It's Monday afternoon and Mike Anderson has just finished lifting weights. In this hysterical, madcap football season in the Rockies, this is somehow appropriate. The players are off today, but the Denver Broncos' rookie running back just couldn't stay away from the team facility in Englewood, Colo.
|  | | Mike Anderson's 80-yard TD run capped another crazy Denver victory Sunday. |
Anderson is asked about all the amazing, ridiculous things that have happened to him and his Broncos: approaching the 1,000-yard plateau, winning all four games in November and scoring 21 points in each of the last two fourth quarters. He laughs and pauses. He sounds almost embarrassed.
"I know, I know," he says into his cell phone, with the locker room stereo booming in the background. "This stuff doesn't happen in the NFL. It's not supposed to, anyway. It just shows what happens when guys are determined and don't quit fighting until the end."
In the last two games, the Broncos' offense has turned the ball over a staggering 10 times and allowed opposing defenses to score three touchdowns. Playing against such lethal scoring machines as San Diego and Seattle, the Broncos' defense has permitted an inflation-adjusted 68 points.
Somehow, with Anderson at running back and Gus Frerotte playing quarterback, Denver managed to rally in each of those lost causes. A week ago, it was a heart-stopping 38-37 victory over the Chargers and then, more improbably, a 38-31 win last Sunday in Seattle.
"If last week was crazy," Frerotte observed, "then this week was crazier."
Denver head coach Mike Shanahan, who has seen his share of miracles along the way, had this pointed question for his players as he walked into the visiting locker room at Husky Stadium: "Are you trying to kill me?"
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Are you trying to kill
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— Mike Shanahan, Broncos head coach during Sunday's halftime speech |
He was smiling when he said it, but he might have been grimacing through the tears, too. What doesn't kill you in today's NFL -- the focus group for social Darwinism -- must make you stronger. The Broncos, who functioned without quarterback Brian Griese and running back Terrell Davis for both of those cathartic games, began November with a 4-4 record. They emerge 8-4 from November, which included impressive wins over the Jets and Raiders.
If the playoffs began today (and they don't), the Broncos would be the AFC's fifth seed, behind Oakland, Miami, Tennessee and Baltimore. The way the remaining schedule breaks down -- at New Orleans, Seattle, at Kansas City and San Francisco - suggests the 1997 and 1998 Super Bowl champions will return to postseason play after missing last year with a 6-10 record.
That the Broncos are in this position without Griese and Davis is remarkable. Griese emerged earlier this season as one of the league's best young quarterbacks, but the price he paid for that Monday Night Football victory over the Raiders on Nov. 13 was a separated shoulder. Griese threw for the first time in two weeks Monday, but the Broncos may hold him out of Sunday's game at New Orleans as a precaution.
Davis' situation is more clouded. The former NFL and Super Bowl MVP has missed seven games this season and 18 games over the last two years. The torn knee ligaments that sidelined him for all but four games last season have healed, but a mysterious "idiopathic" pain in his left leg has left doctors baffled. Davis said he hopes to play Sunday.
Left to design game plans without the Broncos' two most dangerous weapons, Shanahan has again proved he is one of the very best coaches in the league. With Davis sitting out and backup Olandis Gary on injured reserve, Shanahan has been forced to be creative. Anderson, like Davis a sixth-round choice, averaged 1,200 yards in two years at Utah. Now, he has an outside chance to surpass those numbers in the NFL with 971 rushing yards after burning Seattle for 195. Not bad for a guy who was just hoping to make the team.
"That was my only thought in training camp -- to make this team," Anderson said. "Now that I'm getting close, to 1,000 yards in the NFL, that's special to me. They keep telling us rookies, 'You're only a play away from the starting job. Be ready. Be ready.' Well, that's what happened.
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Denver's great escapes
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Nov. 13: Broncos 27, Raiders 24. Oakland overcomes a 24-10 fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game, but Brian Griese, separated shoulder and all, directs the game-winning drive to set up Jason Elam's last-minute field goal.
Nov. 19: Broncos 38, Chargers 37. With the embarrassment of becoming the Chargers' first victim hanging over their heads, the Broncos erase a 34-17 second-half deficit behind backup QB Gus Frerotte. His 5-yard TD pass to Ed McCaffrey with 1:33 left caps a five-TD, 462-yard performance.
Nov. 26: Broncos 38, Seahawks 31. A see-saw game in Seattle ends up being decided on Mike Anderson's 80-yard TD rumble just 28 seconds after the Seahawks had tied the game at 31-all.
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"But it's not about individual achievements. The main thing is doing whatever it takes to get a win."
And that takes in a lot of territory.
In recent weeks, Shanahan had lined up Denver wide receiver Rod Smith in the backfield and used him as a decoy. There have also been several end-around plays. Against Seattle, Shanahan deployed Smith as an actual running back. Smith took three handoffs and ran for 78 yards (more than Seattle's Ricky Watters), including a 50-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"Crazy," Smith said. "Ain't my job. That's hazard pay. I ought to get extra for that. But, hey, I just wanted to make a play."
Smith caught four passes for 82 yards, giving him 1,314 yards for the season that broke the franchise single-season record set by Steve Watson 19 years ago. But it was his simultaneous block of two Seattle defenders that sprang Anderson around left end for the winning 80-yard touchdown run with 3:34 left. Smith's block turned a generic 10-yard play into a game-breaker.
The Broncos and their fans, not surprisingly, are feeling good about themselves. The fever for football, after a brief sabbatical, has returned. When Florida announced it was certifying George W. Bush as the winner in its presidential election Sunday, KCNC, the Denver CBS affiliate, had the good sense to keep the Broncos game on the air by going to a split screen. It's hard to say which story was more dramatic.
"They were of equal importance," Broncos vice president of business operations Joe Ellis told the Denver Post.
Anderson isn't going to argue. When he got home, the equal billing didn't escape him when he watched his VCR tape.
"Yeah," he said, laughing, "we're big news out here.
"It's hard to put into words what's happening. I'm still trying to get it to sink in. I mean, from where I started to where I am right now is a long way. You know, everything has worked out so well. I'm so happy.
"You just keep hoping it doesn't end."
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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