When the Broncos took the field at Levi’s Stadium this afternoon to take on the undefeated 49ers, few Denver fans believed the team could make a comeback if that was the case.
After two weeks of exciting victories thanks to come-from-behind, fourth-quarter comebacks (the best kind of wins, tbh), there is doubt within Broncos Country that such heroic tactics are sustainable.
But you know who believes it?
Head coach Sean Payton, and most importantly, quarterback Bo Nix.
That doesn’t mean the coach or team is playing for a second-half surge, but a heroic comeback isn’t a problem either.
“Honestly, I think the huddle is calm. We just have a very quiet huddle. Smooth in and out, we don’t panic. Nothing really needs to be said, but we’re all just motivating each other and encouraging each other,” Nix said earlier this week. “I think when you do it a few times, you just know you can do it. …At the end of the day, it’s just doing it over and over again and I know I have guys that are going to go out there and go on a game-winning drive because we’ve done it against many, many good teams.”
“Smooth in and out, we don’t panic. Nobody really has to say much, but we’re all just motivating each other and encouraging each other. I think once you [come back] some times, you just know you can.”
“Bo Nix.”
The Broncos are currently last in the NFL for first half scoring, and Payton certainly wants to change that.
“We certainly recognize that it’s not good, but that has to improve and I’m not the only one talking about it,” Payton said of the slow start so far this season. “When I go through the PowerPoints today, the Week 3 rankings, we don’t even look at them. We just recognize that it’s not good. We have to improve.”
The good news is that Payton’s October record is the best in history.
In fact, his .761 winning percentage in October was the best in NFL history among men who coached at least 50 games during the month. And he let the team know it, underscoring why his teams played winning football in October.
“As we called everyone [in the huddle, the message] was, ‘October was good for us a year ago, and that’s because you made it a priority during the week,'” Payton said Wednesday. “It’s kind of back to that. We are early in this race. We need to find these places that don’t become another mistake [in] Week 5 or Week 6.”
The Niners will be a big test of that progress all week.