HOUSTON — The Broncos have won six straight and are alone in first place in the AFC West after a walk-off, 18-15 win against the Texans.
Denver’s come back from trailing in the fourth quarter four of the past five weeks. Improbably, Denver is now 4-0 when it trails entering the fourth quarter and 3-2 when leading. Quarterback Bo Nix has at least something to do with that.
The Broncos have already had four games decided on a last-second field goal attempt, and their defense has held four of nine opponents without a touchdown this year.
After yet another wild finish, here are 7 thoughts on the game and on the team’s status heading into a short week and a Thursday night home game vs. the Raiders.
1. The Broncos played their worst special teams game of the year and have problems that go beyond just one player or scheme. A major turnaround is needed.
Denver head coach Sean Payton deferred any first-blush analysis of two critical special teams errors for the Broncos on Sunday.
He’s not going to like what he sees on either.
He will wonder how it’s possible that when he laid out the keys to victory for his team early in the week, he specifically mentioned Houston defensive lineman Denico Autry’s “rare” ability to block kicks. Later in the week, he told reporters that field goal protection had been a major point of emphasis.
And yet the first time Wil Lutz lined up for a 51-yard field goal in the first quarter, Autry stormed virtually untouched between Payton’s starting right guard Quinn Meinerz and right tackle Mike McGlinchey and penetrated so far into the backfield he looked like he’d been invited.
Payton will wonder, too, what practice squad receiver Michael Bandy was doing when he went to a knee as a fieldable punt bounced in front of him, hit his facemask and bounded into the waiting arms of Houston cornerback Jaylin Smith.
It took a sack from Malcolm Roach and Dondrea Tillman to keep the cost of that mistake to three points in the final 39 seconds of the first half.
Denver is fortunate that the sequence didn’t result in not only a touchdown but also a more serious injury to All-Pro defensive tackle Zach Allen.
The $102 million man took a wicked shot to the ribs from running back Woody Marks — it turned out he mostly just had the wind knocked out of him — on the ensuing set of plays when the Broncos defense should never have been on the field.
Perhaps all the more aggravating on the Bandy muff: Denver trusts the veteran receiver — staple of the club’s practice squad the past three seasons — but his services were only required in this game because of a communication failure that led to a fourth-quarter concussion for All-Pro return man Marvin Mims Jr. last week when the Broncos were beating Dallas by 20.
Not only that, but Payton was perfectly comfortable providing at least one piece of information about his special teams units after Sunday’s win: Those communication problems persisted in Texas.
“My concern was just the late subs; it was a little bit sloppy in the kicking game,” Payon said. “We’ll get that cleaned up or we’ll find somebody else that can do it.”
Payton, a source indicated after the game, was talking about personnel rather than special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, despite the fact that he phrased it as “someone” rather than multiple someones.
Still, it was just Friday that Payton defended his long-time New Orleans lieutenant when the Mims fiasco once again came up.
“No, we’re good. We’re good,” Payton said then. “Darren’s been outstanding. Next question. Next good question.”
Sunday was anything but outstanding across Rizzi’s return and coverage units.
In addition to the blocked field goal and muffed punt, the Broncos committed two penalties for 25 total yards in punt coverage — a JL Skinner hold and a Mitch Fraboni personal foul for a late hit out of bounds.
They also gave up a 45-yard punt return to rookie Jaylin Noel.
“The thing that was troubling me a little bit was we went into it wanting to play as much of the game on their side of the field and I felt, in the kicking game, we didn’t do enough to leverage the field position battle,” Payton said. “Defensively, fortunately, we held up. If you really paid attention to the game, I felt like our drives were starting to the far right or left and their drives were starting more towards midfield, and, fortunately, our defense took care of that.”
The Broncos, of course, have still found a way to win six straight games and are tied for the best record in the AFC at 7-2.
But they’re going to have a tough time winning bigger games later in the season — like, say, against Kansas City in mid-November at Empower Field — if they continue on this path of special teams being an anchor rather than a buoy.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of problems the Broncos have had this year:
Week 1: A 71-yard kick return to set up a late-half field goal for Tennessee.
Week 2: The “leverage” penalty. Not much more needs to be said there, though the fact that the players didn’t communicate well on alignment and assignment feels more on-brand with each passing week.
Week 3: A 33-yard punt return for Chargers return man Derius Davis.
Week 6: A 72-yard punt return for Kene Nwangwu in London and a minus-19 differential on starting field position following kickoffs against 2024 Broncos special teams assistant Chris Banjo.
Week 8: The late-game Mims concussion after a communication failure.
Only the leverage penalty directly impacted a Broncos loss, but Payton likes to tell his team all the time that they’ll be playing in bigger games in the future.
Any of those errors or any from the litany of issues Sunday in Houston can be the difference between winning a division or traveling for the first round of the playoffs. They can be the difference between advancing in January or going home. Reaching goals or falling short.
When Payton says they’ll get the problems fixed or find people who can, well, the clock’s ticking. J.T. Gray, whom Rizzi called the best cover man he’s coached in 30 years, was active for the first time Sunday and left the game with a hamstring injury.
There’s not a long line of players Denver can turn to on its roster. Every player active for the game besides No. 2 Jarrett Stidham saw time Sunday in Houston. Some young players who’d been healthy scratches earlier in the year, like OLB Que Robinson, were up for this game. So, unless the Broncos have been playing guys in the wrong spots, there’s not a clear path to a turnaround outside of playing much cleaner and much more effectively.
Nobody’s coming to the rescue for Rizzi’s groups. It’s on him and his players to engineer a major turnaround and do so quickly. The units taken as a whole have dropped off considerably from where coordinator Ben Kotwica had them last year, and Payton fired him after the season — and let Banjo leave for the New York Jets, where he’s got a bad team playing well in the kicking game.
If Denver can’t get it going soon, Payton’s going to be faced with the prospect of at least considering going beyond personnel changes to examining the staff.
2. The Broncos have a 1-2 punch at running back that can power a run — as long as Payton doesn’t stray too far from them.
Quarterback Bo Nix opened his afternoon with a wide incompletion to receiver Courtland Sutton.
After that, he handed the ball to J.K. Dobbins three straight times for 24 yards.
Pretty good recipe, right?
Well, Dobbins had just one carry the rest of the first half and had six carries for 22 yards when the Broncos found themselves trailing 15-7 after three quarters.
That’s three carries for minus-2 yards over a span of seven-plus possessions.
At halftime, Nix had 17 drop-backs, and Denver had run the ball six times total.
“I don’t even remember the numbers,” Payton said of Denver’s first-half splits.
Dobbins didn’t finish with his most prolific game, but he did end up with 15 carries for 61 yards. Rookie RJ Harvey added five catches for 51, including a 27-yard wheel route touchdown.
Ultimately, the pair accounted for 115 offensive yards.
“That 1-2 combination is nice to have as a coach,” Payton said.
This is Payton’s wheelhouse. Throughout his tenure in New Orleans, he had running backs who could impact the game in multiple ways.
As he prepared for the Texans’ vaunted defense this week, he thought back to Denver’s 2023 loss here and how powerless quarterback Russell Wilson and running backs Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin were to make Houston’s quarters-based defense sweat.
“We used to gut these defenses,” he remembered thinking Sunday. “But you’ve got to have the right people.”
Consider how many times over the past two-plus seasons Payton must have had similar thoughts in one fashion or another.
Now he’s got a duo in the backfield that can be the metronome for this offense. In fact, it’s a pretty easy argument that they must be.
Denver’s got depth at receiver, but still not the kind of talent that gives opposing coordinators long nights and indigestion while preparing.
Dobbins was third in the NFL in rushing yards entering play and is now on pace for 1,312 yards this season. That would represent the eighth-best single-season mark in franchise history and double as the most by a Broncos back since Clinton Portis’ 1,591-yard 2003 campaign.
Harvey, meanwhile, has four touchdowns in his past 14 touches, and he’s done it in a variety of ways and from a variety of alignments. He’s scored on wheel routes and last week off a wheel route-wrinkle set up weeks before. Once he starts to master the choice route in the middle of the field, he’s got a chance to be a real difference-maker.
And give Payton credit for this: Even when Denver gets away from the running game early, one of the major differences this season compared to previous is his ability and willingness to get back to it later in games, regardless of score. That paid off in a major way Week 5 at Philadelphia, and it helped Denver again Sunday, though in more modest numbers.
The Broncos have put away leads by running the ball, but they’ve also got back into games with a hearty dose of the ground game, too.
That’s a good place to be and to build from at the season’s unofficial midpoint. But it’s also a reminder not to stray too far from the budding dynamic backfield duo in the first place.
3. As the Broncos get inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw fully up to speed, the passing game will be more complex to settle into than the run game. But Greenlaw is showing signs of being a difference-maker in both departments.
The Broncos started to take the reins off inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw in his second game of the season.
Greenlaw played just 21 snaps in Week 7 against the New York Giants, then had to sit out last week due to a one-game suspension.
He played throughout Denver’s win against Houston and made a series of impact plays along the way.
In fact, on the Broncos’ first goal-line stand from the 1-yard line, Greenlaw was credited with a partial tackle on all three snaps.
What will take a little more time is fitting Greenlaw into the passing game, though that appeared to be better this week than it was against the Giants, too.
Against New York, Denver’s communication between the inside linebackers and safeties was notably more demonstrative when Greenlaw was on the field.
The Giants averaged 11.5 yards per pass attempt with Greenlaw on the field compared to 7.1 when he wasn’t. That’s not all on him, of course. It just helps illustrate how critical communication is in general.
“Obviously, you’ve got to be physically capable, but especially when you’re a match team like we are in coverage, communicating and passing things off is very important,” fellow inside linebacker Justin Strnad said.
Greenlaw’s work in run support, though, has been impressive.
The Giants ran 10 times for 16 yards when Greenlaw was on the field.
He had eight tackles against the Texans — a sack of C.J. Stroud and seven stops against running plays.
Greenlaw said during the week that he thinks the challenge of getting into the flow of communicating on the field has been smooth.
“It’s not much. I’ve been in training camp, OTAs, the whole 9 yards,” he said. “I’ve heard every practice, every team meeting, every meeting I’m in. It’s pretty simple.”
Another potential helper against Houston: The Broncos played less man and match coverage with Pat Surtain II out with a pectoral injury.
Regardless, coaches and teammates say he’s been a quick study.
“Mentally, he’s been awesome,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said during the practice week. “He’s been locked in, he’s been studying. Even when he wasn’t practicing, he’s taking the walkthrough reps. He’s taken every walkthrough rep. So mentally, he’s fine. Physically, obviously, he needs more reps to kind of get his football air. He was a little tired (his first game back).
“It’s good having him back. Having your best players back is always a good thing. He’s back on his schedule to kind of just keep moving forward and playing good football and keep practicing and keep going as a player.
“To have a chance to play back-to-back weeks is going to be key for Dre.”
Given how Sunday went, any time Greenlaw’s on the field going forward should mean good things for Denver’s defense.
4. Alex Palczewski gutted it out Sunday and had a quiet day — a perfectly fine outcome for a sick offensive lineman
The Broncos’ left guard put forth a performance Sunday that wasn’t for the faint of heart.
‘Palcho’ was added to Denver’s injury list Saturday with an illness and at that point was listed as questionable.
He came out for warmups Sunday morning after most of the other offensive linemen and clearly did not feel well.
The third-year man out of Illinois, who has solidified the Broncos’ situation at left guard the past two weeks, found an open part of the field out around midfield and warmed up with nobody else around him.
At one point, he got a drink from a water bottle that a trainer gave him. When he handed it back, vice president of player health and performance Beau Lowery came over and grabbed the water bottle Palczewski used. A trainer took it over to the sideline, put tape on it and presumably labeled it as Palcho’s. From then through the rest of his warmup, he only used that water bottle.
Then the game started, and you wouldn’t have known the Illinois native was sick.
He played every snap and was once again a solid member of the Broncos’ front line.
Palczewski has made a remarkably smooth transition from playing mostly tackle and exclusively on the right side to being a starting interior player on the left.
He joked last week that the last time he played on the left side of an offensive line was during “the Obama administration,” meaning either his senior year of high school or his freshman year of college.
He got out of the locker room quickly Sunday after the win here, but the bet here is he’d be happy to go another couple of presidents before trying to play feeling the way he did for this one.
5. Dave Logan called his 600th game as a broadcaster on Sunday, complete with balloons and a big dose of appreciation for an incredible career — well, careers — in the game.
The long-time voice of the Broncos had a defensive struggle and yet another dramatic win for his 600th career game in the radio booth.
Dave Logan, who is, of course, also a former NFL player and the head coach at powerhouse Cherry Creek High School, called his 600th game as either the play-by-play man or color commentator Sunday in Houston.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize it was 600 until my producer Alan Jackson brought it up,” Logan told The Denver Post outside his booth three hours before kickoff Sunday morning.
“… I’ve just been blessed to have this job for a long time — regular season and postseason only. They don’t count player stats for the preseason, so we’re not counting those games for the announcers.”
Logan does a pregame segment with Sean Payton after practices on Friday. This week, Payton finished up his news conference with reporters and then pit-stopped on his way to speak with Logan to grab a football commemorating Logan’s 600th game.
The veteran head coach, who has manned an NFL sideline for 302 regular and postseason games as a head coach, had a joke ready, too.
“It completely surprised me,” Logan said. “He walked out and he goes, ‘600 (freaking) games? That doesn’t count the games you’ve played in?’”
Indeed, it does not.
Logan recently surpassed 350 wins as a high school coach, too, and is past 400 coached overall. That means he’s been on the sideline or in the booth for more than 1,000 football games in his career.
Then there are the 121 career games played (119 regular season), 263 catches, 4,250 yards and 24 receiving touchdowns over nine NFL seasons, the first eight with Cleveland and the final with Denver.
Perhaps even more impressive, the Broncos broadcaster has never missed a game in the booth or on the sideline despite coaching Friday nights and then calling games on Sundays — or Saturdays, Mondays or Thursdays.
“You don’t realize the power of the microphone,” Logan said. “When you’re calling a game, it’s almost like you’re calling a game sitting at home. …
“You sit in that booth, and it can get pretty cozy. You don’t think about who’s listening to the broadcast. But the longer you do it, there are reminders. Whether you’re in line at a coffee shop or at the gas station or whatever. The Broncos are such a powerful force in the Rocky Mountain region. People will remember a certain game or a certain call, or they’ll just want to talk football.
“There are still some of a certain vintage that will remember that I played, but there are certainly more that just know me as the voice of the Broncos.”
The wins are stacking up fast, too, between Cherry Creek and the Broncos. Two per week for the past several weeks. A remarkable career that just keeps on rockin’ and rollin’.
6a. Both games against New York teams earlier this season felt like trap games for the Broncos. The actual trap game is Thursday night.
Denver is riding high on a six-game winning streak. They opened as 10-point favorites at home Thursday night against Las Vegas.
After that, the Broncos will have 10 days to prepare for what, either way, will be a massive home game Nov. 16 against Kansas City.
Still, Zach Allen said he doesn’t think complacency is much of a risk for this group.
“There’s so much that we can be better on, even today just thinking back on it right now,” Allen told The Post. “It’s a good group because we’re not complacent with it. You’d think that after some of these wins you’d see a lull, but we’re good.”
Sean Payton said Monday will be “all about recovery.”
If the Broncos hold any practice that isn’t technically a walkthrough, it’ll be Tuesday. That’s how Payton has structured the week leading into a Thursday night game previously.
“We’ve learned a little bit more over the years,” Payton said. “In Dallas, you play everything Thanksgiving Thursday, and our first year there with (head coach Bill Parcells), we were meeting. We went home (the Sunday before) and met Sunday night, whatever we did, it wasn’t right.
“I think we’ve learned a little bit more about the time from this game and how we have to get these guys mentally and physically recovered from it. And then, fortunately, we’re playing at home (Thursday).”
Denver only plays twice between flying home from Houston and traveling to Washington for a game Nov. 30.
If they play their cards right, that can be an advantage even though they’re on a big winning streak at the moment.
“We’ve had good-looking games. We’ve had bad-looking games,” Bo Nix said. “I’ve obviously not been on many teams, but this is a good win streak, and we’ve won in many different forms and fashions, so I do think the expectations are different. I think we understand what it feels like to have confidence.
“… It’s hard to win on the road in this league. It’s hard to do it continuously; we’re just finding ways to do it. We found another way today.”
Any team can come out and play poorly any week — the Broncos have done that this year and mostly found ways to win anyway. If they come out humming Thursday night and hammer the Raiders, it’ll be as sure a sign as any that the group has forged a mentally tough attitude.
6b. With Indianapolis’ loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday, Denver is now tied for the best record in the AFC. The Colts would still hold the tiebreaker because of their head-to-head win in Week 2, but it’s a pretty remarkable run for Denver after falling to 1-2 on back-to-back walk-off road losses.
6c. The AFC West standings through nine weeks:
Denver: 7-2
L.A. Chargers: 6-3
Kansas City: 5-4
Las Vegas: 2-6
7a. The Broncos got dominated Sunday in terms of time of possession. Houston had the ball for more than 21 minutes in the first half and 34:36 overall.
Over Denver’s opening 11 possessions, the team had exactly one that lasted longer than 2 minutes, 57 seconds. That was an eight-play, 61-yard touchdown drive spanning the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth.
Bo Nix and company saw their opening drive end in a missed field goal, then punted seven times and turned the ball over on eight of their next 10 possessions.
The difference, of course: They also found the end zone twice while the Texans settled for field goals throughout regulation.
Against Houston’s dynamic defense, though, the Broncos failed to get a first down on six possessions and picked up just one on two more.
7b. The Broncos defense put together one of its most impressive performances of the season given the circumstances. They were continually put in adverse situations and yet didn’t give up a touchdown in the game.
They were particularly dominant in the red zone and on third down.
The Texans went 0-of-3 in the red zone and 3-of-17 on third down.
After C.J. Stroud led Houston to a pair of third-down conversions to start the game, the Texans went just 1-of-15.
Continuing the trend: The Broncos stopped the Texans on their final nine third downs.
With Stroud knocked out of the game in the first half with a concussion, Davis Mills and Houston’s offense went 0-of-4 on third down in the fourth quarter, including an incompletion with 1:02 left that set up Denver’s final possession of the game and eventually Wil Lutz’s game-winning field goal.
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