Instant analysis after the Broncos’ 41-32 victory over the Browns:
1. Come back soon, Riley Moss: Seriously, man. Like, as soon as possible. Nobody ever said the Browns didn’t have viable weapons. Or that they didn’t have a lot of them. But to see a Broncos secondary get gashed this much by Jameis Winston and Jerry Jeudy? Yikes. Here’s how loopy it got for Denver without Moss, its CB2, and without safety Brandon Jones during the second half: With 2:54 to go in a two-point game, Jeudy, the former Broncos first-round draft pick, had already put up not just a career high in receiving yards for a game but also set the Broncos record for most receiving yards by an opposing player (219). And No. 3 loved every minute of it, too, having said last week that he wanted to “whip” the Broncos’ backsides upon his first game back in Denver after being traded to the Browns last offseason. With Moss out with a knee injury, he was targeted by Winston early and often. With 2:03 left in the first quarter, Moss’s understudy, Levi Wallace, lost track of the Browns’ Elijah Moore up the left boundary, which turned into a 44-yard gain that gave the visitors a first-and-goal at the Denver 8. Cleveland scored on the very next play, the portent of a wild night to come.
2. Boomer Sooner night: As scary as Monday evening got, at times, imagine how much more frightening this one might’ve been for the Broncos without their Boomer Sooner duo of former Oklahoma stars Nik Bonitto and Marvin Mims Jr. Actually, through three quarters, Bonitto and Mims had accounted for almost half as many yards in receiving and returns — Bonitto ran a pick-6 back for 71 in the second quarter, while Mims caught a 93-yard laser for a score, for 164 total — as Denver had total yards of offense (340). Bonitto, who later recorded a sack, is now the sixth player in NFL history to rack up at least 10 sacks in the same season in which they also had a pick-6 of 70 yards or more.
3. Uniform blues: Unlike the ’77 throwbacks (and we’ll add to any petition to make that the primary home uniform again, just let us know where to sign), social media’s reaction to the Broncos’ white helmets topping an all-“Midnight Navy” ensemble was extremely polarized Monday night. A lot of love-it or hate-it and … not much middle ground. From the second deck at Empower, it looked a lot like Auburn against Syracuse in the Mile High Bowl presented by Denver Mattress Factory, and with all the orange in the stands, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a ‘Cuse home game.
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4. Love for Hunter: Heisman Trophy ballots went out Monday, and Broncos stars Pat Surtain II and Courtland Sutton made no secret where their allegiances lie. Both were seen before the game wearing sweatshirts (Sutton) and T-shirts (PS2) campaigning for CU two-way threat Travis Hunter to win the 2024 Heisman — replete with Hunter’s signature and his #HE12MAN hashtag. It was pretty nice advertising for the Heisman front-runner in front of the first Monday Night Football game in Denver with an actual crowd at Empower Field since Oct. 1, 2018. Hunter is the odds-on favorite to become just the second Buffs player to ever win the Heisman, joining the late Rashaan Salaam (1994).
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