As Sean Payton threw off his headset and showed unusual emotion over a win, CBS announcer and former QB Tony Romo said this game had been a litmus test for the Broncos, who were asking themselves, ‘Are we for real?’
Romo answered that.
“Denver is for real.”
Jim Nantz added, “Everyone is going to look at them differently after today.”
But head coach Sean Payton wasn’t nearly as doubtful as possibly much of Broncos Country.
Down 10-3 at halftime, Payton gave
a little pep talk.
“I said, ‘Man, we talked about the game we had to play coming in here and we’re not doing it,‘” Payton recalled, noting that they knew it wasn’t going to be easy to run the ball, but they had to keep doing it. “It’s a good run defense, but we’ve got to keep hitting that bag, and I thought we did. I thought we controlled most of the fourth quarter.”
Down 17-3 going into the fourth quarter, the Broncos’ offense went to work while the defense stayed the course.
Bo Nix, who was 24 of 39 for 116 yards the first three quarters, finished the game going 9 of 10 for 126 yards and three straight scoring drives in the fourth.
And the second TD drive included a two-point conversion to put the Broncos up 18-17 that proved a gutsy and pivotal choice by Payton.
But Payton saw it as the obvious choice, given the time on the clock and the goal — to win.
“We came here to win a game, and I had two or three calls that I loved,” Payton said, noting he got to a call that he had a ton of confidence in his offense executing. “It was perfect. …Let’s keep being aggressive.”
Denver’s defense forced the Eagles to punt, but its offense was only able to add three points to the board before giving Philly just over a minute to try and win the game.
Payton admitted he wished he had called a different third-down play but thankfully the defense was up to the task.
Despite a few big plays and an unfortunate DPI, the defense got the stop where it mattered most – batting down a Hail Mary in the end zone. The win is Denver’s first in Philadelphia since John Elway did it 39 years ago.
It was a statement win that stunned most of the NFL.
But Payton believed his team had the stones to win from the get-go and that Nix had to will to win it.
He was right on both counts.
“I think the locker room prior to today felt like this was going to be the result,” Payton said. “I mean, I’ve done this long enough, I’ve got pretty good instincts… At halftime I felt really good, despite the unsuccessful drives offensively. I loved where we were at.”
Especially with his competitive quarterback.
“He’s a competitor. There were a handful of plays in the first half that I know he’d want back,” Payton said, taking blame for a delay of game penalty on the offense. “But man, you can feel his leadership when it matters, and then you can feel the confidence with his teammates when it matters. So, he played exceptional in the second half.”
JK Dobbins noted that before Sunday’s game, other teams would have known the Broncos were physically tough.
But now they know the Broncos are mentally tough, too.
“We showed that we’re a dangerous team,” he added.
Payton said he asked the team after the game, “Who are you afraid of?” — presuming, of course, that they should be afraid of no one.
“You don’t get a chance to play these games that have a ton of upside too often,” Payton said of playing in a hostile environment against a really good team and making a statement win. “There’s a ton of upside relative to defining what you become. And this is one of them. I think they were confident coming in…and it was a good win.”
