The Broncos keep walking their fans to the edge and pulling them back. Sunday's version: down 16 after a poor first half, level at 16 after the rally, and another Bo Nix fourth-quarter comeback and game-winning drive on the ledger.
Here's the number that gives it weight. Denver came into the game 5-95-1 all-time when trailing in that spot. Which is a polite way of saying this franchise has almost never done what it keeps doing now.
And it isn't a one-week thing. Per Broncos Wire, Denver became the first team in its history to win consecutive games after trailing by double digits in the second half. In Week 2 it was a 13-3 hole against Jacksonville. Sunday night it was the same script, and the Broncos improved to 2-1 on the season.
Nix isn't dragging the slow starts around with him. He's said he doesn't put pressure on himself over them, and after this one he pointed somewhere other than his own right arm: "And our defense played really well in the second half," he said.
He's right, and that's the part worth sitting with. Comeback football reads as a quarterback story, and Nix deserves the credit for the final drives. But a team that needs the fourth quarter to save it is a team whose offense spent three quarters not scoring. The defense holding serve after halftime is what made the rally possible. Without that, there's no drive to win.
My read: Denver's fourth-quarter identity is real, and it belongs to Nix. He's calm in the two-minute window and the offense doesn't panic. That's a genuine edge in a league where most teams tighten up.
But you can't bank on it. A team that lives behind this often eventually gets a Sunday where the other sideline has the ball last, and the 5-95-1 ghost comes back around. The comebacks will keep Denver in the playoff conversation all fall. The first halves are what will send them home in January.
