Shanahan's Mastermind status in question

Dave Christie, Special to the News

Published December 5, 2006 at midnight

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All week long Mike Shanahan insisted that he was starting Jay Cutler because it gave the Broncos their best chance to win right now.

So far, so wrong.

If Jake Plummer had played quarterback Sunday night, the Broncos would be 8-4 and in the wild-card catbird seat. Thanks to the Shanahan switcheroo, the team is staggering to the finish line, relying on the misfortune of others to get a sniff of the playoffs.

Common logic dictated that playing Cutler was a move with very little risk. The rookie was spectacular in the preseason. Sure, that was 12 weeks ago in games that didn't matter, playing against vanilla defenses stocked with backups, but he'll pick right up where he left off, right? Cutler could do no worse than Plummer, could he?

Yes, he could and he did. At his very best Sunday night, Cutler was ordinary. His first touchdown pass was unnecessarily dramatic, throwing high to a wide-open Stephen Alexander, who juggled it into the end zone. And it's difficult to give Cutler more than 10 yards worth of credit for Brandon Marshall's 71-yard touchdown.

At his worst, he was Bad Jay. Open receivers were missed. Even Bad Jake, the master of the no-look, behind-the-back, left-handed forward pass, had to be slack-jawed at Cutler's desperation heave that was intercepted and returned for Seattle's first points. Rookie blunders were anticipated. What wasn't expected was a lack of playmaking.

Everybody knew the mistakes were coming. The hope was that they would be accompanied by moments of brilliance that would give this offense some much-needed juice. I was waiting for a play that justified the decision to start Cutler — the one that would get me to jump out of my seat and yell, "Jake could never make that play!" Still waiting.

In fact, the Broncos badly needed the things that Plummer can bring to the table. Given the success of the running game against the Seahawks, there had to be an opportunity for one of Jake's long bootleg passes to Javon Walker, who was all but ignored. And while Cutler is mobile, he proved to be less elusive than Plummer and ended up being sacked three times.

I'm not rewriting history here. Nobody is confusing Plummer with the likes of Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer. But the Broncos won with Jake playing quarterback, and isn't that the only statistic that matters? At 7-4, this team was in great position to get into the postseason. There was no legitimate reason to turn it all on its head and throw a rookie immediately into a series of must-win situations.

The Mastermind luster is fading from Shanahan's touch. He made some very curious decisions during Sunday night's game, not the least of which involved Plummer, a blind toss and an injured Jason Elam. But the choice to start Cutler at this stage of the season, making the Broncos offense even more risky and mistake-prone, might be his worst decision yet.

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