This was no ordinary win for the Denver Broncos, especially when senior vice president of operations Chip Conway earns a gameball.
“Everyone in operations, there’s a lot of work, all right,” said head coach Sean Payton after his team’s 10-9 road win over the Jets Sunday. “Now it’s not the Ringling Brothers or Springsteen tour but there’s a lot of people that put in a lot of work and it was worth it.”
With consecutive road games on the East Coast, Payton put the Broncos to work in a camp-like setting at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Rain from Tropical Storm Helene forced the team to practice indoors on the tennis courts, then followed the Broncos to New Jersey.
Wet conditions plagued offenses much of the game at MetLife Stadium and likely played a role as the clubs traded missed field goals in the contest’s waning moments.
“I don’t think either team expected the weather to impact the game like it did that much in the first half,” said Payton, who never lost confidence in rookie quarterback despite his halftime stat line: 7 of 15 for minus-7 yards. “Nonetheless, good team that we played, and we fought hard. It was good to get a win.”
That they did, primarily on the strength of a masterful 11-play, 87-yard touchdown drive orchestrated by Nix in the third quarter. Down 6-0, the rookie converted a third-and-11 with a 29-yard strike to Courtland Sutton, then hit Sutton again for the game’s only touchdown – the rookie’s first career scoring toss — to give Denver a 7-6 advantage. Nix was asked whether he thought Sutton’s first catch was a turning point.
“I do,” said Nix, who finished 12 of 25 for 60 yards and that touchdown, with no interceptions. “You know, you’re back there, you let it develop. You rip it and you trust that he’s going to get there. And sure enough he gets there and makes a catch. And that was, almost flipping the field. And then we continue to go back to running the ball and then capped off with a touchdown to Court. So, it was huge. And that was one of the big contributing plays in the game. We got great protection. Gave us all day to throw on that play, and we’ve just got to find a completion.”
The Jets did not have great protection. From the game’s first snap, when linebacker Justin Strnad sacked Aaron Rodgers, Denver’s defense set the tone. Two plays later, Brandon Jones forced a Garrett Wilson fumble and Riley Moss recovered at the Jets’ 30.
Six Denver players combined to sack Aaron Rodgers five times, including a critical play by P.J. Locke. The Broncos safety dropped Rodgers on fourth-and-10 near midfield with under two minutes remaining, turning over the ball on downs.
But Denver couldn’t capitalize. Wil Lutz missed a 50-yard field goal that would’ve given Denver a 13-9 lead. It didn’t matter, though. Greg Zuerlein also missed a 50-yard field goal with 47 seconds left, allowing Nix to run out the clock.
Rodgers had beaten rookie starting quarterbacks in seven straight starts.
The Broncos (2-2), who have combined for 12 sacks and three takeaways over their last two games, return home to host Las Vegas (2-2). New York, meanwhile, heads to London to face the Vikings (4-0) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.