“Block by Bolles, touchdown Denver!” Even as I typed those words, the goosebumps filled my arms and neck. Kevin Harlan was on the call when the New York Giants visited the Denver Broncos. The weekend began in the Pittsburgh International Airport, as my wife and I decided to return to Colorado, where we honeymooned a few months earlier, for a Broncos game.
“I’m going to pick a game that I know we’ll win.” That was my argument for picking the Giants game on October 19th. Funnily enough, it lined right up with my wife’s birthday weekend. A perfect trip, so surely the Denver Broncos wouldn’t lose, right?
Well, the first 45 minutes of the game went about as poorly as you could imagine, and to top it all off, the Broncos were honoring the late, great Demaryius Thomas and the Super Bowl 50 team that day. The festivities began in the morning, and the nerves kicked in the second we arrived at the stadium.
I can’t say I’m a normal sports fan; the Denver Broncos have become part of me, so much so that other people think of my favorite team when they think about me. It’d come as no surprise that I and about 65,000 other fans were irritated, angry and disappointed at what the Broncos were doing on that Sunday afternoon. There is just no way, no legitimate way, this team is losing to the New York Giants, right? Right???
When Mile High started to believe again
That harsh statement was increasingly becoming a reality. But then, something special happened. The most storybook of storybook fourth quarters happened. At the time, the atmosphere was truly indescribable. The agony of defeat quickly did a 180 and turned into the hope of victory.
A garbage-time touchdown got it started. Great, pad the stats, I guess. A Justin Strnad interception on third down gave the Broncos good field position. There’s another touchdown. Well, I guess we’ll at least make it closer than expected. A crowd beginning to make more noise got into it more and more. Fourth down, the Broncos are getting the ball back. The unflappable, oftentimes unconscious, and clutch Bo Chapman Nix took the snap on a designed QB run, ran to his left, got a block from Garett Bolles, and scored. The Denver Broncos had the lead.
In typical Broncos’ fashion, though, the defense gave up a late touchdown, lost the lead, and all but ended things. But here comes Bo Nix, once again. It took two deep completions (one to Marvin Mims Jr, and one to Courtland Sutton) to set up what ended up being a Wil Lutz game-winning field goal.
Finding a way became the identity
Somehow, someway, the Broncos found a way to win, and that ended up being the storyline of the entire regular season. Denver went on to win 11 games in a row and 14 overall, earning the first seed in the AFC for the first time since 2015.
“This means somethin’ to me!” was uttered, no, yelled in my living room time and time again as the Broncos stacked wins, and I’m just one of perhaps millions of Broncos fans enjoying, no enduring, this rollercoaster ride. It’s hard to describe what the feeling is like, but cautious optimism might be an appropriate label. The slow starts seem to come weekly, and Broncos Country has joked that this team should just pretend the game begins in the fourth quarter.
Sure, the Broncos might lose to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday, but what if they don’t? What if this team, once again, finds a way? They've beaten some very good teams this year, and you’d be a fool to think some of the players and coaches haven’t been hearing what some of the national media have said about them:
The Denver Broncos are a juggernaut. The head coach, roster and quarterback are all great. Sure, Sean Payton might come off as unlikeable, but his players think the opposite. Sure, Bo Nix hasn’t lit up the stat sheet this year, but he’s best in the high-stakes situations.
The Denver Broncos were basement-dwellers for nearly a decade. The fans suffered through tons of inept quarterbacks, coaches and teams. We had to watch our team get blown out on Christmas, for goodness sake.
What if this magic is real?
Just about every NFL team gets out of the mess at some point, and the Broncos have done that, and it’s turned into the team’s first home playoff game since 2015. It’s felt like Mile High Magic all year, and I can’t say that our heart rates haven’t been through the roof at times.
The nervousness for this weekend is real, but there’s more of an unknown than ever before. This is the first time many of these players have sniffed the playoffs, and the first time each one has experienced a home playoff game with the Broncos.
What if Josh Allen takes the game over? What if Bo Nix can’t rise to the moment? What if the Broncos blow it? The number of questions we fans are asking ourselves is too deep and too many to count at this point, but one thing that we do know for a fact is that the Denver Broncos can find a way. They have found a way all year, and if that Week 7 game is any indication, the Broncos, once again, have a dramatic finish ready to roll.