Elam, defense boost Denver past Oakland
Associated Press
DENVER — The Denver Broncos apparently don't know much about math or history. They only know their defense is very, very good.
The Broncos once again kept an opponent out of the end zone in a 13-3 win over the Oakland Raiders last night, when they found barely enough offense to go with their suffocating defense.
The Broncos (4-1) are the first team since the 1934 Lions to start off a season by yielding just one TD through five games, something coach Mike Shanahan miscalculated in his congratulatory chat with his team.
"'Thirty-four?" Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams said. "Coach got it wrong! Coach Shanahan told us '42. Just think about that, something that hasn't happened since '34 and it's 2006. That's just amazing, being able to do that. There have been a lot of great teams, even the Baltimore team in 2000 didn't do this, and they won the Super Bowl basically winning it by defense."
Detroit shut out its first seven opponents in '34.
"I know it hasn't happened in a while," safety John Lynch said. "But I know one TD in five games is pretty darn good."
Shanahan may be sketchy on his math, but at least he's not on the wrong side of history like the Raiders, who are 0-5 for the first time since 1964. They're also the only team left that hasn't won a game this year.
"This is the first game where I felt that we lost our composure," coach Art Shell said after his team committed 13 penalties. "We lost our focus."
Oakland (0-4) has lost 11 in a row dating to last season.
Jason Elam kicked two field goals, Tatum Bell scored on a short touchdown run and Champ Bailey once again picked off a key pass to thwart a scoring drive.
Elam, a University of Hawai'i alum, moved into 10th on the NFL career scoring list with 1,581 points. Gary Anderson is first with 2,434 points. Elam is in his 14th season, all with the Broncos.
Jake Plummer isn't fretting over Denver's continued offensive ineptitude.
"The offense will come," he said. "We have Mike Shanahan, one of the best offensive minds in football."
As is their style, the Broncos bent but didn't break. Bailey picked off a pass at the Denver 1 in the first half and defensive tackle Michael Myers ended another promising drive by the Raiders when he scooped up LaMont Jordan's fumble at the Denver 19 with 4:24 remaining.
Sebastian Janikowski's 47-yard field goal pulled the Raiders to 13-3 midway through the third quarter, capping an ugly 23-yard drive that ate up almost 6 1/2 minutes and included two sacks and a fumble by quarterback Andrew Walter, which he recovered himself.
The Broncos took a 13-0 lead into the locker room. With this Denver defense, that's downright insurmountable.
STEELERS 45, CHIEFS 7
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger couldn't have played any worse for a month. The NFL now must be wondering how much better the Super Bowl champions can be after a convincing all-is-well performance.
The Steelers revived everything they displayed in winning the championship as Roethlisberger threw his first two touchdown passes since the AFC championship game in a rout of the Chiefs.
Despite not starting three injured regulars — one of whom, guard Kendall Simmons, fell asleep with an ice pack on his leg and sustained frostbite — the Steelers never resembled the team that could barely gain a first down in a 9-0 loss to Jacksonville, or ran only 18 plays in the second half of last week's 23-13 loss at San Diego.
Maybe it was watching AFC North leaders Baltimore (4-2) and Cincinnati (3-2) lose earlier in the afternoon, tightening up the division race. But the Steelers (2-3) played with the confidence and composure they lacked while losing three in a row.
"We started fast — we started real fast," said coach Bill Cowher, who admittedly didn't see this coming during a week in which his team had some "soul searching to do."
"They had to start showing they were that Super Bowl team again," Chiefs defensive end Tamba Hali said. "That's how they played."
Roethlisberger went 16 of 19 for 238 yards with TDs of 47 yards to Nate Washington and 13 yards to Hines Ward.
JETS 20, DOLPHINS 17
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Jets thought they blew it.
The offense built a big lead with a second-half scoring burst, but the defense let Miami back in the game.
And in the end, Olindo Mare was jogging out onto the field for a potential tying field goal.
"I think a lot of us felt that we were probably headed to overtime," Jets quarterback Chad Pennington said.
But Mare came up short on a 51-yarder as the Jets barely held on for their first home victory.
Laveranues Coles caught two touchdown passes and Mike Nugent kicked a pair of 33-yard field goals in a game that could be added to the lengthy list of classic meetings between the AFC East rivals. The Jets (3-3) did just enough after halftime to earn an important division win.
After taking a 20-3 lead, the Jets had to sweat this one out as Joey Harrington led the Dolphins (1-5) on two long scoring drives in the fourth quarter, getting within a field goal on Ronnie Brown's 1-yard touchdown run.
But Mare, who was 1 for 3 this season on kicks of 50-plus yards, came up short, as the jubilant Jets cheered.