Jason and Terrell’s Excellent Adventure

The Denver Broncos can thank the people who rescued Jason Elam from the weekend blizzard in Denver for their victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Elam, stranded along the side of the road for more than five hours Saturday in the snowstorm that hit Denver, kicked three field goals, including a 33-yarder with 1:56 left in overtime, to lift the Broncos to a 23-20 victory.

“It was a fun closure to a crazy weekend,” Elam said. “It’s definitely something I won’t forget for a very long time.”

Terrell Davis rushed for 207 yards in 42 carries and scored one touchdown to help the Broncos (7-1) bounce back from a 28-25 loss to the Oakland Raiders last week.

Steve Christie kicked a 55-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to tie the score for the Bills, who came back after backup quarterback Alex Van Pelt replaced Todd Collins in the third quarter.

“There was a lot of time left,” Van Pelt said. “I was in there to try and spark the team. It was nice to come back, but it would have been nicer to win.”

The Broncos drew within field-goal distance after quarterback John Elway passed to Ed McCaffrey for a 17-yard gain on third-and-10 and to Rod Smith for 14 yards on the next play. Five plays later, Elam made the winning kick.

“I was just happy to win the game,” Elam said. “I think we were destined to win that game after everything we went through to get here.”

The Broncos’ flight to Buffalo was delayed 8 1/2 hours Saturday because of bad weather in Denver.

The snow was so bad that cornerback Tim McKyer abandoned his car and carried his luggage a quarter mile to the team’s practice facility, where the team began a 2 1/2-hour bus ride to the airport. Safety Steve Atwater needed a snowmobile to leave his neighborhood and wound up hitching a ride with assistant coach Greg Robinson.

“This win is so sweet,” McKyer said. “You get a sweeter win with all the adversity and the long weekend like we had. This victory was definitely deserved.”

The Bills, who came back from a 26-0 deficit to beat Indianapolis earlier this year, have the first- and third-largest comebacks in NFL history.

But Buffalo (4-4) did not have enough to overcome Denver on Sunday. The Broncos had taken a 20-0 lead when 304-pound tackle Keith Traylor intercepted a Collins pass and ran 62 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Van Pelt came in on the next series and connected with Andre Reed on a 27-yard touchdown pass play that cut the lead to 20-7 with 12:10 left in regulation. After Christie hit a 30-yard field goal, Van Pelt threw to Quinn Early for a 31-yard touchdown with 2:23 remaining to cut the margin to 20-17.

“It’s an extremely bitter loss,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “This loss is awfully difficult to take when you look at how we came back.”

Denver opened up a big lead by putting the ball in the hands of Davis, the AFC’s leading rusher going into the game. Davis, who has rushed for 1,068 yards this season, eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the third consecutive season and went over 200 for the second time this year.

Elway had 147 yards in total offense, leaving him three yards short of joining Miami quarterback Dan Marino and Fran Tarkenton as the only players in NFL history to surpass 50,000 yards..