The Law Of Karma turns on the Denver Broncos

Manning walks off the field a loser after throwing 3 INT's against the Ravens.

I’m still grinding, mourning and angry over the Broncos playoff loss today, it’s impossible not to. I know I shouldn’t but these opportunities just don’t come along every day. When making the comparisons about some of the worst losses the Broncos have ever had this one clearly is lower on the list but the pain is no less devastating.

It took the Broncos 38 years to win their first Super Bowl and it was on their 4th try. That’s why when you get into a rosy position and lose it completely knocks the wind out of you. This one hurt bad, but it doesn’t compare to 1996.

The Jacksonville loss in the 96 playoffs is the worst ever. 13-3, best AFC regular season record, home field advantage throughout and playing a team that was lucky to be there. After the loss there was talk that John Elway might retire and who would have blamed him. That season just like this one was set up for them to win a Super Bowl and again they were denied. As we learned later it would have given them 3 championships in a row had they advanced and won in 96.

The Redskins loss in the Super Bowl XXII in 1988 was the #1 most devastating until the Broncos lost to Jacksonville but now it’s #2 on my list. The Broncos had a better all around team than the Redskins that year. Not unlike the Ravens game the Corners and Safety’s helped give away that game too. Back then it was Tony Lilly instead of Champ Bailey and Rahim Moore who gave up big plays. Elway had a horrible day and the running game was a joke. The Defense let a scrub RB and a scrub QB torch them big time. Tim Smith and Doug Williams to that point in their careers had never put up that big of numbers and even following that game would never repeat the performances they had that day against the Broncos.

To be sure the losses to the Cowboys, Giants and 49ers hurt in the other SB’s but the sting wasn’t as bad because the Broncos didn’t match up well against any of those teams.

After a few days to digest this latest disaster I have to move what I consider the #3 worst loss to #4 and say that the loss Saturday surpasses it. The old #3 was the Jake the Fake meltdown in the 2006 AFC Championship Game against the Steelers. The Broncos had just come off a big win against the Brady lead Patriots (The best team in the playoffs that year) at home the week before in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. Beating the Steelers should have been an easier assignment if not for the poor play of the most important position player on the team, QB Jake Plummer.

So, today as I set here grinding I think to myself, this time we supposedly had the best QB in the game to make a Super Bowl run and we lost? Plummer’s bad game is way easier to forgive than Manning’s lousy performance because of his past resume. All be it a great regular season resume, his post season resume stinks.

I personally believe in a Higher Power greater than myself and I also believe in "The Law of Karma."

Short cuts, hired guns and throwing out a player that lead you to your second playoff win in 12 years like so much trash is definitely bad Karma. I’m not saying that Tebow could have taken this team to new heights this year with his skill set being far less than that of Manning’s, probably not. Still...Tebow deserved better, he's a winner and winners don’t always do it pretty. I’ll take winning ugly over losing pretty anytime. Check that, there is no such thing as losing pretty is there?

The other irony or should I say injustice about this epic loss Saturday is that last year when the Broncos got creamed by the Patriots nearly every media type and Broncos Fan out there blamed it on not having a good enough QB.

Today after this loss, it’s: Champ got beat twice for TD’s, Moore lost the game because he didn’t play deep enough on one play, the pass rush was non-existent, losing Moreno hurt, Kuper didn’t play well, Prater missed a kick he normally would have made, the refs made bad calls, the Broncos had 3 timeouts and 31 seconds on the clock in the 4th Q and didn’t try to score, Fox and McCoy called to conservative of a game etc.

Then… As an afterthought: "Oh yeah, Peyton Manning didn’t play well either." Instead of being on the top of the list he’s on the bottom because after all this was a “Team Loss.” I don’t disagree with the “team loss” mantra but Manning should be shouldering way more blame than he has to this point. HE not Mike McCoy was calling the majority of the plays on the field. 3 INT’s, 2 resulting in scores and that God awful throw in over time. The stupid throw in OT made all the throws Tebow has made in his career look pretty damn good. Many didn’t really say it was a team loss after the Broncos got slaughtered by the Patriots last year did they? Oh no, it was that lousy Tim Tebow's fault, if we’d of had a QB like Manning or any other QB for that matter the outcome would have been different right?

The bottom line is Manning should have been the ONE person on the team that made the plays necessary for the Broncos to win a close game, period, end of story. I can’t see it any other way. The Law of Karma as it turns out works both ways, hopefully the Broncos can recover and get the good Karma back next season. It's going to be a very long off season but as always I'll be hopeful that the Broncos can climb the ladder and make a run to the big show. That is all.

Orton Has Lost the Team and the Fans

11 long years of waiting and my patience is gone. First I have to evoke the, “Elway has nothing to do with the comparisons when it comes to our current group of QB’s” misnomer. I know it’s a team game, so let’s leave that out of it for now and just talk about the QB position alone. Simply put Orton is a Bum and comparing him, Quinn or Tebow to Elway is insane, so let’s get that obvious statement out of the way as well.

For 11 years we’ve had only one playoff win which was is in 2006. That year I remember very well. Jake Plummer was the QB of the team that lost big to the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game. For the most part Plummer crumbled under the pressure and choked big time in that one and it cost the Broncos what should have been their 3rd Super Bowl ring. They should have beat that Steelers team, they had talent enough on both sides of the ball to do so and would have kicked the Seahawks butt all over the field had they gone to the Super Bowl.

That year the Broncos had a better overall team than both the Steelers and the Seahawks. The Broncos had a great running game and serviceable WR’s. The only thing lacking was a better than average QB which Jake the Fake proved he wasn’t. Had the Broncos had such a QB the Broncos would own another Lombardi trophy.

Then a few years later, we traded the only good QB the Broncos had on the roster over that 11 year span which was Jay Cutler. For all of his warts and his immature ways he’s 10 times better from a skill set level than Orton, Quinn or Tebow. We can thank McDaniels for that move and the one that sent Peyton Hillis to the Browns. Not to mention the horrible draft picks he made his 2 years in Denver.

After the Broncos won a Super Bowl at least from my prospective nothing less than a playoff appearance is a worthy expectation with the hope of another Super Bowl bid and a win. This is what the hard core fan should expect nothing less. I for one am sick to death of watching a crappy football team week in and week out and lose just as often. Orton has had 3 years with the Broncos now and has not progressed one iota in fact he’s digressed. He telegraphs his throws, he can't move in the pocket, he has trouble completing not just the long throw but the short throw as well. He can’t seem to make a play in the red zone and score. But worse of all he doesn’t have one single intangible characteristic to make up for all of his other physical weaknesses, none.

That’s were Tebow comes in, he doesn’t have the experience but he won’t get any by setting on the bench. He has the intangibles that Orton does not. He can scramble, he’s a big strong kid who can pick up yards on running plays but most important of all he has a burning will to win. He plays inspired football, he plays to win and he’s not the kind of guy to give up on a game no matter what the score.

This can’t be said about Orton. Orton looks like he just woke up from a 3 hour nap when he’s out there. Being calm is one thing but being a stiff who doesn’t have that burning desire in his gut to get back in the game to redeem himself is something I just can’t take anymore. The Raiders were ripe for the taking Monday Night and Orton with his bumbling play blew a game the Broncos should have easily won despite all the other problems the Broncos have as a team. Orton just doesn’t have the leadership skills to pick up a team that’s down and bring them back; he’s shown that over and over in painful detail.

Basically Orton has pulled off a big con, he’s laughing all the way to the bank thanks to McD. He knows had the Broncos not traded for him and signed him to a big bucks deal he most likely would have gone to another team as a back up or cut from the league all together.

There can be no more lame excuses for Orton he’s a failure and it’s time the Broncos moved on. He’s lost the team except for Brandon Lloyd who Orton made a millionaire because he was the only WR he would throw a ball to last year. Lloyd is another phony, he’s a career bench scrub who can claim one good year as a Pro (last year) and will never repeat it. Lloyd is Orton's only friend on the team. Orton has lost the team, all but Lloyd for the reasons I’ve mentioned. He’s lost the confidence of the Fans and finally most of the morons in the media who claimed he was the best thing going for the Broncos before this game. I’m sure he’s lost the confidence of Bowlen, Elway and Fox but none of them can or will come out and admit it. Why? There are 8.4 million reasons why they won’t. Benching an 8 million dollar Bum isn’t in the cards yet I guess. They’ll probably wait until the Broncos have no shot at a playoff berth then remove him. It’s not a good situation to say the least and if so much money wasn’t involved Orton would have been benched this week after the god awful performance he made everyone suffer through Monday Night.

It’s Tebow time, we need to see if he’s going to be our QB of the future or not. At least if he gets some extended playing time now the Broncos can make an educated decision about whether to start him next year or trade him and look for someone else.

You can thank my good friend Darold for this rant he got me going with a comment he made on facebook. Damn straight my patience is gone Buddy and rightly so. TEBOW!! TEBOW!! TEBOW!!!