The Denver Broncos are on a five-game win streak and head into the bye with a 7-2 record and temporarily atop the AFC West. The Kansas City Chiefs could retake it through tiebreaker with a win next week.
After the game, head coach Sean Payton was asked about the offensive turnaround over the last three games and he was cautiously optimistic. He said the offense is improving and that matches what we’ve seen on the field.
“Hopefully, we’re improving,” Payton said after the game. “We talked a little bit going into this game, remember at the start of the week with a new defensive coordinator. I would say the difference clearly was a lot more Buffalo nickel, not Okie. If you said what was the change? Prior, we had a good portion of the plan devoted to the out front, and I think you almost had to have gotten in your really heavy groups to get it, so a lot of Buffalo nickel and a lot of nickel. That was what was maybe a little bit different, and we felt that early on.”
I would say the turnaround began in the first half of the Thursday Night Football game against the Seattle Seahawks. That defense is elite and there was a moment when we saw the full version of the offense come alive in the second quarter with 16 play, 74 yard and 9 play, 79 yard touchdown drives. Of course, they looked pretty awful the rest of the game, but we caught a glimpse of what their offensive identity could be.
From there, the inconsistency reared up at times but less often as the team racked up 30, 28, and 26 points in those last three games. Two of those required comeback wins again and that is something many say is unsustainable, but there is also a mantra to the comeback mentality that this team thrives under.
“There’s always a look in the huddle that, like, hey guys, we don’t have a choice right here,” Bo Nix said of the comeback mentality. “We got to go make something out of it. Today, those second-half touchdowns were really, really important.”
The streak will end as all streaks do, but the end of the streak doesn’t necessarily mean a violent return to the mean for this team. They have battled-tested experience in close games and that should give them confidence in any situation and against any opponent to go out there and make the plays needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
I love how they do it. How they continue to do it. No one can explain how Denver is 7-2 and no one outside of Denver thinks they are good. However, they own the best record in the NFL since the start of the 2025 season. At some point, you just have to accept that this team is as good as their record.
