Tag Archives: Mile High Stadium

SUPER BOWL XXXIII CHAMPIONSHIP 1998 DENVER BRONCOS

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Talk about a curtain call.  How many of us had a former boss that we wanted to show them what we were about??  Super Bowl XXXIII was John Elway’s last game and it came courtesy of Dan Reeves…yikes.

I still thought the 98 Vikings were the best team that year but guess what?  History doesn’t care what The Chancellor thinks so after a 34-19 win over the Falcons; this was the crowning jewel for becoming back to back champions! And just like what happened with the early 90’s Cowboys we’re left with the glut of never ending questions when we’re drinking and talking football…”Would they have three-peated if___?”  In this instance had John Elway come back….would they have?  Well that wasn’t rhetorical, what do you think?

xxxiii3After 36 seasons and 4 other failed Super Bowl appearances the Broncos were champions.  Elway was now a champion and didn’t have to answer those questions anymore.  The organization, city, everyone celebrated the triumph in XXXII over the Packers. They were supremely ripe for a letdown.  Yet once the press conference to announce Elway’s return for his 16th season came, it seemed like the Broncos would be a good defending champion.  Who knew they would go on to be one of the strongest ever??

They leaned on their celebrated running game that had matured thru the previous post season.  Terrell Davis came into 1998 running strong. The Achilles heel from the season before was stopping the run, the best thing to do was to get an early lead and impose your running game on your opponent while forcing them to pass.  The Broncos did this with great aplomb as Davis became the first 2,000 yard rusher in the AFC since OJ Simpson in 1973.

So the Broncos went from defending champion to a team that threatened to run through the season undefeated.  The champagne on ice the ’72 Dolphins put away until the last team loses was ice cold as the Broncos raced out to a 13-0 record.  There was a strange feeling when the Broncos entered Giants Stadium during that 14th game. They had already wrapped up the AFC West Division where they had been a wildcard entrant the year before.

For the first time in the latter half of 1998, Denver faced a team that was not intimidated by them.  The Giants pulled off the upset when Kent Graham hit Amani Toomer with a late game touchdown 20-16.  The dream of the undefeated season had melted away, and after a Monday night loss to the Dolphins, there was concern the Broncos had lost their edge.  The playoffs beckoned yet Shanahan started resting his players. Countenance turned to anguish as some Denver fans remembered the ’96 finish and upset to the Jaguars at home in the playoffs.

xxxiii15Uh….well Denver faithful didn’t need to worry.  Something about that embarrassing loss brought the fire out of the Broncos who ran roughshod over the Jags 42-14.  Next up were the Cinderella New York Jets, who came in with Bill Parcells trying to become the first coach to take 3 teams to the Super Bowl.  In Elway’s last game at Mile High Stadium they prevailed 23-10 in a defensive struggle.

Next up, Super Bowl XXXIII and an old ally in former coach Dan Reeves.  In the end, Elway threw for 336 yards in an MVP performance in his last game.  Elway retired 4 months later and left us to ask that proverbial question…Would they have three-peated had Elway played another year??

What do you think??

Davis Ring of Honor Ceremony after brief HOF career.

 

 

SUPER BOWL XII RUNNER UP 1977 DENVER BRONCOS

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Growing up at the time in the “Mile High City”, nothing beat the 1977 season of the Denver Broncos. They would show commercials with the Broncos from the prior week with Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better playing in the background. It was the first winning season in the 18 years of the franchise. “Bronco-mania” took off with everyone attending the games wearing anything orange.

77afcringWhat you also had was the emergence of the Orange Crush Defense. Although the Oakland Raiders were the first full time unit to fully employ the 3-4 defense and win the Super Bowl, it was the swarming nasty Bronco outfit that achieved greatness.

The original Orange Crush defense that led the Broncos to Super Bowl XII and Denver’s first ever winning season. This was the first great full time 3-4 defense that yielded only 148 points (10.6 pts / game) and just 18 touchdowns for the season. Holding 7 of their opponents to 10 points or less.

alzado77afcchampionship

Led by Randy Gradishar, ESPN’s Tom Jackson, and the late Lyle Alzado this defense had an unheard of 4 All Pros concentrated on this defense and 5 Pro Bowlers. This not ready for primetime group came out of nowhere and swallowed the Steelers and Raiders in the playoffs before falling to Dallas in New Orleans in Super Bowl XII.

77 broncosThe story of this group was how it had to overcome being the weak little brother that grew up to take on the bully of the division and the conference. They had taken the AFC West crown from the Oakland Raiders, who perennially dominated the division. Although they split with the defending Super Bowl champion Raiders, doubters still persisted as they were about to face off in the ’77 AFC Championship Game.

You have to keep in mind that the Broncos had lost 15 straight home games to the Raiders at this point. So we’re talking 1963-1977. They had beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-21 and had QB Craig Morton plucked from the hospital after a 2 day stay for his bad hip. The Bronco defense led by Alzado, Jackson, and Gradishar had to set the tone early.

After a roughing the punter allowed the Raiders to finish a 9:00 drive to establish a 3-0 lead, an anxious Denver crowd sat on its hands nervously. Would they be able to move the ball against the defending Super Bowl champs?? Could they overcome the stigma as having been life time bottom feeders of the AFC West?? Craig Morton, who was 0-3 on that bad hip, struck with the most important touchdown in the history of the Denver Bronco franchise.

That 74 yard touchdown from Morton to Moses established the Broncos were for real and they went on to dominate in a 20-17 win. In one year they had gone from never having been to the playoffs, to vanquishing the Steelers and Raiders, who had won the last 3 Super Bowls. All they had to do was take on the Dallas Cowboys down in the Superdome to become world champions.

super-bowl-logo-1977They came up short in Super Bowl XII 27-10 but the memories of that season were great. Head Coach Red Miller was only the second rookie coach to take his team to the Super Bowl. Craig Morton became the first quarterback to lead two franchises to the Super Bowl, having led Dallas to V.

The franchise has gone on to win Super Bowls in the late 1990s but nothing will match the magic of the first visit. I got the chance to meet Lyle Alzado at Owens Boys Club in 1977. “‘Broncomania” school spirit wearing orange on Fridays in Ms. Carmen’s 2nd grade class at Goldrick Elementary. In fact the whole school was in orange every Friday of the season. 1977 was a great year.

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Terrell Davis Belongs In The Hall of Fame

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Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII

When you think back to the Denver Broncos of the late 90s, Terrell Davis is usually the first player you think of.  He brought an NFC toughness to the AFC in terms of running the football.

You have to remember that the NFC was in the midst of a 13 game winning streak before the Broncos broke through with their win in Super Bowl XXXII.  The AFC had been filled with primarily scat backs and finesse runners when Davis was drafted in the 6th round of the 1995 draft.  He ran with power between the tackles and had the speed to pull away once he made his upfield cut.

For four years he was one of the best runners in football. An all time great until a knee injury in ’99 derailed a promising career.  Just like Gale Sayers he was a whirlwind of production before that injury so why should he be denied Hall of Fame consideration??

In 1995, Davis became the lowest draft pick ever to rush for 1,000 yards when he bolted for 1,117 on a Denver team that was retooling itself. Coach Shanahan had just come over from the World Champion 49ers and combined a single back set and merged it with a version of the “west coast” offense. Davis was an affective runner in that system but it was once the team moved to an offset I formation with the addition of FB Howard Griffith in ’96 did Davis’ production reach the stratosphere.

It was the ’96 season that Davis wrested the mantle of best power back from a fading Emmitt Smith with a 1,538 yard, 13TD rushing performance. If we add in his receiving totals he had 1848 all purpose yards and 15 total touchdowns. Yet despite the 13-3 record, his ’96 Broncos were upset in the divisional round of the playoffs by Jacksonville 30-27.

Davis in the ’97 AFC Divisional Playoff win over KC 13-10

Davis’ numbers would have been higher for the ’96 season yet Shanahan rested he and most of the starters after jumping out to an 11-1 start.  The team rusted before the playoffs and Davis lost 3 second halves where he could have piled up more yards and should have been an 1,800 yard rusher.

The ’97 season saw the Broncos move to a 12-4 record yet were cast in the roll of wildcard by virtue of Kansas City’s 13-3 record. Again Davis was the driving force running for 1,750 yards and 15TDs leading the AFC in rushing and the NFL in touchdowns. He then ran for over 100 yards against the Jaguars, Chiefs, and Steelers enroute to Super Bowl XXXII. Now their physical running game would be put to the test against the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers and their mammoth defensive line.

In one of the best performances in Super Bowl history, Davis ran for 157 yards and a Super Bowl record 3 touchdowns propelling the Broncos to a 31-24  upset win.  Davis had a superb performance and may have broken Tim Smith’s record of 204 yards had he not missed the 2nd quarter with a migraine headache. In the game he punished the Green Bay defense with physical, tackle breaking runs that broke the former world champions down. He was MVP of the NFL’s signature game in his own hometown what more could be on the horizon??

One year after the sporting press celebrated Barry Sanders rushing for 2,053 yards in ’97, there was speculation that Terrell Davis could repeat that feat in 1998. Terrell Davis and his Broncos ran out to a 13-0 record and threatened the ’72 Dolphins unbeaten streak but an upset by the Giants then the Dolphins relegated the AFC West champions to a 14-2 record.  Davis ran for over 170 yards in the final game of the season to finish with 2,008 yards, 23 TDs and he was voted NFL Most Valuable Player in the process.

His total was even more impressive than Eric Dickerson’s, Barry Sanders or O.J. Simpson’s total for one reason: his 2,000 yard season came with his sitting out over 8 quarters in blowout wins. With his average per game divided out over a 14 game season his numbers project out to 2,294 yards and 26 TDs. Had that happened he would have broken Emmitt Smith’s record of 25 TDs and Marshall Faulk never would have had the record in 2000. Keep in mind he attained all this while playing for a defending Super Bowl champion with a bullseye on their back for the entire season. Something the other 2,000 yard rushers didn’t have to contend with.

After leading the Broncos to another Super Bowl triumph in the XXXIIIrd edition, a 34-19 win over the Falcons. Davis was on pace for a record setting career yet in the 3rd game of the ’99 season he tore ligaments in his knee making a tackle against the Jets and was never the same player after a year and a half off to recover. He retired after the 2001 season with 7,607 yards rushing and 60TDs in 7 seasons.

Now it’s at this point where you have to realize the greatness of Davis. At the current rate he was running the ball at the time of his injury, he was on pace to gain 12,824 yards in only EIGHT years! Only comparison to that  is Jim Brown who ran for 12,312 in 9 years. This was a north south runner who didn’t rely on moves to gain his yards so its very likely that he could have maintained his pace. His 56 touchdown total swells out past 110 given he would have made it injury free for those same 8 years. Thats production..

Here is another talent who didn’t play for a long career but as a comet burned bright as any ever seen in the football heavens. He was the power and impetus for a two time league champion, a celebrated 2,000 yard rusher, a Super Bowl MVP, and NFL MVP. What more could he have done? Those 3 years (96-98) he was an All Pro and Pro Bowl performer.

Just like Gale Sayers his career was cut short and he was never the same yet Davis deserves the same Hall of Fame distinction. He wasn’t as flashy as Sayers but he was more productive with a bullseye on his back and powered a league champion. That has to be worth something more than distinction. He was a great player and ambassador of the game. Never an off field issue uttered with his name and came off as an affable likeable player and person. He has to be considered the top Bronco running back of all time and that includes Hall of Famer Floyd Little who came three decades earlier.

Yet thats another debate for a different day…For induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame I present to you: Terrell Davis