If the players have given up on this season, they aren't the first.  Shanahan gave up the second he made the decision to bench Plummer and start the rookie.

Okay, so the fact that Plummer was performing at a completely underwhelming level wouldn't have had any bearing on the rest of the year, either?

Jake doesn't deserve this, he never did.

His weekly stat-lines would seem to disagree with you.

One, undeniable fact:  Number of rookie quarterbacks who have played in the Super Bowl?  0

One, undeniable fact:  Number of Jake Plummers who have played in the Super Bowl?  0

--We weren't going anywhere with Plummer, not with this team.

We all knew coming into the season that the only way Jake Plummer would save his job was to win the Super Bowl.  It wasn't going to happen.

I will agree that it appeared that Jake PLummer took the fall for a team worth of inadequacies --

Against teams not name Oakland the Broncos are 5-6.  Even more disturbing is the 3-5 record against teams with winning records.

Our Special Teams has been embarrassing, and our defense was exposed by teams with competant offenses.  We were able to take advantage of a soft schedule early on, playing teams that were having trouble scoring.  New England is still struggling to move the ball, and Baltimore only improved after Fassel was fired.  Cleveland is a mess and Pittsburgh went up and down the field on us but couldn't get out of it's own way.

The one thing I do not want this to become is a Jake Vs. Jay site, like so many Bronco forums have become, but the quarterback position has been only a small part of the bigger problem.

Shanny did what he had to do.  He realized what we all realized after playing a couple of the top teams in the AFC, we don;t measure up as a team and we wouldn't be getting to the Super Bowl.  Period.  With any of the quarterbacks on the roster.

All that said, after watching Jay Cutler play two games, watching the TE become part of the offense again, seeing what he was able to do in the 3rd quarter, to play in that environment and not throw any picks, there is no doubt in my mind that he gives us the best chance to win.

And just some clarifications --

-- We scored 13 points against the Ravens.

--The TD drive he "led" against the Patriots was a 10 yard pass and 75 yard run by Javon Walker after two Pats' defenders ran into each other.

No doubt the Indy game was our best offensively, but the Colts defense is AWFUL, the worst in the Super Bowl era against the run, and we still LOST.