Shanahan has given up on his team

Van Walker, Special to the News

Published December 12, 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

Another Sunday . . . another loss.

Welcome to life as a Browns fan, where the whistling sound you’re hearing is a team in freefall with no bottom in sight.

One month ago, it would have been criminal to suggest that the Broncos would be underdogs at Arizona next weekend; now, given the way Mike Shanahan has managed affairs, it might be a fact. What should have been a march to the playoffs has become a crawl to .500.

The wheels on the bus have come right off.

Forget that the only thing stopping the San Diego offense in the first half of Sunday’s game was the end zone. Forget that Denver’s first-half offense had all the rhythm of a Pat Boone rap concert. Forget that 28-3 halftime deficit. In the third quarter, they played like the team that went to the AFC Championship Game last season.

There was the offense, more effective than offending, scoring from close in and from far away. There was the defense, suddenly suffocating, forcing two punts and proving that LaDainian Tomlinson is human after all. There was the special teams, recovering a fumble and getting the ball back for the offense. There was Tony Scheffler (yes, that Tony Scheffler), making winning plays for the second week in a row. There was Jay Cutler, growing up before our eyes, leading his team to three scores and making a contest out of a blowout.

In the fourth quarter, this was a winnable game . . . until Mike Shanahan went for it on fourth down with 11 minutes left in regulation, and down by only 11.

It says so right here that going for it on fourth-and-stupid was not confidence, but desperation. Shanahan should have punted, called the defense over, gone Mike-Ditka-ballistic on them, and sent them on a search-and-destroy mission to get the ball back.

Instead, the alleged Mastermind hung his rookie out to dry and left his floundering defense for dead with a short field to defend against the league's top offense.

Suddenly, what was briefly a game became a rout again.

These kinds of decisions are absolute poison to a reeling team, because they demonstrate the head coach's utter lack of trust in them. Three weeks ago, it was the "prevent offense" (i.e., prevent Plummer from killing us); Sunday, it was Shanahan’s failure to trust his defense to keep working their third-quarter mojo.

What is so galling is that the Broncos showed some real fight for the first time in weeks, only to be sold out by their coach. This does not bode well for the final three games.

Anyone else suddenly afraid of the Cardinals, winners of two of their last three?

Anyone else worried about playoff-bound Cincinnati?

Anyone else scared of San Francisco's Frank Gore, after the way Denver rolled out the welcome mat to LT?

A brutal season to date will only get worse if the head coach fears his own team.