Running back controversy is just a smokescreen

Dave Christie, Special to the News

Published September 11, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Denver Broncos

Editor's note: These would-be columnists were whittled down from 146 hopefuls in our Last Columnist Typing contest. One columnist is eliminated per week — a la Survivor — until one is left at the NFL season's end. The winner will cover an event alongside the pros.

More columns and details

On Sunday:

Todd Helton’s grand slam led the Rockies to victory and brought them to within nine games of .500.

Craig Kanada’s three-footer on the 18th hole clinched the Utah EnergySolutions Championship, his first victory on the Nationwide Tour.

And in equally relevant news, the Bells of the Broncos Ball alternated possessions, with Tatum getting one more touch than Mike.

Who gives a flying field goal?

How many more dead horses need to be beaten before we realize that it doesn’t matter who lines up at running back for the Broncos? It’s all too appropriate that these two share a last name, because watching them run makes me feel like I’m trying to figure out which one’s Mary Kate and which one’s Ashley.

Oops. That’s a bad name to mention around here.

They both busted one long run. They both made one big mistake in the opening quarter. First came Mike’s attempt to block Leonard Little on a first-down pass. Bell was so quickly and thoroughly disposed of that it’s how I imagine the scene if I ever had a chance to ask Beyonce if she’d like to join me for Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster. The resulting fumble miraculously led to no points.

Phew. Crisis averted. The following play Tatum fumbles. Hello, crisis. Back so soon?

The Bells both made a costly error but recovered to run for a combined 161 yards. They were interchangeable parts, and the game really didn’t care which part was on the field at any given time. So all of the guessing, all of the newsprint and air time devoted to the question of who deserves to be the starting running back on this team was for naught.

Or was it? Look, I’d like to take most conspiracy theorists and force them to . . . well . . . talk amongst themselves. I can think of no better punishment than to force them to sit there and listen to their ilk babble on and on about black UN helicopters and the rigging of American Idol. Having said that, I see a grassy knoll at Dove Valley.

Could Shanahan be using this supposed uncertainty at the running back position to keep our compulsive attention away from the more troubling issues that lurk behind the predominantly orange curtain? He traded up to draft a quarterback in the first round only three months after his starter, in the prime years of his career, took his team to the AFC championship. If that went down in any other NFL city, there would be a quarterback controversy distraction of T.O. proportions. The Broncos finished 29th in pass defense last year and their plan to improve it somehow involved cutting their best pass rusher on the defensive line.

And we’re talking about running backs?

The Mastermind knows that the running game will be fine no matter which Bell runs behind that offensive line in this scheme. But after his team’s performance in St. Louis, its use as a smokescreen is fading.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News