DENVER — The Christmas comeback was almost complete. After Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos stormed back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to tie the score against the New England Patriots on Sunday night, all they needed were a few more big plays to move into range for a game-winning field goal.
The journey to that point had been ugly, stained with coal. The Broncos started their opening offensive drive on the Patriots’ 6-yard line by virtue of a first-play takeaway. They came away with no points. The Broncos punted four straight times to begin the second half. Oh, and they fumbled a kickoff return that the Patriots returned for a touchdown.
Still, there they were. Their own 39-yard line. Nearly two minutes left. All three timeouts. Wilson and play caller Sean Payton at the controls. A chance to right all the wrongs.
“Then, all of a sudden, the script flipped,” Payton said.
The Broncos went three-and-out, the latest failure in a late-season offensive collapse. They were forced to punt the ball back to New England, and Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe hit DeVante Parker for a 27-yard gain on third-and-3. After two more short passes, the Patriots were in range for a 56-yard field goal by rookie Chad Ryland.
Just like that, the Broncos had suffered a 26-23 defeat that all but ended their chase for the playoffs.
“We had everything to play for,” outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper said. “We just didn’t get the job done. It’s as simple as that.”
The Broncos know the math. They weren’t officially eliminated from the postseason Sunday night, but that’s almost certainly a mere formality. Denver needed to win its final three games and get a reasonable amount of help. Now, that door is closed. And when it was over Sunday night, the stunning ending still settling in, Payton uttered a phrase that he has leaned on repeatedly in the last few weeks. It’s a phrase that wraps up Denver’s disappointing season in more ways than one and will drive questions about the future.
“There were six or seven different situations in that game that had any one of those played out a little differently … but unfortunately they didn’t,” Payton said. “Our margin for error right now isn’t what it needs to be, and we end up on the losing end of a game.”
As it relates to the season, the Broncos booted away any margin for error in December by losing six of their first seven games. They won five in a row from there to move above .500, but the road remained treacherous and Denver never had the talent to walk that kind of tightrope, even as it improved and developed chemistry following the disastrous start.
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But the game-to-game margin for error is the more pressing issue. The Broncos on Sunday night opened a first-play gift. D.J. Jones sacked Zappe and recovered the resulting fumble at the New England 6-yard line. The Broncos were 18 feet away from an early lead, ready to fire up the formula that helped them resurrect their season after the 1-5 start. Four plays later, the offense was trotting off the field empty-handed after running back Javonte Williams was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line.
“I felt confident in where we were relative to field position,” Payton said in explaining his decision to go for it on fourth down, one play after Wilson had nearly thrown an interception. “Normally, I would say, especially early, that I would kick a field goal. But I felt pretty good if we didn’t get it with where we had them backed up. Now, hindsight, you know, but it was really about me feeling like we had two or three good opportunities relative to the plays we wanted to run.”
It wasn’t the only opportunity the Broncos squandered. Their first three drives of the game all began in New England territory, and the Broncos scored only seven points with those chances. Williams fumbled in the second quarter as the Broncos drove inside the Patriots’ 40-yard line, a ball that offensive guard Ben Powers appeared to have in his possession before it was ripped away by linebacker Jahlani Tavai. Another promising drive was torpedoed when right guard Quinn Meinerz was called for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.
All of that came before a disastrous start to the second half when the Broncos punted on their first four possessions while gaining one first down and amassing minus-20 net yards. Sandwiched in that stretch was a costly fumble by Marvin Mims Jr. The rookie fumbled as he attempted to field a kickoff just inside the end zone. He fully gathered possession, but as he tried to make a play to the outside, he was stripped of the ball and it was recovered by defensive back Cody Davis for the touchdown.
“I feel like, personally, I blew it,” said Mims, who set up Denver’s first touchdown with a 52-yard punt return earlier in the game and caught a 47-yard pass to set up its second touchdown. “That’s a 14-point swing and it cost us at the end. I’ve got to do better. I know that.”
The Broncos finally elevated the tempo in the fourth quarter. Wilson, who was sacked five times for a killer 45 yards, got better protection late and delivered strikes to Mims, Jerry Jeudy and Brandon Johnson, whose role increased after top wide receiver Courtland Sutton suffered a concussion in the first quarter.
But even after the late flurry that saw Wilson throw touchdown passes to Johnson and tight end Lucas Krull and follow those throws with successful two-point passes, the Broncos had no margin for error. It was readily apparent when Payton called a screen pass for Samaje Perine on first-and-10 during Denver’s final drive. The Patriots had snuffed out the play all night and did it again in a key spot, wrestling Perine down for a 3-yard loss. New England followed with two all-out blitzes, batting down a Wilson pass on second down and forcing him into a high throw as he scrambled on third down.
“Overall, it was not good enough offensively,” Payton said. “That needs to be better.”
After the Patriots ran the ball on first down for 6 yards, Payton called a timeout with 52 seconds left. New England rushed for 1 yard on second down and Payton called another timeout, stopping the clock with 47 seconds left and setting up third-and-3.
“We still had the ability to stop the clock,” Payton said. “We felt like we would get the stop. We were not able to.”
But it was risky given the small margin for error Payton has repeatedly referenced.
On third down, Zappe threw deep left to Parker, who won a one-on-one battle against All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain. Two short passes from Zappe followed, setting up Ryland for a 56-yarder. He had already missed a field goal and a point-after attempt in the game. But he nailed the game-winning kick with only two seconds left.
“Just disappointed,” safety Justin Simmons said. “Chance to win a big game at home. I don’t know what all the playoff looks like, but I know we needed to win this one. Disappointed.”
The loss will fire up questions about what comes next for the Broncos. The offseason hinges on what the Broncos do with Wilson. His five-year, $245 million extension is set to kick in next year. Moving on would come at a significant cost, and that’s to say nothing of how Payton and the Broncos would go about replacing the veteran for whom Denver traded five draft picks and three players less than two years ago.
“I’m just worried about next week and playing great football,” Wilson said. “I came here to win and win a championship for us and to find a way to do that. I obviously love being here with these guys, these teammates. I’m excited to keep playing ball and playing hard for us.”
However the Broncos navigate from here, they have to shrink the margin for error. Or there will be more sad Christmas scripts to come.
(Photo of Christian Barmore sacking Russell Wilson: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
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