Worst is yet to come for Broncos

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DENVER -- An airplane trailing a banner claiming that John McCain is a Raiders fan flew over Invesco Field before Sunday's game Denver-Miami game, not quite the insult it was intended to be.Politics aside, anyone claiming to be a Broncos fan might not inspire confidence, his judgment, good sense and willingness to suffer questioned as his team turns into crumbs before his eyes.The verdict on that came after the Dolphins scored their last touchdown with three minutes to play, stretching its lead to the final nine points.Broncos fans began streaming out of the stadium as if they had just found ferrets under their seats.Faith no longer lives with hope in the Broncos' heart, even just a touchdown and a field goal away.The descent of the Broncos reminds me of those truckers signs coming down the mountain. You are not down yet. Do not be fooled.Miles of sharp grades and steep curves are ahead.In other words, this is not the bottom. It is not close enough to the bottom to feel the bottom wearing high heels and standing on Elvis Dumervil's head."We're definitely struggling right now," receiver Brandon Marshall said. "There's no secret about it. I think everybody in the National Football League sees it. Our fans see it. . . . We're struggling."Football's a struggle and then you miss the playoffs."I thought we had excellent effort out there today," said coach Mike Shanahan, all the more depressing if actually true. If that's what excellent effort looks like, the season from here is lost. Jay Cutler, once so full of soaring promise as a premier quarterback, now provokes flinches each time he fades to pass. Applause for a completion is reserved until it is determined which color jersey the receiver is wearing.Cutler seems more and more just another raw apprentice, his successes as random as his failures, if less in number.The grand promise of Marshall gets less and less realized, he, too, not just less productive but less included, more decoy than weapon, the most puzzling piece of the incredible shrinking offense."When you get the opportunity in cover-1, you hope the quarterback sees it," said Marshall, maybe implying something, maybe not. But Marshall did not catch his first pass (of two) until less than a minute was left in the third quarter.The traditionally proud Broncos running game (14 total yards) is just a whisper, the pieces broken or absent. The defense continues its nibble, nibble, never swallow, futility, and now D.J. Williams joins the Baileys as a hole that can't be filled.Even the single, shining item in it all, kicker Matt Prater, finally failed when it might have made a difference. Most of the Broncos' wounds were self-inflicted, from the three interceptions off Cutler, to badly timed penalties, a face mask here, a flinch there, encroachment there, and most notably an offensive pass-interference call on Marshall that called back a 77-yard touchdown.It was one of those iffy calls that could have been ignored or called the other way, and shortly after, Marshall got an end zone interference call on Miami that evened things out.Aside from a squirming, stunning 95-yard kickoff return by Eddie Royal, the Broncos were without highlights, looking as higgledy-piggledy as a man chasing his hat in the wind."We are at a crossroads," said Ebenezer Ekuban, "but I am an optimist. We have to keep fighting. It will be great to see the type of guys we have, in the second half of the season."That's just it, after all. These are the type of guys the Broncos have, clearly not as good as the guys other teams have.Standing tallest to represent the general quality of the type of guys the Broncos have has to be Karl Paymah, the cornerback given the unpleasant job of filling in for the injured Champ Bailey.Paymah had more passes thrown at him than Champ Bailey has in the last five years. Paymah ended up the game's leading tackler with 12, all but one of those coming after his receiver had caught a pass in front of him.By actual count, Paymah allowed 113 of the 281 passing yards by the Dolphins. It is not as if the Broncos have a closet full of hidden talent to step in and play better than this.Rookie running back Ryan Torain had been touted as such, if not a savior of the running game then an improvement. With injuries to everyone else, all that was left was Torain, and his three carries got 1 yard.The one grab-bag surprise was rookie fullback Peyton Hillis, with seven catches for 116 yards (the catches and yards that could have gone to Marshall had not Cutler spent the game with his back to Marshall).If the Broncos' success from here on depends on a Peyton, it had best be a Manning or (spelling noted) a Walter.Look out below.(Contact Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News at lincicomeb(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)