ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Sean Payton didn’t just ease off the gas pedal. He pulled the emergency brake, got out of the car, handed the keys to Josh Allen, and crawled home on his hands and knees.
“As an offensive play-caller and vice versa, you have to pay attention to what’s going on on the other side of the ball,” the Broncos coach said of Allen and the Buffalo Bills’ hands, 31- He explained this after Sunday’s close game of 7. AFC wild card round.
“And early in that game, you’re focusing on that, like you want to be aggressive. But as the game develops in the second half, it starts to affect how you judge (the game). Masu.”
The Broncos threw for 42 yards on five first downs in the first half, or 8 yards per play. They threw four times on second down in the first half and gained 42 additional yards, or nearly 11 yards per attempt.
First drive, third quarter?
Run, run, pass, punt.
Second drive, third quarter?
Run, run, pass, punt.
“When they have the ball, we can’t do it,” Broncos tight end Adam Trautman told me after a fun season ended with a belly flop into the Niagara River. “And when you get behind, you have to run away from certain things that you want to put into your plan. I mean, one of the main reasons they beat us like that was because they just had the ball.” Because it was.”
Another reason is that the head coach dropped quarterback Bo Nix, not the other way around.
Down by 14 points, with 2:53 left in the third quarter, Payton’s play sequence was as follows.
First-and-10: 3-yard run.
2nd and 7: 1-yard run.
Numbers 3 and 6: False starts.
3rd and 11th: Not completed.
Trailing by 21 points to the Bills’ 14 with 11:37 remaining, the Broncos had their final gasp at 4-2. They ran the play-action bootleg to the limit and dumped it to tailback Jahleel McLaughlin. Instead of pushing into the end zone, McLaughlin was pushed out of bounds for no gain, but that was pretty much it.
“We definitely have to score more than seven points in this tough game,” Nix said. A great rookie season ended on a whimper. He completed 13 of 23 passes for 144 yards, 43 of which were a rainbow to Troy Franklin against the Denvers. Open possession.
“When we went to Baltimore, we only scored 10 points. We got seven points here today. We have to finish in Kansas City. So it all comes down to execution and scoring more points. And our defense has been good all game. We have to somehow find a way to score and keep the momentum going.”
The Broncos grabbed the momentum with both hands for the first 15 and a half minutes, but Sunshine Sean suddenly lost his nerve.
When you’re the underdog in the postseason, it’s the perfect time to loosen up, let go of your inhibitions, and let the chips fall where they may. It inspired me to go deep to start the game. With the Broncos’ 43 about four minutes into Game 2, Payton stayed true to theme, catching the Bills napping with a nifty fake punt pass from Riley Dixon to a wide-open Marvin Mims Jr. . Down 10-7, Denver kept the ball, silenced a semi-silent Highmark Stadium, and powered back against the championship favorites.
Instead of punching, Peyton switched to “park.”
Instead of going for the throat, the Broncos scored six points on Javonte Williams and then threw the ball to Mims for a three-yard loss while the Bills offense was moving the rocks at will. On a third-and-7, the Knicks smelled Von Miller’s chewing gum and had to remove it, setting up yet another fourth down, this time at the Bills’ 39.
Peyton punted and pulled the brakes.
“Yeah, but the distance in the next sequence wasn’t analytically favorable to (going for it),” Payton explained when I asked about the possession.
“What that play did was basically drive them to the half-yard line. So we’ll go. And now we have to be able to stop (them) turning it over down the field. But Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold them back there.”
That’s why you picked it in the first place, but…oh, never mind.
What’s the big picture? The sky is not falling. The world is still spinning. The Broncos have been playing with house money for months. The single most important question, the eternal question of the series since Peyton Manning retired, has been answered, perhaps conclusively. It’s Bo’s team now. It’s Bo’s time. We can’t get the NFL train moving forward again without first having a solid QB coaching foundation. It’s finally here, hallelujah. Don’t let Buffalo ignore it. Or discount it.
But Sunday was a day of reckoning for the seemingly new-age Broncos — and the postseason mirror wasn’t kind.
NFL coaching staffs are paid to find open wounds. Playoff staff sticks their dirty fingers into them and wiggles those numbers around like there’s no tomorrow.
The Broncos’ underbelly has been exposed to the world: their running backs. tight end. Inside linebacker. Sometimes arm tackles. Denver led 7-3 at the end of the first quarter. It actually felt like I was down 10. After 15 minutes, the Bills had eight first downs and the Broncos had two. 124 yards to 75 for the Broncos. At the line of scrimmage, Buffalo’s offense could do whatever it wanted at any time.
Peyton’s first big reaction? Mr. Turtle. Actually, no. That was his second big reaction. The first may have been the decision to suspend strong rookie back Audric Estim and start 5-foot-8 Tyler Budde before the game in cold weather. Buddy’s touch? two. For 8 yards.
“It’s just my running style,” Payton said of the decision. “That’s what I wanted to do running-wise…I felt like that’s what I wanted to do in this game.”
Buffalo had other ideas.
“Anytime you’re not in the game, you can potentially disrupt your rhythm of play,” Nix said. “But that’s our job, to get back out there and make some plays to get our rhythm back. And we’ve got to be better at it next time.”
Peyton should be better. At least at this stage. If you’re going down, swing.
“Yeah, big momentum swings, that’s what the NFL is all about, that’s what the playoffs are all about,” Troutman said. “So it went in our favor. And then, really quickly, things went the other way.”
The Broncos aren’t that far away. But as the Bills reminded them, bloodying themselves with jab after jab, it’s still too far to crawl.
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First Published: January 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM MST
