The Denver Broncos improved to 7-2 after beating the Houston Texans 18-15 on Sunday, improving their conference record to 4-2 against AFC opponents.
After finding themselves in a 15-7 hole going into the fourth quarter, the cardiac ‘Cos came up big again. Led by the defense, the Broncos shut down the Texans’ offense, led by Davis Mills, who had to fill in for CJ Stroud, who left the game with a concussion in the first quarter.
Denver’s offense took on the NFL’s best scoring defense and overall defense, and they struggled consistently throughout the afternoon. Bo Nix, in particular, had one of his roughest outings, but did come up big late, orchestrating his seventh-career game-winning drive.
Nix was 18-of-37 for 173 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception on the afternoon, but struggled to stay in rhythm on a drive-to-drive basis, and the lack of sticking with the run game by Sean Payton was a factor in some of those inconsistencies.
While it wasn’t pretty for Nix, he delivered a beautiful 3rd and 11 strike to Pat Bryant in the fourth quarter and rattled off a 25-yard run and a nine-yard run to set up the Broncos’ game-winning field goal from Wil Lutz. To do that against the best defense in the NFL and find a way to win is how this game is played.
It isn’t always going to be pretty, but wins matter. The hope is that Nix and the offense can find a way to be more consistent.
Broncos defense holds up big without Patrick Surtain II
No Pat Surtain for Denver, No CJ Stroud for Houston. No problem for the Broncos defense, who stifled the Texans offense, holding them to 268 net yards on the afternoon, and holding them to 3-of-17 on third down, keeping them as the league’s best third down defense.
Early on in the first half, the Broncos’ defense, led by Dre Greenlaw, came up big in two consecutive series goal-line stands. The Texans’ offense found themselves on the one and two-yard lines several times, but Denver’s defense kept them out of the end zone, maintaining their stance as the league’s best red zone defense.
Kris Abrams-Draine and Jahdae Barron both saw snaps outside at corner in place of Surtain’s absence.
Denver’s defense sacked Mills four times, extending their league lead to 40 sacks on the season in nine games.
Game balls:
Offense: RJ Harvey, J.K. Dobbins, Pat Bryant, Bo Nix
Defense: The entire defense
Special Teams: Jeremy Crawshaw
Special teams issues are concerning
Ben Kotwica had the Broncos special teams unit playing as one of the league’s best all throughout last season, despite a couple of hiccups. Darren Rizzi’s unit in nine games has had more hiccups and mishaps than last year’s group combined, and it nearly cost the Broncos an important road game on Sunday.
The Texans finished the game with 15 points, with nine of them coming because of special teams mishaps and big plays. On top of that, the Broncos had one of their field goal attempts blocked by Denico Autry.
Michael Bandy, who filled in for Marvin Mims, who was out today, muffed a punt near the end of the first half that led to points, plus penalties on Denver’s special teams unit stood out.
Sean Payton had an interesting comment in his post-game press conference about the poor performance in the kicking game.
“We’ll get that cleaned up,” Payton said. “Or we’ll find somebody that will.”
At some point, these issues could end up sinking the Broncos either late this season or in the playoffs.
The only bright spot for Denver’s special teams unit was punter Jeremy Crawshaw, who was on the field eight times on Sunday, booming them for an average of 53.5 yards, including a 76-yarder.