ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Peyton Manning scripts everything he can. And it rubs off on his teammates — right down to their celebration of his 509th touchdown pass.

When he joined his receiving targets in jubilation after setting the league record with 3:09 left in the second quarter of the Broncos’ 42-17 win over San Francisco on Sunday, they proceeded to play keep-away with the football. Demaryius Thomas, who caught the milestone pass, lobbed it around with Emmanuel Sanders, Wes Welker and, finally, Julius Thomas.

“Yeah, we were definitely rehearsing it, but I didn’t think that we were going to do it,” Sanders said. “I ended up running up to Demaryius — who had caught the touchdown, of course — and I was like, ‘Let’s do it, I don’t care. Let’s just do it.'”

“I can’t believe they actually did it,” Manning said. “We sort of joked about it during the week.

“I’m a little bit hurt by the fact that they could do that — that they’re kind of picking on me,” he joked. “I’ve lost my vertical leap; it’s not there anymore. My side-to-side agility is not quite as quick so it hurt me, and of course, I probably deserved it based on the non-graceful play in that I tripped and fell on the play before, so it’s probably fitting. But that was pretty funny.”

A play earlier, Manning stumbled as he dropped back. One snap before, a potential touchdown pass to Julius Thomas skipped off the tight end’s hands, a play for which Manning blamed himself.

But those moments served only to delay a moment that has seemed inevitable since Manning began racking up three- and four-touchdown days last year en route to a league-record 55 touchdown passes. This year, he’s on pace for 51; and, if he throws at least 49, he will be responsible for three of the NFL’s top four seasons in touchdown passes.

The moment Sunday punctuated the Broncos’ most convincing performance of the season — their best all-around game since a 34-17 dismantling of the Ravens in Baltimore on Dec. 16, 2012.

Sunday’s game was momentarily stopped while congratulatory messages ran on the video boards above the stadium. One was from Brett Favre, whose record of 508 touchdown passes had stood for five years.

Manning fired his 510th touchdown pass the next quarter, hitting Thomas for a 40-yard strike to put the Broncos in front 28-10. Manning has 111 touchdown passes since joining the Broncos, which places him second in team annals behind John Elway. And every touchdown pass he throws from this point forward is a league record.

“Maybe I can get the new record,” tight end Jacob Tamme cracked.

With no apparent signs of slowing down and with good health, Manning could last another two years and play out his five-year contract. And if he continues to throw three touchdown passes a game — as he has since he joined the Broncos — he could take this record to a mark that endures for decades.

“The way that he’s playing, I think he can just go out and average three or four touchdowns a game,” Thomas said, “and I hope a couple of those come my way.”

NOTES: RB Kapri Bibbs was signed to the active roster as the team waived LB Shaquil Barrett on Monday. Bibbs, a rookie out of Colorado State, spent the first seven weeks of the season on the practice squad. Barrett, also a rookie out of Colorado State, was promoted from the practice squad last week. … CB Omar Bolden will go through the NFL’s post-concussion protocol after being injured on a collision with Bruce Ellington at the end of the game. … DE DeMarcus Ware led the Broncos with three sacks and has seven this season, one more than he logged last year with Dallas when he was limited to 13 games because of quadriceps and elbow issues. … LB Von Miller had two sacks and has eight through six games.

REPORT CARD VS. 49ERS

–PASSING OFFENSE: A — Peyton Manning narrowly missed perfection, finishing with a quarterback rating 1.1 points below the 158.3 standard. He was efficient, averaging 12.2 yards per attempt, and misfired on just four of 26 passes. Manning took advantage of the 49ers’ coverages; he threw under zones and exploited a man-to-man duel between Demaryius Thomas and Perrish Cox for a 40-yard touchdown that launched the Broncos to a 21-point third quarter.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: B-plus– Easily the Broncos’ most efficient ground game of the season, the trio of Ronnie Hillman, Juwan Thompson and C.J. Anderson combined for 113 yards on 22 carries, and Hillman’s 37-yard touchdown run was the Broncos’ longest gain on the ground this season. Hillman appears to be comfortable as the No. 1 running back in Montee Ball’s absence, and he might have earned the job outright.

–PASS DEFENSE: B-plus — A garbage-time touchdown pass conceded to backup Blaine Gabbert did not dull the Broncos’ overall performance, which saw them post their best sack total (six) since Week 16 of the 2012 season. When the Broncos did not sack Colin Kaepernick, they usually confined him, forcing him to throw from the pocket more often than he wanted. The 49ers averaged 4.7 yards per pass play when Kaepernick was on the field — not even close to enough to sustain their offense.

–RUSH DEFENSE: A-minus — After allowing 105.3 rushing yards per game in Weeks 1-3, the Broncos have shut down the last three foes, allowing an average of 43.3 yards per game. Denver held the 49ers to 62 yards on 18 carries and did not allow Kaepernick to do any damage on scrambles outside the pocket. They limited him to 18 yards on three carries, none of which covered more than seven yards.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C-plus — Britton Colquitt dropped two of his four punts inside the 20-yard line and posted a 41.8-yard net average, and Brandon McManus was perfect on his kicks. But breakaway returns continue to be elusive for punt returner Isaiah Burse, who averaged 7.3 yards on three returns and bobbled the football twice on the five opportunities he had to field Andy Lee’s punts.

–COACHING: A-minus — Despite the chatter about Manning’s impending record, John Fox and his staff never allowed the Broncos to lose focus on the game. After conceding a touchdown just before halftime to narrow the lead to 21-10, Fox and coordinators Jack Del Rio and Adam Gase cranked up the aggression in the third quarter, and the Broncos outscored San Francisco 21-0 and outgained them 210 yards to 17.