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Now 5-0 after a hard-fought, come-from-behind win over the Patriots on Sunday, Head Coach Josh McDaniels can really see his team buying into the “do your job” mentality.

“The players are confident, I think,” McDaniels said. “I think they trust our game plans, and I think we trust them to execute our game plan.”

Following the team’s dramatic win, Mario Haggan called the club’s confidence level “sky-high.” Nonetheless, he said everyone within the locker room realizes they have a lot of work to do moving forward.

“I think we’ve been confident for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think you can win a game without being confident. I just think people are starting to notice some of the things that we’ve done.

“We’re only 5-0, we’re not Super Bowl winners and we’re not in the playoffs,” Haggan added. “We’re just 5-0.”

Not only are coaches and players at Dove Valley echoing that sentiment, even Broncos legend Rod Smith, who was on hand for the 20-17 overtime victory, has noticed how well the team has been on the same page throughout its undefeated start.

“Those guys fight for each other,” Smith said. “Talking to some of the players, they said, ‘The one thing I love about our team is that it’s unselfish.’ Everybody on this team is really thinking about the guy next to them, and they’re making some things happen.”

Although victorious, McDaniels knows the Broncos have to clean up miscues committed in Sunday’s game if the team wants to walk away a winner in its divisional road game at San Diego in Week 6.

Once the team returns to the film room later in the week, he and the rest of the coaching staff will pinpoint those errors and hammer home the proper plan. Above all, McDaniels said he will make sure the team stays focused on the task at hand.

“As long as you understand where you are and what you are dealing with, which is we have won five games, (but) we didn’t play our best football game yesterday,” he said. “I think we played maybe one play better than they did, just a little bit better, and that is why we ended up winning the game. Certainly, we left a lot out there on the field in every phase. We can coach better. We can play better, and they will see that on the film. I don’t have to create that, and no coach on our staff is going to have to create it either because we just watch the film and that is the proof.”

Noteworthy:

McDaniels elected to give his team the day off on Monday. With a long week of preparation for next Monday’s AFC West clash with the Chargers on the horizon, he felt his players earned a much deserved day of rest, thanks to the come-from-behind victory.

“You try to give them a little bit of extra rest and also give them a little reward for playing a tough, physical game,” McDaniels said. “(We are) just trying to give them a little bit of a bone as we head into a long week because we are going to have a long week: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday practice.”

– Zach Eisendrath, DenverBroncos.com

They had seen pictures. They had heard a variety of different reviews.

On Friday, the Broncos got a first look at themselves in their 1960 retro uniforms.

Head Coach Josh McDaniels had the players practice in the new colors, getting them accustomed to the threads before Sunday’s Legacy Game against the Patriots. The full ensemble included the yellow jerseys, vertically striped yellow and brown socks, brown pants a brown helmet with numbers instead of a logo.

Ronald Fields was one of the first Broncos to try on the new look and his reactions were mixed.

“I don’t even know what to think anymore,” Fields laughed. “I thought our colors were blue, man. What’s up with this brown?”

Looking at the vertically striped socks, Matt Prater said the uniforms would add something fun to Sunday’s game against the Patriots.

“They’re pretty flashy,” Prater said of the socks. “I feel like a bumble bee in them but it’s different and it shouldn’t affect the game too much. You just play the game the same way and look a little different this time.”

SENDING A STRONG MESSAGE
Head Coach Josh McDaniels is six months shy of his 34th birthday.

As the second youngest head coach in the NFL, his age has at times sparked awe amongst some. For McDaniels, there is less value attached to his age and more value attached to the message he is delivering to his players.

“I learned a long time ago in this league that if you are telling them something that is going to help them win, help the team win, help them play better than what they have played before — that everyone of them in that room will listen to you,” he said.

Winning only helps establish that principle. Through four games, McDaniels has placed himself in a pair of exclusive classes. He and Red Miller are the only two coaches in Broncos history to start their career with a 4-0 record. Miller went 6-0 in 1977, leading Denver to a 12-2 record and an AFC Championship.

McDaniels is also only one of six rookie head coaches in the NFL to go 4-0 since the 2000 season. That group includes current Colts coach Jim Caldwell, who has Indianapolis standing as the only other AFC team besides Denver with a 4-0 start.

Caldwell turned 54 in January, demonstrating that two decades of separation in the age column does not equal separation on the football field.

“If you can lead and you can communicate and you understand the game and how the National Football League works and you can prepare your team and get them ready to play good football and win, who is to say what that age is?” McDaniels said. “I certainly am not going to put an age restriction on that. Somebody certainly could be much younger than I and be as ready as I am to go as I am or somebody else, for that matter.”

ROYAL RAPPORT
After setting Broncos rookie records with 91 catches and 980 yards a year ago, Eddie Royal has drawn one thing from opposing defenses — attention.

That attention has not stopped Royal and Kyle Orton from forming a great relationship in a complicated offense.

“We have worked extremely hard, and Eddie is one of those guys that stays after practice every day to run routes and make sure he is doing everything that I want him to do,” Orton said. “He has worked hard. We would love to get him the ball more. Maybe this will be the week.”

Four games into the 2009 season, Royal has eight catches for 58 yards. He’s added 84 yards on punt returns and 64 yards on kickoff returns, hurdling him over the 200 all-purpose yards mark.

While Orton said that defenses have had their eye on the speedster, he does not see that eye winning out in the long run.

“They have done a great job of making sure they know where he is at and relating to him and trying to take him away,” Orton said. “But Eddie is the type of guy that can beat double-coverage. He can beat single-coverage. Whatever they do, he should have an answer for him.”

INJURY UPDATE
There was one change to the Broncos’ Week 5 Injury Report on Friday. After not participating in Wednesday or Thursday’s practice, Brian Dawkins was a limited participant on Friday. He is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Patriots. There were no changes on the Patriots side, but running back Fred Taylor is listed as out for Sunday’s game.

– Chris Gentilviso, DenverBroncos.com

After a morning full of less-than-ideal weather — on and off rain showers, occasional snow flurries, gusting winds and chilly temperatures — Head Coach Josh McDaniels was asked if he planned on conducting the afternoon practice session outdoors or at the team’s indoor facility just down the street.

Although the club practiced at “the bubble” during minicamps, the club hasn’t been back at the indoor facility since then. McDaniels said returning indoors isn’t in the cards anytime soon, citing that the team needs to get used to possible conditions that could arise on Sundays.

“If we are going to play in it, I hope we’ve practiced in it,” McDaniels said. “That’s going to be our philosophy. If it’s wet, damp, raining, snowing, whatever — we’re going to be outside.”

To McDaniels, attention to detail is a focal point of his day-to-day operations, and having players ready for the conditions they may face on Sunday is one of his priorities. McDaniels said the most important issue when preparing to play in poor weather conditions is for players to understand what they can and can’t do the same compared to normal conditions. For instance, players likely can’t cut the same way, quarterbacks may not be able to make the same throws downfield and the kicking is game is almost always affected by poor weather.

Thus, McDaniels wants his players to simulate all sorts of game experiences in all conditions before they take to the field on Sunday.

“You can’t just tell the guys, ‘Hey we’re going to practice inside in a bubble all week long and then we go out there and play in the snow on Sunday, just make sure you do all the things you’re supposed to do when the weather is bad — stay on your feet, field the ball, throw it in the wet (weather) and all that stuff,’” McDaniels said.

As of Thursday afternoon, Sunday’s forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of precipitation and temperatures ranging between the low 30s and high 40s. During Thursday’s practice session, conditions were nearly identical to that estimation, as temperatures were in the low 30s and snow showers appeared throughout the windy two-hour session.

The way Ryan McBean looks at it, the team might as well get used to playing in snow and sleet since the Broncos will likely face similar circumstances at some point during the season.

“That’s what we are going to be playing in, so you’ve got to prepare yourself for anything,” McBean said. “You want to practice what you are going to be playing in.”

Only in the rarest of circumstances does McDaniels foresee his team practicing at its indoor facility this season.

“If there was some clear-cut thing where we knew the weather was going to be beautiful on Sunday and we are out there trying to practice in two feet of snow, I don’t think that would be smart,” he said. “If the weather has a chance to be poor on the weekend, I think we’ve got to get ready for it.”

INJURY REPORT

There were no changes to the Broncos’ Week 5 Injury Report. On the Patriots side, after not participating in Wednesday’s practice, WR Randy Moss (not injury related) was not listed on Thursday’s report. Linebacker Adalius Thomas (not injury related) was added to the report, and did not participate in Thursday’s practice.

– Zach Eisendrath, DenverBroncos.com

Here are a few more pictures from the onset of Thursday’s practice session: