"Squeezed between the veteran starter who just threw two touchdown passes and supposedly the franchise future who was about to make his professional debut, Brady Quinn played as if he had to do extraordinarily well just to get noticed.

Instead, Quinn seemed to press.

The Broncos' backup quarterback came out Sunday badly overthrowing, then threw a pick six to Cincinnati cornerback David Jones. Quinn settled down and eventually started playing well, but not until after he relearned a lesson that trying too hard often doesn't work in the athletic arena.

"Just had a hard time finding a rhythm in the beginning," Quinn said.

After starter Kyle Orton threw two touchdown passes to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Quinn's first series was a three-and- out possession on three incompletes. It didn't help that the first-string offensive line, which protected so brilliantly for Orton, was finished while the second unit struggled to block.

Quinn was 0-for-5, with the interception return for a touchdown, through his first three possessions.

But the former first-round draft pick bounced back to complete 5-of-9 in an 11-play drive late in the first half that finished with a short Matt Prater field goal.

"The two-minute drive, we settled down, found a rhythm and took what they gave us," Quinn said."