DENVER — You could almost see Courtland Sutton shudder at the thought.
The Denver Broncos’ veteran wide receiver, about an hour after his team moved to the doorstep of the playoffs with a 31-13 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, was asked to imagine the game’s defining play in an alternate universe.
What if it had been Sutton or one of his teammates, not Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who dropped the ball before crossing the goal line, erasing a critical, would-be touchdown? What would be coach Sean Payton’s reaction?
Call overturned! This TD was ruled a touchback 😳 pic.twitter.com/jRlTeq9QQs
— NFL (@NFL) December 15, 2024
“I probably wouldn’t be talking to y’all right now, to be honest with you,” Sutton said. “I think I saw an interview with Coach Prime (Deion Sanders) saying that if one his boys did that, they might as well keep running because they’re not going to be on the team no more. I would not want to have a conversation with Coach Payton after doing something like that.”
The sequence happened early in the third quarter, two plays after Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix threw his third interception of the game. The Broncos at that point had swung and missed at every bullet point of the game plan. They couldn’t stop quarterback Anthony Richardson when he ran, and they had given up a couple of big passes on third down, too. They were turning the ball over. They couldn’t run the ball on offense. They squandered a two-minute drive with a three-and-out, then let the Colts add a field goal.
“I said to them at halftime, ‘Man, every key indicator, key to victory, that we outlined at the start of the week, we’re doing the opposite,’” Payton said.
GO DEEPER
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The Broncos were staring at a 20-7 hole when Taylor burst down the right sideline and coasted over the goal line for a 41-yard touchdown in a game that would swing their postseason chances wildly in one direction or another. The Broncos hadn’t been able to move the ball. Their rookie quarterback unable to find the same rhythm he has so frequently since September melted into October and his confidence began growing with every game. With a two-score lead, the Colts were sure to lean on Denver’s defense.
“It’s a different ball game, man,” safety P.J. Locke said of a world in which Taylor’s touchdown stood, instead of being overturned after replay review determined he dropped the ball just before crossing the goal line, leading to a touchback. “Everybody’s calling different plays with the time management, where they’re just running the ball and controlling the game. We can’t run the ball as much as we want to, controlling our game. VJ (defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) is getting more aggressive. It’s just a lot.”
The Broncos would not have been dead, but they knew it would have been dire. Locke was contemplating all of it as he walked off the field, “pissed” with how the game was unfolding. Then …
“I just heard the crowd go crazy, so I looked up at the replay booth,” said Locke, who forced one of Denver’s five turnovers Sunday. “I said, ‘There’s no way he just dropped it.’ I’ve never seen it. I’ve always seen it on social media, but I’ve never been in a game where it happened. I just kept saying, ‘Golly, that’s crazy.’”
“It was a mistake. We all make them, but that one cost them,” defensive end John Franklin-Myers said. “It was a momentum switch. From then, it wasn’t a game.”
Special seasons sometimes require a special bounce or two along the way. But the Broncos certainly weren’t apologizing Sunday night for the gift of a gargantuan gaffe. Not after maximizing the mistake like they did, outscoring the Colts by a 24-0 margin after Taylor’s fumble. Not after moving to within one victory of the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2015.
“We need to be better. There’s no doubt about that,” veteran right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “We need to be better, especially on the offensive side of the ball. We need to take care of the football better. We need to be able to run the ball better and all those things, but you don’t care how you win. Especially this time of year. We’re in Week 15 now. You have to win games any way you can. That’s playoff football. I think all of us are in the understanding that we’re already in the playoffs and we’ve got to start battling. That was a great way to do it tonight.”
The Colts were still leading 13-10 as the fourth quarter began, despite the gut-punch turnover. They faced a third-and-3 at their 27-yard line. At the snap, Broncos linebacker Jonathan Cooper shot into the backfield and dropped Richardson for a 5-yard loss immediately after he faked a handoff to Taylor. Marvin Mims Jr. caught the ensuing punt at his at his 24-yard line. He had nearly broken a return earlier in the game but he couldn’t keep his feet as he finished off a 27-yard return near the sideline. This time, he caught the ball near the right sideline and immediately eyed an opening on the left side.
“It’s just a gasp of air, like, ‘What is he going to do?’” Locke said of Mims. Sutton explained his feeling when he saw Mims begin his return by pointing to the giant smile he had just grown across his face.
By the time Mims was finally dragged down, he had gained 61 yards and set up Denver’s offense at the 15-yard line. Two plays later, Nix hit Nate Adkins in the middle of the field, and the tight end broke a tackle for a touchdown. The Broncos were only up four, but it felt like the dam was about to burst. On Indianapolis’ next possession, Richardson threw a screen pass to rookie receiver Adonai Mitchell. But Nik Bonitto immediately noticed something different about the play. He saw Richardson drop back a few steps after throwing the pass. The Broncos’ standout linebacker recognized immediately that the ball was about to be thrown by Mitchell back to the quarterback.
“I was like, ‘Let me just try to go and break on it,” Bonitto said. “I ended up getting it.”
Bonitto, looking like a guard jumping a cross-court pass — “I was a menace in basketball,” he said — picked off the ball in stride and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. It counted as a fumble return and not an interception like the pick-six he had in Denver’s last game against the Cleveland Browns. Either way, it was another massive highlight in a resumé for Bonitto that gets more impressive by the week, and it put the game away.
CASA BONITTO!!!!#ProBowlVote + @nikkkkbonitto pic.twitter.com/F3PgKZ0dry
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 16, 2024
Franklin-Myers, who split a sack with Bonitto earlier in the game, was asked what kind of season he thought the third-year linebacker was putting together.
“Shoot, the season I want to have,” Franklin-Myers said. “I ain’t lying. That (man) is cuttin’ up. He’s having a good year. Everything is pointing toward Defensive Player of the Year for him, and that’s deserved. Hopefully, he gives me some of his new money.”
Nix ended the day with three touchdown passes to go with his career-high three interceptions. It was an uncharacteristic performance for a quarterback who had moved his way into the offensive rookie of the year conversation after a slow start to the season. He had been riding an arrow of progress that seemed to be pointing up every week.
“I thought sometimes those guys made good plays,” Nix said. “Regardless, that’s three. It gets to where you feel like, ‘Every time I throw it, is it going to be picked?’ You start having those mental thoughts, but it’s challenging. It’s probably the toughest part of our position because you know what you’re capable of. You know the read. You know your footwork, how to go through it. Then you just have to keep from being gun-shy. Don’t let one turn into another false vision and just see things that aren’t actually there.”
But Nix’s close was indicative of the team’s as he threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to help the Broncos run away. They will have some uncomfortable film to watch on Monday before quickly turning their attention to a game against the Chargers that is only four days away. Thanks to a lucky bounce, and the luck the Broncos created of their own afterward, there is still plenty to look forward to as an increasingly special season nears its final kick.
As for what Payton would actually do if his player had been the one to drop the ball? He left it to the imagination.
“It would not be a teaching point,” he said. “… I’ll leave it at that.”
(Photo of Nik Bonitto celebrating his touchdown with Pat Surtain II: AAron Ontiveroz / Getty Images)
