NFL: Denver's undefeated season undone

Baltimore » Perhaps, it was the bye-week blues.

Or maybe it was nothing more than odds catching up to an undefeated team in a long NFL season. As Broncos safety Brian Dawkins, the last man out of the losing locker room, pointed out on his way to the team bus here Sunday, only the 1972 Miami Dolphins won them all.

The Broncos also suffered a game-ending toe injury to right tackle Ryan Harris. That hurt. A two-hour time difference forward on a day when the nation fell an hour back had to have confused the human condition.

What else? For the first time this season, the Broncos were in position to make excuses. They lost, and lost big to the Baltimore Ravens, 30-7, here Sunday on a mostly gloomy November afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

"Anytime you have a game like this, it forces you to look in the mirror and really tell yourself where you're at, individually and as a team,'' said Broncos coach Josh McDaniels. "You can find out just as much about one another and your team and your staff through the adversity of a loss as you can through six wins.''

The defeat dropped the Broncos to 6-1 with the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers rested, ready and up next on the schedule.

The Broncos had been the surprise of the NFL when they beat Dallas, New England and San Diego in consecutive weeks to take a 6-0 record into their bye week.

Winning is always best, but

perhaps a dose of humility isn't all bad for the Broncos. That they made it through the months of September and October without a defeat was a notable accomplishment. That they lost on the first day of November served as a reminder to what McDaniels has been saying all along -- they haven't accomplished anything yet.

At least now, when McDaniels sends the message to his players during the weekly meetings that they need get better, he now has some tangible proof.

"Really not a good day for us, a good day for them,'' said Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton.

The whipping started with the first play of the game, and intensified on the first play of the second half.

On the first play, Orton dropped back in the shotgun and took a blindside wallop from Ravens linebacker Jarret Johnson.

"Anytime you get an 8-yard loss on the first play of the game, it gets the crowd into it big time,'' Johnson said.

"We missed a protection,'' McDaniels said. "That happened a few times today. Our protection in general was not as good as it's been so far this year.''

Although the Broncos' top-ranked defense held up until the fourth quarter, their offense was at best conservative, and at worse, inept.

The Ravens supposedly were vulnerable in their secondary, but at the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, Orton had only 90 passing yards on 17 completions.

"They played the safeties pretty deep,'' Orton said. "We're always looking for ways to take our shots, but they were playing the safety pretty deep. We tried to work inside on the linebackers and didn't have much success doing that. We tried to throw outside, and we didn't have much success doing that.''

It was 6-0 Ravens at halftime, and 13-0 Ravens following the second-half kickoff. Lardarius Webb went 95 yards for a quick score, exploding through a gap untouched.

"We understood they were a second-half team,'' said Ravens receiver Derrick Mason, whose 20-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter eliminated all doubt about the outcome. "In all their games, they were lights out in the second half. So we wanted to make sure we came out in the second half with all guns firing. And it started off with Webby's kickoff return, and it kind of snowballed after that.''