There was one play in Denver’s win over the Oakland Raiders two Sundays ago that exemplified running back Willis McGahee.

It wasn’t his 60-yard touchdown run, when he outran the entire Oakland secondary to tie the game at 24. It wasn’t his 24-yard touchdown run at the end of the game, when he used his vision to cut back and find a gap on the outside before racing into the end zone untouched.

It was a rather innocuous play that didn’t make many highlight reels.

With 3:09 left in the game, McGahee took a handoff from the Oakland 49-yard line. It was his 17th carry of the long day, many of which ended with hits that would likely leave a map of bruises on his body. He patiently waited for a hole to open up in the line and burst through to the secondary as if it was his first run of the day.

But instead of juking safety Matt Giordano, McGahee — less than two weeks removed from hand surgery — lowered his head and plowed over him for his 136th rushing yard on the afternoon. It will go down as just a 17-yard run on the stat sheet, but in one play, it showed the character, maturity, toughness and revival of the 2007 Pro Bowler.

“I know people look at me and say, ‘He doesn’t have it any more,’” McGahee said after the Oakland game. “That’s for the other 31 teams that said I didn’t have it any more. Hey, I still have it.”

Many teams and people wrote off McGahee after his last three seasons in Baltimore. After compiling three 1,000-yard seasons in his first four years in the league, McGahee combined to rush for 1,600 yards over the next three seasons from 2008-10.

However, McGahee saw it as a blessing. He was able to heal his body during that time and learn from his fellow running backs.

“I look back at it right now and I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s probably the best thing to ever happen to me in my whole career,’” McGahee said. “Sitting back, watching other people run the ball, just getting my mind right, made me mentally stronger and made me a better person.”

After the 2010 season, the Ravens released McGahee and he became a free agent. The Broncos were interested.

Head Coach John Fox saw a player who still had bright years ahead of him, thanks to his time in Baltimore when his body was given a break from the punishing hits an every-down back takes, adding a few years to McGahee’s career. In fact, when wished a happy 30th birthday, McGahee turned and said with a smile, “I’m 28 right now.”

“He did have a lot of hits taken off of him from two years ago, but yet he was a guy that we thought still had value,” Fox said.

As it turned out, Fox didn’t have to do much persuading or selling at all to get McGahee to come to Denver. The Broncos were McGahee’s destination of choice thanks to a man who McGahee says knows him better than any other running backs coach he’s had: Eric Studesville.

McGahee and Studesville worked together in Buffalo during McGahee’s first three active years in the league. He enjoyed being around Studesville both as a coach and person, and was eager to rekindle his career with the man who helped him get his feet churning in the NFL.

“He knows what I can do. He knows what I can’t do,” McGahee said. “He knows the ins and outs of me. He knows me on and off the field. So that’s the mesh we have. He knows how to get the best out of me.”

Studesville said he has great confidence in his pupil and never doubted his ability for a second.

“I have tremendous respect for him as a person and as a player,” Studesville said. “His work ethic, how he competes at everything all the time — I think that gives you a chance to be successful. The fact that I know him is a great compliment from him, but it has probably as much to do with me enjoying working with him as it does him being around me.”

With what he knew from McGahee in his Buffalo days, Studesville is not surprised by the running back’s resurgence and success this season. In eight games played, McGahee has four 100-yard games and is averaging 80 yards per contest, the second-highest in his career.

Not only is he happy to be back with Studesville, but he’s also embracing the famed tradition of the Mile High Salute, which he does after almost every touchdown — home or away.

“A great running back did it,” McGahee said. “That’s part of Denver, Terrell Davis. So hopefully we can try to get a tradition, get it back in.”

The Broncos brought in McGahee to add to the running game, and since then he has become an integral part of the offense.

“I needed an opportunity and they gave me one,” McGahee said. “You don’t get too many. This is like my second opportunity and I’m treating it like my first.”

While he’s showing that he can still be a top back in the NFL, he isn’t bitter about the time he spent on the Baltimore sidelines or the lack of opportunities he’s been given to show he can be an elite every-down back. In fact, it’s the doubters who help him succeed.

“People told me I wasn’t going to be playing football after I got hurt in college,” McGahee said. “So my goal is to try to prove everybody wrong. It’s been like that since Day One. Not too many people have faith in me, which doesn’t really bother me. It actually drives me. I don’t know where I would be right now if people had faith in me. If everybody had faith in me, I’d probably be done playing football right about now. That’s what motivates me to keep going.”

With that motivation, McGahee said he still has good years left in him. With what he’s shown this year, his best may still be yet to come.

Looking forward to this Sunday when we get a shot at another team in the division.

I think a win would be a big turning point for us, and it would be a great way for us to go into our bye week with a lot of confidence.

Having played in the AFC, I’m pretty familiar with the Chargers. I know what’s going on. That’s the good thing about me having played in the conference — I’ve gone up against them a couple times.

They’ve just got great players. Takeo Spikes, Shaun Phillips, Quentin Jammer, all those guys on defense, we’ve got to prepare to be able to stop those guys and make sure they don’t disrupt our passing and running games.

I’m looking to keep it up this week, because it’s all about having fun. So stay tuned.

Saw a lot of you talking about the Mile High Salute, which I’ve done after my touchdowns so far this year. That’s something I’m going to do every time I score a touchdown. That was a spur of the moment thing, and now I’m going to be consistent.

I saw Terrell Davis do it back in the day. That’s the good thing about running backs, we watch other running backs and there’s a lot of things I can learn from what T.D. did.

This weekend, people keep asking me about us being the underdog. We really don’t look into it, and really don’t even care about it.

It’s a great chance to turn things around, to get a win in Lambeau against the Super Bowl champs.

I think it would be a real eye-opener for everyone.

What’s going on? Just checking in real quick after our first win of the season. That felt real good.

Everybody’s spirits are up. We displayed to everybody what we can do when we work together as a team. But there are still a couple things we need to clean up.

As far as my game, the coaches told me what kind of load I was going to get coming in, so I was ready for it. The thing was just to go out there and have fun. Don’t take everything too seriously.

No doubt about it, I always have faith in myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. It was just me waiting for my opportunity, and I got my opportunity.

I joked I was going to be sore after taking that many carries — and believe me, I was very much sore. But it was all for the good of the team.

Getting ready this week, it’s been great seeing Knowshon back out at practice. It’s good to have everybody back where we can go out and perform and not have to worry about any drop-off anywhere.

Now we’ve got Tennessee at their place. It’s going to be very hostile, but we’re pros. Our job is to go in there and seize the moment. That’s what we’re going to do. As long as we stick together and stay a group, the sky’s the limit.

Just know we’re ready to go.

DENVER –Eric Decker has had quite a week.

Last Monday, he caught three passes for 53 yards and tacked on a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown.

In yesterday’s 24-22 win against the Cincinnati Bengals, the second-year receiver got even more involved, hauling in five passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns as the team’s No. 1 wideout.

“He’s had two good days as far as games go,” Head Coach John Fox said. “I thought he played well in the loss a week ago — not even a whole week. He came up big. He’s off to a great start this season. He’s a heck of a competitor.”

Sunday marked Decker’s first career start, and it turned into his first career 100-yard receiving game.

With Brandon Lloyd inactive and Eddie Royal sidelined due to a groin strain, Decker and Matt Willis were the only wide receivers available for the game.

“You get opportunities and it’s about what you make of them,” Decker said. “I think my preparation through the offseason and the preseason — I was ready and Matt Willis was as well. We had to step up to win this ballgame, and we got it done.”

Kyle Orton, who finished the game 15-of-25 for 195 yards and two touchdowns, said he doesn’t expect Decker’s early production to slow down any time soon.

“Eric is a great player,” Orton said. “Eric is one of those guys that you can tell is just ready to take off and take it to that next level.”

McGAHEE HITS THE CENTURY MARK

Another player forced into extra duty by an injury was Willis McGahee. With Knowshon Moreno inactive, the ninth-year veteran stepped up to the plate.

Twenty-eight carries later, McGahee had notched his 24th career 100-yard rushing game — sixth among active players — and a rushing touchdown, the 56th of his career.

“That was a long time coming,” the back said of his 101-yard game. “The good thing about it is that while we were out there, we were having fun. I was out there getting tackled, having fun and laughing. That’s the good thing about it. It was still fun, and at the end of the day we got the job done.”

Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy said earlier in the week he wasn’t afraid to give McGahee 20-plus carries, and Head Coach John Fox echoed that sentiment after the game.

“He’s a warrior, so to speak — a proven warrior in this league,” Fox said. “I thought he did a tremendous job.”

McGahee credited the offensive line for his performance, and said the team did a great job of stay on its blocks, something the players worked on in practice — and even a little extra afterwards — all week long.

The back said he iced up right after the game, as it had been since 2007 that he took that many carries.

“That’s just part of game – you’re going to be sore regardless, even if you get 10 or 15 carries,” he said, cracking a smile. “With 28 – I’m going to be a little sore.”

TEBOW OUT WIDE

Just as Decker and Willis had to step up, Tim Tebow was ready to do his part when the Broncos receiving corps was down to two.

“During the week, we knew ‘B-Lloyd’ was a little banged up, so I just ran around a little bit,” Tebow said. “Coming in to today, we found out he wasn’t going to be able to go, and if someone went down, I’d have to be our No. 3 receiver.”

When Royal left the game, that possibility became a reality, and Tebow trotted onto the field as a wide receiver.

Though he never had a ball thrown his way, Tebow was as ready as anyone if the time came.

“I have to know all the routes — I play quarterback,” he said.

Fox said the team was “definitely short” at receiver, and he liked the way Tebow stepped in.

“I will say this: he’s a very competitive guy; a very mentally tough guy,” Fox said. “He’s got excellent football character, so he can probably line up a lot of different places.”

As for Tebow, he was happy to do whatever he could to help the team.

“It was fun to be able to go in there and try to help the team at receiver. It was special because we were able to pull out a big win — the first win of the season — and hopefully it will give us some confidence, and we can build on it.”

First let me just say the atmosphere at the stadium was crazy Monday night. I’ve never heard a crowd so loud in my life, and I’ve played in a lot of stadiums. It shows how much the people are behind the Broncos out here.

I enjoyed the pregame a lot. It was a great tribute to all the people who lost their lives in 9/11, and it was great that the whole NFL participated.

As far as the game, we basically hurt ourselves with all the penalties, and the offense not starting fast to help the defense out when they were playing good in the first half. We can’t do stuff like that. We’ve got to get it from the beginning and go from there.

I do think the team came together very well. We didn’t back down or give up on each other. When we were down 16-3, we stayed in it and we fought. That’s a good thing about our team — we didn’t give up.

Looking at next week, right now basically we have a sour taste in our mouths, and we’re trying to put something sweet in our mouths right now. The thing about it is we’ve got to be mentally prepared for this team, because they’re going to try and come in and do the same thing Oakland did against us. We can’t let that happen.

The Bengals get paid just like us. They’re there to make plays. They’re in the NFL for a reason. Those guys are going to try to mess up every play that we put out there, but our job is to not let them do that.

Nobody is happy about starting the season with that loss. But we’re going to be OK. I’m not worried about it. First game of the season, everybody likes to have that win in their first game, but unfortunately things didn’t go our way. The good thing about it is we’ve got 15 more games.

Catch up with you next week.

What’s going on? It’s your boy Willis McGahee, 2-3. I just want to let everybody know I’m happy to be here in the Mile High City. You know I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun.

As far as Monday night, you know what, I really haven’t experienced the Raiders rivalry yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

And hey, if the Broncos don’t like em, and you guys don’t like em, then I hate em.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but I’ll be back next week.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For days, safety Brian Dawkins and running back Willis McGahee watched their teammates practice from the sidelines.

Both players know they’ll play a substantial role on their respective sides of the ball, but they were relegated to spectators for the first week of camp.

That is, until Thursday afternoon, when the start of the league year became official as the collective bargaining agreement was ratified.

Dawkins and McGahee finally strapped on the pads and partook in a training camp practice session.

“It felt great,” Dawkins said of returning to the field. “Now, I’ve got to knock some of that rust off. But it felt great to finally get out there with the guys and get to learning this defense from the field and not from the sideline.”

Dawkins and McGahee may be veterans, but both players have a lot to learn in the coming weeks.

This is Dawkins’ third year in Denver but it is first under new Head Coach John Fox and Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen, who have been installing a new defense.

So after a series of up-downs to welcome him and the other defensive newcomers to training camp, Dawkins lined up with the first team and physically practiced the new scheme for the first time.

McGahee was all too ready to hit the field himself.

The recent free agent acquisition is learning a new offense all while getting acquainted with an entirely new group of teammates. Those circumstances can make some of the most experienced players in the league a little excitable.

“When I was taking off my earrings, I was in the locker room shaking and I was like, ‘Why am I shaking?’” McGahee said. “I was anxious to get out here and get the feel for things and get a feel for the guys.”

McGahee admitted he wasn’t perfect during his first Broncos practice, although the he got off to a fast start taking his first carry up the middle for a big gain.

But the running back said he got more comfortable with the first-team offense as the session went along.

“I messed up one or two times, but I expect that. I didn’t expect to come out here and be 100 percent on what’s going on,” McGahee explained. “As it went along it got better.”

“I want to say I’m going as hard as I can, but you’re still timid when you don’t know the whole system,” he added. “I’m not comfortable yet, but I’m getting there, so when I get comfortable, it’s just going to be on and popping.”