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The wild scene unfolded as if a Super Bowl victory had been secured. Players playfully tackled one another. Coaches hugged. But this was Arizona, and these were Cardinals, so that couldn't be the case.
It happened Sunday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz. And, in this instance, the last-second
touchdown with no time remaining actually ended up hurting the Cardinals. Had
they lost, as is their custom, they would have secured the No. 1 pick in the
draft and a possible shot at the University of Mississippi's Eli Manning as
their franchise quarterback. But an organization with one playoff victory since
1947 typically found a way to turn a positive into a negative.
Meanwhile, 1,500 miles away in Green Bay, Wis., the player once considered the Cardinals' franchise QB, not to mention the man who helped produce their recent moment of postseason glory, was enjoying a leisurely Sunday off on the Denver Broncos sideline.
As Jake Plummer stood with a parka over his Broncos uniform and a stocking cap
on his head, he probably couldn't help seeing the irony in all of this.
Plummer had a Manning on his mind - not Eli but his older brother, Peyton -
as he contemplated the quarterbacks' pending playoff matchup Sunday when Denver
visits the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome (2:30 p.m. MST, CBS 4).
What a trip that will be.
But, then, the entire 2003 season has been a wild ride for Plummer.
The Cardinals didn't believe he was the right fit to lead them to greater heights,
so Plummer signed with the Broncos on March 6.
He compiled a 9-2 record as a starter and played some of the best ball of his
career, ranking fifth in the NFL in quarterback rating. At 91.2, Plummer was
behind Tennessee's Steve McNair (100.4), Manning (99.0), Minnesota's Daunte
Culpepper (96.4) and Kansas City's Trent Green (92.6). Plummer's 62.6 percent
completion rate was a career best. And, though he missed five games, he was
sacked only 14 times after previously going down an average of 35.8 times a
season.
It all has added up to a chance for Plummer to maybe even celebrate a Super
Bowl victory in Houston on Feb. 1.
It will take four consecutive wins, including three on opponents' turf, a feat
that has not yet been accomplished in the NFL. But then, during the past five
years, Plummer prob- ably never envisioned the day he'd get a game day off in
December, either.
"It feels great," Plummer said of helping the Broncos clinch a wild-
card berth. "They brought me in here to Denver to help get something done,
and it's been a few years since we've been to the playoffs and I'm just a small
part of this. These guys definitely rallied, and it's an all-out team effort.
I'm just glad to be here right now."
Been there before
It has been five years since Plummer or the Broncos experienced a playoff victory
in January.
Denver ended the 1998 season on its way to its second successive Super Bowl
victory. In Arizona that season, Plummer did something even more improbable,
simply by helping the Cardinals advance to the postseason for the first time
since the strike- shortened 1982 season. Arizona won its final three games by
a total of eight points, setting up a wild-card matchup on the road against
heavily favored Dallas.
"He was already popular," former Cardinals teammate Larry Centers
recalled. "But that's when he really became 'Jake the Snake.' "
Plummer didn't play one of his better games against the Cowboys - the running
attack and defense instead were standouts - but Arizona advanced with a stunning
20-7 victory. The Cardinals' postseason ride ended the next week in the divisional
round with a 41-21 loss at Minnesota. Plummer finished with only lackluster
statistics in those playoff games, completing 54.5 percent of his pass attempts
(42-for-77) for 455 yards, with four interceptions and two touchdown passes.
Arizona hasn't gotten a sniff of the playoffs since, going 6-10, 3-13, 7-9 and
5-11 the next four seasons under Plummer.
"His only drawback in Arizona was that he didn't have a supporting cast
after that playoff year," said Centers, now a running back with the New
England Patriots. "That's the only reason, in my opinion, that he didn't
perform as well afterward as he did during the playoff run."
High hopes
Plummer's expectations for the Broncos were evident immediately. After his introductory
news conference, he brazenly posed in front of a huge poster of John Elway and
stuck his face between the Broncos' two Lombardi trophies.
But skepticism abounded in Arizona, where Plummer's history was best summed
up by a fan who told a local newspaper, "Jake is capable at times of doing
amazing things. Other times, he's a bonehead."
There was reason for such thoughts, considering Plummer was sporting a career
ledger in which he had thrown more touchdown passes than interceptions only
once in six years.
Broncos linebacker Al Wilson saw things in a different light once it was clear
Plummer had supplanted Brian Griese as starter.
"I was happy, man," Wilson said. "I was happy about him signing
here, because growing up and seeing all the West Coast offenses being run, you
always saw a mobile quarterback in those offenses, and I just knew we had an
opportunity to have a quarterback that could get outside the pocket and make
plays with his feet when things broke down. I knew he'd bring another dimension
to this team."
And Plummer has. He finished with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio of
his career (15-7) after having thrown 90 touchdowns and 114 interceptions in
his six seasons with the Cardinals. His ability to roll out and improvise proved
the perfect complement for the league's No. 2 rushing attack. And, most important,
he cut down on the mistakes that led to the "bonehead" tag.
"The one thing I had questions going into this year about was whether he
was going to be able to change his mentality of, 'I have to make a play every
time I'm out there. I've got to try to make something happen,' which is how
I think he played in Phoenix," said Steve Beuerlein, who served as Denver's
backup QB until an injury ended his season in Week 7. " . . . And this
year when he's been out there, I think he's just been able to trust himself
and play. He's got a great running game that helps a lot, and he knows that.
And he knows as long as he plays smart, doesn't turn the ball over and put us
in bad situations, he'll have a chance to win ballgames."
To put Plummer's season in perspective, consider that he produced 10 games with
a quarterback rating of at least 100 in six previous seasons. He has compiled
six such ratings in 11 games in 2003, the most recent coming in the Dec. 21
victory at Indianapolis. And Denver went 1-4 without him as starter.
'A good fit'
"I believe Jake needed a fit, and he has a good fit in Denver. I'm not
surprised," said Rod Graves, the Cardinals vice president of pro personnel.
"Jake is competitive. He can do all the things at that position you ask
a player to do physically and athletically. The question marks were whether
or not from a mental standpoint we were giving him things to maximize his ability.
Denver found a way to do that."
Plummer was at his play-making best in his two appearances before he sat out
the Green Bay game. He slithered away from a fierce pass rush to deliver a 46-yard
pass to Ashley Lelie in the closing seconds of regulation against Cleveland
to perhaps save the Broncos' season. And after his first pass was returned for
a touchdown against the Colts on Dec. 21, he completed 14 of his final 16 throws
for 238 yards. He also accounted for three touchdowns, two rushing.
"He's playing phenomenal," Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe said,
comparing the "aura" surrounding Plummer's recent play to that of
John Elway. "I don't know how much better he can play than what he's playing
right now, but, oh, my goodness, he's shown he was the right decision for us."
Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith told Plummer on Sunday that, no matter what
happens in the playoffs, "we're a lot better" because of the quarterback's
performance and, especially, his mind-set.
"It's because of the way he thinks," Smith explained, "his aggressiveness."
Pressure will grow
Yet it all is magnified in the playoffs. Just ask Peyton Manning, who, fair
or not, has had to answer questions about his winless streak in the postseason.
Plummer will face another measuring stick when he's truly asked to carry the
offense. With Denver's strong running attack, he rarely has had to carry the
Broncos with his arm. His season high in passing yardage was 277, against Detroit
on Sept. 28.
Like his 1998 appearance with the Cardinals, Plummer will be leading a No. 6
seed into the postseason.
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