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Eight no mountain high enough.
“Oh shoot, I mean, he knows what he’s doing,” Gary Kubiak said of quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who’s slated to start Sunday’s AFC championship against New England. “He’s been preparing with Sean (Payton), he’s been preparing with Bo (Nix), each and every day.
“I just think, as a coach, and I’m sure Sean (and Bo) have done that, just remind the kid what kind of team he’s on.”
Funny how history rhymes, isn’t it? Kubiak wore No. 8 as John Elway’s understudy for almost a decade. Stidham now sports that same 8, Kubiak’s old number, as Nix’s relief, one cruel ankle twist away from the throne, over the last two seasons.
Speaking as one No. 8 to another, our man Kubes, who coached the Broncos to the franchise’s last Super Bowl win a decade ago, offered Stidham eight simple words of advice.
“Just get in there,” the ex-Broncos backup QB told me by phone earlier this week, “and do your job.”
Handed the keys to a stock car in the middle of the race? Thrust into the driver’s seat on short notice? Asked to drive your team to the Super Bowl? Kubes has been there.
Kubiak was Elway’s stand-in from 1983-91, the Cal Naughton, Jr. to John’s Ricky Bobby, a couple of buds shaking and baking all over the AFC West. While Elway was forging one of the great QB careers in NFL history, years of preparing and processing alongside No. 7 molded Kubiak into a championship coach.
“Sometimes, you’ve got stretches where you may go a year or two years (of not playing),” Kubiak said. “Or you may get out there in a crazy spot.”
Kubes landed one of the absolute craziest, right at the very end. He was carrying the clipboard for Elway at the ’91-’92 AFC Championship Game in Buffalo when the Broncos icon had to leave the game with a deep bruise in his right thigh.
Kubiak had already made up his mind before the playoffs that the 1991 season would be his last, that he would retire whenever the ride came to an end.
“And all of a sudden, there I am in the game,” the former Broncos signal-caller recalled. “It was kind of ironic for me, (spending) all those years backing up John, here I am playing in the AFC Championship Game and had a really good chance to win.”
Gary literally went into that contest cold. Although he does remember it being surprisingly warm for upstate New York in mid-January.
“It was an unseasonable 32 degrees in Buffalo,” he laughed. “I couldn’t have played if it was cold. My back was too bad. I’m glad the Good Lord gave me a game I could play in.”
Kubes played admirably, too. No. 8 completed 11 of 12 throws for 136 yards. His touchdown run with 1:46 left got the Broncos to within 10-6 before the extra point.
Denver recovered the ensuing onside kick, but, alas, on the next play, Steve Sewell fumbled the ball back to Buffalo. Three missed field goals at Rich Stadium proved fatal. The Broncos ultimately fell, 10-7.
“Our defense was really good (in ’91) — a lot like this Broncos team,” Kubiak said. “We were in a lot of low-scoring games. We missed a few plays in the second half. We had ourselves in a position there at the end and unfortunately, the ballgame got away from us … we had our opportunity, but it just didn’t end the right way.”
How can this one end better? Kubiak likes that Payton doubled down on Stidham publicly, and almost immediately, after getting the worst injury news imaginable.
“I used to tell my teams, when you’re a coach, you’re going to go through some QB issues and lose a QB,” Kubiak explained. “And I used to always remind guys that when you start to worry about what’s going on at other spots on the team, then you don’t take care of your job. Just stay focused on your job, what you do. ‘We’ve got Stiddy here, he’s going to be ready to play.’ You have to stay focused and (then do) what you have to do to help him out.”
Bubby Brister went 4-0 as Elway’s No. 2 in the fall of 1998, keeping things afloat as the Broncos eventually repeated as Super Bowl champions. Brister told me Tuesday that he thinks 90% of the battle for Stiddy, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, will be half mental.
“I believe Jarrett knows he can do the job,” Brister said via text. “He also knows he has a great team and staff around him. Not to mention Sean Payton is in his ear, one of the best ever at calling plays.
“To top it off, (there’s a) big advantage playing at home with our awesome fans and at Mile High. Just go play! Just go do your job.”
Even if that means jumping on a moving train. Sportradar says Stidham is only the seventh NFL QB since 1950 to start a playoff game during a season in which he never started once.
The last three guys who’ve been thrust into that position since 2000 — Joe Webb (Minnesota, 2012), Connor Cook (Oakland, 2016) and Taylor Heinicke (Washington, 2020) — went 0-3. Their average stat line? 216 passing yards, one passing TD, two picks.
Their teams scored 10 points, 14 points and 23 points, respectively. That’s about 16 per game. Which is asking an awful, awful lot of your defense. Even one as good as Vance Joseph’s.
“He’ll be all right,” Kubiak said of Stidham. “The thing I always go back to is, it’s all about the team.
“Denver’s got a great football team. Stidham, that’s Sean’s hand-picked guy. He trusts him. And he’s on a great football team. It’ll be fun to watch the young man. He’ll do a great job.”
Eight no valley low enough. And just because Frank Reich was a leprechaun doesn’t mean you can’t get lucky all over again.
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Sean Keeler
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