DENVER – Riley Moss was in a corner of the festive Denver Broncos locker room, bragging on fellow cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian after the big showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs, when he struck a chord that explains much about the formula that keeps winning.
The Broncos – winners of eight in a row – are not winning just football games.
They are winning mind games, too.
McMillian, the nickel back, got a game ball from Broncos coach Sean Payton after the 22-19 victory against Kansas City, and there was absolutely no doubt that he earned it. He came hot on blitzes to notch two of the three sacks on Patrick Mahomes. And he snagged the game’s only interception, too. Never mind that McMillian was beaten for Mahomes’ longest completion – a 61-yard hookup with Tyquan Thornton – that set up a tying touchdown in the third quarter.
Let Moss explain.
“The kid’s an absolute stud,” Moss said of McMillian, a fourth-year pro who entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent. “So, he gave up that one. Unfazed, right? That’s how you became a good DB. You forget about the negative and you continue to ball. We’ve seen this. He’s like this.”
With the game tied, McMillian made the big play on what turned out to be Kansas City’s final offensive play, leaping to corral Mahomes for an 11-yard sack on a third-and-10 with just under four minutes to play. The Broncos took possession after the ensuing punt and marched 58 yards for Wil Lutz’s game-winning, 35-yard field goal as time expired.
As he pondered the turn of events, McMillian acknowledged being on the wrong end of the big completion. “That’s one of those plays I want back,” he said.
“But I guess I made up for it at the end.”
How did he process it in the heat of battle? “Short-term memory.”
In words, chalk up another one for the mental edge.
It wasn’t too long ago that the Broncos (9-2) lost the type of close games that they won in reigniting the rivalry with the Chiefs. Last season, when the Broncos earned a wild-card berth and were bounced in the first round of the playoffs, they were 1-6 in one-score games. This season, they are 7-2 in such contests, with seven consecutive one-score wins since dropping back-to-back games in September on walk-off field goals as time expired.
Someone asked Bo Nix – the embattled, clutch quarterback – to explain the difference. This, too, points to all sorts of mind over matter.
“I think it’s honestly, a non-physical factor,” Nix said. “I think it’s a belief or mentality, or a grit, a toughness, something that you just build as a team. We just kind of have this belief, ‘Get us to the end of the game, we’re going to find a way.’ ”
Well, it has worked again. The Broncos, in Year 3 since Payton took over, keep demonstrating that they have learned how to win. Even for a team that committed 10 penalties – including two long pass interference flags on Moss that counted for 87 yards – they are repping their coach by playing smart when it matters most. To pull it out on Sunday, this included converting on a third-and-15 just before the two-minute warning. Nix found Courtland Sutton for 20 yards.
Sutton is Denver’s most established and dangerous receiver, which is why the Chiefs consistently blanketed him with double coverage. That allowed opportunities for Troy Franklin (4 catches, 84 yards) and Pat Bryant (5 catches, 82 yards) yet also constituted another type of mental battle.
“I just try to stay locked in the whole game,” said Sutton, who caught four passes for 49 yards. “Third down, you never know where the ball is going to go. But you know we’ve got to convert. That’s the mentality.”
Five plays later, Nix planned to look for Sutton again. But the coverage dictated otherwise. Nix instead fired a laser to Franklin for a 32-yard gain that set up Lutz’s fifth field goal of the game.
Said Franklin, who played with Nix at Oregon, “I think Bo trusted me to get open and make a play.”
Trust is undoubtedly essential to the Broncos’ formula about now. While the defense ranks atop the NFL in several categories – including sacks, third down percentage and red zone rate – the Nix-led offense has sputtered in significant stretches.
It happened again on Sunday. Both of the Broncos’ first two possessions advanced to Kansas City’s 5-yard line yet they settled for Lutz field goals. Those are the type of wasted opportunities that can doom chances of winning. For as much as Denver has rallied to pull out the close ones, it’s also a habit that carries a warning signal.
In any event, the formula has worked to the point that Denver is building a commanding lead in the AFC West.
Bo knows.
“It starts with having a defense,” he said. “You know they’re going to stop ’em. At some critical moment, they’re going to stop ’em, we’re going to have opportunities as an offense. There’s going to be a moment when you’re going to have the football in your hand and you’ll have a chance to go on a drive to get points or win the game.”
It happened again, just the way they drew it up. Or something like that.
Never mind if you believe in them or not.
“Our point is being made,” outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper said. “It’s hard for people not to get the point. Shoot, we’re 9-2. It’s tough to win in this league.”
Yet the Broncos surely have discovered some essentials to make that happen.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell