Cutler, big plays spark Broncos to victory
DENVER: Jay Cutler threw touchdown passes of 41 and 48 yards and little-known Glenn Martinez and Andre Hall added to Denver's slew of big scoring plays on Monday in a 34-20 victory over the Tennessee Titans.
"The offensive line did a great job," Cutler said after completing 16 of 21 passes for 200 yards. "I barely got touched."
Vince Young threw for a career high of 308 yards for the second straight week, but this one also resulted in a loss for the Titans (6-4), who played catchup against Denver the same way they did in a 28-13 loss to Jacksonville last week.
Martinez, a second-year receiver signed off the practice squad in September, returned a punt 80 yards to give Denver a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
Hall, a first-year player with eight carries this year, turned his ninth into a 62-yard score to help the Broncos regain control of the game after they'd watched a 17-point lead slip to seven.
The Broncos improved to 5-5, good enough to tie San Diego for the lead in the woeful West.
But suddenly, the Broncos, who have 44-7 and 41-3 losses on their wildly disparate scorecard this year, are playing like real contenders. They piled up 359 yards against the Titans, who were missing Albert Haynesworth on the defensive line, but nonetheless came in with the second-ranked defense in the league.
Not that the Broncos are perfect, or anywhere near New England level.
Martinez also muffed a punt that led to a Tennessee touchdown late in the third quarter to make the score 27-17.
That touchdown, a 4-yard run by Young, came after the second of two ill-advised timeouts called by Denver.
Broncos linebacker Nate Webster called a timeout just before the snap on third-and-goal from the 1, a play in which Young was held out of the end zone as he reached for the pylon.
But the timeout gave Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher a chance to review the previous play, in which Young scored but had been ruled out of bounds at the 1.
Agencies
(China Daily 11/21/2007 page23)
