Funny, but .500 looks pretty good

By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 20, 2007 at 12:45 a.m.

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Photo by Evan Semon © The Rocky

Broncos defensive end Tim Crowder sacks Titans quarterback Vince Young during the fourth quarter.

Photo by Chris Schneider © The Rocky

The Broncos' Brandon Marshall scores a 41-yard touchdown while the Titans' Michael Griffin pursues in the third quarter.

Photo by Chris Schneider © The Rocky

Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley scores the first points Monday night, taking a Jay Cutler pass for a 48-yard touchdown during Denver's 34-20 victory.

On a night for renewing old acquaintances, the Broncos reintroduced themselves to the AFC West race, rediscovered their home-field advantage and clawed their way back to the .500 mark all in one prime-time flourish Monday night.

All and all the Broncos used a few nicely timed takeaways, a special-teams touchdown and some well-framed big plays for a 34-20 win against the Titans at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"We've been up and down," Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler said. "But we've pulled together."

The line between the teams starts with the coaches, Mike Shanahan and Jeff Fisher, close friends whose families have had more than football to talk about in the time they have spent together.

And while so much of this season has been what the Broncos didn't expect - the injuries and the on-field troubles - they finally had a little something to hang onto against Tennessee.

Something like one of their annual staples during Shanahan's tenure, something known as an early lead. A team that routinely has bolted from the gate during Shanahan's career - the Broncos have outscored opponents in the first quarter in 10 of Shanahan's previous 12 seasons - had watched opponents score the first points in five of the first nine games this season.

Monday night it was the Broncos who had a 14-0 lead with 3:33 to go in the first quarter. It was the Broncos who could set the tempo from there.

It also, in the quirkiest of fates, pushed the Broncos to 5-5, which during a season of strange-but-true in the AFC West also puts them in a first- place tie with the San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers do have that 41-3 victory against the Broncos last month already in their hip pockets to hold the tiebreaker with six weeks remaining.

"And every team can get hot," Broncos safety John Lynch said. "The good teams do it week in and week out. We have to do this week in and week out, but we got ourselves back into it."

They are back into it with a modest two-game winning streak, the Broncos' first since the Week 1 and Week 2 escapes against Buffalo and Oakland, and they have the longest current win streak in their division.

The Broncos still have a who's who list of players on injured reserve, they still might lose running back Travis Henry to a yearlong suspension, they still fumbled a punt in the third quarter when they could have slammed the door on the Titans' fingers. They still do things they shouldn't, they still don't always do things they should.

But they are in the mix again, and after the 10-game ride they have had, that is really just about all they could have asked for with the stretch run in sight.

"Now we have to go from here," Lynch said.

It's their time

After the dismal 44-7 loss in Detroit to open this month, as part of team meetings both big and small within the Broncos locker room since, Champ Bailey, Rod Smith and John Lynch - captains all - went to quarterback Jay Cutler and linebacker D.J. Williams and asked for more.

"We talked to him and D.J. because we've got some dinosaurs around here and unfortunately we weren't on the field . . . ," Lynch said. "And there's a time when young guys have got to come out of that comfort zone . . . they have to realize people are looking to them."

Lynch said part of the Broncos seeking their identity this season - "something I wondered about early on with so many new faces" - would be if younger prominent players Cutler took more of a out-front role around the team.

Something, Cutler said, he has to back up on the field as well.

"They wanted me to be a little more vocal, a little bit more of a leader," Cutler said. "And the guys have responded. . . . (But) it's hard to just jump in a role like that and just start barking out commands. You're not going to get a lot of respect that way."

Added Lynch: "But I think we've become more of a team. They're doing a good job with it."

Second chances

In a season when Broncos timeouts have come at difficult times, two of their timeouts added up to 10 Titans points.

On the first, just before halftime, coach Mike Shanahan called a timeout just before the ball was snapped on a 56-yard field goal attempt by Rob Bironas. Bironas missed the kick, but he got another opportunity after the timeout and made the kick.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher, as the co-chairman of the league's competition committee, said the practice of calling timeouts just before the snap on kicks would end, and he didn't believe the committee would have to recommend a change in the rules.

"That will be the end of that," Fisher said.

"Live by the sword, die by the sword," Shanahan said.

The Titans snared another seven points off a Broncos timeout with 7:34 remaining in the third quarter. Tennessee quarterback Vince Young ran around left end and extended the ball over the pylon just before being pushed out of bounds.

But the officials marked the ball at the 1-yard line. Having been told by another coach in the booth the play actually was a touchdown, Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz sprinted up the sideline to Fisher to get him to challenge the play.

Fisher had the red flag in his right hand to throw, but the Titans had snapped the ball and Young was stopped short of the goal line.

But the Broncos had called timeout before the snap because they did not have the goal-line defensive in the game after the Titans made some late substitutions, so the play did not count.

Fisher was then able to challenge the previous play. After replays, the Titans were awarded the touchdown.

Impact position

On Halloween in 2004, Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick rushed for 112 yards on 12 carries against the Broncos, a pre-infamy total that included a 44-yard run.

And yet Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey declared this week Young the best running quarterback he had seen.

"Well, I don't think he's faster (than Vick), but he is definitely one of a kind," Bailey said.

Despite the Broncos' efforts to keep Young hemmed in, a plan that included backup linebacker Jamie Winborn acting as a spy in a 3-3-5 look the Broncos played on some downs, Young still finished with 379 yards worth of offense.

He consistently lengthened plays, made the Broncos defensive line expend energy it looked like it didn't have in the fourth quarter and almost snatched what the Broncos had built because of it.

Young finished with 305 passing yards, his first 300-yard passing game of his career, to go with 74 rushing yards to lead the team as well.

Number that counts

4 touchdowns of at least 40 yards in the game for the Broncos. It was the first time in franchise history for the Broncos, a welcome departure from a team that had one scoring play of more than 20 yards coming in.

Difference a year has made

Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey has said Titans quarterback Vince Young is "one of a kind," and when Young rushed for at least 50 yards in 2006 the Titans won:

Date Att Yds Result

Nov. 26, 2006 10 69 Tenn. 24, N.Y. Giants 21

Dec. 3, 2006 9 78 Tenn. 20, Ind. 17

Dec. 10, 2006 7 86 Tenn. 26, Hou. 20, OT

Dec. 24, 2006 8 61 Tenn. 30, Buf. 29

Total: 4-0 But that hasn't worked out this season:

Sept. 16, 2007 5 53 Ind. 22, Tennessee 20

Nov. 11, 2007 8 52 Jack. 28, Tennessee 13

Nov. 19, 2007 11 74 Denver 34, Tenn. 20

Total: 0-3

• November 20, 2007

  6:27 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  supplytechman writes:

  where are the pictures for each quarter of the Broncos game? Are they not being published on the new web site layout or do I just not see where to go? thanks

• November 20, 2007

  7:33 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rayhornsby writes:

  Did anyone else think the MNF crew missed commenting on Bo Scaife as a Denver native (Mullen High School) or that Bo Scaife played in Texas as did Sylvan & Vince Young and Crowder. Four players from the same college team and I never heard that mentioned. Surely ESPN can find a better crew.

• November 20, 2007

  7:51 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mt2ri writes:

  Great win!!! & GREAT play by Jay -- our defense still scares me though. Looking back at this game, if the Titans don't drop 3 passes to WIDE OPEN receivers, and their defense makes a couple of tackles -- then there is a whole different outcome to this game. But they did & they didn't & we have a BIG WIN on national TV. Great Job Broncos!!!!!

• November 20, 2007

  5:36 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  milloy36 writes:

  Ray,
  You wouldn't get on with that crew either. How about Michael Griffin and Ahmard Hall? You should do your homework before making comments like that. But then again you're a Bronco fan.

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