PHILADELPHIA — Sean Payton is frustrated. The Denver Broncos head coach had three goal-line plays on his call sheet Sunday that he loved, and he didn’t get to use two of them.
The one he did use, however, orchestrated a surprising 2-point conversion that quieted Lincoln Financial Field, where Eagles fans were hushed by a rush of vulnerability. Their defending Super Bowl champions were suddenly losing after leading by 14 points earlier in the fourth quarter.
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“He has his ways of letting us know that he loves a play, for sure,” Broncos wide receiver Troy Franklin told reporters in the locker room. “And we’ll get it done for him.”
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Franklin caught the go-ahead 2-point conversion pass attempt that gave Denver an 18-17 advantage with 7:36 remaining. The Broncos, who entered the fourth quarter down 14 points, rode their momentum, a few late-game calls went their way and they held on for a 21-17 victory over an undefeated Eagles team that had won 20 of its previous 21 games.
Franklin wasn’t surprised Payton decided to go for 2 midway through the fourth quarter. Neither is quarterback Bo Nix, who completed 9-of-10 passes for 127 yards and a score in the final frame.
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After tight end Evan Engram caught an 11-yard touchdown, the Broncos’ second in five-and-a-half minutes of game time, Payton decided against an extra point that would tie the game at 17.
“We came here to win a game,” Payton explained at the podium postgame.
Nix faked a handoff to running back J.K. Dobbins, rolled right and fired a pass to Franklin, who snatched it in the end zone, with Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo trailing behind him.
Nix and Franklin were teammates for a year at Oregon, but Franklin chalked up Sunday’s game-changing connection to weeks of practice on that specific play. Payton attributed the conversion to matchup and execution.
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Payton knew Philadelphia’s top cornerback, Quinyon Mitchell, would travel with standout Broncos wideout Courtland Sutton to the opposite side of the field. That left Franklin with Ringo. Franklin gained a step on him with a lightning-quick jab before bolting toward the pylon.
“We felt good about that one,” Payton said. “There were two others, but that was one of ’em.”
The risk Payton took Sunday in Philadelphia pales in comparison to the one he took when he was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV. That February night in Miami more than 15 years ago, Payton opened the second half with an onside kick.
The Saints, down 10-6 at the time, recovered it, went on to claim their first lead of the game and eventually hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the first, and so far only, time in franchise history.
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It was true then, and it was true Sunday: Payton trusts his players to make plays. Especially Nix, on whom Payton took a risk when he selected the fiery quarterback in last year’s draft.
‘You can feel his leadership when it matters’
Ahead of Payton’s second season in Denver, the Broncos drafted a 24-year-old Nix with the No. 12 overall pick. He had struggled at Auburn before ascending to Heisman Trophy finalist status at Oregon during a winding five-year college career.
Denver’s quarterback decision was questioned at first, then reconsidered when Nix threw 29 touchdowns as a rookie and returned the Broncos to the playoffs for the first time since they won the Super Bowl with an injury-worn Peyton Manning in the 2015 season.
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But concern persisted. Nix’s poise in the pocket and downfield accuracy have been under the microscope during his second season in the league. The latter was exhausted in conversation after his overthrows haunted a 23-20 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3.
Through three quarters Sunday in Philadelphia, that speculative narrative only continued. Nix went into the final period with a two-touchdown deficit and a 61.6 passer rating. He was 15 of 29 for 114 yards.
“To tell you the truth, it’s not easy going out there. It’s 17-3. You haven’t had much success. It’s tough to get things going,” Nix admitted postgame. “I mean you want to have juice, but you just know what’s happened to you already.”
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He added: “We just kind of had this sense of, ‘We just need one drive, let’s go down the field, one play at a time, let’s put a drive together.’ … And we kind of spoke it into existence.”
The Broncos were 3 of 12 on third down through the first three quarters. They were 2 of 4 in the fourth. But their final conversion before the final frame came on third-and-2, and that 6-yard pass from Nix to Sutton kept the wheels moving on a 10-play, 62-yard series that culminated in a 2-yard Dobbins scoring run in the fourth quarter’s infancy that cut the Eagles’ lead in half to 17-10.
While Nix was starting to find the passing rhythm that makes him tick, his defense seized control of the line of scrimmage against what’s been the NFL’s most dominant team in the trenches of late.
The Eagles clocked out with only 45 rushing yards. Granted they sprinkled in some RPOs, but they had only one designed run in the second half, as opposed to 23 pass attempts.
Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts went from chucking 45-plus-yard bombs to wideout DeVonta Smith and running back Saquon Barkley to running for his life from Broncos defenders.
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A well-timed simulated pressure from Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph resulted in a third-down sack and an Eagles three-and-out that set the stage for Nix’s next act.
Payton said he knew where the ball was going on third-and-15 before it was even snapped. Nix fired a pass to Sutton, who galloped for a 34-yard gain. The next two plays were the Engram touchdown and the Franklin 2-point conversion, but they might not have been possible without the Nix-to-Sutton hookup.
“I had a good feeling and was just hoping the boundary safety moved to the field because they had shown that, and sure enough that’s what he did, and Courtland ran a great backside route,” Nix said.
The duo linked up twice more on Denver’s final drive, first for 16 yards on third-and-6 and then for 12 yards on second-and-14, helping the Broncos get in position for a 36-yard field goal that gave them a four-point cushion with 1:11 left.
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“He’s got my back, I have his, and he made catch after catch after catch,” Nix said of Sutton. “And in that situation it’s almost like who wants the football, and Sutt wants the football.”
Sutton, a one-time Pro Bowler who has gone over the 1,000-yard receiving mark two times, caught eight passes for 99 yards against the Eagles.
He also encouraged his quarterback through a rough start — not just Sunday but this season, in which the Broncos lost back-to-back games on walk-off field goals in Weeks 2-3.
“He’s been growing, and I think that those two losses are something that we had kind of talked about it after those losses happened, but he gets down on himself,” Sutton said.
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“He’s a very passionate guy when it comes down to his craft and to be able to watch him go into the mindset of, ‘Alright, how do I get better and what do I need to do to be better?’ … Ultimately, it motivates everyone around him. I tell him all the time, ‘You’re not doing this by yourself. What can I do to be better for you? You know what I’m saying? For us. Whatever it may be, you tell me, and I’ll work on it.'”
Sutton continued: “To be able to have your leader be somebody that’s as driven as he is and as detailed and as passionate as he is, man, it ultimately brings everybody else along with him. To see him go out there and put together those drives, it didn’t surprise me, but it was really cool to be a part of.”
Payton added: “You can feel his leadership when it matters, and then you can feel the confidence with his teammates when it matters.”
Broncos bucked their trend
Nix said it was about time Denver got “a fourth-quarter close one.”
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He said Sunday’s game against the Eagles felt like last year’s Week 10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, only it had a different result. That game, the Broncos played Super Bowl LIX’s other participant and lost on a blocked 35-yard field goal at the buzzer in Arrowhead Stadium.
This time around, the Broncos hit a chip-shot kick against a team that blocked two field goals two weeks prior, and Denver exorcised some nail-biter demons. Payton’s team also suffered agonizing one-score defeats against the Chargers and Indianapolis Colts this season.
Stomaching another setback like that against the Eagles would have been difficult. Despite a trip to London awaiting Denver for Week 6, Payton didn’t flinch at the opportunity Sunday, at the kind of game that can, in his words, define “what you’ve become.”
“I think they were confident coming in,” Payton said of his Broncos squad. “I asked them afterwards, ‘Who are you afraid of?’ This is a league, there’s a fine line between a groove and a rut.
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“It was a good win.”
Payton took a chance when he went for two Sunday. He took a chance when he drafted Nix.
He likes his odds.
So does Nix, particularly after his 3-2 Broncos defeated the Eagles.
“It proves that we can go on the road and beat these tough teams,” Nix said, “and we can be a tough team to play.”
This news was originally published on this post .
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