The frigid conditions were not enough to deter 72,713 from taking in this game, which advances to the fourth quarter with Denver in field-position purgatory back at its 1-yard-line. The temperature has risen to 21 degrees tonight, with the wind chill now at 11.
8:38 P.M. MST: Bryce Fisher gets to Jay Cutler on third down … but Cutler holds on to the football, and managed to step one yard out of the end zone, avoiding a safety — but forcing Paul Ernster to punt from deep in his end zone. Ernster kicks a 40-yard punt that Nate Burleson returns six yards to the Denver 36.
8:42 P.M. MST: Huge third-and-4 … and Elvis Dumervil collapses the pocket along with Gerard Warren. Dumervil gets credit for the sack, setting up a 52-yard Josh Brown field-goal attempt … or perhaps no, as Brown pooches the punt, which Darrent Williams comes forward to field, which he proceeds to muff … and then recover on his own.
8:43 P.M. MST: Denver didn’t lose the ball, but might have lost something far more valuabke, as Al Wilson has yet to rise after the play.
8:47 P.M. MST: Wilson is still on the grass. He momentarily sat up, but is laying down on the cold grass at around the Denver 20-yard-line once again. A chant of “Wil-son, Wil-son, Wil-son,” rises from the frigid fans as virtually the entire Broncos team encircles the All-Pro linebacker.
8:52 P.M. MST: An immobilized Wilson leaves the field. Meanwhile, Tatum Bell is injured one play later and is helped by the team’s training staff to the sidelines.
8:55 P.M. MST: It appears that Wilson’s injury has — quite understandably — dripped the liveliness from this crowd, and perhaps the Broncos. Denver goes three-and-out and punts; Seattle takes over at its 39-yard-line with 9:42 left.
8:59 P.M. MST: Three plays later, Seattle is in the end zone.
9:02 P.M. MST: Turnover No. 4 comes when Brian Clark fumbles the football on the ensuing return. Seattle’s Joe Tafoya recovers the fumble at the Denver 40.
9:12 P.M. MST: Since Wilson left the game, nothing has gone right for the Broncos; the team yields a field goal, and then a Jay Cutler pass is tipped and intercepted.
9:13 P.M. MST: NBC’s Andrea Kremer reported that Wilson was moving his extremities and was taken to a local hospital for “precautionary measures.”
9:16 P.M. MST: The Wilson-less defense gamely holds Seattle to a field goal, and gives Cutler one more opportunity.
10:46 P.M. MST: Back in the press box after a crushing defeat for the Broncos. It gives them their third straight home defeat — the longest skid in Denver since 2002 — and places them in a tie for the last wild-card slot with Cincinnati, Kansas City, Jacksonville and the New York Jets. All trail their respective divisional leaders by at least two games with four to play.
Tags: Seattle Seahawks
I’m guessing the lack of responses here means that everyone is as stunned as I am. I can’t remember the last time I was this frustrated with a Bronco team and I’ve been fan for a long, long time. I am embarrassed to claim the Broncos as my team right now. This game looked a lot like the San Diego game a few weeks ago. The defense is now exposed and gassed out; they’re surviving on fumes. I suppose I would be gassed out too if my offense couldn’t score everytime I gave them an opportunity. As for the offense, I give up. I was hugely elated when Shanahan switched over to Cutler. Now, I don’t know what to think. Pardon the comparison, but did he look just like Jake Plummer or is it just me? The only thing saving him now is that he’s a rookie. And does the offense have a deal with the defense that they will turn the ball over pathetically often so that the defense can show the world how great they are? Nah, probably not. I think they just suck real bad right now. One new complaint that I do have though is with the questionable playcalling. Someone needs to remind Mike Heimerdinger (I think he calls some of the plays) that if he wants to call those long ball throws, he might need to lobby for the team to obtain Dante Culpepper & Randy Moss because that’s the only two that his plays ever worked for. Notice that the Jets didn’t keep him around last year? And Mike Shanahan better think of some new ways to run the ball–OR NOT RUN IT–because defensive coordinators have him all dialed in: 1st down-play the run; 2nd down-play the run; 3rd down-blitz and either stop the draw, pitch, or dive easily, or pressure whatever QB is in that can’t throw the ball anyhow. Do I sound bitter? I truly am. They look lost and their looks are carrying over into the Loss column. Maybe next year…
I love the Broncos and i like Cutler and i believe it was a great move. I for one did not expect Cutler to come out and throw like Elway. He is going tto make mistakes. There is going to be a learning curve. However the rest of the team needs to play even harder. The front line is not giving anytime for Cutler to throw the ball. I don’t even want to talk about our special teams. I still want to know why we decided to run the ball on third and five in the fourth quarter (especially when Wilson just got injured). We have to play more aggressive. We need to have patience with Cutler and he will turn into a great quarterback. I also agree that any defense is going to be able to learn how to stop our offense if we always run for two plays and then pass. Cutler started to warm up at the end of the second quarter and then did not get to throw that many passes in the third. They need to let Cutler throw the ball to get into rhythm. Today was a team loss. Cutler might have made mistakes but the rest of the team did not step up to help.
Hey Shanananadingdong, that was quite a spark your boy Jay added to the team there. Was that a called play tossing the ball aimlessly in the air as Jay was going down, or did he think that bit of genious up himself?
As many people have mentioned before, swapping Jake for Jay was a bonehead move. I don’t have anything against Jay, but changing quarterbacks at this point in the season when Jake was the least of Shanahan’s worries just didn’t make sense. I think with only Champ and Lynch on the defence, the two Bells to run, and Javon and Rod to catch (with a lot of yards from Jake too) there isn’t much that can be done when one or the other gets hurt or is out for whatever reason. Put in the rookie that apparently gets pretty rattled and doesn’t seem to be able to throw much while on the move, and you just get that much worse.
Stunned and disgusted yes, but still proud to be a Broncos fan. There is still a lot of a team there, but the support isn’t there except from the fans. They will be a bit hoarse tomorrow from the volume levels they were reaching.
Let me try to clear up my initial post-game rant. Yeah, I do think Jay Cutler will eventually come around as a solid and perhaps even great QB (as a Bronco fan, I really hope so). I suppose I am feeling the urgency now because we are 7-5 when we were once 7-2 and right in the thick of vying for home field advantage in the playoffs. Now the playoffs are a tenuous proposition. Worse, I am still waiting for the answer for our melt down. Can’t blame the QB anymore (they’ve played the same so far); can’t say the defense doesn’t come to play hard (until the second half when their best efforts are met with the offense going three-and-out); can’t say the running game isn’t effective (both Bells’ & even the FB’s are running well); can’t say we don’t have any receivers to throw to (Brandon Marshall is on the map). It’s very disheartening to watch it all come to this. So, in the end, I guess I am hoping for more and sooner from Jay Cutler, than the less that came tonight. We’re out of wiggle room.
What is wrong with you guys. Denver played with a rookie left tackle, 3rd string safety, 1st week back for the starting RB, a rookie QB(1st game ever),committed 4 turnovers, and lost the heart and soul of their defense in the 4th quarter, and only lost the game(50 yd. FG) in the final 10 seconds to the defending NFC Champs. Please forgive the language, but you guys sound like a bunch of Raider fans.
That was a complete heartbreaker, but I think everyone would benefit from sitting back a second and take a look from a broader point of view.
We gave up 4 turnovers, our rookie QB played like a rookie, we got quite dinged up, our o-line were seriously lacking in pass protection, and our d-line again failed to get any serious pressure in the 2nd half.
After all that, we still only got beat by a hair. I don’t for once second think the better team won the game today. We outplayed Seattle completely. The ONLY reason we lost was turnovers.
I knew coming into this game, we weren’t going to get anything better from Jay than we got from Jake. But let me say this…Jay has the potential to learn from his mistakes. Jake consistently goes up and down with playing smart. Jay will get better. Every week he will become more and more dangerous. He threw some passes today that were zippy and on target…once he really learns how to use his skills at the pro level, I think we are all going to get to see something special.
Keep up the hope for this season, but look at the big picture…this team is in the middle of change right now (in all phases…don’t get me started on what we need to do on defense and special teams). We’re heading in the right direction. If they can keep our major players in Denver next season, we are going to be a very scary team…
A real tough loss, running game was doing well….Cutler played like I feared he would, but yeah…hes a rookie and itll happen. The fumbles were killers along with horrible field position.
Im glad Al is ok. I’ll be at the game next week…hoping for a better outcome.
Bronco fan for 19 years……I back Jake’s 39-15 record……Hey Shanhan……What was the QB’s record from 1999-2003 Brister, Griese, Frerotte, Buerlein ect….the years in Between Elway and Plummer.
That era is coming back and Im sadened……Cutler needs 2 years to become respectable..
With Culter in there next week the broncos lose by 20+
With Plummer its a coin toss, if anything they lose by 7 or less
Shanahan against KC the ran for 28 yards. Was that Plummers fault, Was it Plummers when stepen Alexander dropped 3 passes one for an interception, Is it plummers fault that other teams have names RB like LT,LJ,Rudy Johnson,Alexander, or tight ends named: Antonio Gates, T Gonzalez, T Heap, Ben Watson, The tight end is an important position and we might have the worst catching ones in the league.
Well Plummer would have won last night so counting last night the Broncos would have been 11-5. Next week being their only remaining loss.
With Cutler they will be 8-8 with SanFran. at home being Cutler’s only chamce to win.
Disgruntled with Shanahan for the first time ever………
Jay played as well as expected. I am excited to see him get some playing time this season as we will be better off next season from this. We are not out of this yet. Without all the turnovers, we won the game. We played solid for the most part and losing Al was an mojo killer as we had the momemtum up until then.
Jay will get better each week with practice and may give the Chargers a run for their money….without LT I don’t think the Chargers are that great, good but not great…. We can run the table, win and start over in the post-season, but if we don’t the experience is great for this young QB.
It sounds like there will be a lot of Bronco fans in SD next week, I personally know of at least 10 who are going. We always play them well in SD…..Go Broncos!!
Plummer should still be playing. Cutler has a better arm but he is not ready, plummer can make more plays for them right now, especially since we were able to run the football, we could have used everything plummer is good at again, the bootleg and playaction. cutler showed that he will be good but not right now. i like the guy he can make plays but no experience is hurting him and shanahan was definetaly holding back a bit i really believe that shanahan put cutler in because of all the pressure he is a plummer supporter. as far as defence they did well untill the 4th. im praying for wilson, goodluck. go broncos (i guees were playing for next year)
No Plummer should not be playing. Anybody who feels Plummer should still be playing…get over it, hes never playing again. Jay Cutler I think played ok for his first start. We need to eliminate the mistakes. The defense played well ok until the fourth quarter, which in part is because of the Al Wison injury. All the broncos fans need to understand that we will probably not make the playoffs. But the most important thing for these next few weeks is to get Jay Cutler ready for next season. Rod Smith will probably retire, and we def. need a new offensive coordinator. How in the world does tatum bell have 110 yards rushing in the first half, and then only has 30 in the second. That is just rediculous. Every time the guy touched the ball he was taking it for like a 8 yard gain. In the second half we tried to throw more, when actually we should have ran more to eat up the clock. We need to get prepared for next season, and why isnt elvis dumervil starting, i swear whenever hes in the lineup hes getting a sack or something, I dont know…but hey, i still love the broncos and i always wil, and whoever put the comment about it will take 2 years just for cutler to become respectable is absolutely crazy…jus look at Vince Young, it took him a couple of months, and we all know Jay Cutler has twice the arm that Vince has.
Ohhhhhhh look now……….All the lame excuses that Jay Cutler is only a rookie is surfacing now. Cutler sucks just as well! Last night proved two things, One, no playoffs for us. Two, it wasnt allPlummer’s fault after all. Its everything Shananhan.
71 yards total passing going into the fourth quarter. How classic?Shananhan really screwed up this time. He wanted the growing pains to start now. NO ROMO HERE!
Sorry for being frustrated.
I said last week that Cutler will probably play as well now than Jake Plummer has been playing all season. Why not get Cutler some gametime experience? Didn’t Elway once say that plaing as a rookie is really good because it helps you learn much quicker than normal? Didn’t Brett Favre complete his first pass to himself and then get tackled for a 15 yard loss? I was glad to see Cutler make at least one “Oh s— he IS a rookie” boneheaded mistake…of course I wasn’t glad at the time, but today I am glad he screwed up and learned from it. He put up numbers comparable to Plummer this season, so I think it’s a great change. The problems were never Plummer’s fault, it’s a team issue and at least we getting Cutler baptised under fire so he will be ready next year.
I would like to state that I called Seattle’s game winning drive. Not that hard of a call considering the Broncos D has all but vanished when the 4th quarter approaches. If we can’t hold onto a lead going into the 4th quarter we just will not win many games. Under Elway the Broncos D would always step it up when John led the team to a game-winning or game-tying score. This defense is uninspiring to me, and I think Coyer needs to be replaced. Why does he stick with the same game plan for the whole game and never mixes it up? I would have called for a change up and began blitzing later in the 4th..yes it’s more agressive and dangerous, but its better that allowing the opposing QB sit back there all freakin day until a reciever gets open for a 15-20 yard gain. God that pissed me off last night.
I read the Denver Post and laughed at the sports writers idiocy when it comes to football. Now they’re callin for Shannahan’s head on a plate after destroying Plummer didn’t solve the Broncos woes. Not to mention they are pretty much labeling Cutler as a flop…what is it with those people? They are acting like spoiled little 3 year olds that want everything their way and will throw a tantrum whenever they dont get it right away. Bunch of boneheads…I say keep Shannahan and Cutler, get rid of Coyer and Plummer. And hire a damned Offensive Coordinator that is close to as good as Kubiak…and draft an Defensive lineman in the 1st round dammit. lol
Man I hope the Broncos handle the Chargers…this could easily turn into an 8-8 season. AYE!
Hey, I’m sooooo happy to see everyone turning on Jay and Shanahan! Like we said all along, it was a terrible decision. The season thus far, had nothing to do with Jake and had everything to do with Shanahan and the defenses lack of ability against good teams. I don’t care what you say about Al, Champ or Lynch, against SD, INDY, KC, the ENTIRE defense crumbles….Jake had Denver ahead of INDY and SD at the half, it was up to the defense to keep it that way and they couldn’t! With Jake at the helm and a win last night, at worse the Broncos are 9 and 3, instead they’re 7-5 and with Jay Cutler, who needs about three years to even compete in this league, we’re doomed for sure.
Jay Cutler couldn’t compete in college, losing record every year, and you’ll yelled back at us, “HE WAS IN THE TOUGHEST COLLEGE DIVISION” well now he’s in the NFL!!!!! What do you think is going to happen there? We will now keep a running log of Jay’s first 54 games as a starter and I’m certain it wont look anything like 39-15!!!!!!!!
So far…0-1
Thanks Jay for proving…
Denvers defense is NOWHERE near as good as you all think it is.
Jake Plummer wasn’t even 1/4 of the reason Denver was playing so poorly this year.
Once again, THANKS MIKE SHANAHAN for throwing away any chance we had at winning it all this year….You’re a real swell guy!
http://www.LetPlummerPlay.com
ok…whoever the hell posted the comment above me is just simply a dumb — …ok first of all… Jay Cutler had a horrible team around him at college, and he still got picked 11th overall. I hate when people post stuff and dont know what the hell they are talking about. 3 years? 3 years dumb—? You are just retarted, he will be ready to compete this DAM SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to concur with orangecrush06 – You have to be kidding me…Cutler is a rookie and his showing was NO WORSE than Plummer’s. Yeah, Cutler made a bone-headed toss, but I can think of at LEAST 5 bone headed toss that our former VETERAN QB threw this season. No worse at all.
Also, keep your chins up Bronco fans…I see a lot of neigh-saying in the posts. We’re still in charge of our own destiny and we CAN beat SD and run the table. We can make the playoffs and definitely should…
Anyone who says we would have won the game if Plummer was in is seriously mistaken. First of all, most of the plays called were running plays…Cutler was not given much of a chance to prove himself. However, in the fourth quarter, Cutler threw a great pass that led to a touchdown. Can anyone remember the last time Plummer was able to rally the team to tie or win? Heck, he has not even had a touchdown since they won the Oakland game. Give Cutler some credit…it was his first time playing in the NFL. The only reason why Seattle won was they had the ball last.
oops from my previous post…Plummer had not had a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter since the Oakland game. Sorry for my error!
I thought Jay played a respectable game. He had some passes that were right on the money, and they actually did try to do some passing which was encouraging. The receivers were actually trying to catch, and the game was down to the wire!
I support Coach Shannahan whole heartledly in his QB change decision, and next year marks my 30th year of being a Broncos fan! Go Broncos!
We love you when the stadium is quiet, we love you when the fans boo, we love you when the papers make judgements and when armchair quarterbacks bale on you! We Love YOU! Always have. Always will!
A Broncos fan forever,
Diane
http://www.sacredjourneymassage.com
My dad is a lifelong Redskin’s fan, so while I was growing up I created a new song just to get under his skin.
Hail to the Broncos!
Hail Victory!
Broncs on the Warpath!
Fight on ole Elway!
Run or pass and score — we want a lot more!
Beat ‘em, Swamp ‘em,
Touchdown! Let the points soar!
Fight on, fight on ’til you have won
Hail to the Broncos!
Hail Victory!
Boncs on the Warpath!
Fight on ole Elway!
Doesn’t quite rhyme, but that wasn’t my goal when I re-wrote this one(not to mention I wasn’t even a teenager yet either lol).
Passing it on to my little girl, she’s just 6 but she already sings this song with me when the Broncos play well. lol Hail to the Broncos baby! Cutler will succeed, all you naysayers are going to be on his bandwagon next year…
Cutler performed his first comeback Sunday, but our defense failed the team once again.
LetPlummerPlay(in Oakland) Jakes record this year is 7-4. If jake plays against Seattle, HOW can they be 9-3 at the worst. LPP move to Oakland, hide your face behind a black mask and pretend you can add. Follow Al Davis and whatever coach he can dig up. Or move to KC where even Dick Vemeil couldn’t get enough emotion out of those whiners to win anything. Bowlen and Shanahan are the best. Lets compare apples to apples- Jakes record for his 1st 3 years was 19-29. I think Jay can top that. Jay will probably be close to 19 wins the end of next year. The coaching staff will fix the mistakes Jay made last week and with hard work Denver will still make the play offs. The whole coaching staff couldn’t fix Jakes mistakes after 3 1/2 years. That is why Jay is playing.
If Mike Shanahan thinks that every Quarterback is John Elway and Steve Young he’s mistaken. The QB coach Shanahan never created a superstar QB Steve Young was made before Shanahan, so was Elway…What Happened to Griese, Jarious Jackson, and Bradlee Van Pelt those were quarterbacks drafted by Shanahan…..end result…….Cutler is his guy…..I can accept that…..This has to be his last chance or his rep should not be a QB maker…..
Plummer is Plummer a slightly above average QB……Still this year he still gets them further that Cutler. My thought was that wins are valuable….I gues I am mistaken. Fine Plummer will never win us the Superbowl but other than Elway who has???????
Leebov you have said the most intelligent statement yet on this blog. I also thought wins is what counted.
JAKE FOR PRESIDENT!
Leebov,
Are you trying to say the Plummer is the next John Elway?? Wow. Give Cutler another chance, it was his first game, he was playing against Matt Hasselbeck a vetran. Cutler has watched plummer long enough (maybe thats why he played bad), of course he mad a few big mistakes, like throwing the ball in the air instead of getting tackled.. but then hit 2 td passes brought them back up. Leebov, i dont suppose you want to go in Cutler’s shoes eh? i dont think you graduated from Vandervilt? and of course Wins are Valuable but since we put Cutler in late…hate to say but. its hopeless. now i am not saying Cutler is the next Elway and of course Plummer isnt but it is too late, Jake..ruined it.
IM STILL YOUR FAN CUTLER! GO WIN US SOME!!!
i wonder if any of the Broncos Players have one of these names…id like to hear their side of the ordeal..Especially Cutler and Plummer..
stop blaming our loses on either Jay. or the Deffence. its everyones fault. win as a team lose as a team. How do i know this? because im 12. lol and in sports, football, baseball, and basketball, i know the basics, i know football, my Family grew up liking the Packers =\ i have been a Broncos fan for 3 years now. i read all of these Blogs i watch all of the games. im not a poser like some of you think i am. I love the Broncos. its not Cutlers Fault he played good for playing his first game and its not the Deffences fault. and i hate going to school and having my friends ask me how “great” the Broncos are…but living in Illinois i get them right back by telling them how good Rex Grossman is. BUT the Broncos..well..the Broncos need another year..to get Cutler settled in and use to the pressure. Go in his shoes..a rookie from Vandervilt, being told you have an arm like Brett Favre, the whatever like Peyton Manning, something about Dan Marino..thats all stupid. Jay Cutler needed to relax in the SeaHawk Game. he had way to much pressure on him, being it was his first game, making some bad plays and what not is all hopefully behind him now..Cutler all i can say is, Go and win us something please.
-Tyler
I said last week that Cutler will probably play as well now than Jake Plummer has been playing all season. Why not get Cutler some gametime experience? Didn’t Elway once say that plaing as a rookie is really good because it helps you learn much quicker than normal? Didn’t Brett Favre complete his first pass to himself and then get tackled for a 15 yard loss? I was glad to see Cutler make at least one “Oh s— he IS a rookie” boneheaded mistake…of course I wasn’t glad at the time, but today I am glad he screwed up and learned from it. http://www.ticketwood.com/nfl/Seattle-Seahawks-Tickets/index.php
Seattle tickets
He put up numbers comparable to Plummer this season, so I think it’s a great change. The problems were never Plummer’s fault, it’s a team issue and at least we getting Cutler baptised under fire so he will be ready next year.