The Broncos scored 20 unanswered points, including 14 in the fourth quarter to break it open.

One of the big plays came early in the fourth on a 49-yard catch and run by Jabar Gaffney, who caught a comeback route then spun away from Brandon McDonald. He got all the way to the 2-yard line before he was tracked down, and Peyton Hillis scored on the next play.

That capped a seven-play, 82-yard scoring drive. Elvis Dumervil recorded back-to-back sacks on the Browns' ensuing drive, and Dave Zastudil had to punt from his own endzone with just over 10 minutes remaining.

The backbreaker then came on a 45-yard Corell Buckhalter touchdown run to make it 27-6.

The Broncos are 2-0. The Browns are 0-2.

"We need to play better across the board," Browns head coach Eric Mangini said.

The Broncos outgained the Browns 449-200 and got 25 first downs to the Browns' 11; included in that was Denver's 8-of-15 third-down success rate and the Broncos' 5:30 advantage in time of possession.

Dumervil set a career high with 4 sacks and posted the eighth multiple sack game of his four-year career.

The Broncos led 10-6 at halftime and pushed it to 13-6 on Matt Prater's second field goal of the day, a 38-yarder, with 10:39 left in the third quarter. Those points were set up on a Joshua Cribbs fumble recovered by Brian Dawkins at the Browns' 38 on the initial possession of the second half.

The Browns' defense was solid through three quarters and put consistent pressure on Broncos QB Kyle Orton, but the offense was only able to generate two field goals.

"There's a lot of areas we have to be better in," Mangini said. "It's not just one area, or one play, or one guy. It's consistency. There were times we did things well but we didn't follow those up."

The game got off to a wild start.The Browns recovered a Hillis fumble on the opening kickoff and turned it into three points. Coye Francies poked the ball away from Hillis as he was lunging for extra yardage and Blake Costanzo - who had made the initial hit -- recovered it at the Denver 22.

The Browns converted a third and 9 situation on a great leaping catch in traffic by Braylon Edwards. Brady Quinn missed Mike Furrey on third and goal, though, and Dawson came on to kick a 21-yard field goal and give the Browns the lead with 12:22 left in the first quarter.

"In the red area you have to be able to punch it in," Mangini said. "We had some chances. We had a great opportunity to start the game in a really positive way."

On the Browns' second possession a low shotgun snap by rookie center Alex Mack led to a Broncos fumble recovery inside the Browns' 10 and set up a third-down slant pass from Orton to Tony Scheffler ; the subsequent PAT made it 7-3, Broncos.

The Browns then pulled to within one, at 7-6, on a 47-yard Phil Dawson field goal. The successful kick was the 216th of Dawson's career, bringing him even with Don Cockroft for second on the Browns' all-time list. Lou Groza has the record with 234, a number that's now well within Dawson's sights.

It was a rough start overall for Orton, who went 11-of-27 for 120 yards in the first half. But he - and his team - found a groove in the second half.

Orton finished 19-of-37 for 263 yards. The Broncos also held a 186-54 edge in rushing yards.

Edwards led the Browns with 6 catches for 92 yards. Quinn finished 18-of-31 for 161 yards.