The Broncos have been called many things since the last time Monday Night Football televised a game on the Front Range in front of a full house back in 2018.
They’ve been bad.
They’ve been boring.
They’ve been bad and boring.
If the nation didn’t know anything about Sean Payton’s team before tuning in to see rookie quarterback Bo Nix and Denver against Jameis Winston and Cleveland, perhaps it expected more of the same.
Instead, they and the capacity crowd at Empower Field were treated to a Loony Toons, fully out-of-pocket rager.
The bottom line is what matters: The Broncos polished off a 41-32 victory, moved to 8-5 and in the process solidified their position as real playoff contenders as they go into their Week 14 bye.
The back-and-forth haymakers and the Jerry Jeudy Revenge Game are what made it memorable.
Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto? He logged his first NFL touchdown on a 71-yard interception return for a touchdown shortly before halftime.
His college teammate, receiver Marvin Mims Jr., did him one better by catching a bolt of a 93-yard touchdown pass from Nix in the third quarter.
Each of those plays gave the Broncos a two-score lead. Neither lasted longer than a blink because of Winston and Jeudy, the latter back in Denver for the first time since being traded to Cleveland.
Then the biggest play of the night came from Ja’Quan McMillian.
With Winston on the march one more time and Cleveland amid an historic offensive night, the Broncos’ nickel picked him off and raced 46 yards for a put-away touchdown with 1 minute, 48 seconds remaining.
Two pick-sixes on the same night?
Four total touchdowns of 45 yards or longer?
Nine hundred fifty-two total offensive yards and the game is decided by a defensive play?
The only thing this game didn’t have was a 4×100-meter relay.
Winston wheeled and dealed, preached and pulverized the Denver defense to the tune of 497 yards passing and three touchdowns.
Much of it came from Jeudy, who told a Cleveland reporter he wanted to return to Denver and “whip their (butt)” and then put together a career night.
Jeudy hauled in nine catches for 235 yards, the most yardage ever surrendered by the Broncos to an opposing receiver. When he raced past Levi Wallace for a 70-yard third-quarter touchdown, he paused on the goal line, fell over backward into the end zone and then goaded the crowd as they booed him loudly.
Overall, the group missed cornerback Riley Moss — he did not play due to a knee injury sustained last week at Las Vegas — and safety Brandon Jones (lost mid-game to a groin injury) dearly. Winston and the Browns offense marched up and down the field from the start, racking up 298 yards in the first half alone and finishing with 552.
On such a wild night, somehow a conservative call nearly played a key role in the outcome.
The Broncos marched down and positioned themselves to take a late lead. When Mims was tripped up half a yard short of a first down, though, Payton first kept his offense on the field and then eventually opted to send Wil Lutz out for a short field goal and a 34-32 lead with 2:53 to go.
The Browns started down the field toward a potential game-winning attempt — even that would have been a carnival ride in and of itself, given Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins’ up-and-down season — but instead, McMillian made the play of the night and sent the Broncos into their bye week at 8-5 and most squarely in contention to break an eight-year postseason drought.
The Broncos at times felt like they were just about to lean on their run game — last year’s 29-12 victory here over the Browns could not have felt more different — but instead they just kept putting the ball in Nix’s hands and letting him air it out.
That came with a cost. Nix finished with his first multi-interception game since Week 2 against Pittsburgh after he got picked off on a tipped ball early in the game and on an ill-advised heave to Mims in the second half. But it also came with a thrill-a-minute tempo and a final line of 294 passing yards. The biggest chunk, of course, came to Mims on a third-and-11 strike from his own end zone.
He ended up seated on his backside in the middle of the ‘N’ in Broncos, watching Mims race off into the distance to a 93-yard score.
Most nights that would have served as the entire story.
On this wild and wacky Monday, though, it was just one chapter in the Broncos’ nuttiest win in years.
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