OFFENSE — B(ewildered)
Did Bo Nix play well? He threw a 93-yard touchdown and kept throwing punches.
Did the rookie quarterback play poorly? He threw a pair of interceptions, several times turned down completions to try to hit home runs and in general did not always look like the calm, methodical operator the Broncos have relied on for the past several weeks. But hey, Denver had a pair of 100-yard receivers, got a nice performance from Jaleel McLaughlin and overall posted 400 yards of offense and 27 offensive points. That’ll play almost every week. This week it just came wrapped in a circus of a game.
DEFENSE — D(umbfounded)
Did the Broncos defense play poorly? Absolutely they did. They gave up 522 yards, let Jerry Jeudy extract a pound of flesh and let Jameis Winston author an all-time Jameis Winston game.
Did the Broncos defense play good? Well, they returned two interceptions for touchdowns and sealed the game with a third pick of Winston in the closing moments.
Apprised of the yardage total in the locker room, Broncos defensive lineman Zach Allen had a one-word, four-letter response. But this unit has at times carried Denver through the first 13 weeks and made three of the biggest plays of the game even on the night it got shredded.
SPECIAL TEAMS — C(onsiderably more normal)
Riley Dixon mis-hit one punt but netted 49.6 yards on five attempts, blasted a long of 61 yards — Tremon Smith had terrific coverage on that one — and twice pinned Cleveland inside the 10-yard line.
Wil Lutz continued his steady play and made both of his field goal attempts and all five extra points. All in all, the special teams in this game proved quite normal compared to the rest.
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COACHING — A For Effort
If Ja’Quan McMillian doesn’t pick Winston and run it back for a touchdown, the entire bye week might have been spent talking about Sean Payton’s decision to kick a field goal to take a 34-32 lead with 2:54 remaining on fourth-and-inches. On the one hand, taking the lead at that stage of the game is almost a must. Simultaneously, it did not at all feel like a game where a two-point lead mattered for much more than a moment.
Instead, the overarching conclusion from a coaching perspective is this: Sean Payton has built a team that believes it can win any game, regardless of how it unfolds. That’s something that hasn’t been the case around here and it’s the reason the Broncos are poised to end an eight-year postseason drought.
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