You can't tell the story of the Broncos without mentioning Marty Schottenheimer

The 61-year tale of Broncos history isn’t complete without noting a few worthy foes who did battle with Denver time and again.

John Madden … Derrick Thomas … Philip Rivers … Dan Fouts … Ken Stabler … Tom Brady … Bill Belichick … Steve Largent … Marcus Allen …

… and, of course, Marty Schottenheimer.

JAN. 11, 1987: DENVER 23, CLEVELAND 20 (OT)

“The Drive,” and the start of the series of Cleveland heartbreaks against the Broncos.

Of course, from the Cleveland perspective, “The Drive” wasn’t about magic from Elway and the Broncos. It was about what their team did wrong: using a prevent defense on third-and-18. Elway hit Mark Jackson for 20 yards, and the historic 98-yard march toward the game-tying touchdown  continued.

As The News-Journal in Mansfield, Ohio wrote the next day:

“I’ll never understand that prevent call. It defied Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer’s new philosophy: Play to win, instead of playing not to lose. That was a ‘not to lose’ call, and it thumped the Browns Sunday.”

It was the Browns’ best chance with Schottenheimer at the helm. A year later, Cleveland’s furious comeback ended when Jeremiah Castille stripped Earnest Byner of the football as he approached the goal line in front of Mile High Stadium’s celebrated South Stands. By January 1989, Schottenheimer was out, unable to come to an accord with Browns owner Art Modell regarding the responsibilities of his coaching staff.

That led Schottenheimer to Kansas City, where duels with John Elway were about to provide the pulse of a throbbing rivalry and define his career. In Kansas City, Schottenheimer’s teams won 8 of 20 regular-season games agains the Broncos. But one Monday night game remains among the finest prime-time duels in NFL history:

OCT. 17, 1994: KANSAS CITY 31, DENVER 28

The headline in The (Colorado Springs) Gazette-Telegraph said it all:

“The Drive — K.C. style”

For most of his career, Schottenheimer had quarterbacks who were average to pretty good. They flourished in the “Martyball” philosophy that prized ball control and limiting mistakes. But there was a ceiling to what these passers could do, and the coach knew it.

Schottenheimer’s teams made the playoffs in all but one year from 1985-92. In those years, these were the quarterbacks in the postseason games his teams lost:

• 1985: Bernie Kosar (Browns), Dan Marino (Dolphins)
• 1986: Kosar (Browns), John Elway (Broncos)
• 1987: Kosar (Browns), Elway (Broncos)
• 1988: Don Strock (Browns), Warren Moon (Oilers)
• 1990: Steve DeBerg (Chiefs), Marino (Dolphins)
• 1991: DeBerg (Chiefs), Jim Kelly (Bills)
• 1992: Dave Krieg (Chiefs), Stan Humphries (Chargers)

Seven losses. Six of them came to teams featuring Hall of Fame quarterbacks. And once Tom Brady goes into the Hall of Fame, 10 of the 13 postseason defeats absorbed by Schottenheimer-led teams will have been to teams piloted by Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

No wonder Kansas City made the audacious move to trade for Joe Montana, who was dealing with back problems and had not started in two years.

By 1993, Montana wasn’t what he was in his salad days as a 49er, but he was good enough to energize the Chiefs. And when it mattered most, he could still reach back and find the old magic. He did this in a playoff duel of Hall of Famers at Houston in January 1994, beating the Moon-led Oilers.

In Denver on that chilly Monday night in 1994 ,Montana did it again, leading the Chiefs on a 75-yard drive to a game-winning touchdown that knocked the Broncos to 1-5.

It was a rare feeling for the Broncos in those days. They were used to having the dramatic comebacks thanks to Elway’s cannon arm, unflappable resolve and his ability to leap beyond the design of a play to turn the moment into something extraordinary.

For one night, the Broncos had to watch as someone else had the last gasp.

It wasn’t revenge for Schottenheimer; this was just the regular season. His best shot at revenge in the playoffs came just over three years later … but his team, with Elvis Grbac at quarterback, couldn’t complete a late drive of its own, falling 14-10 to Denver on a chilly night at Arrowhead Stadium. The Broncos won Super Bowl XXXII three weeks later; Schottenheimer and the Chiefs were left with another year of what might have been.

Twelve months later, Schottenheimer walked away from the Chiefs. He left them far better than he found them. The year before he arrived in Kansas City, the Chiefs sold out just one home game and had three crowds of fewer than 40,000 fans. He left with the team selling out every game.

In 2001, Schottenheimer resurfaced in Washington after two years in broadcasting. Lo and behold, he would see the Broncos again:

NOV. 18, 2001: WASHINGTON 17, DENVER 10

It was a game that showed that something was severely, deeply wrong with the Broncos in their first season at what was then known as INVESCO Field at Mile High.

Denver took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter before the offense gradually faded on a sloppy day. Each team fumbled six times. The quarterback duel was forgettable. Brian Griese started for the Broncos; Tony Banks started for Washington

But what also stood out was the crowd. As a cold drizzle turned into a full-scale snowfall, the stands emptied — a shocking sight for anyone used to the Broncos crowd remaining resolute through any conditions. By the fourth quarter, with the game still deadlocked at 10-apiece, he stadium appeared to be 30 percent full.

The magic was fading from Mile High. It would take a while for it to truly return.

This game was a metaphor for Schottenheimer’s single season in Washington: start slow and roar back. The team started 0-5, then roared back into contention with five consecutive wins, finishing a strong 8-8. It seemed like Schottenheimer was at the verge of having Washington back in contention — even with modest quarterback play from Banks and Graham.

But owner Daniel Snyder wanted Schottenheimer to surrender his general-manager duties and focus on being the team’s head coach. Schottenheimer declined, and the two parted ways, with Schottenheimer moving on to San Diego days later.

It took a while for Schottenheimer to get the Chargers rolling; they went 12-20 in his first two seasons on the job. But San Diego went 35-13 in the next three seasons, including …

NOV. 19, 2006: SAN DIEGO 35, DENVER 27

Both teams entered this Sunday Night Football clash 7-2, but time would reveal that they came together as two trains headed in opposite directions.

The decisive stretch came in a 79-second burst of the third quarter, in which LaDainian Tomlinson scored twice — first on a 3-yard run, then on a 51-yard pass from Philip Rivers. In what seemed like the snap of a finger, a 17-point Broncos lead that took two-thirds of the game to build dropped to a slender 3-point edge. The rest of the game was fait accompli.

San Diego didn’t lose a game for the rest of the regular season, starting a run of four consecutive division titles — although after firing Schottenheimer after the season, the Chargers would never match the 14-win total they piled up in 2006.

The Broncos would lose four consecutive games, eventually missing the playoffs at 9-7.

In retrospect, this game was the beginning of the end for Mike Shanahan as the Broncos’ head coach. Denver’s defensive struggles in the final weeks of the season led Shanahan to fire then-coordinator Larry Coyer. That move cranked up the carousel of one-year defensive play-callers which finally stopped with Jack Del Rio’s 2012 arrival. Denver’s defense was dreadful in 2007 and 2008, leading to a pair of mediocre seasons that hastened the firing of Shanahan.

But at that moment, it appeared that the Broncos’ sunset was coinciding with San Diego’s rise. There was every reason to believe that Schottenheimer’s 21st season would be different than the rest. Alas, the Chargers lost in the divisional round to the New England Patriots after safety Marlon McCree fumbled following what could have been a game-clinching interception. Schottenheimer’s NFL coaching career ended a month later when Chargers owner Dean Spanos fired him.