The Denver Broncos enjoyed their win on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are now focused on preparing for this week’s game against the New York Jets. Part of Denver’s success on Sunday and even in the preseason came in two-minute situations.
Denver Broncos thriving in two-minute situations
Broncos head coach Sean Payton has focused on teaching the little details of the game from a time and field position standpoint dating back to OTAs. Each practice had an end-of-game or end-of-half two-minute drill that highlighted the defense needing to get a stop or the offense needing to come away with points and a score.
Denver executed its plan perfectly right before halftime in Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After choosing to receive the opening kickoff, the Broncos offense and Bo Nix marched downfield and scored on their opening drive, something that hasn’t happened in quite some time.
Javonte Williams had fumbled the ball on one of Denver’s late second-quarter possessions, and the Buccaneers took advantage of it, moving downfield and scoring a touchdown with 1:54 left. Nix worked with the 1:54 and moved Denver downfield after connecting with Lil’Jordan Humphrey twice, Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims, and Adam Trautman moving them into field goal range for Wil Lutz. Lutz booted it in to give Denver a 20-7 halftime lead, which halted Tampa Bay’s momentum with them receiving the ball in the second half.
Payton met with local media on Monday morning and touched on the team’s ability to punch back in situations like that.
“I think a couple of things,” Payton said. “It was one of those things watching, it was when Tampa maybe got a little bit of momentum—what I was pleased with was we were able to kind of punch back. It happened like twice in the game. We had the fumble and then [they] had the touchdown, but then we were able to punch back. I think that’s important relative to the momentum that maybe we didn’t do as well in Seattle.”
Their response after the Buccaneers’ score was impressive because negative momentum plays have imploded Denver’s rhythm in a handful of other games. Denver’s offensive line gave Nix time, and he capitalized.
