DENVER (AP) Big plays and no mistakes, all in one game. Maybe the Denver Broncos really can have it all when it comes to Jake Plummer.


Plummer let the long ball fly for the first time this season, connecting on passes of 55 and 72 yards Sunday to lift the Broncos to a 28-20 victory over the New England Patriots.


He also extended his stretch without throwing an interception to 17 straight quarters, a streak few who have watched Jake the Snake through his career would have believed possible.


“He’s definitely been playing a lot smarter,” said receiver Ashley Lelie, who caught the 55-yard pass. “He’s not trying to make every single play. It’s a credit to him understanding and accepting his role on the team. He puts up wins for us when he plays smart like that.”


Plummer’s performance and a 114-yard game from Tatum Bell helped the Broncos (5-1) win their fifth straight.


The Patriots (3-3), meanwhile, fell behind by 25 early in the third quarter and, despite a valiant comeback try, head into the bye week still looking for their first winning streak of this season.


“The bottom line is, we are not doing the things we need to do,” linebacker Rosevelt Colvin said. “People aren’t making their tackles, staying in their gaps. Now, we have two weeks to start playing football the way we know how to.”


Tom Brady finished with 299 yards and a touchdown for the Pats, but they left themselves too big a hill to climb. They allowed 28 or more points for the third straight week and narrowly avoided their third double-digit loss of the season.


“We didn’t give up 70-yard plays,” was how coach Bill Belichick described the difference that allowed New England to mount its comeback in the second half.


Plummer finished with 262 yards and two touchdown passes.


During the first five games, he had turned into more of a game manager than a big-time playmaker. He stayed away from interceptions, but he completed only one pass of longer than 30 yards and didn’t crack 150 yards over the last three games.


He made it past 150 in the first half of this one, thanks to the 55-yard connection with Lelie and a 72-yard hookup with Rod Smith. Those, along with a 68-yard run by Bell, all set up Denver touchdowns that led to a 21-3 lead in the second quarter.


“We knew we were going to get a couple of shots,” Plummer said. “They panned out like that.”


Trailing by 25, Brady picked on the young Denver secondary missing the injured Champ Bailey for most of the second half to pull within eight late in the fourth quarter.


The Patriots got the ball back down 28-20, but Brady threw three incompletions, and after a punt, Denver ran the final 3:36 off the clock.


And really, New England had looked like anything but a champion through most of this day.


Their low point came on the last play of the first half when Patriots offensive lineman Logan Mankins was ejected for hitting Ebenezer Ekuban below the belt after Adam Vinatieri missed a 53-yard field goal.


“I guess he got frustrated,” Ekuban said. “It was a cheap shot. Hopefully, the NFL will fine him heavily.”


The banged-up Patriots listed about half their roster on the injury report this week. Most notable was an ankle injury to Corey Dillon, who dressed but didn’t play. The way the first three quarters of this game went, it was hard to think he would’ve made a difference.


In the first half, the New England defense focused on stopping the running game and got torched by Plummer. He went 17-for-24 and finished with a passer rating of 134.4.


He wasn’t good only on the long balls. Two plays after Bell’s long run, Plummer rolled out to his right and threaded a pass to Kyle Johnson in the back of the end zone for a 21-3 lead. He also connected with Smith for a 6-yard score.


In all, it may have been Plummer’s finest, steadiest effort in his three years in Denver.


“I’m trying to be smarter with the ball,” Plummer said. “We are getting leads, so we don’t have to throw all the time. If you can do that, you can be smart with the ball and not make mistakes.”


Notes: Bailey left early in the third quarter when the sore left hamstring that kept him out of the last two games flared up. … The Patriots were also 3-3 after six games in 2001, their first Super Bowl year. … Denver’s five-game winning streak is its longest since opening the 1998 season 13-0.