ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos heard it all offseason: they'd better not find themselves in close games again this season because their 11-3 record in such contests last year is unsustainable.
The thinking went that there will be a regression toward the mean if not a downright flip-flop in the win-loss column.
What this notion doesn't factor in is that the Broncos (1-1) might just be building traits they can turn to in crunch time to pull
out wins like they did Sunday when they scored the final 17 points for a 20-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Having our fair share of close games last year, being able to dig them out at the end definitely helps,” tight end Evan Engram said Monday. “Overall, we're just a very resilient group. ... We don't blink. We play the next play, we continue to fight and things go our way when we do that.”
Coach Sean Payton said over the summer that the best way to avoid a reversal of fortunes is to avoid close games. But when they do have a one-score contest, there's been nobody better since 2025.
“I think in a fair response to that, I think there are two things," Payton said. "We know this, that if at the start of the season we’re not addressing maybe some of the things that kept games a year ago close, that, analytically speaking, it’s hard to say you’re going to repeat the same 11 wins that you had maybe a year ago.
“Now each game’s different, but I also think there’s a confidence level in a team that because they’ve won before, they’ve been behind before and then how do they respond? So I think on the positive side, it’s that confidence having been here before, and then from a coaching perspective, ‘Hey, how do we find a way to not be in as many one-score games or behind in one-score games going forward?’” Payton said.
After a quiet Denver debut, WR Jaylen Waddle was electric with eight catches for 138 yards.
The Broncos still need to tighten things up in the mental department after collecting 10 accepted penalties covering 53 yards.
CB Riley Moss, whose interception in the second half fueled Denver's comeback and atoned for an earlier flag that negated a Denver takeaway.
CB Riley Moss, whose illegal contact penalty once again highlighted the thrive-or-die nature of the position and negated a strip/sack and recovery on the game's opening drive that might have changed the tenor of the entire game.
PR Marvin Mims was inactive as was RB R.J Harvey (hamstring), and J.K. Dobbins (hamstring) was sidelined in the second half. Payton himself has been in some noticeable discomfort during games because of a bad back that flared up over the summer. He said he underwent an epidural injection in his lower back more than a decade ago and “it really can get aggravated when you're standing for three and a half hours. No, there's no surgery for the back.”
Plus 124: in an otherwise evenly matched game, the Broncos produced 392 total yards to Jacksonville's 268.
After settling a score with the Jaguars, who beat them by two touchdowns in Denver last December, the Broncos host the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night with Sean McVey's team coming off a short week after their Monday night matchup with the Giants.
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