The Denver Broncos have played a lot of important games this year, and when you have the kind of season the Broncos had, every game feels significant. Which ones mattered the most, however, is a matter of interpretation, and Bill Barnwell of ESPN took a run at separating the big ones from the ones that ended up not being nearly as epic.
Start with the game that started it all, in hindsight. According to Barnwell, the Broncos win over the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-21, didn’t seem to matter as a trend for the Denver offense to follow under the growing leadership capabilities of quarterback Bo Nix.
But it did. That was the first truly big game where Nix came through in the fourth quarter, leading touchdown drives of 62- and 82-yards, respectively, to lead a Denver comeback. To finish it off, Nix led one more scoring drive, taking the Broncos 46 more yards so that kicker Wil Lutz could finish off the Eagles with a game-winning field goal and make it 21-17.
That pattern became Denver’s unofficial winning formula. He proceeded to do the same sort of thing in the Broncos’ next two wins, which came against the New York Jet in London, then at home againstthe New York Giants, and Nix led yet another comeback drive against the Houston Texans. He did it again in overtime on the road against the Washington Commanders, and the Broncos went into that Eagles game at 2-2 as they rode that formula to the top of the AFC.
Another game that ended up mattering was the Broncos 44-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Nix threw four touchdown passes as the Denver offense seemed to discover a new gear, and the Broncos also ran for 179 yards and two scores in that one.
So why did it matter? Simple—it changed the landscape of the NFL. That was the game where Dallas owner Jerry Jones panicked, saying that the Cowboys weren’t “one player away” on defense. That led to the trade for Quinnen Williams, as the player movement both before and after the Micah Parsons trade ended up being seismic.
The last game Barnwell chose was Denver’s shaky overtime win against Washington, 27-26. That was the first time the Broncos red zone defense began struggling, and that’s an issue that still hasn’t been completely fixed going into Denver’s final game of the season against the Los Angeles Chargers.