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Broncos' defense dominant again; Raiders still winless

Oct 16, 2006 - 3:17 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- The Denver Broncos' defense has to be feeling a mile high right about now.

The Broncos posted a dominant defensive effort for the fourth straight week as they posted a 13-3 victory over the woeful Oakland Raiders.

Since allowing 18 points - all field goals - in a Week One loss to St. Louis, Denver (4-1) has surrendered a total of 19 points over its last four contests. The Broncos have given up just one touchdown this season and have allowed 32 fewer points than the next closest team in the AFC.

"It was nice to find a way to win," Denver coach Mike Shanahan said. "I thought our defense was exceptional again tonight. You have to take your hat off to the way they played. I am pleased with the effort of this team."

Denver is the first team since 1934 to allow no more than one touchdown in any of its first five contests of a season. The Broncos have limited their last nine regular-season opponents to a maximum of 18 points.

"Good teams find a way to win," Broncos linebacker Al Wilson said. "If we continue to play the way we are, our offense will come. We take pride in keeping teams out of the end zone. We're not into stats but keeping guys out of the end zone wins championships."

"Denver's defense is as good as advertised," Raiders coach Art Shell said. "They are a very good defense that made some big plays. We had our chances but that's a good defense over there."

On Sunday, the Broncos intercepted Andrew Walter once and sacked him four times. They also bottled up LaMont Jordan and stripped the running back late in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

"They played great defense tonight," Walter said. "We did shoot ourselves in the foot a couple of times. With the noise, they showed us a lot of different looks. We had to use a couple of late timeouts."

The only winless team in the league, Oakland (0-5) managed only a 47-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski in the third quarter. But by that time, Denver already had amassed a 13-0 advantage that it clearly had no plans of relinquishing.

The Broncos took a 7-0 lead in the final minute of the first quarter. On the first play after Janikowski missed wide right on a 54-yard field goal, Jake Plummer hooked up with Javon Walker on a bomb down the middle of the field for a 54-yard gain to the Oakland 2.

On the next play, Tatum Bell marched virtually untouched into the end zone for his first rushing touchdown of the season.

Jason Elam kicked field goals of 51 and 22 yards in the second quarter to make it 13-0.

Plummer managed the offense well, completing 11-of-18 passes for 102 yards without a turnover. Bell finished with 83 yards on 23 carries as Shanahan improved to 18-5 all-time against his former team.

"I thought we were very close today to get a chance to do some things early," Shanahan said. "As I told the guys today, just keep working. We have a lot of talent and a lot of guys working hard. They just cant get negative. The big plays will come."

Walter was 13-of-26 for 189 yards, while Randy Moss caught five balls for 86 yards. Jordan finished with just 60 yards on 23 attempts and fumbled at the Denver 27 with 4:35 to play.

The Raiders went 4-for-13 on third down and committed 13 penalties for 95 yards in losing their 11th consecutive game, dating to last season. They are just 13-40 since reaching the Super Bowl in 2002.

"We felt like we had a shot," Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. "They don't do one thing outstanding, except when the running game gets going. We felt we had an answer to that."