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Despite loss, future looks brighter

Van Walker, Special to the News

Published December 5, 2006 at midnight

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There is hope in Denver that four losses in six games can't dim.

Three rookies combined on a lightning strike in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's stop-me-if-you've-heard-this-one-before home loss, evening the score with Seattle and reawakening echoes that hadn't been heard since Terrell Davis' last meaningful Mile High Salute . . . and the one who mattered most started the play.

Pause for effect: In his first clutch situation, Jay Cutler made a clutch play.

Particularly telling was the fact that the equalizer came after he had thrown a Plummer-esque fourth-quarter interception, a low-flying duck that got swatted out of the air by Grant Wistrom and intercepted. Predictably, Seattle converted the gift into a Josh Brown field goal, putting Seattle up by seven. In the minds of many, the game was over.

It might have been, if Plummer had been the trigger man . . . but Cutler ain't Snake-bitten.

Led by Cutler, the rookies were flawless on this play. Lined up in the slot, Tony Scheffler (yes, that Tony Scheffler) cleared the soft zone by running a hard post. Outside of Scheffler, Brandon Marshall sold his route, charging hard upfield for two steps and then making like a hole in the thin air of Invesco. Cutler, the entire play in front of him, gave the briefest of glances to his left, as though looking for Javon Walker, next looking up the field to the lumbering Scheffler, and then, magic: He found Marshall standing by himself underneath the zone with all of the defenders going the wrong way.

Marshall ran like he had been scalded, Scheffler got out of his own way and into someone else's, and then Marshall broke one final arm tackle and looked up to see nothing but air and opportunity between him and the goal line.

Game tied.

Too bad these kids can't play defense because the current Broncos defenders couldn't be more accommodating to guests in the fourth quarter if they were all named Steve Wynn.

Defense aside, there is real optimism on the horizon because these guys will be in Denver for a while. Marshall will complement Walker nicely, and Denver would benefit greatly from having their numbers called a few more times. And Mike Bell is the guy to trust going forward because Tatum is the very definition of empty calories. (Seriously, when was 133 yards less impressive? But I digress.).

Eventually, it all comes back to Cutler. Some might say that a loss is still a loss and that the kid didn't play any better than the guy he replaced, and the Broncos season is circling the drain in any event.

I say that one play showed us why he was drafted 11th overall. Down seven in the fourth quarter with little time remaining, his team needing him to make a play, he calmly delivered the ball to the open receiver and the rest took care of itself.

Even after a loss, the future looks a little brighter today.