Marion Barber, rest his soul, had to be smiling down on Denver yesterday.
The former Cowboys and Bears running back was once responsible for handing Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos one of the biggest gifts in holiday history – two of them, actually. At the time, which just so happened to be the height of Tebowmania, Barber’s blunders snatched “defeat from the jaws of victory,” handing Denver a highly improbable win, one that ultimately paved the way to the postseason.
Yesterday, 13 years and five days removed from that game, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor tried his best to one-up Barber.
Just to reset the scene: With the Bears leading 10-7 and only two minutes remaining in the game, the Broncos had no timeouts remaining. All Chicago had to do was run out the clock, but Barber, a seventh-year vet and former Pro-Bowler, inexplicably ran out of bounds, stopping the clock and giving Denver hope. As was often the case that season, hope was all Tebow and Co. needed, as Barber’s mistake allowed the Broncos to get the ball back and kick a game-tying field goal. In overtime, it was Barber bearing yet another gift, a fumble that ultimately resulted in a game-winning field goal.
Perhaps Taylor’s gaffe didn’t “directly” result in a Broncos win – it was as if Santa himself sent the Colts to Denver with a sleigh full of gifts – but it sure helped.
Just to reset the scene: With the Broncos trailing 13-7 and looking a lot like a Tebow-led offense, trudging along and not able to do much for the entire first half, rookie quarterback Bo Nix tossed his second interception of the game just three plays into the third quarter. On the ensuing possession, Taylor took a handoff on the Broncos 41 and scampered all the way into the endzone.
Only, he didn’t hold onto the ball all the way into the endzone. Instead, he cooly (or not so cooly, as it turns out) dropped the ball as he was crossing the goal line. After replay review, officials determined that Taylor let go too early, negating the score and giving the Broncos the ball instead.
And that, apparently, was all the Broncos needed.
Unlike Barber, who for all intents and purposes was one heck of a running back, Taylor – who is also one heck of a running back – made his mistake with a bigger lead and much more time on the clock. With a final score of 31-13, it would be unfair to say that Taylor’s fumble “cost” the Colts the game and likely a shot at the postseason. Still, the tides most certainly turned when the Colts “lost” what looked to be a 20-7 lead. In fact, Denver never looked back.
But it’s not as if Sean Payton’s squad went on to dominate, or even looked like the playoff team they are about to become. The Broncos still can’t run the ball; they only mustered 2.7 yards per attempt. And, for the first time in his professional career, Nix tossed three interceptions and only racked up 121 yards. If not for a few miracles, courtesy of the Denver D, the Broncos had no business winning on Sunday – a funny thing to say considering what looked like a blowout when all was said and done.
Sitting comfortably at 9-5 and in the driver’s seat toward the playoffs, it stands to reason that these Broncos are better than Tim Tebow’s bunch back in 2011. That team finished 8-8 and somehow managed to win the AFC West. Nix’s team won’t win the division, but if all goes as planned, should finish with at least 10 wins, the most since Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl champs of 2015.
Then again, are these Broncos any less miraculous than Timmy T himself?
Not if the current Bronco wearing No. 15 has anything to say about it. It’s taken back-to-back weeks of Nik Bonitto touchdowns (remember, Bonitto plays defense) and eight total turnovers in the past two games to somehow get wins 8 and 9. A 10-9 early-season, rain-soaked win over the Jets could be considered a gift, and so could a schedule that saw the entire NFC South; the Broncos ran roughshod over the Bucs, Saints, Panthers and Falcons. Every NFL team can only play the schedule they’re given, but take away a handful of bizarre victories and four wins against football’s worst division, and one might argue that the Broncos look more like the five-give-or-take-win team that Las Vegas predicted them to be.
Then again, who cares how we got here? Here we are, Broncos Country. This might be the most fun we’ve had since Tebowmania. Anything can happen and stranger things have.
The boring, realistic analysis is that the 2024 Broncos aren’t quite ready for the bigtime. Winning ugly – or, at least, miraculously – isn’t sustainable. So, the Super Bowl will likely have to wait.
But, there’s a silver lining to wins of any kind, especially in Denver. There’s no need to replace Nix; George Paton won’t be searching for the next Peyton Manning ala John Elway in offseason that followed Tebow’s miracle run. If you really want to extrapolate, the Broncos went to the Super Bowl two seasons after Tebow and won two years after that.
Can Denver do that?
If Marion Barber and Jonathan Taylor are any indication, then why not?