The Denver Broncos are fresh off an improbable comeback win over the New York Giants on Sunday. The comeback might go down as the greatest regular season fourth quarter in Broncos’ franchise history.
Statistically, it is likely already exactly that. They had just a .02% chance of winning the game at one point late in the fourth quarter and did it anyway. Teams are an astounding 2-3,677 when down by 18+ with less than six minutes left in the game. The only other to do it? Peyton freaking Manning, of course.
Here is where the Broncos rank heading into Week 8:
I am always a little flummoxed when dealing with teams that do something similar to what Denver did on Sunday: sleepwalk for three quarters, dominate the final 15 minutes and still almost come up short. But the Broncos didn’t, rattling off 33 fourth-quarter points and stunning the Giants. Bo Nix threw for 174 of his 279 yards and ran for two scores in the fourth alone. So I can’t help but tip my hat at the team’s astounding grit. That said, seeing the defense follow up one of the most dominant performances of the 2025 NFL season in London with a mostly poor showing against the Giants in Denver was utterly shocking. Justin Strnad’s INT saved the Broncos, but much of the afternoon was a massive struggle.
If the Broncos could bottle up their fourth quarter offense, which led to wins over the Eagles and Giants, they’d have something. Both of their losses came with no time on the clock at the Colts and Chargers. They’re close to getting on a roll, but the offense has to find consistency.
Rallying to beat the Giants is a good thing, but they have issues. Why do they start so slowly on offense?
Strnad has started only the past two seasons when somebody else was injured. In 2024, he moved into the lineup after Alex Singleton’s season-ending ACL injury in Week 3. This year, Strnad has started in place of Dre Greenlaw, who played Sunday for the first time all season after dealing with thigh injuries. Strnad was someone who didn’t take a defensive snap for two seasons (2022 and 2023), then became one of the team’s best special teams players and an effective rusher (3.5 sacks). He’s now a reliable run defender after opponents used to single him out, and his interception Sunday powered the Broncos’ improbable 33-point fourth quarter.
Spotting the other team 19 through three quarters isn’t the typical winning formula.
Sunday’s historic comeback was truly something to behold. Also, it truly shouldn’t be that hard for a team with this much talent to beat the Giants. Or the Jets.
Winning is what matters, but the Broncos had to escape against the Jets in London before rallying from 19-0 down with six minutes to go against the Giants to somehow win 33-32. The resiliency is good, but my goodness, those are two of the worst teams in the league that they barely beat.
While this stat is a little dubious considering the fact that Denver has been trailing more than it probably wants to have this season, Bo Nix’s numbers when behind this season are incredible. He’s completing more than 75% of his passes. He averages a 100-plus passer rating. Eleven touchdowns. No picks.
Denver is on a four-game winning streak and that is hard for prognosticators to ignore, but they remain a bit all over the map on just how good they think this Broncos team is. Frankly, that disagreement is more than warranted. For the past three games (all wins btw), the Broncos offense has disappeared for large chunks. Against the Philadelphia Eagles and Giants, it disappeared for all but the final quarter. Against the New York Jets, it disappeared after the first quarter.
Offensively, that must change if these Broncos are going to become serious contenders in the AFC. While I love seeing the Broncos flirt with the top five this week in many rankings, I actually feel like the 10th place range is more reasonable given how this team is performing over the full 60 minutes of football games. However, in the NFL all that matters is the wins and losses and right now the Broncos are stacking those all-important wins early. That bodes well for their playoff odds with each passing week.
Do you think the Broncos are being fairly ranked heading into Week 8?
First Appeared on
Source link
