The Broncos’ season has been a study in late-game comebacks and never giving up. Denver is prolific at it: the Broncos tied a franchise-best record with 14 regular season wins and captured the AFC’s top seed thanks to recording comeback wins in the double-digits — a historic pace.
That made the ending of AFC Divisional Round matchup between the Broncos and visiting Buffalo Bills more than fitting; it felt, even with the reigning MVP on the opposing sideline, like a formality. The Broncos squandered a 23-10 lead that they built in the third quarter and trailed by four points in the middle of the final frame, only for quarterback Bo Nix to lead a poised go-ahead drive that culminated in a beautiful throw from Nix to Marvin Mims Jr. for a Broncos lead. The Mile High crowd loved it and may have already been rearranging their calendars for the AFC Championship Game, but the game had other plans.
A position I’ve adopted is that comebacks themselves aren’t all that engrossing: the Patriots’ rally from down 28-3 in the Super Bowl is more meme than astounding feat to me. When a team has ALL of the momentum on their side, even with a significant deficit, the outcome can feel inevitable. Unpredictability is one of the reasons why sports is entertaining in the first place, and as any Patriots detester can tell you from that Super Bowl, the Patriots’ Super Bowl rally felt like an airport conveyor belt to another Tom Brady Super Bowl ring rather than a roller coaster.
The Bills-Broncos certainly doesn’t fit into that category, given that both teams staged significant comebacks in the game, but I appreciate that the intrigue didn’t just end with Nix’s throw to Mims. In the final minute of regulation, Bills quarterback Josh Allen worked his playoff magic to advance the Bills into field-goal range — though a would-be game-winning touchdown pass to an open Dawson Knox was off-target and probably would have ended the game right there. In overtime, it’s all Buffalo, too, until the game takes another turn when cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian pries the ball free from the hands of Bills wide receiver Brandin Cooks (who might have effectively ended the game if he had caught the ball or even just maintained simultaneous possession). Nix seized the opportunity and led the Broncos into field-goal range, setting up Wil Lutz for the game-winning field goal in overtime.
Thanks to the Broncos’ digital media team, I had the opportunity to take in the sights and sounds of that back-and-forth battle from the press box and write on my first-ever NFL playoff game. As the Broncos digital media intern in 2023, I gained experience working behind the scenes and with a byline in NFL environments, but I did not fathom at the time that it would result in coming back two years later to contribute on game days and join for a playoff run. It turned out to be quite a day. This is how the day unfolded, from the pregame haircut all the way to the postgame shower.
8:30-9:15 AM – Wake up/breakfast/haircut
You may be surprised to know that I woke up at 8:30 AM on a Saturday. I still am a bit, too. But I had three activities on my itinerary that I wanted to make sure I included in my schedule before I departed for Empower Field in Mile High: a much-needed haircut, a workout at the community gym and a pregame hangout with my fiancee Mandy, who is a massive Broncos fan. After a nice oatmeal breakfast, I drove a mile down the road to the Great Clips branch near me to finally check the haircut off my to-do list. I opted for a shave of the sides and back of my head and a clean-up up top, a pretty standard option for me that primed me for a fun day ahead.
9:15 AM-10:15 AM Gym Workout
I immediately drove back to my neighborhood post-haircut and fit in a workout at my neighborhood gym. Typically, I’ll go to a gym chain with massive locations after work on weekdays, but the neighborhood weight room fit my schedule well while also providing plenty of options for exercises. I’m not training for a specific event or race, but I’m in a stage of experimenting with different lifts and gradually increasing weights around a range of targeted muscles. This time around, I hit bicep curls, dumbbell push presses, dumbbell lateral raises and barbell back squats. The weights felt comfortable but still gave me a lot of bang for my buck for a 40-minute workout.
10:15 AM – 12:00 PM Get ready and hang out with Mandy
The treat on top was heading over to Mandy’s apartment, where we caught up on our previous nights (I covered an Avalanche hockey game for the Guerilla Sports media brand, while Mandy caught up with college friends). Mandy was already in full Broncos mode with her John Elway throwback jersey and new Broncos sweatpants, while I was geared up in my light blue suit and orange bow tie (the same outfit I wore to my first Broncos regular season game back in September 2023!). Mandy was very confident in the Broncos’ chances and had a nachos dinner lined up with her parents for the game.
12:00 PM-1 PM: Commute to Mile High
Mandy and I took pictures of our respective game-day fits with my new camera before we drove off to our respective destinations. Traffic was not oppressive on the Denver highways, but the roads inside the stadium complex took some time to navigate as a steady stream of Broncos and Bills fans prepared to tailgate and enter the stadium. I carefully navigated my designated parking lot, which had plenty of tailgaters and corn hole games set up, and parked in a spot with a great view of the stadium. Commute secured and completed, I grabbed my college backpack and descended down a hill toward the entrance of Empower Field at Mile High.
1 PM-1:45 PM: Walk Around Mile High
For the first time in Broncos history, every game-time kickoff temperature sat at above 60 degrees. That was not the case for the playoffs, though the mid-40s felt fitting for January football. The weather also did not dissuade me from getting in my steps around the stadium. I’ve enjoyed walking around the concourses, watching warmups and talking to fans before Broncos home games in my capacity as a contributing writer on game days. It’s a terrific chance to settle in and take in the aspects of the game day experience that writers in the press box don’t experience as acutely from behind the glass windows.
I did not see fellow warmups-watcher George Lucas on the sideline, but I nevertheless enjoyed my time in the lower bowl. The Broncos’ stadium staff placed orange towels in each cupholder to help make the home-field advantage even more of an advantage, a nice touch that gave the stadium more of a playoff feel. I enjoyed seeing so many younger fans finding their seats with their families, though my favorite moment was in a section beyond the south end zone: a man using his phone to snap a picture of a printed photograph of what I assumed to be a deployed family member or friend. What a cool connective moment, even from afar.
1:45 PM-2:30 PM: Pregame Meal and Preparing for Kickoff
The press box was bustling with activity when I arrived, with a contingent of national reporters fitting in alongside writers and broadcasters from Buffalo and Denver. The press box lunch buffet was REPLETE, and I filled my plate with rice, yogurt, breadsticks, some other assorted goodies and a cookie that had the NFL Divisional Round logo printed on them. I had no idea what flavor the NFL logo tasted like, but this situation seemed as good a time as any to try. I brought my plate to my seat in the second row of the press box and took in the pregame festivities while chatting with the Broncos’ talented graphic designers.
2:30 PM-4 PM: First Half
Not all that much happened in the first half of the Broncos-Bills game relative to what would unfold in the next three quarters. An Alex Singleton forced fumble on NFL rushing leader James Cook helped Denver thwart Buffalo’s offensive advances, and offensive tackle Frank Crum catching the first pass of his career for a touchdown (his first catch in the pros, in college, in high school and even, he later confirmed, youth football). The most interesting bit of the half came in the last minute, when Denver scored a touchdown, forced a fumble from Josh Allen on a scramble and positioned Wil Lutz for a 50-yard field goal at the halftime buzzer — all in less than a minute of regulation. 20-10, Broncos at the half.
My efforts in video posting and live blog updates took some time to get going as well as my laptop encountered issues with poor connection, but when the game started heating up, the laptop turned its afternoon around and worked without a hitch. I did not discount Josh Allen and the Bills’ feared offense, but a 10-point lead was significant in a game in which the visitors had to overcome the Mile High City altitude and the Denver defense.
4 PM-6:30 PM: Second Half and Overtime
The Broncos added both another forced fumble and another field goal to their running tally to start the third quarter, but Buffalo mounted a comeback and took the lead heading into the fourth quarter. With Bo Nix at the helm, I felt a real sense and confidence that a comeback from a four-point deficit was still on the table. While not a perfect offensive performance, Denver moved the ball well and Nix was on point, especially in deep passing compared to Josh Allen. Sure enough, the Broncos raced down the field in the final minutes of regulation and scored on the Nix-Mims connection. According to the official Empower Field at Mile High social media account, the reaction to that play was the loudest the stadium reached that afternoon: a booming 122.5 decibels. That shook even the press box with its closed windows, and even the most impartial of journalists couldn’t help but smile at just how wild the game had become.
The Bills made a real run at stealing the game with an answer of a drive of their own, but Allen’s pass to Dawson Knox took a potential touchdown off the board. But Buffalo kicker and former Denver kicker Matt Prater still nailed a long field goal to send the game to overtime, and after a Broncos punt on the first drive of overtime, the Bills received the ball with momentum and needing only a score to win the game. Just like they’ve done all season, the Broncos delivered with their fifth takeaway of the day and the game-winning drive from Nix and Lutz. The short Lutz field goal was a no-doubter, but the reaction was seismic nonetheless. We rushed to head down to ground level as the celebration in the home locker room commenced.
6:30 PM-7:15 PM: Locker Room Access
With so many of the Broncos players earning the first playoff win of their professional careers, the tone was as thrilled as I’d witnessed after any of the games. Frank Crum giddily recalled his touchdown and his reaction when his number was called for the play call, while P.J. Locke beamed at the defense’s outburst of turnovers. Reigning Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II kept his usual even keel, but the team accomplishment clearly meant a lot to him.
I returned up the elevator to the press box to get the site ready and write my article, which would be on the defense’s takeaways, only to hear Broncos coach Sean Payton return to the podium on the press conference live feed, which played on the press box TVs. Bo Nix broken ankle. Surgery Tuesday. Done for the season.
Wow. The row I sat in was in shock — the injury was almost as newsworthy as the game. I felt for Bo, who won 15 games in his sophomore year amid a lot of criticism and played one of his best games in his first-ever playoff win. Jarrett Stidham, the Broncos’ backup quarterback for the past three seasons, was next man up. What a change of events and an example that in the NFL, even the most joyful of celebrations is fleeting and can be dashed in an instant.
7:15 PM-10:30 PM: Postgame Posting and Writing
I caught up on posting the game’s many highlights, then received my assignment from the Broncos’ lead writer, Aric. My topic, the takeaways, had some terrific quotes to work with from both Payton and the Broncos’ defenders. I hoped to make the most out of the press box access by describing the scene of the most pivotal of those takeaways, McMillian’s interception, and emphasized something I’d never seen before: the crowd absolutely silent thinking Cooks caught the ball, then erupting when McMillian flashed the football after making the play.
My final article was one of my longest of the season, but I had a blast putting the pieces of the puzzle together and finding interesting ways to infuse the action with description and voice. Interestingly, this was the second straight Broncos game in which I wrote about the defense’s takeaways, and even wilder, the second straight game in which the main focus was Ja’Quan McMillian intercepting a pass. Like the headline quote said, perfect timing on these huge plays.
10:30 PM-11:15 PM: Drive Back Home and Shower
I departed Empower Field at Mile High pretty late (the NFC Divisional Round matchup between the Seahawks and 49ers had already ended), but the work night was complete. I originally had video editing for a Wizards-Nuggets game on my slate as well, but the overtime period and busy postgame period shifted those plans around. I drove down a much less crowded highway, arrived back home and took a deep breath. Would the final football in Denver live up to the Saturday matinee? I was eager to find out.
Riker's Block 