Miracle plays are among sport's great attractions. They're fun. They're unexpected. They remind us to take our blood-pressure medicine. Unfortunately, a miracle play doesn't tell you much about the team that produces it, especially in a season opener. It was just two years ago that the Broncos pulled out an opener at Buffalo with a miracle play, rushing in the field-goal team with no timeouts and the game clock running down from 11 seconds. 'This is why God made whiskey,' said Scott O'Brien, the special-teams coach at the time. Despite the euphoria surrounding the opening win, the '07 Broncos were nothing special. Neither were the '05 Rockies, who got a dramatic walkoff home run from Clint Barmes against Trevor Hoffman in the opener. Nor, of course, were the original Rockies, who got a home run from their first batter in their first home game as a big-league team. In short, when your team comes up with a miracle play in an opener, you want it to be an omen of what's to come. Usually, it's just sport's way of making sure you come back. In the Broncos' case, one miracle play does not make a quarterback, particularly when he doesn't have much to do with it. Before the bizarre final scoring play Sunday, Kyle Orton was 16-of-27 for 156 yards and six points. Even the 12 points they ended up with put the Broncos 22nd in the league before four teams played their first games Monday night. The Bengals' defense is good, but not that good. It surrendered 22.8 points per game last year, tied for 19th in the league. To his credit, rookie head coach Josh McDaniels did not sugarcoat the offensive shortcomings. 'We talked a lot about getting off to a good start in each drive, and we had too many bad plays to start series that led to three-and-outs,' he said Monday. 'You don't want to be in second-and-10 or second-and-12, obviously, and we had too many of those situations. We dropped some balls, we had some miscommunications, we had a couple bad throws. We kind of took turns offensively being the reason why we couldn't get into a good rhythm.' In evaluating Orton, McDaniels complimented his quarterback's handling of the last possession of the first half, which produced the game's first field goal and left Cincinnati with no time for a drive of its own. But he also noted the fourth-quarter possession that nearly cost the Broncos the game. 'There were some throws that we would like to have back, I'm sure he would have liked to have back,' McDaniels said. 'Made some good plays. Took a sack at a bad time late in the game. That whole series was bad football. Started with a false-start penalty, then we had a holding on a screen play where we converted for a first down, then we take a sack on the next play. So we have three plays in a row we go backwards 20 yards. Had an opportunity to make it a two-score game and really handled that situation poorly. We can all do better.' The running game averaged a respectable 3.8 yards per carry, but totaled only 75 yards, in part because the Broncos didn't have the ball enough to exploit it further. The opener provided encouraging signs as well, mostly on the other side of the ball. By surrendering only seven points, the Broncos start the season near the top of the league in scoring defense. The Bengals, as always, had their own issues, but Mike Nolan's defense bottled up the run and harassed Carson Palmer into a subpar performance. Meanwhile, Jay Cutler's horrific performance in the Bears' opener made Orton's sedate game management seem comforting by comparison. But it's a long season. The schedule gives the Broncos a chance to start quickly, with the Bengals, Browns and Raiders -- not exactly murderers' row -- leading off. Given the stretch that follows, they need to make hay while they can. On Sunday's winning play and the play before it, Bengals defenders were the first to put their hands on Orton's passes. In fact, Orton acknowledged thinking the pass before the winner had been picked and the game was over. There is no way to know whether his throws were affected by the stitches in his right forefinger or the glove he wore to protect them. He claimed it was no problem, but he also plans to ditch the glove now that the stitches are out, so we'll see. The memory of Sunday's miracle play will last a long time, but, like the last-second win at Buffalo two years ago, it counts only once in the standings. The Broncos' offense will need to be much better by the time the schedule turns. 