"Steve Slaton has lost four fumbles in seven games, but he's scored five touchdowns. He's too valuable to the running and passing games to spend much time on the bench being penalized for losing the ball.

"It's a concern when you put it on the ground as much as he has," coach Gary Kubiak said. "It's a concern to him. I believe in Steve, and our team believes in him and trusts that to be successful and accomplish some of the things we want to accomplish as a team, we need Steve making those plays.

"We've got to stand behind him. To me, it's up to all of us to help him get over this issue — me, (running backs coach) Chick (Harris), everybody on the staff, the whole team helping him in practice. We're going to stand behind Steve and help him get this corrected because we need his big plays to win.""