Elway, Broncos Outrun Colts, 15-10

The Indianapolis Colts closed down the passing lanes, leaving plenty of room for John Elway to run.

Elway, forced to scramble by an aggressive Indianapolis defense, rushed for a career-high 51 yards in four carries to set up two Denver field goals that made the difference in the Broncos’ 15-10 victory over the Colts Sunday.

“He came out, scrambled from the pocket and got us some first downs in key situations,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said of his 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback. “He’s a big strong guy. He’s hard to bring down and he has the ability to make the big plays.

“It was a good win. You don’t have to make them pretty.”

Elway, averaging nearly 280 passing yards a game, completed 17 of 36 passes for 239 yards and set up a Denver touchdown with a 45-yard pass completion. He also kept two scoring drives going with runs of 22 and 15 yards in the third quarter.

Elway was sacked twice, but he continually eluded tacklers to gain yardage with passes in addition to his runs.

“Defensively we made it as hard as we possibly could against a good offense and a good passer,” Indianapolis Coach Rod Dowhower said.

“Scrambling destroys everything. He has a knack for that,” said Dowhower, who first saw Elway playing at Granada Hills High School when he was recruiting as an assistant coach at Stanford. “I’ve watched him for a long time. He keeps doing it (scrambling) time and time again,” Dow- hower said.

A lucky bounce on the Hoosier Dome’s artificial turf allowed Denver (4-2) to take a 6-0 lead on Sammy Winder’s two-yard run.

On first down at the Indianapolis one, Denver’s Gene Lang fumbled, but the ball bounced into the arms of left tackle Dave Studdard and Denver maintained possession on the two-yard line. Winder scored on the next play.