Broncos Might Need a Miracle : AFC: But they will have a quarterback who can provide one when they play the Bills at Rich Stadium.

If all goes according to script, the Buffalo Bills should spare Colorado and the world the pain of another Super Bowl involving the Denver Broncos, who--let’s face it--have had their chances.

Unless John Elway has another miracle up his sleeve to match last week’s sequel to the Drive, the Broncos don’t seem to stand much of a chance in today’s AFC championship game against Buffalo here at Rich Stadium.

Stranger things have happened, and despite his 0-3 record in Super Bowls, Elway is 3-0 in AFC title games. And Gaston Green is a nice running back. And Michael Young is a nice receiver. And Dennis Smith can still loosen your bolts at safety. And, despite what you might think, the Broncos wouldn’t mind going back to the Super Bowl.

“I remember ‘Chariots of Fire,’ where the guy said that he wouldn’t run if he couldn’t win,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said this week. “And he was told, ‘You’re not going to win if you don’t run.’ It’s hard to win a Super Bowl unless you’re in it.”

Give the Broncos a better chance at home at Mile High Stadium, with their diluted air, on their soggy turf, with Elway and 70,000 screaming fans dressed in orange.

Denver rebounded from the 5-11 season of 1990, made the most of their weakened fifth-place schedule, wrestled the AFC title back from the Raiders, and beat Houston last week by the skin of Elway’s teeth.

But the Bills are 18-1 at home the last two seasons. Their one defeat was in overtime against Detroit in the season finale Dec. 22, during which the Bills rested most of their key starters--among them quarterback Jim Kelly and tailback Thurman Thomas, who had combined for 5,882 yards and 46 touchdowns in 15 games.

The Bills finished as the NFL’s top-ranked offense, averaging 28.6 points. The Broncos scored more than 28 points in a game once--a 45-14 victory over Cincinnati in the season opener.

The Bills, though, averaged 44 points in their last three home games in the playoffs. Buffalo Coach Marv Levy, a Harvard graduate who is not much for passing out accolades, has so far found no way to temper his team’s achievements.

“It’s been the most productive offensive team I’ve been with,” he said this week. “You know, you can go back a long time and go back to the college days, when I had a team that averaged over 400 yards a game rushing two straight years.”

The Denver defense gave up an NFL-low 12 scoring passes this season, and ranked first overall in the AFC, but hasn’t had much luck with spread-formation offenses.

The Houston Oilers’ run-and-shoot totaled 422 yards against Denver last week. The Broncos spoke proudly of holding Houston to three second-half points but, in truth, had kicker Al Del Greco made a chip-shot field goal and receiver Haywood Jeffires not dropped an end-zone pass during the second half, there would be no talk of Denver this week.

Bronco secondary coach Charlie Waters thinks his team’s best chance is to “get inside Kelly’s head and frustrate him.” Kelly loves to throw deep, Waters reasons, and will often force the deep pass.

To offset Houston’s quickness, the Broncos played two linebackers--Karl Mecklenburg and Simon Fletcher--in the defensive line and they were generally overmatched.

But with Elway there is always a way, a hope, a prayer, as he proved last week.

“I’ve been telling (tight end) Keith McKeller the last couple of weeks that John Elway is one of those quarterbacks that really scares me,” the Bills’ Thomas said this week.

Thomas doesn’t have to stop him.

Buffalo’s defense does, and it finished 27th overall this season, 24th against the run. Part of the problem was injuries along the defensive front to all-pro Bruce Smith and nose tackle Jeff Wright. Both played in last week’s 37-14 victory over Kansas City, a game in which the Bills held the Chiefs to 77 yards rushing.

Another problem with the defense was the Bills’ no-huddle offense, which scored so quickly that it kept the defense on the field too much.

Buffalo scored 44 times this season on drives that took three minutes or less.

“Our style of offense puts a little extra pressure on our defense, and we acknowledge that,” Levy said. “We recognize that. But it has been a source of concern. We feel good that it is improving considerably and did a very good job last week against Kansas City.”

Maybe it all adds up too easily to a Buffalo victory.

“We’ve had pressure on us all year,” Buffalo center Kent Hull said. “Not only do other people expect us to win, we expect us to win.”

AFC Notes

The Denver offense will get a boost with the return of receiver Mark Jackson, back after suffering a dislocated wrist Nov. 24. Jackson was the team’s leading receiver before he was injured. Denver center Keith Kartz, limited to snapping for field goals in last week’s game because of a thigh pull, is questionable again today. . . . Bruce Smith, Buffalo’s all-pro defensive end, wasn’t talking this week about the left knee injury that forced him to sit out most of the season. More fluid appeared in Smith’s knee after last week’s game, but he is expected to play today. “Bruce seems to be better than he was a week ago at this time,” Coach Marv Levy said.

The Broncos know how quickly the Bills can score: When the teams last played at Rich Stadium, in September of 1990, Buffalo scored three touchdowns in 77 seconds and won, 29-28. . . . Levy won’t say what how often his team will operate in the no-huddle offense today. “I often marvel at how often coaches say what their game plan is,” he said. “Even if most people can make a pretty good guess at many elements of it, it stuns me that guys say what their game plan is.”