The Denver Broncos are 7-2, and the strangest part of their season is how familiar the script has become: the other team has to be nearly flawless, because Denver keeps finding a way out of the mess.
That was the theme on a recent Victory Monday as Zach Bye and Phillip Lindsay tried to make sense of a team that has now won an NFL-record 16 straight one-score games. Their conclusion landed in the same place from different angles. The Broncos survive games that ought to bury them.
Lindsay put it plainly.
“The single biggest takeaway is the Denver Broncos cannot be killed,” he said.
His point was that opponents can stack up three strong quarters and still come up short once the game reaches the fourth. He pointed to the Chiefs, Rams, Bills and Bears as examples of teams that would need to meet that standard.
“If you don’t play perfect football against the Denver Broncos, you’re not beating them,” Lindsay said.
He said he can’t fully explain why Denver keeps finishing stronger than everybody else. The best he could offer was that the right players are making the right plays at the right time.
Bye leaned into the same idea with a horror-movie comparison. He said he once put the Broncos logo on Michael Myers, a way of saying this team keeps coming back. He backed that up with a stat that says plenty about Denver’s late-game edge: Bo Nix’s winning percentage when trailing by one to eight points in the fourth quarter is 92 percent over two years, compared with 29 percent for the rest of the league.
Still, Bye was quick to point out the Broncos don’t always pass the eye test.
“Sometimes the Denver Broncos just also don’t make sense,” Bye said.
Lindsay made a similar argument by looking at the schedule. He said nobody he knew had Denver sitting at 7-2, especially with every opponent in the first six games having a real shot at the playoffs. He called the opener a disaster, then noted the Broncos regrouped and kept stacking tight wins against tougher competition.
The offense, though, remains a work in progress. Bye said Denver put up more than 300 total yards and 27 first downs against the Carolina Panthers, calling it a third straight step in the right direction. Even so, he made clear the unit still hasn’t arrived.
Lindsay agreed, and he liked what he saw in the details. He pointed to the early field position and the scoring drive after a Carolina three-and-out, and he believed a more creative run game could have turned that first drive into a touchdown instead of settling for points. He also said Nix looked more comfortable, with his feet set and his confidence growing.
“Is he a perfect player? Heck no,” Lindsay said.
For now, the Broncos get to enjoy the bye week with a record that keeps them near the top of the AFC conversation. Bye said a Buffalo loss in Minnesota would have put Denver back at No. 1 in the conference, but that didn’t happen. Lindsay still sees a team heading into the break with the feel of a Super Bowl contender.
The lingering question is whether an offense that keeps improving can catch up to a team that already knows how to win when the game is on the line.
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This year, the secondary is where the attention could land. Cornerbacks Ja'Quan McMillian and Riley Moss, along with safety Brandon Jones, all fit the profile of players whose performance and contract status could make them logical extension candidates, giving Denver a chance to lock in part of its defensive core before the stretch run begins. [Read more 🡒]