Let’s wrap this up. The press box is empty, save for one nocturnal soul, and we’re back in the locker room at Broncos headquarters at 11:30 a.m. MDT to go foraging for some day-after-game nuggets of knowledge from the players.

Some final points:

• Denver is 4-1 for the fifth straight year. The Broncos would make it to 5-1 in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
• This is Denver’s fourth winning streak of at least four games in the last two years. The Broncos had two five-game winning streaks (one included the playoff win over New England) that bracketed a four-game midseason run last year.
• The Broncos’ home regular-season winning streak of 13 games is the longest in the league, one ahead of Seattle, which was on the road Sunday for a 30-28 win at St. Louis.
• It was a good day for the heretofore winless in the NFL … except the Raiders. The league’s other winless clubs came out victorious — Tennessee 25-22 over Washington; Tampa Bay by a 14-13 count over Cincinnati and Detroit by a 20-17 margin over Buffalo. Denver put a halt to that trend with its win. Head Coach Mike Shanahan, though, opted not to give his team an extra reminder about the dangers of winless teams following those early-afternoon results. “I didn’t have to. Those guys are smart enough to figure out what’s going on,” he said.
• The 19 points yielded since Week 2 are the team’s fewest in a four-week span — yes, better than a stretch of the 1977 season in which the Broncos yielded 26.
• Denver’s two longest runs of the day didn’t belong to its running backs; they went to Javon Walker (29 yards) and Jake Plummer for his 19-yard, game-sealing jaunt.
• Defensive superlatives: D.J. Williams led with eight total tackles … Elvis Dumervil paced in sacks with two … John Lynch was credited with two passes defensed, which was half of the team’s total.
• In his first game as punter/kickoff specialist without Todd Sauerbrun waiting in the wings on suspension, Paul Ernster actually had a better net average than gross — 38.0 to 37.8. He dropped two of four punts inside the Raiders 20-yard-line and sent all four of his kickoffs into the end zone, with three being downed for touchbacks.
• Jason Elam moved into 10th all-time in NFL scoring annals, passing former Packers, Oilers and Titans kicker Al Del Greco. Elam now has 1,589 points and needs six points to pass Eddie Murray for ninth place.
• Jake Plummer became the fourth quarterback in Broncos history to go over 11,000 yards of total offense, joining John Elway, Brian Griese and Craig Morton.
• The Broncos are now 3-1 in their all-blue uniforms.

And with a nod to the family Von Trapp: So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye; the sun has gone to bed — albeit long, long ago — and so must I.

Tags: Defense, Offense, Paul Ernster, Special Teams, Uniform

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