OAKLAND, Calif. -- Broncos coach Mike Shanahan called his three top running backs into a room on Sunday and told them the results of a week-long competition.

	Davis

Terrell Davis had won back his starting job. Mike Anderson would be the backup for the Monday night game against the Raiders. Olandis Gary, who wouldn't be asked to work special teams, would be inactive. Inactive himself since the opening Monday night against the New York Giants, Davis fought back from arthroscopic knee surgery and a scare of his surgically repaired foot to be back as the featured back.

His 70-yard, 17-carry effort offered some encouragement for a struggling Broncos running game. But Davis alone couldn't beat the Raiders with his feet. In fact, his running was one of the few bright spots in a 38-28 blowout loss to the Raiders that ended a seven-game Broncos winning streak against their rivals.

"I felt pretty good tonight," Davis said afterward. "I felt a little rusty, so I'll watch the film to see what plays I missed. But at least I was out there running. I was trying to let my instincts take over."

His instincts were fine. In fact, they were better than the rest of the Broncos team. Davis gained only 1 yard on his first carry to left guard, but then he broke a 13-yard gain around the right side. On the next carry, he broke one around the right end for 15 yards to the Raiders' 9.

Davis was looking like the Davis of old, but the Broncos' running philosophy didn't. Most of the calls were to the outside as opposed to their usual inside plays. That surprised Raiders defenders.

"The Broncos are a big cutback team," Raiders middle linebacker Greg Biekert said. "Their style of blocking really allows them to cut back a lot of their runs for big gains. Tonight, they stayed front side a lot. They were getting a lot of tosses that were bouncing to the outside. That is somewhat uncharacteristic for them."

Part of the problem is the retirements of veterans Mark Schlereth and Tony Jones have left the line young. Linemen also knew that league representatives were watching to see if they would do any controversial chop or cut blocks that have drawn fines on two Broncos during the past two games.

None of that affected Davis, though. He was just running. It felt good.

"Our plays are designed to go in or go outside," Davis said. "I was tired actually. We did a lot of motioning where I had to run across the field. Still, it was great to get back in the old routine."

To spread defenses in short-yardage situations, Shanahan has emptied his backfield even though backs are on the field. He's put them out as receivers, but on a couple occasions, he had Davis run back to a spot 8 yards behind the center for a possible handoff.

Shanahan outthought himself on a third-and-goal from the Raiders 13 in the first quarter by ordering a pitch play after Davis just got back from the empty set. A fumble cost 7 yards and forced the Broncos to kick a field goal.

"We're going to get better at making things happen," Davis said. "It just didn't happen tonight."

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.