A few negatives are lingering for Broncos

Published September 11, 2007 at midnight

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There are indeed two sides to every coin.

Heads, the Broncos special teams saved the day Sunday, getting on the field and getting off a 42-yard game-winning kick by Jason Elam in an improbable 10 seconds.

Tails, the Broncos special teams surrendered a 74-yard punt return and a 48-yard kickoff return and missed two field goals.

Heads, Jay Cutler threw for 304 yards, showed top-shelf poise in the pocket, escaped the rush when he had to and put the team in the position for the game-winning kick with a remember-when drive that included the Broncos erasing a third-and-23 situation.

Tails, Cutler threw an interception snared by safety Jim Leonhard at the Buffalo 8-yard line, finishing a drive that could have given the Broncos the lead at halftime.

Heads, the Broncos defense surrendered only 97 passing yards, didn't give up a reception longer than 19 yards and held Lee Evans to two catches for 5 yards.

Tails, they didn't consistently pressure Bills quarterback J.P. Losman - they had two sacks - and the Bills ran for 4.3 yards a carry, including 90 yards from Marshawn Lynch on 4.7 yards a carry.

So, there it is. The Broncos are 1-0, the record usually the bottom line in any NFL discussion, style points usually little more than a morning-after activity.

And when looking at the bottom line in his morning after the Broncos' 15-14 win in Buffalo, coach Mike Shanahan was left with at least this thought: "The only time we were ahead was with zero seconds on the clock."

So, sure, the Broncos were as fired up to have won Sunday as they have been about any win in the post-Super Bowl timeline - Shanahan went as far as to call it the "most excited I've seen a pro team, where everybody hits the field. It was kind of like a college atmosphere - but time does march on in the regular season."

So a Week 1 win inevitably leads to Week 2 questions. Call it the 24-hour euphoria rule.

So, heads the Broncos did all they had to do to escape Buffalo. Tails, what exactly would that mean if they lost, at home, to the Raiders?

"It's a long season, we just take it a week at a time," Shanahan said.

Break it down

To spike or not to spike.

That was the question in the minds of many fans patrolling cyberspace or talk radio airwaves in the wake of the Broncos' win.

Coach Mike Shanahan said having Jay Cutler spike the ball to stop the clock, then attempt the winning kick Sunday was not an option. Here's why: (1) The Broncos did not have a timeout remaining; (2) there was not enough time left on the clock; (3) his view of the field made it hard to see what had happened on third down; and (4) the decision to kick after the play was made before the Broncos even ran their third-down play.

The Broncos snapped the ball on a third-and-10 from the Buffalo 35-yard line with 18 seconds left in the game. Shanahan said he believes a team ordinarily needs 17 seconds to snap the ball, run a play that doesn't go more than roughly 10 yards, then still have enough time to get the offense on the ball to snap it again and spike it before kicking.

But the Broncos got 11 yards on a pass from Cutler to Javon Walker to move the ball to the Bills 24, enough for a first down. There were about 12 seconds remaining when Walker got up off the ground, about 3 seconds left when holder Todd Sauerbrun got the snap from Mike Leach.

"From where I was standing, I thought it was fourth-and-inches," Shanahan said. "But it didn't matter, you've got to anticipate that before the ball is snapped. So our guys, as soon as (Walker) was down, they were taking off to the field. So, that option of the quarterback spiking it was out."

The biggest concern in the situation, other than not getting the kick off, would have been an offensive penalty, like an offsides or too many men on the field, which would have resulted in a 10-second runoff on the clock and likely ended the game.

Get it done

The Broncos' pass rush must keep Oakland's quarterback hemmed in some before it can worry about sacks this week.

Raiders coach Lane Kiffin played some guess-the-quarterback with folks before starting Josh McCown, above, in the team's opener. And while he hadn't yet said Monday, most, including coach Mike Shanahan, expect Kiffin to start McCown on Sunday against the Broncos.

"I would think so," Shanahan said. "Thirty of 40, that's not too bad, couple touchdown passes. I hope they bench him."

McCown, who Kiffin believes has the best grasp of the Raiders' new playbook, also is mobile enough to throw on the move better than backup Daunte Culpepper. And with the Raiders' shortcomings on the offensive line, Kiffin has shown he will put the quarterback on the move to protect him.

Raiders passers were sacked a bone-rattling 72 times last season - 46 on Andrew Walter, 26 on Aaron Brooks. So Kiffin, at least in the Raiders' opening loss to the Detroit Lions, had a variety of rollouts to make McCown a tougher target to find.

Those plays work better if a team runs the ball a little better than the Raiders did - 92 yards on 23 carries - but McCown did complete 30-of-40 passes for 313 yards. McCown was sacked three times and did have three fumbles.

Still, the Raiders had only four games all of last season in which they surrendered three or fewer sacks.

Hot spot

The Broncos could shape their heady offensive numbers from Sunday in a lot of ways; they just couldn't push them across the goal line enough for coach Mike Shanahan's liking.

The Broncos piled 470 yards on the Buffalo defense and finished with a 300-yard passer (Jay Cutler, 304), a 100-yard rusher (Travis Henry, 139) and a 100-yard receiver (Javon Walker, 119).

But they ended up with only 15 points.

"Usually when you have 470 yards, you have about 40 points," Shanahan said. "So we've got some work to do."

The Raiders have most of their defensive personnel back from last season - when, despite playing with horrific field position provided by the league's lowest scoring offense, they held six teams to 17 points or fewer, including the Broncos twice.

In the first meeting last season - Oct. 15 in Denver - the Broncos threw for only 80 net yards, and 54 of those came on one pass to Walker.

Wasted scoring opportunities usually are tougher to overcome against a team so familiar with what the Broncos do.

Match game: Broncos C Tom Nalen vs. Raiders LB Kirk Morrison

Nalen certainly will have to power his way through one hefty and one not-so-hefty defensive tackle to get to the second level and find Morrison.

Terdell Sands, who lines up more often on the center, goes about 330 pounds, but next to him is Warren Sapp, who dropped 53 pounds this season to get down to about 285 pounds.

Sapp wants to play quicker to get up the field, and he has said publicly he believed playing lighter would mean he would fit better in coach Lane Kiffin's defensive plan. Sapp played for Kiffin's father, Monte Kiffin, in Tampa Bay's defense.

But it is Morrison, usually allowed to run free because of the work the tackles do, who makes the Raiders run defense go. He's smooth moving to the ball and has a knack for getting off blocks.

Morrison was credited with nine tackles and an interception in Oakland's loss Sunday to the Lions.

Numbers game

Broncos kicker Jason Elam missed two field goals Sunday to go with the three he made against the Bills, including the 42-yarder as time expired. He never has missed three in a game, and he missed only two all of last season - none after Oct. 22.

Elam's recent misses

Season Date Opponent Length How missed Made

2006 Sept. 17 Chiefs 44 Wide right 3

Oct. 22 Browns 43 Wide right 1

2007 Sept. 9 Bills 50 Wide left 3 43 Wide right

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