Broncos head coach Sean Payton might have said it best: “This is a fine line between a groove and a rut.”

For all of Payton’s coach speak – the “relative tos”, the “no, no, nos”, and the “Hey looks” –that one, short-n-sweet, sum-it-all up answer said more to explain the Broncos than anything he’s said this season.

Damn straight, coach.

Following a huge, season-changing win against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, in a hostile environment on a short week, the Broncos showed the world that they’re closer to 5-0 than 0-5 (just in case you’d considered either, extreme).

Down 10-3 at halftime, then 17-3 less than two minutes into the third quarter, it looked exactly the opposite. It looked like Payton’s high-hope, highly-hyped Broncos were a fraud. Like their win against the Bengals on Monday Night Football was a scheduling gift. Like their buzzer beating defeats to the Cots and Chargers were reflective of what bad teams tend to do. Like they were more akin to the Titans, who they barely beat, than the Eagles, who had beaten everyone.

A few hours later, following a textbook fourth quarter courtesy of the Vance Joseph’s defense, a clicking Bo Nix and J.K. Dobbins (who was simply given the ball more in the second half) and a Los Angeles Chargers loss, the Broncos share the same record that tops the AFC West. Had Denver lost, the sky in Denver might have fallen.

Is Nix the gosh darn bum that tossed zero touchdowns and completed less than half of his passes, “good” for just 79 passing yards in the first half? Or is he the hero that nearly burned a hole between the 1 and the 4 on Courtland Sutton’s jersey on the game’s most crucial play – a 3rd-and-15 bullet that moved the chains and kept the go ahead drive alive with 8:17 left in the fourth quarter.

Nix finished the game with an impressive 244 passing yards via 24 completions on 39 attempts. More impressively, the second-year quarterback was 9-of-10 in the fourth quarter.

Evan Engram went from a (less than) zero, barely seeing the field and having one catch for negative three yards. In the end, he scored the game’s biggest touchdown. Payton said he was “pissed” at Engram who was apparently “pissed” at Payton. The Joker was a joke but ultimately laughed last.

Is J.K. Dobbins better in the second half? Or on this fine Sunday in Philly, did Sean Payton finally commit to sticking with the run? Dobbins carried the ball seven times for 28 yards. When it was all said and done, he rushed 20 times for 79 total yards. His yards per carry average in the first half was .077 yards better than the second.

Payton tried (sort of) to explain: “Man, we talked about the game we had to play coming in here and we’re not doing it.’ So, I think we had some– look, we knew it wasn’t going to be six, seven yards a carry. It’s a good run defense, but we’ve got to keep hitting that bag.”

Fans at home might have been playing “slap the bag.” But, to his credit, Payton kept “hitting the bag.” And it worked.

A play here and a penalty there, and the Broncos could easily be 5-0.

Instead, they’re 3-2.

Payton has coached 19 seasons in the NFL and his teams have never had a losing season after starting at least 2-2, which is exactly how the Broncos kicked things off this season. Oddly, the coach who just passed up Bill Parcels in total wins has been in the aforementioned rut for plenty of Septembers. Luckily, he’s gotten out of it, nearly without fail, in October. In September, he’s 31-30 as an NFL head coach. After yesterday’s win, he’s 51-17 in October. Fine line? Go figure.

The line is fine, but for now, the Broncos look like they’re back on track.

After their best quarter of the season, the Broncos are in a groove and out of the rut.