Why the Josh McDaniels Era Has Only Just Begun

that played out of their minds the week before and took advantage of a team that had key injuries. Several commentators stated that that Wildcard game was an aberration and there is a chance they were right.

Cutler threw a few horrible passes against the Seahawks, one of which should’ve been a 99 yard pick-6. I’ll be watching the Packers game with great interest this Sunday.

As another PS: Here is what I find particularly amusing in all of this. The rally cry of the McD loving/Cutler bashing crowd post Cutler trade was as follows: Orton is a winner, Cutler isn’t. Now that Cutler is winning, of course none of it should be attributed to him. Also, a very common theme was “Cutler is gone, let him go, and if you still root for him you hate the Broncos.” Well, McD is gone, he did far more to hurt this franchise than Cutler ever did, please everyone, let the guy go. Or are so many of you really more McD fans than Bronco fans?

What’s the matter? You can dish it but you can’t take it?

After witnessing hundreds of your anti-McD rants coupled with smug remarks about him as a person, and the countless McNicknames he’s been given by the McD bashers, I’m here to have you know that this ship has sailed – enough already with the borderline slander on the guy.
 
McD was hired because he was a young, up-and-coming technocrat. No doubt he probably reminded Bowlen of a young Shanahan. And he though that McD would be the one to turn the team around. The problem was, this was a lazy and inept attempt at solving the problem at hand. One man cannot do it alone, regardless of how energetic and intelligent he is. He fired Shanny for having too much power, only to replace him with a young unknown and give him essentially the same power? I place the blame mostly on Bowlen, because at his age, he ought to have more wisdom than this. McD did what he knew, which was limited by what he saw from his mentor, BB. You can’t rationally blame him for being anything but himself. This hiring was a bad judgement call and all the McD-bashers need to realize it.
 
McD made his share of mistakes and I am not here to defend him. I did not agree with all of his decisions, but I will not stand by and watch someone who gave it his all, to turn this dismal team around, from the one left behind by his predecessor. (That offense was 16th in scoring and the running game had been regressing each year for about 4 years before Shanny was fired, so I don’t want to hear about how McD destroyed the offense.)

Branson may be a no-name to some guy in Boulder, but he caught everything that was thrown to him in TC. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have him on the field in September and October, while CBuck was out due to his back injury? Say what you will about White, but he looked ready in preseason. He played well against one of the best defenses in the league in preseason week 3, the Steelers. Yes it was preseason, but the starters played 3 quarters in that game and White was not being tackled by 2nd or 3rd stringers. For all the flak aimed at McD for the Hillis trade for Brady Quinn, the short yardage solution was addressed in the offseason, via White from Seattle. Doom being out is self-explanatory.
 
Cutler vs McD. You can’t compare a coach to a player, it is not a 1 to 1 comparison. You can compare other players to Cutler, but not the coach. Do you know anything about schemes? Do you understand or realize how critical it is that you have the right O-line, QB, RB, and TE in order to run it? Do you know the difference between the Earhardt-Perkins scheme and the WCO that was present in January 2009?
 
Bowlen hired a coach versed in a different scheme, and that resulted in a scheme change, which to some extent required some different players than what Denver had available. After Cutler pouted his way out of Denver, with Hamilton on his last legs and Wiegmann incapable of gap-blocking, there was going to need to be a change in the middle of the O-line. Even if Shanny had stayed, Hamilton and Wiegmann would’ve continued to regress over ‘09 or ’10, so whether you realize it or not, change was coming irrespective of who was the HC.
 
Don’t expect Cutler to have a great game this Sunday. His opponent will not be a 7-9 team from the worst division in football. The Packers are the team Lovie Smith tried his best to keep out of the playoffs and failed. The ball will have to bounce their way and perhaps get some help from the zebras in order for the Bears to win.
 
PS. I won’t call you McBob any more if you agree to withold the McGenius bombs. Deal?
 
Oh and one more thing. I laughed at the Cutlerpower name. You know as well as I do that those two words just don’t go together. If he has a bad day this weekend, the Cutler lovers will never hear the end of it!