No, I don’t mean to imply that the Broncos‘ fine wideout Brandon Marshall is a loser.

In fact, his NFL-record 21 receptions against the probable Super Bowl-bound Indianapolis Colts is indicative of his tremendous abilities.

Still, all those catches were in a 28-16 losing effort and when Marshall looks back on his record-setting day, that score will be there as well.

Marshall surpassed the mark San Francisco‘s Terrell Owens set on Dec. 17, 2000. He finished with 200 yards and two touchdowns and bettered his own team record of 18 catches, set on Sept. 14, 2008 against San Diego.

Kyle Orton is lucky to be throwing to a receiver like Marshall. Jay Cutler apparently benefited a lot from that while he was in Denver considering his struggles with the Bears.

Broncos coach Josh McDaniels put the proper spin on the achievement.

“When you lose, you lose,” McDaniels said. “There’s no moral victories in this league. We understand where we want to go. We just got a really close-up look of it for four quarters.”

Moral victories don’t show up in the standings, but look, despite falling behind 21-0, Denver didn’t embarrass itself in Indianapolis. Still, I’m sure the Broncos would trade Marshall’s record for a win.

Colts linebacker Clint Session had this to say when told about Marshall’s record.

“He got 21 catches today?” Session asked. “That’s a good tribute to that guy. We knew he was going to be a tough task to cover coming into this game. He got his, but they lost.”

And that’s the bottom line, isn’t it?

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