Broncos wary of another second-half slide

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By David Elfin

Champ Bailey sure didn't see this coming.

The Denver Broncos got off to their best start this season since they won the Super Bowl more than a decade ago - a wave of success that caught even the eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback by surprise.

"At the beginning of every year, I expect us to be in the running to go to the playoffs," said Bailey, a former Washington Redskins standout now in his sixth season with the Broncos. "Now if there was a season that I could not have been so optimistic, it was probably this year."

Bailey had good reason for modest expectations. The Broncos lost their final three games last year, becoming the first team in the Super Bowl era to blow a three-game lead in the final three weeks and costing coach Mike Shanahan his job after 14 seasons.

The collapse also capped an extended run of disappointment: The Broncos haven't made the playoffs since 2005 and have won only one postseason game since they beat Atlanta in Super Bowl XXXIII at the end of the 1998 season. In 2005, they missed the playoffs despite a 7-2 start. The following season, they lost four of their last six games.

During a tumultuous offseason after last year's collapse, the club replaced Shanahan with a 33-year-old rookie, Josh McDaniels.

Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler demanded a trade in February, and in April he got it.

And the 30th-ranked defense underwent a thorough overhaul in personnel and scheme, getting new coordinator Mike Nolan, adding five starters and promoting two backups.

"In order to change the culture, in order to change what hasn't been good in a couple of years, it isn't just one person coming in and saying it's going to change," said Nolan, who imported the 3-4 scheme he ran in three-plus seasons as the coach in San Francisco.

Said McDaniels: "We acquired a number of very talented players... many of whom had played in this kind of a system in terms of a 3-4. We felt like we got a group that can work well together, which is what they've done for the most part."