Broncos Overtime Win Over Seahawks Was Ugly but Real

The Broncos overtime win over the defending champion Seahawks was one of the ugliest victories the NFL has seen in years, and it still counts. Denver beat Seattle seventeen to fourteen on Thursday night, and the story is that the defense carried a team whose offense barely showed up.

How the Broncos overtime win played out

Denver jumped out early. According to NFL.com, the Broncos squandered a fourteen to three lead and let the game slip into extra time. Seattle scored eleven points in the last six minutes of regulation, finishing with a one-yard touchdown run from George Holani and a two-point throw from Sam Darnold to Rashid Shaheed.

Jason Myers then booted a thirty-four-yard field goal with three seconds left to tie it. The Seahawks had started that drive at midfield after a thirty-one-yard punt return by Shaheed, following the sixth three-and-out of the night for Denver, as reported by NBC.

In overtime, Ja'Quan McMillian picked off Darnold at the Denver forty-three. A few plays later, Wil Lutz drilled a fifty-three-yard field goal to end it. The win moves Denver to four and two, while Seattle drops to three and three.

A defense that refused to quit

The Broncos overtime win belongs to the defense. According to ESPN, Denver sacked Darnold five times, hit him seventeen times and intercepted him twice. Linebacker Nik Bonitto was still trying to process the numbers afterward.

The unit also had to do it with almost no rest. Denver's defense played eighty-two snaps, according to the team's own website, because the offense kept going three-and-out and handing the ball right back.

Darnold, for his part, completed twenty-seven of fifty-one passes and put up a passer rating of fifty-two point six, according to Sky Sports. Seattle piled up three hundred fifty-three yards but wasted much of it on three turnovers and a missed field goal.

The offense problem nobody can ignore

Here is the wild part. Denver won with just one hundred sixty-eight yards of total offense, which CBS Sports says is the fewest ever in an NFL overtime win. Quarterback Bo Nix went seventeen of twenty-seven for one hundred seven yards, no touchdowns and a passer rating of seventy-one point one.

According to CBS Sports, Nix was just four of eleven for thirty-two yards on third down, and he threw short of the sticks on nine of those eleven attempts. It was also his sixth career win without a passing touchdown, tied for the most in the league since twenty twenty-four.

Former quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, working the game for Prime Video, did not hold back. He said Nix is not playing competitively, and he pointed to a designed run late in overtime where Nix gained nothing.

Payton, play-calling and the pressure

Coach Sean Payton took the play-calling duties back from Davis Webb just two games ago. NFL.com noted that his late-game calls were impressive, but that the overall body of work left a lot to be desired.

Nix, meanwhile, entered the night dismissing criticism of his play. Afterward he kept the focus on the result, telling the team website that you are just excited about the win. Fair enough, though the stats are not going to quiet the noise anytime soon.

Not everyone is panicking. A Denver Gazette columnist argued the Broncos can still contend because of the defense, while admitting the quarterback play is a real concern. That is the tension for this team: a roster that wins close games without a passing attack.

What it means for the rest of the season

Denver gets a mini bye before a Week Seven trip to face the Arizona Cardinals, according to Yahoo Sports. That break is a chance for Payton to retool an offense that managed only three first downs in the entire game.

For Seattle, the loss stings. It is their second defeat in five days, and the three-and-three record matches the loss total they had all of last season, when they won their second Super Bowl title, per the Associated Press report.

The lesson for fans is simple. Defense still wins games, and the AFC West is going to be a grind. If you want more scores like this one, check out our sports coverage as the season rolls on.