I don’t actually hate the Chicago Bears, but today will be the first time Jay Cutler has faced the Broncos since he threw a little bitch fit and whined his way out of Denver. (I really shouldn’t sugarcoat things so much.) The Bears played the Broncos in Denver back in 2011 during the Tim Tebow run, but he was ‘hurt’. I hate him. A lot. I hope he reverts to his old Broncos form and throws 3 red zone interceptions today. He used to LOVE to do that shit all the time. I still haven’t forgiven Mike Shanahan for unceremoniously tossing Jake Plummer (who was 7-4 when he was benched, BTW) aside for this tool. Cutler flipped out when Josh McDaniels entertained the idea of trading for Matt Cassel and then wouldn’t talk to anyone, including Pat Bowlen. You know, like a two-year-old would. So he got his wish and we were stuck with Kyle Orton, and a bad 8-8 season followed by a 4-12 disaster.
I actually don’t have much hate for John Fox or Adam Gase. After Hurricane Josh, they brought the Broncos back to relevance and they actually fit a game plan together for Tim Tebow that matched his skills. I would say that most head coaches out there would have been headstrong and said “Nope, here’s our game plan and he has to do it this way or no way”, and then watched the losses pile up. But they actually (along with Mike McCoy, who’s now the Chargers HC) created an offense for a quarterback that cannot throw a forward pass. Not only did the Broncos make the playoffs but they beat the Steelers in one of the most memorable games ever. And they won a lot of games when Peyton Manning signed here. But in both of the playoff losses the last two years (the Super Bowl and the Colts loss), the whole team looked completely unprepared. You can blame Peyton all you want, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. The coaching staff looked like they had checked out before the Colts game even started. They needed to go. I do think they can bring the Bears back up, but beware the playoffs, Bears fans.
This will be the first time we get to see what the Broncos have in Brock Osweiler. I doubt he’ll pull an Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady, but I think it’s good that he’s had to watch for the last couple years and learn. Quarterbacks rarely get to do that anymore. For whatever the preseason is worth, it seemed like he made a major leap this year. I figured that Peyton would get hurt sometime this year, because he’s at that age where you can’t bounce back from every little thing anymore. It happened to John Elway in 1998, and fortunately we had Bubby Brister to come in and the Broncos didn’t lose a game he started. I don’t know that we can hope to be that lucky this time, but Osweiler played well enough that I’m not that nervous. At this point, if he plays average he’ll be an improvement over Peyton. Also, we have an interesting 3rd stringer in Trevor Siemian, though I hope we don’t have to see him. I think the Bears will be a tougher challenge for Osweiler than the Patriots, not because the Bears are better than the Pats (they aren’t) and not because I don’t think the Pats are the best team in the league (they clearly are), but because the Bears coaches know Osweiler better than any other team. They coached him from the start of his career. So I’m not making any predictions, but I hope the Broncos can pound the Bears into oblivion and smear Cutler to the turf. Sorry, Birddog.
We don’t get a PM CBS game today in Denver. Over on FOX we get the Washington at Carolina game. It sounds intriguing; I feel like the Panthers might lose this one, just a gut feeling. The afternoon game is great: Packers at Vikings. Sunday night is another great game, Bengals at Cardinals. Buffalo at New England should at least be a fun game on Monday.
What are you watching?