dragondawg
10-26-2007, 03:32 AM
Playing for Vandy in tough SEC was perfect training
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
ENGLEWOOD - Fall down. Get up.
Simple. Or not.
"Some guys just don't know how to do it," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "Some guys fall apart, can't deal with it. Things aren't always going to go your way, you have to deal with it or you're not going to last very long."
And few young quarterback prospects in recent years have been trained in the fine art of tough game-day times like Jay Cutler.
While his résumé as a starting quarterback still might be only 11 games long, with a 5-6 record on it at the moment, Cutler is a step ahead of others who have come into the league with gaudier statistics from more storied places on the college football landscape.
Shanahan already has used "fearless" to describe it.
That's because Cutler came into the league after a four-year stint at Vanderbilt knowing how to bounce back, because having played at a small, private university in the football shark tank that is the Southeastern Conference, Cutler knows a thing or 100 about bad things happening in a game.
He knows about where to go after a few of them happen.
"There were a lot of times we had to overcome a lot of stuff," said Cutler, who was the SEC's offensive player of the year as a senior. "A lot of third downs, a lot of sacks, a lot of just making plays in some tough situations. I'm used to that kind of stuff.
"I think a quarterback can learn that, but as much as I did it in college, I think it makes me better prepared for what happens early in my career in the NFL. At Vandy, we didn't always block or throw or run how it was supposed to look at times. So we had to do what we could to try to get it done."
Sunday, in the Broncos' 31-28 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cutler moved the Broncos 49 yards in six plays in the final 1:10 of the game to get in position for Jason Elam's winning kick.
That drive followed a Steelers touchdown drive that tied the score at 28-28.
When the Steelers earlier had turned his third-quarter interception into a touchdown drive of their own, the Broncos responded with a 13-play, 79-yard touchdown drive. Cutler went 6-for-6 passing on that drive.
And overall the Broncos' three wins this season have come as a result of the offense moving Elam into position just in time to kick with the game on the line.
"Obviously, things are a lot cleaner now with how we protect and what we're doing, but third down-and-14, third down-and-13, I still believe we've got a good chance at it," Cutler said.
"I'm pretty calm in those situations. My mind is racing around about what they're doing, what we've got going on, what the best look is going to be. But once the ball is snapped, I'm just reading the defense and hitting the open guy. It gets quiet around me and I usually make good decisions."
Before the 2006 draft, there were many scouts and personnel executives who said Cutler's record as a starter at Vanderbilt was a blemish. But others looked beyond it, into the situation.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach John Gruden was one of Cutler's most vocal boosters before the 2006 draft, offering, "You flip some of that film on, playing Tennessee, playing Florida . . . a showcase of talent . . . of working through all of the crap that goes on in a game. You had to watch it to appreciate it. Some guys rise out of that kind of situation."
And the game's history is littered with rookie quarterbacks who got knocked down and didn't get up, who just didn't recover from the inevitability that a bad day, a bad play, could be just around the corner.
Cutler still has more interceptions this season - eight - than touchdown passes - seven - but the Broncos have liked how he has ridden out the rough spots in a 3-3 start that has featured more of those spots than they expected when they broke training camp.
"It's how you handle pressure," Shanahan said. "That's the profession for all of us, but people look at the quarterback a lot more than some others. I like how he handled himself at Vandy. That wasn't a negative to me, I like what he did when faced with difficulties."
"The results you get are always going to be important, especially in this profession, the results are what are looked at," Cutler said. "But I think at Vandy, we didn't always get the results, but I learned about doing what you had to to try and get those results.
"And that's probably helped me a lot now, because things aren't always going to go the way you want them to and part of the job is not falling apart when things don't go the way I want them to. In the end, it's about making third downs and putting your team in position to win."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/nfl/article/0,2777,DRMN_23918_5732026,00.html
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
ENGLEWOOD - Fall down. Get up.
Simple. Or not.
"Some guys just don't know how to do it," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "Some guys fall apart, can't deal with it. Things aren't always going to go your way, you have to deal with it or you're not going to last very long."
And few young quarterback prospects in recent years have been trained in the fine art of tough game-day times like Jay Cutler.
While his résumé as a starting quarterback still might be only 11 games long, with a 5-6 record on it at the moment, Cutler is a step ahead of others who have come into the league with gaudier statistics from more storied places on the college football landscape.
Shanahan already has used "fearless" to describe it.
That's because Cutler came into the league after a four-year stint at Vanderbilt knowing how to bounce back, because having played at a small, private university in the football shark tank that is the Southeastern Conference, Cutler knows a thing or 100 about bad things happening in a game.
He knows about where to go after a few of them happen.
"There were a lot of times we had to overcome a lot of stuff," said Cutler, who was the SEC's offensive player of the year as a senior. "A lot of third downs, a lot of sacks, a lot of just making plays in some tough situations. I'm used to that kind of stuff.
"I think a quarterback can learn that, but as much as I did it in college, I think it makes me better prepared for what happens early in my career in the NFL. At Vandy, we didn't always block or throw or run how it was supposed to look at times. So we had to do what we could to try to get it done."
Sunday, in the Broncos' 31-28 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cutler moved the Broncos 49 yards in six plays in the final 1:10 of the game to get in position for Jason Elam's winning kick.
That drive followed a Steelers touchdown drive that tied the score at 28-28.
When the Steelers earlier had turned his third-quarter interception into a touchdown drive of their own, the Broncos responded with a 13-play, 79-yard touchdown drive. Cutler went 6-for-6 passing on that drive.
And overall the Broncos' three wins this season have come as a result of the offense moving Elam into position just in time to kick with the game on the line.
"Obviously, things are a lot cleaner now with how we protect and what we're doing, but third down-and-14, third down-and-13, I still believe we've got a good chance at it," Cutler said.
"I'm pretty calm in those situations. My mind is racing around about what they're doing, what we've got going on, what the best look is going to be. But once the ball is snapped, I'm just reading the defense and hitting the open guy. It gets quiet around me and I usually make good decisions."
Before the 2006 draft, there were many scouts and personnel executives who said Cutler's record as a starter at Vanderbilt was a blemish. But others looked beyond it, into the situation.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach John Gruden was one of Cutler's most vocal boosters before the 2006 draft, offering, "You flip some of that film on, playing Tennessee, playing Florida . . . a showcase of talent . . . of working through all of the crap that goes on in a game. You had to watch it to appreciate it. Some guys rise out of that kind of situation."
And the game's history is littered with rookie quarterbacks who got knocked down and didn't get up, who just didn't recover from the inevitability that a bad day, a bad play, could be just around the corner.
Cutler still has more interceptions this season - eight - than touchdown passes - seven - but the Broncos have liked how he has ridden out the rough spots in a 3-3 start that has featured more of those spots than they expected when they broke training camp.
"It's how you handle pressure," Shanahan said. "That's the profession for all of us, but people look at the quarterback a lot more than some others. I like how he handled himself at Vandy. That wasn't a negative to me, I like what he did when faced with difficulties."
"The results you get are always going to be important, especially in this profession, the results are what are looked at," Cutler said. "But I think at Vandy, we didn't always get the results, but I learned about doing what you had to to try and get those results.
"And that's probably helped me a lot now, because things aren't always going to go the way you want them to and part of the job is not falling apart when things don't go the way I want them to. In the end, it's about making third downs and putting your team in position to win."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/nfl/article/0,2777,DRMN_23918_5732026,00.html