Denver Rolls Over Pats

With New England stacked to stop the running of Super Bowl MVP Terrell Davis, Denver coach Mike Shanahan turned to a secret weapon.

John Elway.

He responded by playing like the old John Elway, not old John Elway, to lead the Broncos to a 27-21 victory over the Patriots on Monday night as they opened defense of their Super Bowl title and started what is expected to be the 38-year-old quarterback's final season.

Elway began the game with a 44-yard pass to Ed McCaffrey -- an underthrown ball Shanahan called his only mistake of the night -- and finished it 22-of-34 for 257 yards and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Shannon Sharpe.

"I'm glad he's back," Sharpe said.

"He's 38 years old but John kept getting up and making some big-time throws. They were bringing the house and he stood in there. John's the guy, man."

Shanahan said he anticipated New England ganging up to stop Davis, who finished with 75 yards on 22 carries and ran for 9- and 1-yard TDs.

So did Elway.

"As well as we've rushed the ball against them the previous three games I thought they weren't going to allow us to do that," Elway said. "So I really had a feeling we were going to be able to throw the ball and that's what happened."

Said Shanahan: "John played a heck of a game."

That's more than can be said for New England, which lost for the 11th straight time to Denver.

The Patriots kept it closer than their last three losses to Denver, which were by a combined score of 104-24. And they came back from a 17-0 deficit to get within 17-14 on the first drive of the third quarter.

But they committed three critical penalties on special teams, two of which cost them 48 yards in field position, and were offsides on a punt that let the Broncos continue a touchdown drive. Adam Vinatieri missed a 39-yard field-goal attempt and had another blocked by Trevor Pryce.

"Those are the same mistakes we've been making throughout training camp," New England coach Pete Carroll said.

The Patriots also were disorganized on the sidelines, using both their first-half timeouts early and all three in the second half with 6:16 gone in the third quarter. That cost them dearly when they had to catch up at the end.

"It was miscommunication. We just couldn't hear the plays come in," said quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was 20-of-32 for 289 yards and two touchdowns. "When I heard them, the time had run out."

Still, this wasn't easy for Denver, which went up 17-0 early in the second quarter on Elway's TD pass to Sharpe, a 9-yard run by Davis, and Jason Elam's 53-yard field goal.

New England cut it to 17-7 at halftime when Bledsoe's 55-yard pass to Shawn Jefferson set up Robert Edwards' 1-yard TD run. Then, on the first series of the second half, the Patriots drove 73 yards in seven plays to make it 20-14 on Bledsoe's 24-yard pass to Troy Brown.

But Elam countered with a 42-yard field goal and the Broncos clinched it on Davis' 1-yard score, which came one after a vintage Elway play -- a scrambling third-down pass to McCaffrey at the 1 as he was pursued by three Patriots. That drive was aided by another New England mistake, a late hit on Elway by Willie McGinest.

New England added a TD with 1:59 left on Bledsoe's 10-yard pass to Vincent Brisby, but McCaffrey recovered the onside kick and with no timeouts left, they had no option.

Elway, who was 13-of-18 for 158 yards in the first half, hit McCaffrey for 44 yards on the first play of the game to set up Elam's first field goal, a play of which Shanahan was just a little bit critical.

"It should have been a touchdown," he said.

Later in the period, Elway found Justin Armour for 23 yards, then scrambled 13 yards to set up his 12-yard TD pass to Sharpe, which he threaded among three defenders.

The TD that made it 7-0 came three plays after McGinest was offside on a punt by the Broncos to give Denver a first down at the New England 38. Three completions by Elway and then Davis went around left end and squeezed into the end zone.

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