The all-time Denver Broncos tournament

By Os Davis  |   Sunday, March 16, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Denver Broncos
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Call it methadone for the NFL junkie. Faced with the prospect of another football-free Sunday, this fan instead turned to that second-greatest sports-related website on the planet, WhatIfSports.com to face off history’s greats against one another. This week: the all-time Denver Broncos tournament!

After an ignominious beginning in which the Broncos became primarily known first as American Football League beat dogs and the equivalent of a backwoods small-market team in the 1970s: The first 14 seasons in Denver were sub-.500 as were 15 of the its 17; it’s actually amazing these guys were never relocated to, say, Indianapolis back when that was fashionable.

However, everything changed in 1977 and since then, the Broncos have managed to put a competitive team on the field virtually every season since. In 30 years of history, Denver has produced squads memorable enough to earn six Super Bowl bids against just four losing seasons, including the strike year of 1982. Not bad for a former pony among the herd...

The four teams chosen to play for the glory of Broncos history are:

1977. The team that changed everything. Denver management took a chance on two mostly unknown quantities: long-time journeyman assistant coach Red Miller and quarterback Craig Morton. After getting beaten out for the Dallas Cowboys job by Roger Staubach in the mid-1970s and a couple of dismal seasons with the New York Giants, Morton was acquired via trade and given the helm in Denver. Together with the fabled Orange Crush Defense featuring Lyle Alzado and Randy Gradishar, Miller and co. did not disappoint. The Broncos went 12-2 in the regular season and ran off a 14-2 run after the nail-biter of a championship win over the Oakland Raiders; both marks would remain franchise highs until 1998.

1989. Though only 11-5, these John Elway-led Broncos still claimed the no. 1 defense in the NFL in terms of scoring allowed and no. 3 in terms of yardage allowed; orange monsters Karl Mecklenburg, Simon Fletcher and Ron Holmes combined for 28.5 sacks alone. Elway may have only earned a 73.7 QB rating that year (good enough for a Pro Bowl bid, it may be noted), but these Broncos somehow pulled off the league’s second-best point differential. After losing three squeakers in December, the team rallied enough to win a couple of playoff games before getting dismantled at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV.

1998. The one Bronco backers (and probably head coach Mike Shanahan) remember most fondly. After bagging the Lombardi trophy by upsetting the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII, Mike Shanahan had his guys cruising through the ’98 season behind the unstoppable force known to humans as Terrell Davis (no relation), going 14-2 and making short work of the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Though the running game has nearly always been overachievingly impressive under Shanahan, few teams in that decade could boast of possessing a weapon like the Bo Jackson of the ‘90s.

2005. In many ways, this was the ultimate Shanahan team. With improv-loving QB Jake “The Snake” Plummer, Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell combining for over 1,900 yards in the plug-in-‘em, watch-‘em-work running game, and a defense that thrived on the big interception, the Broncos went 13-3 despite losing on opening day; this team won eight of the last nine games in the regular season and its two losses beyond week one were by a combined total of seven points. Shanahan went on to demonstrate his mastery over Bill Belichick with a decisive win over the Patriots in the AFC divisional before succumbing to the upset-minded Pittsburgh Steelers in the championship game. Was this really just two seasons ago?

For the tournament, the 1977 Broncos will host the 89ers in funky (yeah, right) disco-era Denver, while the 2005s travel back to the 20th century.

Elimination game: 1989 Broncos 20, 1977 Broncos 13. Another disappointment for Morton, it seems, as the smothering defense of ’89 led by monstrous Dennis Smith held the ’77 squad to a conversion success rate of just 3-of-15 on third down. Down 10-7 at halftime, the 89ers produced two scores in the second half, the first set up on a Smith pick deep in 77s territory on the second play of the third quarter. Though the Orange Crush stuffed the 1989 running game, Jeff Treadwell kicked the 37-yarder to knot it up. On the next drive, Smith again picked off a Morton pass and ran it back to the 16, making Elway’s job very easy indeed.

Elimination game: 1998 Broncos 37, 2005 Broncos 16. In setting up an Elway vs. Elway final, Denver fans get in this game the time-traveling mano-e-mano battle of ... Jason Elam vs. Jason Elam! Elam proved quite useful for the 2005s, who couldn’t get anything going back in 1998, despite a decent performance from Plummer (17-of-22 for 243 yards, 1 TD, zero picks). Two lost fumbles and three sacks took the 21st-century team out early and often, while Terrell was characteristically unstoppable at 25 carries for 135 yards and two TDs.

As for the all-time Denver Bowl, the game was a true thriller in Bronco heart-stopping fashion, featuring a beautiful comeback and including typical disappointment for one side of fans.

First quarter. On the game’s first drive, older Elway finds Ed McCaffrey and Rod Smith on subsequent strikes to get into the red zone, but Davis is ineffective on the drive. The 98s are forced to settle for the field goal, and the two teams grind out the remainder of the quarter. 1998 Broncos 3, 1989 Broncos 0.

Second quarter. More back-and-forth dominates the half, with Elam and Jeff Treadwell trading long field goals. With two all-time greats in the two-minute drill facing off, i.e. Elway and Elway, lots of scoring was certain to happen before half. And happen it did: First Shannon Sharpe made his mark with a tackle-shedding 56-yard reception, and Davis chased this with a 10-yard scamper. Getting the ball back, Elway the younger finds no. 3 option Mike Young for 33 yards and a drive is on. Later on second-and-10, Elway is forced to scramble and fumbles, but manages to recover and keep the drive alive. On fourth-and-nine, though, again the 89ers settle for the field goal. 1998 Broncos 13, 1989 Broncos 6.

Third quarter. Davis torments the opposition further by elongating a short pass into a 73-yard TD with just over five minutes to go in the quarter, making it 1998 Broncos 20, 1989 Broncos 6, and with the way the ’98 ‘D’ is playing, it’s over, baby...

Fourth quarter. ...except the 1989 team still has Elway. On a patient 65-yard drive to open the quarter, Sammy Winder contributes a 14-yard run and the QB finds Young and TE Clarence Kay for a pair of 20-yard completions. Finally, younger Elway began his team’s final drive with 1:31 left. Making use of all his weapons – Bobby Humphrey, Steve Sewell, and Vance Johnson among them – Elway connects for another miracle TD as Mark Jackson comes down with the jump ball in the end zone with 0:00 on the clock. The extra point makes it 1998 Broncos 20, 1989 Broncos 20.

Overtime. When the 1989 Broncos win the toss and naturally elect to receive, you gotta like their chances to pull off the major upset. Except younger Elway and coach Dan Reeves show some questionable play-calling. After finding Johnson on the flat and a subsequent 13-yard gain, the 89ers fear the ’98 pass defense and are seeming forced to go to Humphrey three times to no avail; if only they’d had a Terrell Davis...

Cool as a Colorado autumn did older Elway and his star-studded offense go to work. The methodical drive looked like this, in WhatIfSports-style prose:

11:56. Elway hits Sharpe who gets a few steps before being brought down for a 8 yd gain.
11:12. Davis picks his way to the sidelines for 5 yards. Davis runs out of bounds.
10:34. Elway's pass is to Sharpe. Catch is good and Sharpe gets some yardage for a 14 yd gain.
9:55. Loville picks up 4 yards off tackle left.
9:15. Davis picks up 13 yards off tackle left.
8:35. Elway is sacked by Ron Holmes for 8 yards. PENALTY on DEN: Defensive Holding, 5 yards enforced on the DEN 42 - NO PLAY. Automatic First Down.
8:28. Elway's pass is to Smith who makes the catch and falls forward for a 14 yd gain.
7:45. Davis rushes for 3 yards off tackle right.
7:03. Elway hits McCaffrey. Catch is good and McCaffrey gets some yardage for a 13 yd gain.
6:20. On first-and-goal from the 7, Elway hits Smith in the endzone.

In the end, it was 1998 Broncos 26, 1989 Broncos 20 (OT), a dramatically-correct finish for a back-to-back champion team and a never-quite-enough four-time vanquished Super Bowl franchise.

No wonder Denver fans still reminisce about their 1998 team, the last classic, truly great Bronco squad. As good as Jay Cutler, heir to the Morton-Elway-Plummer line, may be, a more complete roster of Denver-developed players is required in 2008 and beyond. Of course, there never will be another John Elway and, as Bronco backers will surely forever be haunted, there will never be another Terrell Davis.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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