The Broncos are who you thought they were — whether you believe in them or not

LANDOVER, Md. — The Broncos couldn’t shake free of their pesky pursuers until the final moments Sunday night — this time, stretched nearly to midnight, but not quite.

Thus, with the clock remaining in the 11s, they once again escaped, this time by the narrowest of margins, free to continue their merry foxtrot though a Cinderella campaign that sees them looking down at every team not named the New England Patriots.

In other words, in this 27-26 win over the Washington Commanders, they stuck to the script that has defined most of their efforts against the league’s underclass so far this season.

With the exception of the Week 4 throttling of the Cincinnati Bengals — when the defense effectively shattered the notion of Jake Browning as a potentially viable quarterback at a level beyond the UFL — the Broncos have mastered the art of doing jusssssst enough during their nine-game winning streak.

It matters not whether the opposition is one of the teams in last year’s Super Bowl, a side with the NFL’s top-ranked defense or the league’s last winless team.

Their win at Philadelphia, the NFC East leaders, went down to the last play. So did this game at Washington, only kept out of last place by the grace of the New York Giants, a team the Broncos trailed 26-7 before awakening for 26 points in a furious final six minutes unlike any ever seen in club annals.

The Broncos played to the level of their foe — again.

The details of the script changed, but the general plot outline remained the same, which ensured that everyone who doubted the validity of their status as contenders last week remains a skeptic today.

Get ready for more power rankings placing the Broncos in company with wild-card-caliber peers.

They don’t care, especially after taking their win tally into double digits for a second-consecutive season.

 

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AS EVER, THE BRONCOS HAVE PLENTY TO WORK ON

After beating foes such as the New York Jets, Houston Texans and Las Vegas Raiders, it was the Broncos offense left muttering words like “unsustainable” to describe the nature of their maddeningly inconsistent outcomes, in which they could put together a quarter or so of proficient performance before finding themselves mired in a peat bog of three-and-outs.

Sunday night, the lamentations belonged to a defense that had just enough to save the day when Nik Bonitto rushed free and blew up Washington’s two-point conversion try. Denver’s sack leader executed a play call that defensive coordinator Vance Joseph changed during a timeout a moment earlier, ensuring that the Broncos could escape despite a Washington touchdown march resuscitated by Talanoa Hufanga’s defensive-pass-interference penalty to wipe out a fourth-down stop.

Between those two plays, Riley Moss found himself on the business end of a 38-yard Deebo Samuel reception on third-and-14. That was still fresh in the third-year cornerback’s mind moments after the celebratory smoke had cleared from the locker room after the win.

“That’s what makes a great team, is — even though you got the win, can you point your finger at yourself and say, ‘Hey, listen, like, you gotta be able to get this done and make this play?’ And I take accountability, full accountability for that,” Moss said

“That late throw to Deebo, the entire game locking him up, and then that one slips, and we can’t have that. You gotta finish it out. That’s gotta be the main thing is — be able to make that play late in the game. And it’s nice to get the win, obviously it feels good, but also, there’s some stuff we gotta clean up.”

Perhaps that’s why Pat Surtain II acknowledged more “relief” than excitement over the win — at least immediately after the triumph. The latter emotion would come later, he figured. But it may well fade once the Broncos have their Monday debriefing, because some aspects of the film review won’t be kind.

Washington’s 47.1-percent success rate on third downs was the worst permitted by the Broncos since the Week 3 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers. The Commanders’ 26 first downs were the most allowed at Denver’s expense since Week 2, as was their 143 yards on the ground.

The Commanders also outscored the Broncos 6-0 in the fourth quarter; no team had outpaced the Broncos in the final 15 minutes of regulation since the Chargers in Week 3. The NFL’s best fourth-quarter team looked nothing like it Sunday, although in overtime, the offense recaptured its end-game excellence.

And with that, the Broncos had their ninth-consecutive win — and seventh-straight one-score win, all of which have come by four or fewer points.

They matched a league record for wins in a season by four or fewer points — and did it with six games left in the season. After going 2-8 in one-score games from the start of the 2024 season through the end of September, they’re 7-0 since then.

No team currently in AFC postseason position has a worse strength-of-victory figure than the Broncos; it’ll take another hit if they win at Las Vegas next week. And if a victory looks like the one on Thursday Night Football on Nov. 6, you know exactly what the skeptics will say.

But the Broncos keep earning the right to solve their problems while putting Ws up at a pace not seen in these parts in 10 years. And there has to be something to the notion of knowing how to win, a skill no Broncos team since the salad days of Gary Kubiak has possessed — until now.

You might think they’re “frauds,” but how many frauds in the NFL are ever eight games above .500 not even 12 games into a season?

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