A team that just might be on to something took a few moments Sunday to bask in the glow of nothing.

The Denver Broncos pushed aside a tottering New York Jets team simply trying to survive a growing list of injuries. In the process, they earned their first shutout win in a little more than eight years, beating the Jets 27-0 at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"Oh, I made guys aware how hard that is when we were coming down the stretch," Broncos safety John Lynch said. "You've got some young kids smiling and you should have fun, but this was a special opportunity. Shutouts don't come that often, so you want to appreciate every minute of it."

The win also set a rather tidy holiday table for the Broncos.

With their win and losses by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, the Broncos find themselves as the AFC's No. 2 seed behind the undefeated Indianapolis Colts.

The top two seeds in each conference get a bye in the first round of the playoffs, followed by a home game.

And they have three days of practice before they play the Cowboys (7-3) on Thanksgiving in Dallas.

"Shutouts are hard, real hard," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "It doesn't happen that often in this league; I've been telling people I think it's the first of my career.

"And it's one of those things you want to be proud about, but you've got to look forward, you can't just get up and celebrate too much. We've got a game Thursday.

"We've got a team we've got to beat on Thanksgiving."

In what might have appeared as a classic, hand-wringing trap game sandwiched between their win Nov. 13 against a heated division rival in Oakland, Calif., and the Thanksgiving showdown, the Broncos showed the kind of maturity usually reserved for a significant playoff contender.

And with that, the Broncos took a sledgehammer to the Jets defense from the opening snap.

The Broncos took their first drive 95 yards in 17 plays spanning 9 minutes, 34 seconds for a 7-0 lead.

The Broncos then took their second drive 81 yards in 16 plays spanning 9:26 for a 26-yard field goal by Jason Elam and a 10-0 lead.

The Jets fumbled the next kickoff, giving the Broncos the ball on the New York 18-yard line.

Quarterback Jake Plummer ran for 17 yards, including a remember-when move to get by Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma, and running back Mike Anderson plowed it in on the next play.

The Broncos had a 17-0 lead with 4:26 to play in the first half, and the Jets had few answers from there.

"It's very difficult to win in this league if you can't score . . . ," Jets coach Herman Edwards said. "You hate to get shut out. We wanted to put some points on the board."

"We didn't get too complacent playing a team that's had some hard times this year," Broncos defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban said. "That's a tremendous feeling. Defensively, the whole team was fresh. We all were fresh because of what the offense had done."

The Jets ran only 13 plays in the first half, while the Broncos pounded away at New York's defense for 43 plays before halftime.

With that going against them during a season that continues to spiral toward oblivion for the Jets - Kliff Kingsbury became the fifth quarterback to play for New York this season - it was just a matter of the Broncos handling their business the rest of the way.

Especially when the Jets were playing at altitude and already reeling from the Broncos' game-opening haymakers.

"That's a lot of that . . . when you come from that East Coast, you're not used to that high altitude," said Anderson, who finished with 113 yards on 26 carries.

"I mean, I'm feeling it. After that first 5, 10 minutes, you're going to be exhausted."

"It's just the air here," Jets linebacker John Abraham said. "I was winded after the first three plays."

The Broncos forced five turnovers (three fumbles and two interceptions), their first five-turnover game since a Nov. 11, 2001, victory against the San Diego Chargers, and held the Jets to 195 yards.

Things were so tough for the Jets, missing five players (all on injured reserve) who started the opener, that their 22 rushing yards exceeded Broncos running back Cecil Sapp's total by one.

Sapp is listed as the Broncos' second-string fullback, and the Jets' seven rushing attempts - they had no rushing yards in the second or fourth quarters - were the fewest by any Broncos opponent in franchise history.

"The guys on offense kept asking us, 'You guys all right? You guys all right?' " Broncos linebacker Ian Gold said.

"The offense held the ball, we had the lead and that forces their offense into some difficult spots. At that point, as a defense, you're kind of dictating things just because of how the offense had played."

"The offense opens a game like that, we have the lead the whole way, the defense kept its concentration and played how you're supposed to play with a lead," Lynch said.

"That's how you want to play, that's what you want it to look like. It wasn't perfect, but it is closer to what we are striving for all the time."

Zeroing in

• The Broncos' 27-0 victory against the New York Jets on Sunday was their 17th shutout in franchise history but first since 1997. The previous 16:

Date Opponent Score

Nov. 9, 1997 Carolina 37-0

Oct. 16, 1995 Oakland 27-0

Sept. 27, 1992 at Cleveland 12-0

Dec. 16, 1989 at Phoenix 37-0

Oct. 2, 1988 at San Diego 12-0

Dec. 27, 1987 San Diego 24-0

Nov. 1, 1987 Detroit 34-0

Oct. 23, 1984 Kansas City 21-0

Oct. 4, 1981 at Oakland 17-0

Oct. 7, 1979 San Diego 7-0

Sept. 2, 1979 Cincinnati 10-0

Sept. 18, 1977 St. Louis 7-0

Nov. 14, 1976 at San Diego 17-0

Oct. 3, 1976 San Diego 26-0

Oct. 24, 1971 Cleveland 27-0

Nov. 2, 1969 San Diego 13-0

legwoldj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2359

Back to Top