DENVER — After yet another raucous party inside the Broncos locker room early Sunday evening had subsided, a bass-thumping bash that marked the team’s 11th straight victory, Adam Trautman grabbed his phone out of his locker stall. The veteran tight end smirked as he read the first notification.
Broncos clinch playoffs, it said.
Trautman knew a postseason berth was at stake for Denver when it hosted the Green Bay Packers at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, so it wasn’t as if the push alert had delivered him breaking news. But it did create a muted, “Oh, yeah, cool,” reaction, Trautman said, because the fact that Denver had officially landed in the tournament wasn’t mentioned during any of the speeches following the team’s 34-26 win.
“To be honest, we didn’t even mention it,” Trautman said. “We didn’t even talk about it.”
The Broncos can be forgiven for not basking in the glow of their second postseason ticket in as many seasons. Their aspirations have been pointed higher since training camp, when an internal belief that this team could compete for a title was born. After Sunday’s comeback win that featured a tour de force performance from second-year quarterback Bo Nix and a defensive “reboot” in the second half that made life miserable for the Packers’ previously high-flying offense, it’s getting harder for anyone else to doubt Denver’s claim as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
Right?
“I’m sure they will, but that’s OK,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said of his team’s critics, which included the oddsmakers who had installed the Broncos as underdogs in their home building Sunday. “We worry about ourselves. We keep showing up, week in and week out, trying to be the best version of ourselves we can be.”
The latest version of the Broncos featured a quarterback in Nix who threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns Sunday, mixing steady work from the pocket with deft maneuvering on the run. It featured an offensive line that didn’t allow a sack against Green Bay’s talented defensive front and “played as well as they’ve played since I’ve been here,” Nix said. This version showcased a defense that took Green Bay’s best shot — six explosive pass plays allowed through the first three quarters — and still limited the Packers to one touchdown in four red-zone drives and only 32 net passing yards in the second half. And this is a version with a head coach in Sean Payton who is trying to become the first coach in the Super Bowl era to lead two different teams to a championship — and is looking more and more like he has the pieces in place to do it.
“It’s an exciting time to be a Bronco right now,” Nix said after posting arguably the best performance of his 31-game career, considering the stakes. “That was just another game in our journey of where we want to go.”
The Broncos moved to 12-2 with the win and took sole possession of first place in the AFC after the New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills earlier in the day. The Broncos, whose 11-game win streak is the franchise’s longest since 2012, now have a 64 percent chance to claim the top seed in the conference and the first-round bye that comes with it. It’s a prize that would look especially nice for a team that has won 12 straight home games dating back to last year. Denver could clinch the AFC West next week with a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars and a loss by the Los Angeles Chargers to the Dallas Cowboys.
Perhaps more importantly than all the happy math the Broncos created Sunday was what they demonstrated on the path to victory. That Denver trailed in the third quarter wasn’t unusual. Before last week’s wire-to-wire win in Las Vegas, the Broncos had been behind at some point in each of their first 12 games. On Sunday, though, Denver faced a 23-14 deficit against a Packers team quarterbacked by Jordan Love that was moving the ball at will, scoring on its first five drives. When Love loaded up and fired a deep ball to top target Christian Watson in the middle of the field, it had the makings of a dagger shot.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, came Pat Surtain II.
“He looked like Superman,” teammate Devon Key said.
The All-Pro Broncos cornerback was playing Watson from an underneath position, waiting for his chance to pounce. In one seamless motion, Surtain leaped into the air and snatched the ball back for Denver. It was the first interception of the season for the NFL’s reigning defensive player of the year — and it changed everything.
“That’s a Pat Surtain play right there,” Nix said. “Not many can make it, and he’s one of the ones who does.”
Pat Surtain II hauls in an interception in front of Packers wide receiver Christian Watson on Sunday. (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
Surtain recognized the route by Watson from the snap. It was the mirror image of a deep shot Love took with Watson earlier in the game, one that had missed just long.
“Just had to find a way to make a play,” he said.
It was reminiscent of Surtain’s pick-six against the Raiders in Week 5 last season, when he turned a game the Broncos were struggling to navigate in a blink.
Perhaps even more impressive than Surtain’s theft, though, was how the Broncos capitalized on it. They scored touchdowns on their next three possessions. All three drives measured at least seven plays and 61 yards. All ended in Nix touchdown passes as the quarterback, in Trautman’s words, found a “flow state” that made Denver’s offense difficult to contain.
“He’s competitive as hell, and he’s fiery,” Trautman said when asked to describe Nix’s demeanor in the huddle Sunday. “He’s speaking to you, his eyes are wide and he’s staring into your soul. It’s a confidence and a respect thing and it spreads throughout the entire huddle.”
Payton called a timeout in the middle of the fourth quarter and took stock.
Payton often says that the biggest in-game responsibility for a head coach is understanding how a contest is unfolding and acting accordingly. In that split-second, he reasoned that Denver had an offensive line that was controlling the line of scrimmage, a veteran wide receiver consistently winning his one-on-one opportunities and a quarterback in a groove. Perhaps most importantly, he sensed that Green Bay’s defense, which lost star pass rusher Micah Parsons to a serious knee injury in the third quarter, was gasping for air.
“There was a point where the clock was stopped in the fourth quarter, and I called the whole offense over,” Payton recalled afterward. “I said, ‘Are you watching these guys right here?’ and we all turned and looked. I said, ‘They’re gassed.’ I said, ‘Keep the pedal down.’”
With a one-point lead, during a defining moment in a game with massive stakes on both sides, Payton sent in a fourth-and-2 play call for his offense — then watched all those elements he had recognized come together. The 26-yard pass from Nix up the left sideline to a streaking Sutton, who finished with 113 yards and a touchdown, put Denver in command. Running back R.J. Harvey scored the 10th touchdown of his rookie season a few plays later to give the Broncos a 34-26 lead.
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— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 15, 2025
Riley Moss, who was called for a questionable pass interference penalty in the third quarter that contributed to Denver’s early hole, intercepted Love on Green Bay’s next possession. The Packers had two more chances to drive for a potential game-winning score after the Broncos twice came up short on fourth-down tries, but Denver’s defense pushed back. They picked up two of their three sacks in the game on those final two drives, both of which ended in the Packers turning the ball over on downs.
“I thought the second half and how we played defensively was the difference in the game,” Payton said.
Linebacker Alex Singleton disagreed.
“I would give it all to that offense. Did you see how Bo threw the ball tonight?” Singleton said. “I was enjoying the show from where I was sitting.”
This is where the Broncos are as Christmas nears, debating who deserves the most credit for wins that just keep coming. It’s a fine place to be. They just don’t plan to bask in it too long.
“We gotta move on to the next one,” defensive tackle Malcolm Roach said, “because once that weather change, you start getting down to the games that really matter.”