7-0 Denver: Broncos score on 1st drive

What may well be a shootout is ON. Denver just took the ball the length of the field to score on a 7-yard pass from QB Jay Cutler to RB P.J. Pope.

The Broncos, if you haven't been paying too much attention, are spectacular offensively and bad defensively. They are a barnburner waiting to happen.

2 notable things about Denver's first drive:

1) It almost was short-circuited early when the Panthers' Na'il Diggs got to Cutler unblocked on a blitz and apparently sacked him, causing a fumble. Jon Beason ran it back to the Denver 20. But Denver coach Mike Shanahan challenged the play, believing it to be an incompletion by Cutler, and sure enough replays showed that Cutler's arm was moving forward.

2) Denver did all its damage without its best receiver, Brandan Marshall, catching a single pass. Cutler just lined up in the shotgun, one play after the next, and picked the Panthers apart. It wasn't a good series for the Carolina defense at all.