Is Josh McDaniels on the hot seat?

It all started out so well for Josh McDaniels in Denver.

The Bill Belichick-trained coach got off to a 6-0 start last year in his first go-round as a head coach, this after making the controversial decision to trade Jay Cutler to the Bears.

But ever since, it has been a nightmare ride. Since that impressive start, McDaniels has gone a miserable 4-13. And coming off yesterday's humiliating 59-14 loss at home to the AFC West rival Raiders, McDaniels might very well be on the hot seat.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen isn't saying much of anything these days, but rest assured he is seething after losing so decisively in front of the home fans.

McDaniels was asked yesterday by Denver Post columnist Dave Krieger what he'd say to the Broncos' fan base, and McDaniels replied: "I can't say anything now. I can just try to show them - and our football team can try to show them - with our performances as we go forward. I hope there are no words that can make any of us feel better.

"It's not good enough, and we have a lot of work, a lot of soul-searching and then come out and play football and coach football a lot better than we did today and see if we can't start stringing some good performances together, instead of going up, down and all around on a roller coaster every week." 

But after yesterday's loss, you wonder how much time McDaniels has left to string together those performances. Indicative of the frustration surrounding the game was this tweet from former Broncos offensive lineman Mark Schlereth, now an NFL analyst for ESPN. "I have lived in Denver since 1995, and I can't remember a more embarrassing showing by the Broncos ever!"