Gene Wojciechowski Does Not Know the Broncos

I would like to start by saying that this should have been posted after the Steelers game, but I did not get around to it. Nothing in the events that have transpired in the last few weeks influenced how I wrote this article. I will work harder next time to get my work up within the week it pertains to.

NOTE: Before you read the latest installment of my world famous rants, please read Gene Wojciechowski's article on espn.com about the Broncos. This rant is a response to what he wrote, and it will make much more sense if you read his article first. The URL is: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3073788&sportCat=nfl

Traffic cones? Is that what the Broncos look like in those uniforms? Standard traffic cones are orange with an orange or black base, while the Broncos' uniforms are blue with some orange, so the two have a different color scheme. Compared side by side, the only similar quality they have is the presence of the color orange, other than that, they are polar opposites. While this description may seem unnecessary, apparently the appearance of a traffic cone is not common knowledge, at least not to Gene Wojciechowski. Maybe the traffic cones in his hometown of Salina, Kansas are blue with orange stripes on either side. No matter how he came to this conclusion, upon further review it proves to be a ludicrous attempt at a comedic hook for his article. The statement was not amusing at all, and it paved the way for one of the worst sports columns ever written.

Wojciechowski follows this up by calling the Pittsburgh Steelers a sluggish football team. Coming into this game, the Steelers were 4-1, winning every game by at least 21 points. Sure, they lost to Arizona on the road, but it was only a one score loss and the Cardinals have quite a methodical offense with Kurt Warner at the helm. That game came down to the Steelers making a few careless turnovers and committing too many penalties, two flaws rarely seen in Pittsburgh. On the other side of the ball, the Cardinals played mistake-free, and this gameplan contributed greatly to their victory. Nonetheless, it proved a blip on the radar for Pittsburgh, as they came out strong against the Seahawks the following week and lost to a Broncos team that played a better game, but they certainly cannot be described as sluggish. The Steelers are one of the elite NFL teams at this point in the season. Wojciechowski and many other sportswriters utilize irrelevant attacks like these on good football teams to justify them losing to Denver. The bottom line is that few of these columnists give the Broncos any respect for playing a good game against a good team nowadays, and it is time to give this team credit where credit is due.

After mislabeling the Steelers, Wojciechowski then took a shot at Dre Bly for postgame comments he made to reporters. He mentions a puncture in Bly’s arm from a pain-killing shot in order to… well… affirm his bias against the Broncos; otherwise it had no purpose in the article. This marks two personal attacks on the Broncos thus far. To Bly’s statement “Nobody was giving us any shot to win this game,” Wojciechowski responded with “maybe that’s because [Denver] had not earned the benefit of the doubt.” It does not matter whether they earned the benefit of the doubt or not prior to the game, Denver still won with a solid performance. What Bly said proves absolutely true, and who is Wojciechowski to blame him after all the media abuse Denver has undergone in recent years? The audacity that Bly displayed is long overdue, and it is a positive for a new addition like him to speak out for the team.

So Wojciechowski is bold enough to go after Dre Bly, but going after Jason Elam like he did is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, Elam has made late and last second field goals in all of Denver’s wins, because that is his job. In no way can Denver be criticized for relying on their kicker, because close victories often times make or break a season. Apparently the NFL is now on the Patriot standard, which means that if any given team does not win by at least 3 scores every game, they cannot be considered a good team. After scrutinizing Denver for their particular brand of winning, Wojciechowski goes on to misinterpret, yet again, comments made by Elam. The statement “We'll take it if we can get it. If we can get 20 of 21, we will take it” somehow contains a tone of certainty from Elam, at least to Wojciechowski it does. Elam is simply grateful that Denver has been able to win games in that dramatic fashion, and says that they will gladly take any kind of win on any given Sunday. He did not say anything to indicate that he believes for sure that the Broncos will have a winning streak of the Rockies’ magnitude. Clearly, Elam is not “oxygen-deprived” or “mildly nuts,” he is in fact one of the most composed and logical players the NFL has ever seen. Wojciechowski should do his homework before he goes out on a limb and makes assumptions like that, his third personal attack.

Wojciechowski even misinterpreted the statistics from Sunday night’s contest. Jay Cutler went 22 of 29 for 248 yards, 3 TDs, and 2 INTs, or as Wojciechowski sees it, just 2 INTs. Again, we see the NFL on the Patriot standard; Cutler made 2 mistakes, therefore he is not a good player. That comment about the photoshoot proves quite unnecessary, as Cutler simply made a bad decision by throwing into double coverage. Roethlisberger also threw a questionable pass into double coverage that Dre Bly intercepted earlier in the game, so its not as if Cutler is the only one with flaws at quarterback. The only difference is that Wojciechowski put Cutler’s interception up on a pedestal with a glittering generality, the most basic form of propaganda. Keep in mind that Cutler is still a sophomore quarterback and has not yet started an entire NFL season. In fact, Cutler may have played his best career game on Sunday, as he put up great numbers against a great defense and came away with a quality win. Even more impressive is that Cutler did not have the support of a typically dynamic rushing offense. Denver backs racked up a mere 55 yards on 20 carries, while Cutler ran for 41 yards, including a 31 yard scramble in the second, at the end of which Troy Polamalu grabbed him by the head and threw him down. That kind of courage does not show up on the stat sheet, but maybe it ought to, because it seems that an over 75% completion rate, roughly 300 yards of total offense, and 3 touchdowns for one player are not good enough to impress Wojciechowski.

The one point of hope for a positive spin in this article came when Wojciechowski began listing the various Broncos with injuries: Champ Bailey, Simeon Rice, Tom Nalen, and Rod Smith. However, he did not elaborate on how the absence of these players gravely impacts the team. Including this paragraph proved largely a waste, as it had little connection to the rest of the article.

Once more, Wojciechowski preceded his opinion of a player with a personal attack (#4), calling Travis Henry “Father of the Year” in the NFL. This refers to Henry’s poor decisions in his personal life, which have resulted in him fathering 9 children. While these choices are a topic of interest, and certainly provide insight into Henry’s moral fiber, the article is no place to discuss this aspect of his life. It would have served Wojciechowski better to solely mention the possible drug suspension, which is the current issue affecting Henry’s playing time.

After the inactive player listing, Wojciechowski again criticized the optimism of a Bronco, and this time he targeted Brandon Stokely, calling him Mr. Sunshine (attack #5). What Stokely said is true, as it is still early in the year, the Broncos have a very talented team, and the sky is the limit for Denver. Contrary to Wojciechowski’s comments, the AFC West is anyone’s division for the taking right now, and given the inconsistency of its 4 teams, will probably remain that way through week 17, so Denver has more than an outside shot of winning it. Perhaps one of the few concepts that Wojciechowski has a grasp of is the separation between New England and Indianapolis, and the rest of the league. Therefore it is farfetched to believe that as of right now Denver can defeat either of those teams, especially given that they have already been handled by Indianapolis this year. On a positive note, the Broncos have taken 4 of 5 from the Patriots, a streak mostly owed to the coaching genius of Mike Shanahan.

As if there were not enough irrational comments to this point, Wojciechowski added another with the statement about Denver’s “postseason irrelevancy” since the 2005 loss to Pittsburgh. Since that time, a whopping one year has passed, in which time the Broncos came within one win of the playoffs, despite a quarterback controversy and multiple injuries to the secondary, as well as emotional leader Al Wilson. Last year hit Denver like a ton of bricks, as they did not expect to lose Wilson, and the run defense suffered severely without his presence. Given that, it is time to give Wojciechowski credit, as the Broncos have lost their mojo and the home field advantage they once had. Still, they are a playoff caliber team, as D.J. Williams asserts, they are just not playing up to their potential right now. Once this unit gets settled in and all the new players develop the necessary team chemistry, Denver will be a contender once more. Until then, however, they have much work to do as a team, while Gene Wojciechowski has much work to do as a sportswriter, especially if he thinks the Rockies will ever overtake the Broncos as the premier team in Colorado.

Here is a suggestion for Wojciechowski, given his writing style: attack the Cincinnati Bengals. He would have no problem citing the various times players on this team have broken the law in the past year. It would certainly help Wojciechowski write a better article, because even he, in spite of his distorted perceptions, should be able to see that the Bengals’ uniforms actually look like traffic cones.