(Sports Network) - Josh McDaniels looked like a fan who had won a chance to be on the sidelines this past Sunday, after his Denver Broncos pulled out a gut- wrenching victory over mentor Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

McDaniels threw fist pumps to the Invesco Field at Mile High crowd in jubilation just a few moments following the Broncos' 20-17 overtime triumph versus the Pats, which gave the team its first 5-0 start since the 1998 squad opened the season 13-0 en route to its second consecutive Super Bowl title.

The current Broncos have bought in to what McDaniels has been selling since the team hired the first-year head coach and former Patriots assistant in January, and the 33-year-old is now directing one of just five unbeaten teams left in the NFL, along with the Colts, Giants, Vikings and Saints.

The confidence level is a mile high in Denver, thanks to the trust McDaniels and his players have in one another.

"The players are confident, I think," McDaniels said on the team's site. "I think they trust our game plans, and I think we trust them to execute our game plan. I think we've been confident for a long time. I don't think you can win a game without being confident."

Matt Prater made Sunday's win possible with a 41-yard field goal minutes into the extra period as Denver kept the ball out of the hands of New England star quarterback Tom Brady. Granted that Brady passed for 215 yards and a pair of scores, but he had nothing else to do since the Broncos held the Pats' ground attack to under 100 yards rushing. Mike Nolan's defense also kept all-world wide receiver Randy Moss to one catch for 36 yards to help McDaniels get the early upper hand on Belichick, whom he learned under from 2001-2008.

Not many people believed in McDaniels when he replaced a legend in Mike Shanahan, but the clean-shaven coach is unbeaten and the toast of Colorado's most populous city. If they haven't already, fans in the Denver area can focus all their attention to the beloved football team after baseball's Rockies were knocked out of the postseason on Monday.

Denver needs the fan support as it travels to San Diego next week for a primetime showdown on Monday night against the AFC West-rival San Diego Chargers. Jay Cutler is in Chicago now, so Broncos quarter Kyle Orton can start yapping back-and-forth with Chargers signal-caller Philip Rivers.

Orton orchestrated a 12-play, 98-yard touchdown drive that tied Sunday's game on Brandon Marshall's diving 11-yard grab with 5:21 remaining in regulation. It's usually the guy on the other side, Brady, doing all the magic in crunch time, but Orton did his best impression of the three-time Super Bowl champion while continuing to prove all critics wrong. He threw for 330 yards and two scores, and the Hail Mary pass that was picked off by Moss before halftime was his first interception of the season.

Orton has recorded a passer rating of 90 or higher in four of five starts this season, including two over 100. He doesn't have the strongest arm in the league and is not the most mobile, but the Broncos wouldn't be in the position they are in if it wasn't up to their veteran signal-caller.

Orton and his team still have a lot to learn, however, and are just scratching the surface of Denver's tough schedule ahead. After beating a tough Dallas team and coming from behind for a second straight week versus New England, the Broncos still have the Chargers, Ravens, Steelers, Redskins (web | news) and Giants on the upcoming docket. Orton has a few more quarterback duels ahead as well.

"Everybody is learning and everybody is learning to play together," Orton confided on Denver's site. "There is a new situation that comes up in each game, and we can go back and look through it. Hopefully, we will be a better offense next week than we were this week and I will be a better quarterback."

Orton already has a solid rapport with Marshall, but needed to resuscitate Eddie Royal's productivity. He did that hitting the former Virginia Tech wideout 10 times for a game-high 90 yards. Royal, who posted eight catches for 58 yards over the team's first four games, hauled in seven passes for first downs, including two catches on Denver's game-winning overtime drive.

It was huge for Royal to get involved in the offense again after he emerged on the scene with 91 receptions for 980 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie in 2008.

CHIEFS: Like sand through an hour glass, Todd Haley's first win as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs slipped away in time. Overtime, actually.

Kansas City had leads of 10-0 and 13-3 in Sunday's 26-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at Arrowhead Stadium before giving up 17 straight points to fall behind. After tying the game at 20-20 on Matt Cassel's 16-yard touchdown pass to Dwayne Bowe late in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were victimized again by lesser-known Dallas receiver Miles Austin, who scorched the Chiefs for a Cowboys-record 250 yards and two scores on 10 receptions. Poor tackling led to that grand total, too.

Haley's dreams of winning in front of a star-studded crowd were also singed, as Kansas City fell to 0-5 for the first time since the 1977 squad lost its first five games of a 2-12 campaign. Not even the magic of former quarterback Len Dawson hoisting the Super Bowl IV trophy into the air at halftime or memories of founder and owner Lamar Hunt could spark the Chiefs to victory. Instead, they suffered their ninth straight loss and 28th in 30 tries.

"We just need to win a game," safety Jarrad Page said. "It's just disappointing that we continue to do things that keep us from winning."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Chiefs Hall of Famers Willie Lanier and Jan Stenerud were also on hand to witness one of the NFL's worst teams over the past few years struggle to find an identity. That's going to happen with a team lacking talent at so many positions, even at quarterback.

Cassel hasn't thrown an interception in three straight weeks, but what he hasn't done is find a way to yank the Chiefs from the grips of defeat and take advantage of the other team's mistakes. Dallas fumbled four times, losing two, and was penalized 13 times for 90 yards.

The Chiefs, donning throwback Dallas Texans uniforms in tribute to their AFL heritage, just don't have the personnel right now to pull something off like that. They're rated towards the bottom in every major offensive and defensive category, including a last-place tag in total yards allowed. Kansas City is 29th in pass defense, 28th in total points allowed and 25th in run defense. And that's just the defensive side of the ball. Haley was plucked from Arizona because of his high-volume offense, but so far the Chiefs are 30th in total yards, 29th in passing (162.4 ypg) and 24th in both scoring and rushing.

Not to make excuses for Cassel and the woeful offense, but the unit was playing without left tackle Branden Albert and right guard Mike Goff, both of whom were injured in the second half. Cassel was sacked four times in the loss and has been victimized 14 times in four starts this season. But what can you do when the team's ground game couldn't produce a 100-yard rusher at the Pop Warner level? That's a little harsh, but it's the truth right now for Larry Johnson and Kansas City's ground attack.

Johnson has carried the ball 93 times and averaging only 2.4 yards per touch. He has yet to run for more than 78 yards in a game this season, even though Haley insists on giving the fiery back numerous chances to open the offense and Johnson continues to plug away behind an ineffective offensive line.

Backup running back Jamaal Charles is another option to change the pace of the game. Kolby Smith is expected to return soon from a knee injury, and will eventually take reps from Johnson as well. Johnson, though, is still Haley's best choice at making the run game work.

Kansas City has to feel pretty good about this week's matchup against the Washington Redskins, who lost to previously-unbeaten Detroit and Carolina already this season. The Chiefs, who surprisingly match up well with the 2-3 Redskins, will then host San Diego before their bye week on November 1.



RAIDERS: Oh, the humanity!

Herbert Morrison's descriptive words at the site of the Hindenburg disaster back in 1937 still resonate today, and they perfectly describe the turmoil in which the Oakland Raiders have been accustomed to the past few years. Widely known for their slogan "Commitment to Excellence", the 1-4 Raiders seem only to be delegated to failure and embarrassment nowadays.

Legendary owner Al Davis should consider blowing up the franchise from the inside out and make every player on the roster and coach expendable. That may come sooner than later, since head coach Tom Cable has some personal issues to take care of after a reported fight with former defensive assistant Randy Hanson during training camp. Napa Police are still investigating the allegations, while NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will also get involved when the dust has settled. Goodell is monitoring the situation closely and Cable could face a suspension from the league depending on how the legal process plays out.

The Cable controversy has become a distraction to the team, and nobody could be more relieved than quarterback JaMarcus Russell. But don't worry, JaMarcus, we all know how bad you've been since draft day of 2007. Russell put forth another useless performance in Sunday's 44-7 shellacking by the New York Giants at the Meadowlands, throwing for just 100 yards on 8-of-13 passing for a season-high 85.4 quarterback rating.

Russell, who hasn't tossed a touchdown pass since Week 1, was also sacked six times on Sunday and has been taken down 15 times in 2009. He has one touchdown pass and four interceptions on the season for Oakland, which allowed almost 500 yards (483) of offense to the Giants.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning, playing on a bum foot, was replaced before halftime with his team owning a 28-7 lead and recorded a passer rating of 158.3, the highest possible score on the NFL scale.

Oakland's offense produced just 124 yards against the Giants and are dead last in the NFL in total yards (191.6 ypg) and passing (108.6 ypg), 31st in scoring (9.8 ppg) and 28th in rushing (83.0 ypg). The ground game continues to struggle with or without 2008 top draft pick Darren McFadden, who is out a few weeks with a knee injury. Backups Michael Bush and Justin Fargas combined for 55 yards and a touchdown at Giants Stadium.

"We kept fighting to the end," Russell said of the Oakland offense that has managed only 13 points during a three-game losing streak. "We played against a great football team and it showed."

The Raiders are deteriorating faster than Darrius Heyward-Bey's time in the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. Speaking of the first-round draft pick, Heyward-Bey owns just two catches for 36 yards this season. Slow-footed tight end Zach Miller leads all Raiders receivers in catches (15) and yards (215). If Russell had some protection and a better feel for the offense, perhaps Heyward-Bey could prove the critics who chided the Raiders for taking him so high in April's draft wrong.

Russell will probably get another chance to be the starter when the Philadelphia Eagles pay a visit to the Oakland Coliseum this Sunday for a showdown with the Silver and Black. The Eagles will be heavy favorites in this matchup against Oakland, which will also host the New York Jets and visit San Diego a the bye week.

"The problem is not who we're playing, the problem is us," Cable said.

It's too bad the Chiefs can't be on the schedule more often.



CHARGERS: The San Diego Chargers had an extra week of rest and relaxation before they embark on a tough stretch of games versus AFC West foes. Some players needed to get healthy, while others had to keep their nose in the playbook after an unsatisfactory first quarter of the season led to an average 2-2 start.

"This is a big stretch of our season," Chargers tight end Antonio Gates said on the team's site. "We haven't played as well as we wanted to in some areas, but we've got a chance to regroup a little bit, reevaluate what's going on and try to get on a little roll in these division games."

Unbeaten Denver is the first hurdle in the road, as the Broncos put their 5-0 record on the line against the Chargers this Monday night from San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers, who beat division-rival Oakland in Week 1, will then visit Kansas City before returning home for another showdown with the Raiders.

That seems like an easy stretch of opponents for Chargers head coach Norv Turner and his team, but Gates may differ. He said that Monday's game versus the Broncos is a "do-or-die game" since Denver can take a firm stand on a division crown with a victory.

A Denver triumph would pin San Diego 3 1/2 games off the AFC West lead and make things really difficult for a fourth straight division title. The defending three-time AFC West-champion Chargers, who needed a monumental collapse from Denver a year ago to capture division supremacy, didn't do much in a Week 4 loss at Pittsburgh to extinguish any doubts as to who is the best team in the division. That label currently belongs to first-year head coach Josh McDaniels and the Broncos.

McDaniels has been riding the right arm of quarterback Kyle Orton and a strong defense to a perfect mark. Orton knows he's in for a true test this week, however, despite San Diego allowing 333 passing yards and two touchdown strikes from Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in its previous game before the bye. Orton just passed for 330 yards and two scores in last Sunday's win over the New England Patriots.

Denver allowed 28 points per game in 2008 to rank 30th in the NFL. In five games this season, the Broncos are surrendering a league-low 8.6 points. Denver is also second in the NFL in total defense, fifth in passing defense and sixth against the run under new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

"They're playing outstanding defense," Turner said. "Defensively I think they're coached real well. There are eight new starters, and I think talent is more important than how long they've been together."

Turner's main weapons on offense -- quarterback Philip Rivers, running backs LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles and Gates -- have been together for an extended period of time and will try to prove that team chemistry trumps practical know-how on any given Sunday.







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