Denver » The temptation -- the hopes and prayers as far as Broncos fans are concerned -- is to look at the upcoming week and expect Denver to treat the Washington Redskins like the bottom-feeding dregs they're supposed to be and put an emphatic end to its two-game slide.

There are just a couple of problems with those thoughts. One is that, while it's true the Redskins have won only two games this season, even going so far as losing to Detroit -- the Lions' first victory in more than a year -- the NFC East team's problems haven't been on defense. Washington ranks sixth in the NFL in total defense, three spots behind the Broncos, just one behind Pittsburgh, allowing just more than 286 yards a game. It is also the ninth-stingiest team to score against, giving up 19.2 points per contest.

So it would appear that after losses to Baltimore and the Steelers, two teams with overpowering defensive reputations -- and even more imposing play physically -- Sunday's game at Fed-Ex Field may not be the breather one would expect.

Which means the Denver offense isn't going to get a free pass out of its recent malaise.

After Monday night's 28-10 loss to Pittsburgh at Heinz Field, sorry, Invesco Field at Mile-High, there was a lot of whispering between players in the Broncos' locker room, a lot of muttering and utterances about going back to the drawing board. For coach Josh McDaniels, that meant looking for ways to balance an offense that has been forced to list heavily to the passing side.

"There's no shortcut to it," McDaniels said. "We have to work hard at getting ourselves to run the ball better and be more effective running the football and staying out of third-and-long. That alone will allow us to stay balanced. We've got a lot of things to do better though, it's not just the running game."

But the idea of balance is important, the slender thread on which the Broncos' offense rests. Denver ran only 14 times Monday, only three times in the second half, for a total of 27 yards. In the first 30 minutes, the threat of the run gave the team some opportunities via play-action passes, but when the Steelers realized the Broncos really weren't interested -- or able -- to effectively run, they began to focus on the pass, making life miserable for quarterback Kyle Orton.

For the game, Orton threw for 221 yards with three interceptions. He was also sacked twice and hit four times. Those numbers are reminiscent of Denver's previous game, a 30-7 loss to the Ravens on Nov. 1. In that contest the Broncos ran only 19 times, with only seven in the second half, for a total of 66 yards. That left Orton to throw 37 times for only 152 yards.

It's one thing for Peyton Manning, or even Arizona's Kurt Warner, to come onto a field with the defense knowing that the threat of the run is virtually nil and still be able to do almost anything they want with the pass. That's not the case with the Broncos, who need to run the ball successfully to maximize Orton's effectiveness.

The Broncos rushed for at least 100 yards in five of the first six games of the season, with Orton?s quarterback rating dipping below 90 just once in that span. Without the rushing element, Orton?s rating has been 71.0 and 43.9 the past two weeks.

"I think once the game became a one-dimensional game we had a lot of players that I don't believe really played as well as we would've liked, McDaniels said Monday night. "It became much more of a passing game than we wanted this to become. Anytime you're going to put the game in the quarterback's hands against a defense like that who does a great job of attacking protections, pressuring the middle of the pocket, which they did and seemingly on a consistent basis you're going to have trouble regardless.

"We have to do a better job of making sure that we don't put that kind of pressure on our pass protection, on our quarterback, by maintaining our balance and we didn't do a very good job of that."

McDaniels added that Orton played well at the start of the game, completing four of five passes on the opening drive and leading the Broncos to a field goal. He then completed eight of his next 11 passes for 64 yards, but despite the positive plays, the result of the sequence was -7 points with Pittsburgh?s Tyrone Carter scoring on a 48-yard interception return.

In nutritional terms, for the Broncos' offense, that was akin to consuming some empty calories, and if things are going to change, the team has to get more substantive fare from its attack. Even against the 2-6 Redskins.

"We moved the ball pretty good in the first half, but we just didn't finish drives off," wide receiver Brandon Stokley said. "Against good teams you have to put points on the board and we just didn't do that. It comes down to playing good football for four quarters and we haven't done that the last two games."