Strike One: The oddsmakers didn’t believe a team on a 10-game winning streak – playing at home – was going to be good enough to beat the vaunted Green Bay Packers.
For one half and one minute, it looked as if they’d be right. The Denver Broncos – and their ballyhooed defense in particular – were getting pushed around. The league’s top pass rush was getting nowhere, and their highly touted secondary was getting torched by Packers QB Jordan Love. But something happened right after a horrid pass interference call against Riley Moss and a subsequent 40-yard TD jaunt by Josh Jacobs gave the visitors a 23-14 lead only a minute into the second half.
The underdogs got their dander up, rolled up their collective sleeves and went to work to prove something to themselves and the legion of naysayers who have been doubting them for weeks… all while the winning streak was continuing to grow.
The tide turned in Denver’s favor. Denver QB Bo Nix led an outstanding touchdown drive that culminated in his third scoring pass of the day. The defense collected their first turnover in… forever, a sensational diving interception by Patrick Surtain II, which was followed by another TD drive that put them ahead. After the road favorites kicked their third field goal of the game to pull within a point, Nix led another TD drive that ended with his fourth scoring pass to put the underdogs ahead to stay.
The 180 from the defense continued as Love threw another pick – it was Moss who gathered in a well-deserved INT – and the Broncos finally recorded three sacks in the second half (after none in the first.) They also stopped the favorites on downs twice in the final five minutes to clinch a playoff spot that most felt was going to be a down-to-the-wire kind of deal before the season began. At the time, the oddsmakers still believed the Kansas City Chiefs (who lost again, and won’t make the postseason) would win the AFC West again, and that Denver would be fighting for a wild-card spot down the stretch just like last year.
That’s not how things have worked out. Mile High expectations have been exceeded, to say the least.
But now comes the hard part: Not being the underdog anymore.
It’s easier to get motivated when “everyone’s against us” and “no one believes in us.” That’s not going to be the case anymore. With two more regular season home games, Denver will be favored against Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Chargers. They’ll also likely be favored on Christmas night in Kansas City when they take on the Patrick Mahomes-less Chiefs. And when the playoffs start, if they’re playing at home, they’ll likely be favored in those games, too. It might not be until they get to the Super Bowl that the Broncos aren’t the favorites anymore… and even that will depend on who they’re playing.
How far the Broncos advance in the upcoming playoffs is going to be largely dependent on how well they handle the role of the favorite. Being the hunted, not the hunter, will require a different mindset; one different from any time since Sean Payton has been in charge here. Physically, they’ve proven they can handle it. Other teams are fading in December. So far, Denver hasn’t. And week after week, they’ve continued to prove they’re mentally tough as well. The rest of the season will require a different, and perhaps more difficult to muster, kind of mentality.
