The entire country, or at least those with the NFL network in their cable package, tuned in to the beginning of Thursday Night Football this week to watch former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn make his first professional start. What they got was a front row seat to watch one of the most disappointing offenses in the league break out of its funk and light up the scoreboard.

The Denver Broncos came out of the gates hot to start 2008. They weren’t held to under 34 points until they suffered their first loss in Week 4 to the Chiefs. In their first five games Denver’s quarterback Jay Cutler eclipsed 300 yards passing on three occasions, including games of 350 and 361.

Rookie wide receiver Eddie Royal blew up in his pro debut by receiving for 146 yards and a touchdown. The next week, in his first game of 2008, wideout Brandon Marshall followed Royal’s example and hauled in 18 passes for 166 yards and a score against division rival San Diego. Sitting at 4-1 during an AFC power-shift, Mike Shanahan and company seemed poise to grab the reins and ride the wave of success to a playoff berth and then some.

Over the past month, however, things in the Mile-high city had changed. The Broncos dropped three straight to the Jags, Pats, and a Miami team they had two weeks to prepare for. Cutler didn’t even average 225 yards a game over the losing streak and with Marshall turning in stats like two catches for 27 yards against the Dolphins, it was very clear that the Broncos were struggling.

Thursday night was different though. Denver established the running game early with youngster Ryan Torain before he left in the second quarter with a knee injury. Cutler aired it out to the tune of 447 yards and three scores, including a 93-yarder to Royal. The Denver Broncos looked like a solid team again and that, likely, allowed many fantasy owners to let out a sigh of relief and stop scouring the waiver wire for Brooks Bollinger and Patrick Cobbs.

The breakout came at a perfect time, too, for fantasy owners. Many guys who drafted Cutler and/or Marshall because they believed the pre-season hype and general self-marketing quips were scrambling for options down the fantasy stretch with new reason to believe the duo was going to flop. But, with a huge game like Thursday’s, both men restored some faith in their fantasy owners and played their way off the trading block.

Granted the offensive explosion on Thursday night came against the Cleveland Browns. But this is a Browns team that held four quarterbacks to under 200 yards passing and only gave up a total of 50 points to the Giants, Bengals, Redskins and Steelers. The Broncos are clearly inconsistent, but if they can harness this success and translate it into big games against Atlanta and Oakland in the next two weeks, they could get on a roll just in time to help you sneak into the fantasy playoffs.