Jake and Bad Jake? Now there's Worse Jake and Much Worse Jake.)
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/8zvku
-------------------------------------------------------
Plummer, again, in the shadow of a No. 7
By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Unable to feed the orange madness, unable to beat Pittsburgh or escape the shadow of John Elway, Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer had nothing left to do except walk away as the loneliest man in Colorado.
Ten solitary steps from the locker room, Plummer finally threw in the towel. It landed in a heap against a wall.
With a chance to lead Denver to the Super Bowl and capture the city's heart, Plummer dropped the ball. He fumbled twice and threw two interceptions. Asked to be the hero, he stumbled Sunday during a 34-17 loss to Pittsburgh in the AFC title game.
"If we lose, I'm taking the blame," Plummer said. "That's my job."
As Denver wakes up this morning, it is still very much Elway's town. Plummer? He's trying. But trying is not enough.
It's never enough.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/8ed62
-------------------------------------------------
Steelers dissect Denver's schemes
By Thomas George
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Most of the Denver fans had already slipped away. Much of what was left in the stands during the final seconds were fans waving yellow towels.
Terrible ones, by any measure.
They provided a salute to the Steelers. A goodbye wave to the Broncos.
The Broncos all season talked about going into someone's backyard and owning the place. The Broncos always displayed their desire to do something special in this season. Pittsburgh, on cue, read the lines, rehearsed the script, stood tall and delivered.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/9e7dw
January 23, 2006
How convenient for the Broncos that next year does not require a new calendar. Or even a plane ride home. But next year it is, all the same and all of a sudden.
Another Broncos season ends in January, this one at Invesco Field instead of back there in Indiana, the third short sheet in a row, a few weeks later but still a numbing redundancy.
Home cooking, splendid weather, encouraging worshipers, the merest of opponents, none of those advantages helped the Broncos any more this time than the last two. The team that might have been champion, with a chance to be, if not a team for the ages, at least the team for a season, let practically a free pass to the Super Bowl pass.
Sorry to use that word. Pass. It conjures up the flailing, failing Jake Plummer, asked finally to do something, unable to do enough, except to help Pittsburgh, which didn't really need it.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/a9g7y
------------------------------------------------
Krieger: Can Plummer work without a safety net?
January 23, 2006
If you are big on football gods and karma and spiritual stuff generally, you could look up at the darkening sky and shrug at the inscrutable powers that be.
Champ Bailey let an interception bounce off his hands. Domonique Foxworth saw one slapped from his. John Lynch felt one slip from his. Nick Ferguson watched one fly between his.
Plays the Broncos normally make. Plays they could have made. Plays that might have turned the tide.
"A lot of it's karma, quite honestly," said Trevor Pryce. "Think about it. Two guys break on the ball and it just happens to go through both of them. Hines Ward is standing there. That's karma, dude. That's luck. Quite honestly, that was a very lucky play on their part. But the one thing John Elway always said, 'The good one's always lucky.' "
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/946ea
--------------------------------------------------------
Littwin: Hindsight has way of saying, 'Told you so'
January 23, 2006
And so, it was all a big tease.
We should have seen it coming. But we never do, do we?
If you feel like a sucker now, don't worry. I just saw a guy heading toward the exits with a fake Jake Plummer beard and with fake Jake Plummer hair. The only way he could have looked, or felt, worse is if he had been the real Jake Plummer.
(Remember Good Jake and Bad Jake? Now there's Worse Jake and Much Worse Jake.)
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/8zvku
-------------------------------------------------------
Plummer, again, in the shadow of a No. 7
By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Unable to feed the orange madness, unable to beat Pittsburgh or escape the shadow of John Elway, Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer had nothing left to do except walk away as the loneliest man in Colorado.
Ten solitary steps from the locker room, Plummer finally threw in the towel. It landed in a heap against a wall.
With a chance to lead Denver to the Super Bowl and capture the city's heart, Plummer dropped the ball. He fumbled twice and threw two interceptions. Asked to be the hero, he stumbled Sunday during a 34-17 loss to Pittsburgh in the AFC title game.
"If we lose, I'm taking the blame," Plummer said. "That's my job."
As Denver wakes up this morning, it is still very much Elway's town. Plummer? He's trying. But trying is not enough.
It's never enough.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/8ed62
-------------------------------------------------
Steelers dissect Denver's schemes
By Thomas George
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Most of the Denver fans had already slipped away. Much of what was left in the stands during the final seconds were fans waving yellow towels.
Terrible ones, by any measure.
They provided a salute to the Steelers. A goodbye wave to the Broncos.
The Broncos all season talked about going into someone's backyard and owning the place. The Broncos always displayed their desire to do something special in this season. Pittsburgh, on cue, read the lines, rehearsed the script, stood tall and delivered.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/9e7dw