Shanahan still looking for the next TD

William L. Bryan, Special to the News

Published September 11, 2006 at midnight

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I knew Terrell Davis. Terrell Davis was a friend of mine. Mr. Bell, you are no Terrell Davis.

What we have here is a system that works and running backs who do not. Neither Tatum nor Mike Bell, despite putting up impressive numbers, gained 3 yards on their own. We did not get to see either candidate for the title of Broncos Feature Back grind out a tough yard. Neither moved a pile, neither took a linebacker with him anywhere. Each broke a long run but neither had a defender so much as breathe on him until he was more than 30 yards downfield.

We know now what we knew last week and last month, which is that neither of these guys is Terrell Davis. No shame in that. Neither am I, neither are you, but I suspect Mike Shanahan is looking for a guy who can get out of bed without a T. Rex-sized hole in front of him.

Since the numbers and the game film tell very different stories, let us examine history so that we might not get caught overworking the season’s first game. Goofy things happen the first week, things that defy the laws of physics and will be impossible to put into perspective come playoff time. Come with me into the wayback machine, and we will visit . . . last year.

The Broncos would eventually finish the season 13-3, and Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell would combine for 1,935 yards rushing. But in week one the Broncos got pounded 34-10 by a Dolphins team that would lose seven of their next nine games and miss the playoffs. Anderson and Bell combined for 52 yards.

After week one last year, the Broncos were on pace to be 0-16 and Anderson, an eventual 1,000-yard rusher, was on pace to gain 80 yards.

So the first game can be misleading. Really misleading. During Mike Shanahan’s 11-year tenure as the Broncos’ head coach, the leading rusher in the first game has been the leading rusher for the season only five times. Do you want to know why being TD is so important? Four of the five guys who led the Broncos in rushing for both the first game and for the season were Terrell Davis. Clinton Portis managed the feat once. No other back has gone box-to-wire for Shanahan, but the system has managed a 1,000-yard rusher in 10 of Shanahan’s 11 seasons.

The fact that neither of the Bells are Terrell Davis, besides being obvious, is indicative of their future. All the guys who have not been Davis have proven too soft or too slow and, in the end, expendable. The system will survive us all and the T. Rex-sized holes will be there, but week one’s leading rusher probably will not be.

So I will take Cedric Cobbs, the only running back on the Broncos roster that we do not know is not Terrell Davis.

Because until Shanahan finds Davis again, he will keep looking.