Nik Bonitto is quick to say he used to be quite a hooper in his younger days.
“I was a menace in basketball,” he said Sunday evening. “I was picking up full-court, guarding everybody.”
The third-year Broncos outside linebacker at this point doesn’t need to do much talking about his game on the football field.
His play alone makes it obvious: Bonitto’s not just a menace. He’s blossoming into a bona fide star week by week.
He turned in perhaps the biggest play of his career to date early in the fourth quarter Sunday against Indianapolis when he snatched a lazy lateral pass right at midfield, raced 50 yards to pay dirt and sent the 76,496 at Empower Field into a frenzy.
The touchdown put the Broncos up nine in an eventual 31-13 win over the Colts.
It capped a lightning-quick sequence in which Denver turned a potential letdown of cataclysmic proportions into yet another rollicking victory.
It helped deliver the Broncos to a 9-5 mark and to the doorstep of ending the second-longest postseason drought in the league.
Denver can clinch a playoff spot with one more win over the final three weeks. The first chance arrives Thursday night at the Los Angeles Chargers (8-6), whom the Broncos jumped Sunday with their win and L.A.’s blowout loss to Tampa Bay.
“It’s been tough here for a while, so the fact that we’re getting this thing turned around, I’m sure it’s really great for the fans,” outside linebacker Jonathon Coooper said. “… We’re just going to keep going.”
The credit for this surprising season is wide-ranging, but the Broncos defense has been one of the league’s best from the start.
The credit for that unit’s success is similarly broad, but few have had more of an impact than Bonitto, who has logged 11.5 sacks in Denver’s past 12 games and scored touchdowns in each of the past two.
On his latest, he saw a screen out to rookie receiver Adonai Mitchell and felt something amiss.
“It was kind of a slow-developing play so I knew something was kind of weird,” Bonitto said. “The receiver usually doesn’t go catch screens like that. Once I saw (Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson) kind of, like, drifting in the back a little bit, I was like ‘I’m just going to try to go break on it.’
“I ended up getting it.”
He certainly did, and it caused Broncos players across the post-game locker room to stump for defensive player of the year recognition.
“Nik’s insane,” safety Brandon Jones said simply.
Added Jonathon Cooper, “Man, I love playing with this dude. Ever since he came in, I love playing with this guy. His football instincts are off the charts, he’s a phenomenal football player. He’s got my vote for DPOY for sure and he’s only going to get better.”
Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers joined the chorus, too.
“You show me a better resume. I ain’t found one yet,” he said.
The Broncos haven’t found a challenge too tall to conquer in a while, either. Since losing a heartbreaker on a blocked field goal at Kansas City in Week 10, they’ve reeled off four straight wins.
For a while Sunday, though, that felt far from a certainty.
Through the first half and early third quarter, the Broncos did everything they talked all week about not doing. They allowed the Colts to run the ball. They turned the ball over — Sunday marked the first three-interception game of rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s career — and never got their own rushing attack into gear. They gave up a 36-yard punt return.
Everything the Broncos tried to do looked labored and mistake-filled.
“At halftime, I said to them that every key indicator and key to victory we outlined at the start of the week, we were doing the opposite relative to what we thought would be important,” head coach Sean Payton said.
They should have faced their most acute adversity since starting the season 0-2 in the third quarter when Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor broke loose on a 41-yard touchdown. The Colts would have led 20-7 and been in full control except Taylor dropped the ball in celebration before he crossed the goal line.
Fumble, touchback, Broncos ball.
“I was happy he bailed us out with that one,” Bonitto said.
“It’s a different ball-game (if he scores), man,” said safety P.J. Locke, who forced a fumble in the fourth quarter. “Everybody’s calling plays different at this point. They’re running the ball and controlling the game. … (Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) has to get a little more aggressive. It’s a lot.”
It took longer still for Denver to take advantage, but eventually the complimentary football flowed.
A three-and-out led to a 61-yard Marvin Mims Jr. punt return to set the Broncos up in the red zone. Nix, who ultimately threw three touchdowns and three interceptions on the night, found a wide open Nate Adkins for Denver’s first lead at 17-14 with 13:58 to go.
Then Bonitto and the defense slammed the door shut.
The Colts went scoreless on nine second-half possessions that ended in three fumbles, a Pat Surtain II interception, two turnovers on downs and three punts.
“Great teams take the ball away,” Franklin-Myers said. “If you look at the top teams in the league, eight of the top 10 teams have won the turnover battle throughout the year. Turnover battle is the ultimate deciding factor.
“More times than not, if you win the turnover battle you win the game.”
Payton, ever an offensive coach, said he’d have preferred to go plus-2 by a 2-0 count rater than 5-3, but even that showed the strides this group has made.
They’re marching right through eight years of sordid history, knocking down barriers week by week.
And as they do, they’re not getting satisfied. They’re getting greedy.
“It’s going to be dope,” Bonitto said of pushing for a playoff spot. “I’m trying to make my first one and a lot of guys are. We’ve got to win this next one, for sure. It’s going to be a big one.”
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