Good morning, Broncos Country!
Since the Broncos’ thrilling come-from-behind (way behind) win over the Rams Sunday night, all the Monday morning talk highlighted the “unsustainability” of winning like this.
But is it?
Down 16-0 at halftime to the Rams, the Broncos did what the Broncos do — came up with an unlikely win after some miracle plays. Like, two touchdowns, two two-point conversions, a Talanoa Hufanga pick-six, a couple fortunate penalty calls and finally Bo Nix leaping over the goal line with 47 seconds left for the win.
All of it in the second half and much of it in the fourth quarter.
“For us, once you’ve done it once, you feel like you can do it again,” Nix said. “It’s just kind of where we are.”
In fact, the Broncos’ 30-26 victory was the first time in franchise history that Denver rallied from double-digit deficits in the second half two weeks in a row. That 30-point rally at Mile High followed last week’s 14-point fourth-quarter pickup to beat the Jaguars after being down 13-3 early in the third quarter.
Courtland Sutton pointed out that this kind of pressure to win either “makes diamonds or busts a pipe.”
And anyone whose been a Broncos fan for more than a minute knows the Broncos’ M.O. is to constantly teeter on that balance.
Even the young guy, second-year receiver Pat Bryant, sees this as kind of “what they do.”
“I honestly feel like it’s just [that] we’ve been in these situations before. [We] came in at halftime. Nobody really flinched. You know what I’m saying?” he said after the gaem. “We know the mistakes we made. We know what we need to correct. We went out there and performed how we needed to perform.”
Interesting comparison
For fun I did some rough calculations of fourth-quarter comebacks since 1978, the year often delineated for a shift to higher octane offenses, which was highlighted by the early 80s with the entrance of such gun-slingers as Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and our favorite, John “The Duke” Elway.
Since that time, the Broncos are tied with the Dolphins for second-most come-from-behind wins as a team at 104. So if like me, you’ve thought of the Broncos as seemingly always fighting back at the end of the game, you’d be right. Those of us who grew up in the Elway era basically expected wins based on fourth-quarter rallies. Throw in a few games like The Drive and you just don’t even flinch at a comeback.
But personnel change and most teams don’t make it a habit to win in the last quarter.
Unless you’re the Denver Broncos. Both Elway and Peyton Manning are among the top quarterbacks for most game-winning drives.
Based on stats from Pro Football Reference for quarterbacks since 1978, Tom Brady leads for most regular season wins after trailing by one score in the fourth quarter at 46. Manning is second with 43 and Elway ninth at 31.
But those guys played a lot of games. For fun I looked at Elway’s come-from-behind victories in his first 37 games, the number of pro football contests Nix has played. And I bet you can guess who has more.
Nix has 10 and Elway had six – one as a rookie in 1983, two in 1984 and three in the first 11 games of his third season in 1985. Elway’s 10th comeback win was in his 43rd game, the 1986 opener against the Raiders.
Nix’s comeback wins derive from three his rookie season, five last year (including everyone’s favorite playoff win over the Bills) and then the two so far this season.
So, maybe it is sustainable?
Logic would say no. Basic odds would say unlikely. But the Broncos experience says, well, yeah maybe.
“I think it’s just us gaining our feet underneath us and realizing where we’re at,” Riley Moss said of the comeback win. “It’s ebbs and flows, right? You’ve got to be able to bounce back when things don’t go your way, and that’s what we did. Towards the end of the game, they drove down [the field] a little bit, but we were able to bend and not break and finish it off.”
A common theme from Nix and his teammates after the game was that “they’ve been there before.”
Once you stack comeback wins, the next one doesn’t seem impossible.
“In the huddle, I feel a lot of belief and know that we’ve been there before. We have what it takes to go down against a really good defense and score points,” Nix said, adding that he’ll probably never “play the perfect game,” so being resilient and just ready to make the next play better is all they can do.
And he pushed back on the idea that the Broncos need to be trailing to find another gear. Most games come down to the last possession anyway.
“The more important thing is we’re winning these games when it comes down to it and we’re not losing,” he added. “I think we’ve just been there and done that.”
And when the Broncos were down 16-0, Nix and his teammates just looked at it as being down a couple scores rather than focusing on how poorly they were playing in the first half.
“As a team, you put it all together. Then that’s just what we did,” Nix said. “We kept battling, and kept battling and did what it took to get the win.”
But that doesn’t mean the head coach and players don’t realize that there isn’t always time for a comeback, so starting faster is a major improvement goal.
“I’m comfortable with the grit of a team that can play well in the fourth quarter,” Payton said. “I’m uncomfortable with how we play at the start of games, if that’s a fair answer.”
Still, the team has belief, and that will win a lot of games because they maintain poise and focus.
“It’s pretty inspiring, the fight that we have and the willingness to go out there and compete. No matter how far we’re down, no matter what the game is looking like, we always find a way to come back and find a way to win,” said Pat Surtain II. That’s what’s important in this game: finding ways to win.”
Amen and hallelujah.
