I know we just did this with the Chicago Bears, but I always have the Bears on fraud watch because they’re the Bears. The Denver Broncos, to my casual AFC eye, seem pretty good. Their defense seems to be for real, and while I don’t really care for Bo Nix as a quarterback, I’ve always felt like he is at least careful with the ball, and he has Courtland Sutton to rely on in desperate situations. The Broncos being legitimately good seems perfectly reasonable, especially since one of my few actual memories of the season is Denver losing to Indy on a leverage penalty that allowed Indy kicker Spencer Shrader a second shot at a missed game-winning field goal.
But a quick check under the hood has turned me around on this, at least a bit. First, let’s go over the wins.
- Tennessee (Terrible), 20-12. The Titans are one of the worst teams in football. Big whoop.
- Bengals (Terrible), 28-3. Cinci started Jake Browning in this game. He went 14/25 for 125 yards.
- Eagles, 21-17. A complete rock fight that the Broncos were losing 17-3 entering the fourth quarter, and that featured a combined 21 penalties for a combined 176 yards from official Adrian Hill and his crew.
- New York Jets (Terrible), 13-11. The Jets actually went up in this game 11-10 due to a holding call in the end zone against Denver, resulting in a safety. The Broncos managed a late field goal, but the Jets managed to drive all the way to the Denver 44 and probably needed five yards or so for a game-winning field goal attempt of their own. Instead, Justin Fields took a giant sack. Some things never change.
- New York Giants, 33-32. The height of the Skattebo/Dart combo as Jaxson Dart torched the Denver defense for 283 yards and three touchdowns. The Giants led by two points with 37 seconds left, but Nix hit big plays to Marvin Mims and Courtland Sutton, and Will Lutz walked it off with a short field goal.
- Dallas Cowboys, 44-24. OK, this isn’t a bad win, but it’s not exactly impressive to light up the Cowboys’ defense.
- Houston, 18-15. Two of the best defenses in football played a terrible game. Will Lutz once again walked it off after a 25-yard scramble from Bo Nix in the final seconds.
- Las Vegas Raiders (Terrible), 10-7. Another horrific game where Denver had a 10-7 lead with seven minutes remaining when Nix was picked by Kyu Blu Kelly. The Raiders moved down to the Denver 30 where Daniel Carlson missed a game-tying 48-yard field goal.
- Chiefs, 22-19. Will Lutz kicked five field goals in this game, including a 54-yarder to tie things up with 4 minutes left, and yes, another walk-off from 35 as time expired.
- Commanders (Terrible), 27-26 in overtime. The Commanders trailed by three with three minutes left, but Marcus Mariota led a 17-play drive to the Denver 14, resulting...
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