DENVER (AP) -Defeating Denver, not demons, tops Brian Griese’s to-do list.
Tampa Bay’s 33-year-old quarterback faces the Broncos for the first time in his career Sunday in a pivotal matchup of 3-1 teams. But he insists he long ago came to terms with his frustrating five years in Denver, where he never escaped the long shadow of John Elway.
To Broncos fans, Griese was the anti-Elway, the quarterback who made mistakes on the field and was aloof off it. He’s remembered more for his headfirst fall on Terrell Davis’ driveway, for spraining his ankle tripping over his dog and for publicly questioning the talent of his teammates.
But they also remember his Pro Bowl season, his charity work in the community that continues to this day, the way he played through pain, and how he was unceremoniously dumped for Jake Plummer.
this is a business,” Griese said. “I’ve had quite a few conversations with coach (Mike) Shanahan through the years. I have a lot of respect for him and I think he does for me, as well.
“The only thing I’m motivated with coming back to Denver is to get our football team to 4-1 and beat a good team on the road.”
Griese said the difficulties he faced in Denver helped him grow as a person and a player and shaped the man and quarterback he is today.
“I came into a situation that was tough and I was a young kid. I didn’t know how to react and I didn’t know what to expect,” said Griese, who watched Elway go out in style with a second straight Super Bowl title. Then Griese struggled to replace the Hall of Famer in 1999, when the Broncos lost their first four games on their way to a 6-10 record.
“I became a shell of the person that I really am and closed off and tried to worry about what I could control and didn’t communicate in the best ways, looking back on it,” Griese said. “And I had to learn from those situations. I’m a very different person and different player now, but I am that way because of my experiences there.”
Losing his first four games as Elway’s successor paved the way for the scrutiny that got under his skin.
aid. “You have to be able to enjoy the journey, enjoy all parts of it and have that perspective. I wasn’t in that place when I was in Denver that I am now.”
Griese was 30-27 as the Broncos’ starter and is 15-9 in starts since leaving Denver, including 8-1 in his last nine starts for the Buccaneers.
“Well, I thought he was pretty good when he was here, too,” Shanahan said. “We just didn’t have the supporting cast that we might have today. But Brian has demonstrated that with the right supporting cast he can win a lot of football games, like most quarterbacks.”
Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler also lives in Elway’s cold shadow, but at least he has the buffer of Griese, Plummer and time; it’s been a decade since No. 7 hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
“Any time you have to follow a guy like John Elway or Brett Favre, which Aaron (Rodgers) is dealing with now, it’s tough,” Cutler said. “The expectations are so high and it’s a lose-lose. You go out and lose a game and obviously you’re going to get it in the papers. If you go out and win a game, but if you didn’t do it like John did it or didn’t do it like Brett did it, you’re still going to get it.
“Unless you go right in there and win a Super Bowl and make them forget about the last guy, it’s going to be a difficult job.”
lanted Plummer with five games left in his rookie season in 2006.
But the organization trusts it’s finally found a worthy replacement for Elway in Cutler, who won the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Month award after posting three 300-yard games, nearly 1,300 yards passing and nine touchdown tosses in September.
The Bucs figure they’ve found their man, too, in Griese, despite some really bad numbers since replacing an ineffective Jeff Garcia after Tampa Bay’s season-opening loss to New Orleans.
Griese’s passer rating of 62.5 and 5.6 yards per attempt both rank 30th in the NFL, and he’s thrown a half-dozen interceptions in his last two games, two more than Garcia threw all last season.
“You’ve got some real good stats there,” Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden retorted. “Did you know he’s 3-0 as a starter? How about that one?”
While Gruden was defending his passer during the week, Shanahan criticized his young offense that carried Denver to a 3-0 start before a stunning 33-19 defeat at Kansas City last week.
Although Larry Johnson ran for 198 yards in the Chiefs’ first win since last October, Shanahan laid more of the blame on the Broncos’ four turnovers and one touchdown in four trips to the red zone.
work to do. But it was not quite as bad as it looked in those final stats.”
Still, the numbers say Denver’s defense is dismal: The Broncos rank 30th in the league with 408.8 yards allowed per game, and 31st with 117 points allowed.
That’s not why Griese is licking his chops over his return to Denver.
“I look back at my time there with fondness,” Griese said. “… Yeah, I would have liked for the on-the-field to be a little bit more successful, but I look back on it as an 11-year veteran now and just am very thankful and appreciative of the organization for giving me the opportunity.”
Now, he’d like to show them the quarterback they helped him become, and the Broncos want to give him one more bad memory of Denver.
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