The Denver Broncos are a second-half team.

It’s a saying fans utter with optimism, especially when their team struggles in the first half of a game.

Against the Colts, the Broncos stumbled out of the gates and mounted a comeback after the half. And their post-break surges have become commonplace.

Denver Broncos are a second-half team during this four-game win streak

When Denver defeated Indianapolis on Sunday night, it extended the Broncos win streak to four games. Not only that, but Denver improved to 9-5, moved ahead of the Chargers in the AFC playoff race, and basically ended the Colts hopes of making the postseason.

Whether you were in attendance or watching the game on TV at home, you witnessed the Broncos start off the game ice cold.

The Colts sliced and diced Denver’s defense with ease on their first drive, taking four minutes to take a 7-0 lead. But the Broncos answered with an ill-timed interception.

At the end of the first half, the home team trailed 13-7, and Denver totaled a mere 98 yards on offense. Then, Indy got the horses running again; Jonathan Taylor took a ball 41 yards to the house but fumbled inches before the goal line.

After that game-changing play, the Broncos out-scored the Colts 24-0 and won 31-13.

And the Denver Broncos second-half team domination of Indy was a microcosm of how they’ve played during this four-game win streak.

Denver forced four turnovers after halftime, including Nik Bonitto’s fumble-six, as they swarmed the ball on every play. They also executed at a much higher rate offensively.

Scoring is up, defense is forcing turnovers as Broncos play complete games

The easiest way to see how the Denver Broncos are a second-half team is their scoring.

Over the last four games, Denver’s averaged 20.25 points per game after halftime. That’s second-best only to the Buffalo Bills, who are on a tear right now.

On top of adding those all-important points, the offense has executed at a much higher level after the break during this win streak. Denver scored on 13-of-25 second half drives, which is 52%. That’s a marked improvement compared to the rest of the year (35.8%).

They’ve come back from halftime deficits against the Colts and Raiders during the win streak, and were down in the fourth quarter against the Browns.

Defensively, the Broncos have been on fire, too.

They have 11 total takeaways over the last four games–including 5 against the Colts–and 8 of those have come in the second half of games. And two of those turnovers resulted in touchdowns. Bonitto’s brilliant 50-yard fumble-six against the Colts, and Ja’Quan McMillian’s pick-6 to seal the win over the Browns.

Just looking at the last three games, Denver is No. 1 in takeaways at 3.3 per contest.

And one thing Denver’s done better than any team this year is sack the quarterback. In fact, at 49.0 sacks right now, these Broncos have a chance to finish the year more than the 2015 Super Bowl Champion team (52 sacks).

That year, the leader was Von Miller with 11 sacks. This year, Bonitto already has more (11.5), with two turnover-touchdowns, and five more tackles for a loss (14-9).

Over the last four games, Denver has racked up 9 sacks in the second half of games alone. That resulted in Gardner Minshew being pulled from a game due to injury, and Kirk Cousins being pulled due to a blowout.

The win over Indianapolis nearly cemented the Broncos as a playoff team, as they have a 91% chance of making it in. And they can keep that sixth spot or even move up with a win over the Chargers in LA on Thursday night.

If the Broncos want to make noise in the postseason, they need to keep playing complete football on both sides of the ball. And even get some splash plays on special teams like Marvin Mims’ punt return on Sunday.