Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton definitely has a way with words. While the rest of us struggled to find ways to describe the team’s jaw-dropping 33-32 win over the New York Giants yesterday, Payton found the perfect way to describe what happened from a coaching perspective.

"We had to find a way to clean up our mess,'' Broncos coach Sean Payton said in a story written by Jeff Legwold of ESPN. 

Somehow Denver found a way to just that, but part of what left the rest of us tripping over our tongues and keyboards was the historic nature of what the Broncos did. Before yesterday’s comeback, NFL teams had lost 1,602 games when trailing by at least 18 points with six minutes to play. 

The franchise records were just as unprecedented. The 33 points Denver scored in the fourth quarter set a franchise record, and that tied the mark for the second-most points scored by an NFL team in a quarter. 

"I don't even know how we scored 33 points in a quarter, that's kind of insane,'' said quarterback Bo Nix. "It's just whatever we had to get done, we did it ... By any means necessary."

But Nix also knows that he helped create the necessity. The Broncos defense let Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart run wild on them, and the offense under Nix was just as inept. 

"I was thinking about how I was going to answer questions if we got shut out,'' Nix admitted. "... Once we scored and got the 2-point conversion, it was like we knew how to play again."

That conversion came on a throw to receiver Courtland Sutton following a two-yard Nix touchdown toss to receiver Troy Franklin.  That triggered the offensive avalanche that followed, but Payton is probably just as focused on the fixing the mess going forward. 

He’ll have a lot to do. Dart finished with 286 yards passing to go with three TDs, and the Broncos were down 13-0 at halftime, then 19-0 in the third quarter. Nix’s first TD toss cut the margin to 26-8, but it took two missed extra points by the Giants to even give the Broncos a chance in this one. 

That can’t happen if the Broncos are going to maintain their current one-game lead in the AFC West. The revitalized Dallas Cowboys are coming to town this week, and if Payton doesn’t get this week’s cleanup job right, he knows the Broncos won’t be going anywhere.