Broncos Trying to Heal Wounds

There was a time when sick jokes about the Denver Broncos were confined to their failures in the Super Bowl.

Four times the Broncos have played for the NFL championship, including the past two years and three of the past four. Four times they have lost, and the scores have gotten progressively top-heavy: 27-10, 39-20, 42-10 and 55-10.

Last year, the situation reached the point where some critics suggested that the Broncos reject the Super Bowl bid and save themselves and their city further embarrassment.

At least nobody could argue with their status as AFC champions.

Now they aren’t even winners, and the moaning and groaning in the Mile High City is louder than it was after any of their Super Bowl fiascos. Despite having led at halftime of every game, they will bring a last-place AFC West division record of 3-5 to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium today for a game against the Chargers.

Columnist Woody Paige of the Denver Post was especially rough on the Broncos after they blew a 16-0 lead last Sunday night and suffered a 27-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, who had been bumbling along with a 1-6 record.

Wrote Paige: “Maybe they should switch to another league--the League of Women Voters.”

The Bronco fans have been booing loudly and often, and became particularly unruly a month ago when their heroes lost to the woebegone Cleveland Browns and temporarily saved Coach Bud Carson’s job.

Coach Dan Reeves’ men have frittered away second-half leads of six, 12, 14, 12, nine, 10 and 16 points. They have righted themselves in time to win only two of those seven, one in overtime.

What happened to the team that has dominated the AFC in recent years? Is it fallout from the repeated flops in the Super Bowl? Is it the wave of injuries that has hit the defensive unit? Is it psychological?

Maybe all of the above. To be sure, letting leads slip away week after week can take its toll on a team’s confidence.

Both Reeves and quarterback John Elway addressed that theory this week.

Said Reeves: “Any time something negative happens, you have to react against it. Until we learn to handle situations like that, those negative things will always be there. To cure it is the only way to overcome it. Otherwise, it keeps building up and it gets worse and worse.”

Said Elway: “I would say our problem is partly psychological. It has happened so many times that instead of thinking good things, we’re worrying about what’s bad that’s going to happen, and it usually has.”

A remark by cornerback Dennis Smith after the Broncos loss to the Vikings told something about their current confidence level. Asked what he was thinking when the Broncos jumped to a 16-0 lead, Smith said, “I didn’t get too excited. Let’s put it that way.”

Linebacker Karl Mecklenburg, normally as upbeat as anybody on the Broncos’ team, said after the game, “We’ve got a chance, but you can’t expect to lose to a 1-6 team and make the playoffs.”

Three days later, Mecklenburg was optimistic again.

“There’s hope for us,” he said. “We’ve got to turn ourselves around and do the right mental things, and we’ve got to get some breaks.”

Remarkably, the Broncos are still in the playoff race. With only 10 of 28 NFL teams over .500, they could make the playoffs with a strong finish if certain rivals were to hit the skids.

Mecklenburg dismissed the Broncos’ string of Super Bowl bashings as a cause of their plight.

“Last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year and we went to the Super Bowl,” he said. “We were a young team, and when you’re like that, you don’t have the depth you need. It’s not a situation like San Francisco or the Giants. They have older backup guys, which could hurt them in the future.

“With the injuries in our secondary, we had a couple of games when we couldn’t even get our nickel package on the field. We had to go with our regular defense all the way. When that happens, you sometimes wind up with a linebacker covering a wide receiver.

“There’s no question that what’s been happening has hurt our confidence. With different guys playing, the coaches can’t make the moves they normally do. If a guy gets burned, they don’t want to put him in that situation again. The whole thing tends to snowball.”

Among other things, the snowball is reflected in the team’s takeaway-turnover ratio of minus-three, compared to the plus-11 that tied the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the AFC last season.

“All those years, we didn’t turn the ball over,” Mecklenburg said. “This year we’ve given up four touchdowns on offense plus two on special teams. Turnovers are killing us.”

Charger linebacker Billy Ray Smith subscribes to the supposition that the Broncos are suffering from a loss of confidence.

“They are a team laden with talent,” Smith said. “Maybe they have even more talent than they’ve had in the past. But the psychological part of the game is definitely as big as the physical part, and it shows when you keep losing leads like they have.

“It’s worse for some people than for others, but just a few guys getting down can hurt the whole club’s attitude.”

There is no question that injuries have hurt the Broncos’ defense. End Alphonso Carreker has been out all season, cornerback Tyrone Braxton was lost for the season in the third game and several others have missed games.

Reeves was so desperate for a cornerback after Braxton was injured that he tried out Elliott Smith, who was on the Chargers’ developmental squad last year until he was activated for the last two games. Smith quickly proved inadequate, so Reeves gave the starting job to rookie Alton Montgomery, the Broncos’ second-round draft choice, who had been a backup safety.

“In several games, we’ve lost two players at the same position,” Reeves said. “That affects your team all down the line.”

Elway blames the Broncos’ lack of depth on their decision to cut back on Plan B signings this year.

“A good football team should have depth,” he said. “We didn’t do a very good job of insuring ourselves against injuries in the off-season.”

Elliott Smith is the only 1990 Plan B signee on the roster, and he is used sparingly.

But depth or no depth, the Broncos probably would have held on against the Vikings if Elway hadn’t been forced out by turf toe and a strained arch late in the first half. Elway’s backup, Gary Kubiak, threw three interceptions.

Elway is expected to be back today, and his Charger counterpart, Billy Joe Tolliver, is wary.

“You can’t count them out,” Tolliver said. “Any team that’s been to two straight Super Bowls has a lot of pride. They’re like a wounded dog. When he’s cornered, he comes out fighting.”