CUTLER TALKS ABOUT FINGER INJURY

Much of the early stages of Monday night’s game featured images of Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler inspecting a finger that had smashed into the helmet of a Patriots defensive lineman while he followed through after throwing a pass. Cutler eventually left for a while, and then returned. X-rays taken at halftime were negative, but Cutler says that the finger affected his play. “It’s never happened to me like that,” Cutler said Wednesday night. “When I first hit it, I was like, ‘I probably broke my finger.’ But you get lucky sometimes and I got lucky there. . . . I wouldn’t have come back in if I didn’t think I could get the job done. I thought I could get the job done. I obviously couldn’t.” And while Cutler said he doesn’t want to make excuses, he offered one up, saying that he wasn’t able to grip the ball in order to produce a tight spiral. The Broncos are off this week, which gives Cutler plenty of time to heal before playing Miami on November 2. But it will take more than ten fully-functioning fingers on their quarterback’s hands to turn things around for the Broncos. They limp into the bye at 4-3, and easily could be (arguably should be) 2-5. Beginning with the Dolphins, they embark on a second-half schedule with their top defensive back, Champ Bailey, who’ll miss several weeks with a torn groin muscle. So if the Chargers wake up (or if the Raiders somehow can get hot), the Broncos could end up missing the playoffs yet again, which possibly would nudge Mike Shanahan even closer to becoming the former long-time coach of the team.