Elway Picks the Right Pocket : AFC: Bronco quarterback uses protection, passes for three touchdowns in 29-14 victory over Browns.

John Elway, the scrambler, has taken a back seat to John Elway, the pocket passer.

Against a Cleveland team he has dominated for a decade, Elway thrived behind rock-solid protection, passing for 244 yards and three touchdowns as the Denver Broncos beat the Browns, 29-14, Sunday.

The loss spoiled Bernie Kosar’s return to Cleveland’s starting lineup.

“Plain and simple, John Elway just beat the Cleveland Browns single-handedly,” Brown cornerback Terry Taylor said.

Denver (5-3), the AFC’s highest scoring team, has won 14 of the last 16 meetings with Cleveland (5-3). Against the Browns, Elway is 9-2, a record that includes dramatic victories in three AFC championship games.

“It’s sweeter to win here,” Elway said. “There’s no question, when you go out there and hear what the fans say, and then there’s the rivalry--that adds to it.”

Halfway through his 11th NFL season, Elway is playing the best football of his career. He entered the game leading the league in passing yardage and touchdown passes, and his 15 touchdown passes leave him only seven away from matching his career-high of 22, which he had in 1985.

He has been energized by the offensive system installed by first-year Coach Wade Phillips and offensive coordinator Jim Fassel, who also was Elway’s offensive coordinator in college at Stanford.

“We were doing all the right things offensively,” Elway said. “The key to it was that I got so much time to throw, and I was able to look off their safeties. You can influence them with your eyes.”

Such was the case on two of Elway’s three touchdown passes, a 38-yard play deep over the middle to Derek Russell and a carbon-copy 33-yarder to Shannon Sharpe. In both cases, Elway stood in the pocket, looked one way long enough to move the defensive back and threw to the resulting seam in the zone.

“That’s the great thing about a great quarterback,” Phillips said. “He can go to the second and third guy. And we had excellent blocking today.”

The loss was Cleveland’s most lopsided at home in Bill Belichick’s three seasons as coach.

“We were outplayed, outcoached, out-everything,” Belichick said. “I thought the bye week was last week, but we made it look like it was this week.”

Elway completed 17 of 23 passes, including the touchdowns to Russell, Sharpe and a two-yarder to rookie Glyn Milburn. Milburn caught the ball as he was being knocked out of bounds in the end zone by Clay Matthews early in the second quarter.

Kosar was sacked six times in his first start after being benched for two games. Returning because Vinny Testaverde separated a shoulder in the last game, he was 16 of 30 for 226 yards, including two touchdown passes to Michael Jackson.

“We’re not really the type of team that’s geared to play from behind like that,” Kosar said. “Our game-plan is more set up to play a ball-control type of game.”