DENVER – Talk about a tale of two halves.
The Broncos were shut out in the first half. Matthew Stafford picked apart Denver’s defense in the first half. The fans at Empower Field booed their merry hearts out in the first half. And the Los Angeles Rams went into locker room with a 16-0 halftime lead.
Then came the second half.
Game on.
The Broncos rallied to tie the game in the third quarter. Then the Rams regained the momentum. Denver struck back with Talanoa Hufanga’s pick-six. Then Stafford struck back with a 48-yard TD strike.
You get the picture. What started as a blowout-in-the-making turned into a thriller that wasn’t over until it was over.
The Broncos prevailed, 30-26, and it wasn’t official until Hufanga intercepted Stafford’s throw from
the 19-yard line as time expired.
Yeah, just crazy.
A recap of winners and losers from Sunday Night Football:
Winners
Talanoa Hufanga
Just when the Broncos needed a big play, the veteran safety picked off a Matthew Stafford and raced 67 yards with the return for a touchdown that gave Denver its first lead of the game, 22-19, with just under five minutes on the clock. And guess who ended the game with an end zone pick as time expired? Hufanga. Earlier in the quarter, Hufanga also came off the edge to sack Stafford for a 10-yard loss on a third-down blitz that forced the Rams to settle for a field goal.
Davante Adams
With his all-pro receiver mate, Puka Nacua, sitting out again due to a groin injury, Adams came through with another monster performance as Stafford’s go-to target. He caught seven passes for 137 yards – six nights after stinging the Giants for 10 catches and 195 yards with two TDs in Week 2.
Sean Payton
The Broncos coach knew how to get aggressive as the game’s momentum changed early in the second half when he needed it to – he went for a pair of two-point conversions. And when the Broncos converted both times, the game was tied at 16-16. Payton also shrewdly opted to take a penalty and force the re-kick of a punt in the third quarter amid the big momentum shift, and the result was a 39-yard flip in field position that jump-started a game-tying touchdown drive.
Bo Nix (the good one in the second half)
Denver’s hot-and-cold QB sizzled in the third quarter, flinging two short TD passes and two 2-point conversions to help rally his team back into the game. It brought back memories of last season, when Nix rallied his team to so many come-from-behind victories during a run to the AFC title game. Then there was the fourth-quarter interception – killing the chance for a go-ahead drive – that reminded everyone of the Nix they saw in the first half. But when it mattered most in crunch time, Nix made the throws on a 10-play, 65-yard drive that he capped goal-line lunge.
Rams tight ends
A quick roll call: Tyler Higbee. Colby Parkinson. Terrance Ferguson. Davis Allen. Max Klare. That’s five tight ends who suited up for L.A. to accommodate Sean McVay’s increasing use of heavy packages. And one more than the four wide receivers active while missing Puka Nacua. Injuries to Parkinson and Ferguson forced some adjustments – but still left McVay three tight ends to work with. And it was Higbee who scored the game’s first touchdown.
Trent McDuffie
For all of the star power headlining the Rams defense – that would be the return of Aaron Donald and the acquisition of now-rehabbing defensive end Myles Garrett – the pickup of the All-Pro cornerback from the Chiefs has done wonders to help shore up the back end.
Jaylen Waddle
Denver’s big-play receiver didn’t exactly light up the Rams in the passing game (two catches, 9 yards), but he made two crucial plays in the third quarter that made a huge difference. Waddle caught the two-point conversion that cut the Rams 16-0 lead in half. On the next drive, he ran 14 yards on an end-around to provide the biggest play on a 52-yard game-tying TD drive.
Pat Bryant
The No. 4 receiver for the Broncos had some No. 1-like impact with a TD catch, 2-point conversion grab and a huge 39-yard catch-and-run on Denver’s game-winning drive.
Losers
Rams defense
After pitching a first-half shutout, the second-half meltdown goes into the books as a textbook example of how not to put a team away. Although a crunch time penalty on Quentin Lake gave the Broncos a fresh set of goal-line downs, the trouble started way before that. And a significant blow came early in the second half when cornerback Jaylen Watson suffered a shoulder injury and didn’t return.
Davis Webb (the first-half version)
Denver’s new offensive coordinator laid another egg in primetime as the Broncos were shut out in the first half for the first time since Week 7 of the 2022 season. Sure, credit and blame are shared commodities, but the game’s flow was established early with Denver’s three-and-outs. At halftime, the Broncos had run just 21 plays – compared to the 46 snaps for the Rams. That imbalance was reflected by the 2-to-1 time-of-possession edge that was reflected on the scoreboard and put way too much pressure on the defense.
Bo Nix (the bad one in the first half)
This is not last year for the third-year quarterback, who completed just half his passes in the first half with at least a couple of glaring misfires. While he didn’t throw a pick, he was lucky that one ill-advised pass in the first quarter – Nix rolled right and threw across his body deep left – was broken up by wide receiver Courtland Sutton to prevent an interception.
Will Lutz
When it rains, it pours. The usually reliable Broncos kicker missed a 43-yard field goal attempt late in the first quarter.
Jonathan Cooper
The absence of the Broncos edge rusher – on the commissioner’s exempt list while facing charges stemming from domestic incidents in the offseason – was glaring. Sure, the loss is similar to a team losing a star player due to a serious injury. But without him, it’s apparent the Broncos no longer have the explosive 1-2 bunch that Cooper formed with Nik Bonnito last year when the unit threatened to break the NFL’s single-season sack record.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rams crumble against relentless Broncos. Winners and losers from SNF
