You have to find different ways to win games to be a playoff team in the NFL and that includes games when your defense gives up big numbers to the opposition.
That was the position the Broncos were in on Monday night. They gave up an 11-point lead in the second half as the Browns rallied behind quarterback Jameis Winston and wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. Winston threw for 497 yards and Jeudy, a former Bronco, set a record for Broncos opponents with 235 receiving yards, but their exploits won’t be the only lasting memories of the night.
Those memories will include linebacker Nik Bonitto returning a first half interception for a 71-yard touchdown and they’ll include cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian’s leaping interception with under two minutes to play. McMillian fell down, got up and ran 44 yards for a touchdown that sealed a win that head coach Sean Payton said “was not perfect by any means” before noting that perfection isn’t required.
“Obviously, when we go back and look at that tape, we are going to look at a lot of things defensively that we would have done differently,” Payton said, via the team’s website. “We have to. We had two interceptions for touchdowns and a third interception. I told them in the locker room that it was not pretty, and yet in the end, we did what we had to do, especially late.”
The win moved the Broncos to 8-5 with a playoff berth firmly in their grasp as they head into their bye week, which are a pair of things that are much prettier than the effort that got them there.
