Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos entered Sunday as heavy favorites at home, favored by more than a touchdown. Yet they found themselves in a 19-point hole heading into the fourth quarter against the young and exuberant New York Giants in Week 7.
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Thankfully for Broncos fans, Bo Nix was able to mount a historic comeback from down 19, scoring all 33 of Denver’s points in the final frame to edge out the Giants 33-32 on a last-second field goal by Will Lutz. Nix led four straight touchdown drives, the last two taking less than a minute off the clock, before driving down the field in the final 37 seconds to set up the 39-yarder that saved the day at Mile High.
It was the most fourth-quarter points ever scored by a team that had been shut out for the first 45 minutes of a game, and it was definitely something to celebrate. But as former four-time All-Pro WR Steve Smith Sr. said this week, that celebration might be “short-lived.”
Smith pointed out that Denver was severely outplayed for most of the game, and believes Payton is putting “too much” on the second-year QB’s plate.
“When you look at Denver, that’s remarkable. And it’s gonna be talked about for ages. However, it’s gonna be short-lived, because Denver is a team that’s doing a little bit too much in the pass game. Putting too much on their young quarterback,” Smith Sr. began (via Off The Edge).
“Sean Payton is really smart. He’s also stuck in his ways. And I personally, my humble opinion is they’re putting more on his plate, and it’s impacting the offense. They’re not running the football like they should,” he added.
Host Cam Jordan echoed the same sentiment, pointing out that massive, once-in-a-lifetime comebacks like that can make players “delusional” about being able to do that again whenever they go down big.
While a comeback that big is unlikely to happen again for Denver anytime soon, they’ve already pulled off a few slightly less dramatic ones this season. Most notably, they rallied from a 17-3 fourth-quarter deficit against the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, eventually winning that game 21-17.
Bo Nix is clearly a clutch player—he’s got three fourth-quarter comebacks in each of his first two NFL seasons—and if you look at the numbers, Payton has actually been pretty good at maintaining a balanced attack at Mile High. The Broncos are seventh in the league with 285 pass attempts, and they are also seventh in the league with 220 rushing attempts.
The 6-2 Broncos head to Houston to take on the Texans in Week 9 as they look to retain the one-game lead they currently have over the Chiefs and Chargers in the AFC West.
