LINCICOME: Griese's return aside, Broncos need a win
By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 2, 2008 at 4:52 p.m.
Photo by Chris O'Meara/Associated Press
Tampa Bay quarterback Brian Griese fires away Sunday in the first quarter against Green Bay. He’s 3-0 as a starter.
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Against one of his several former teams, the Chicago Bears, Brian Griese threw 67 passes, 17 more than he ever threw in one game as a Bronco, still his most prominent previous employer. The Bucs came from behind to win in overtime.
How many passes Griese will throw, or will need to, against the Broncos on Sunday may depend on just how winded Dre Bly gets.
My guess on the over/under between Griese and Jay Cutler, who threw 50 in one game already, is in the 90s, which is where, we recall, Griese first came to our attention.
What seems remarkable about this is that, having seen in succession Philip Rivers and Drew Brees at Invesco, one would hardly imagine that old Mr. Mediocre all these years later would be even more dangerous than real NFL quarterbacks, including the Broncos' own young treasure, Cutler.
Griese has forever been puzzling that way, not as good as he is imagined to be and not as bad as he should be. He certainly fooled Mike Shanahan for a while, and has, at other stopovers, used the same wool to cover the eyes of coaches from Miami to Tampa to Chicago to Tampa again.
Like the proverbial bad penny, Griese is always turning up, and as a starting quarterback, too. No one has yet been able to figure out why that is.
His time here, of course, ended in public humiliation, jerked from a game in Oakland and never considered again. This is the quarterback Shanahan once looked at and saw Joe Montana.
Shanahan can get off a favorite faster than a coat off an in-law. It happened to Jake Plummer in the same way, in Kansas City. Cutler might want to check the films.
In Chicago, Griese became part of a quarterback controversy, not hard to do with the Bears, since whoever is not playing quarterback is always better than whoever is.
Again in Tampa, Griese has been given the job because Jeff Garcia was thoroughly lousy and lost the first game of the year. Griese has been not much better but has won three in a row.
That is how his coach, Jon Gruden, defends Griese. Can't argue with 3-0.
We thought pretty much the same thing around here about the Broncos defense. How bad can a 3-0 defense be? Well, we saw in Kansas City that it can find new ways to be bad (memorizing the back of Larry Johnson's jersey) and when the offense is just as dreadful, 3-0 turns into 3-1 faster than you can say Dre Bly.
Had the Broncos won the Chiefs game as they should have and were unbeaten and still worry-free, the return of Griese would be noteworthy, with fans less concerned about whether Griese might actually beat his old team as being prepared to hoot and mock him.
Now, Griese must be taken seriously, he and a team better than the team the Broncos lost to last week, a team needing to justify its record, just as do the Broncos.
The emphasis has shifted from the superfluous to the critical, not the comfort that ought to be there when the best the Bucs can come up with is one of Shanahan's own discards.
Bitterness would be a better story, or redemption, or some evidence that Griese is a better quarterback than he was here.
The fact is that he is not, that he is guiding Tampa Bay because he has not yet found a way to lose.
Shanahan knows how to hold a grudge; still two decades after he escaped Oakland, Shanahan still counts the hours. So, it would seem that Griese, who never was what Shanahan believed he was, should be in that let-down file with Al Davis.
And Sunday's game would be not what it is, a simple examination of whether these Broncos are all that Shanahan believes they are, but a nice payback on somebody's part.
Griese surely must harbor some closet revenge, even if most of the Broncos he played with are no longer around. Ben Hamilton is the only Bronco who has any reason to ask how Griese's been.
In fact, as we look back, the dismantling of the Super Bowl assumptions began with the release of Griese because it meant that change was not going to come easy, even if no one honestly believed it would be this hard.
The Broncos are somewhere in the middle of getting back to where they were when Griese first arrived and have more to do than to worry about how he might have slowed things down.
The Broncos need to win the game, not to prove their coach was right icing Griese out of town. As if anyone didn't know that already.
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October 2, 2008
7:12 p.m.
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Dynamicdave writes:
r_u_shtn_me, yeah, these two need some interceptions. Griese is prone to throw them. Lets get something positive going this week. As far as you Lincicome, you say we need to start winning games? Gee, what a revolution in the NFL. Nice concept! Hmmm, win games, never would have thought of that. 1 loss out of 4 isn't bad, Lincicome. You act like we're the Saint Louis Lambs? Write what we don't know. You need to learn something about Bronco/KC history, as well. You know soooo little about the Broncos, yet the RMN keeps you? Even I could do a better job.
October 2, 2008
8:20 p.m.
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TXBRONC writes:
Unless Brian has a more steeled resolve he will wilt if the defense can get pressure on him and causes him to turn the ball over. Brian is an intelligent quarterback he just never really figured out a way to make it work for him.
October 2, 2008
10:54 p.m.
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paperboy writes:
Hey Bernie, have you ever considered changing your name to something more descriptive, like Richard Cranium, for instance?
Oh well, you probably think the inference is easily derived from your petty, facile hatchet jobs like the above "column."
I'm still waiting for the RMN to replace your self-righteous smear job of a column with a real writer who doesn't have to level smarmy attacks at a decent person and athlete to compensate for his own shortcomings.
You and Kiszla should start a tabloid, like the Enquirer, since that's the only kind of reporting you do.
October 3, 2008
6:31 a.m.
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dilligaf writes:
This game is all about pass rush. Griese has proved in the past even when he was here that if you give him time to throw he will find the open man. If you remember what got him to make mistakes is when he was running out of the pocket. True Champ & bly need to get good coverage but if our D don't pressure him this will be another shoot out. Don't forget this is a pretty tough Bucs D.
October 3, 2008
9:50 a.m.
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MTBroncofan writes:
Another trap game awaits. The Broncos SHOULD win this one too, but the Bucs are definitely a team not to be taken lightly. Big keys this weekend are to limit turnovers on offense and keep the heat on Brian Griese. If the Broncos can do both of those, a win should be a cinch...
October 3, 2008
1:05 p.m.
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TIMMAH writes:
The Broncos will lose if they don't sack Princess at least 5 times.
October 3, 2008
9:50 p.m.
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TXBRONC writes:
TIMMAH, the defense doesn't have to sack Griese five times in order win this game. If they can get consistent pressure on him there is good chance he'll start turning the ball over.
October 4, 2008
2:45 a.m.
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NJBroncosFan writes:
If our defensive line isnt gonna carry their own weight (and man they're heavy) then our offense will need to take advantage of every possession and our defensive coordinator will need to use some linebacker blitz packages in the defensive scheme. Fine if our front 4 cant get pressure lets see what kind of pressure 5 or 6 guys can create.