Sean Payton Keeps Broncos Grounded After Miracle Win vs. Giants

Once the magnificent sugar rush wears off, the Denver Broncos insane fourth quarter rally against the New York Giants will inevitably give way to the sobering reality that they stunk up the joint for a full three quarters of play on Sunday.

If only the 33 fourth quarter points Bo Nix and Co. combined to tally could have been spread out over the whole game - then just maybe nobody would be inclined to grumble that much.

But as things stand, head coach Sean Payton is abundantly aware that the review on those three scoreless quarters is going to be pretty difficult, all things considered.

“You’re telling me what’s happened, and I’ve lived it… I keep getting my hair cut, and it gets greyer. I feel you. There’s no redemption. It’s just the next week, the next challenge," Payton mused after the jaw dropping 33-32 win.

"There’s relief, but as a coach, there’s like… Oftentimes when you lose, there are a ton of good things that took place that you can build on. Then it’s not unusual when you win that there are a ton of things that need [to be] cleaned up. We’re going to enjoy today, but tomorrow is not going to be as pleasant. It can’t be or we’re just fooling ourselves.”

Coming back from the dead apparently sent sections of the Broncos locker room into somewhat of a daze, and while that's pretty understandable, running back J.K. Dobbins was a lot more hyper-focused and fairly critical of his team's overall performance.

“I would have to look at the film to tell you that. We just can’t have that. We won the game but that’s unacceptable," Dobbins said. "Maybe (with) a really good team, we don’t do that, and we get blown out. We got to be better on offense. We’ll go back to the drawing board and instead of putting up 33 points in the fourth quarter, we’ll spread it out.”

During the build up to the Broncos astonishing record breaking comeback, Nix had declared how much he liked going uptempo, but Payton seemed a little reticent.

Indeed, Payton immediately pushed back from the podium how the offensive misfires through 45 minutes of action could have been solved by going uptempo far earlier.

Oct 5, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton looks on in the second half against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Instead, Payton expressed the opinion that they got the kind of chunk plays they were missing previously, and how it started to turn the narrative on its head.

“We got the first score we needed. Then obviously, we get into two-minute offense. I don’t want to hear about tempo all right, but I think we made enough plays in a short period of time," Payton said. "That was part of… You can’t just have a long two-minute drill touchdown. We had chunks, and the final play to [Courtland] Sutton was a play we installed yesterday."

"It was you get in those fastball situations with however much time left in the clock, no timeouts. We walkthroughed it, went through it, and sure enough, it came up, the hash, everything. The two of those guys made a great play, throw and catch, put us in field goal range, obviously more realistic field goal range."

"That's why you keep working. But there’ll be M.E.s [mental errors], there’ll be poor snaps, there’ll be just a number of things that we’re going to see that when tomorrow comes. It’s not tomorrow yet, but when tomorrow comes, as coaches in a team, I just told them. I said, ‘We’re going to play in bigger games, so let's not get clouded by that.’ It was a great win, good team effort to fight back. Tip your hats to New York, those guys have found a new juice about them, and you can see that on tape.”

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You could even say that necessity being the mother of all inventions just happened to ring true, especially when the Broncos found themselves mired in a 19- 0 as they moved into the fourth quarter.

Nix certainly caught fire, but he made no mention of being freed up to make things happen; it was definitely more as if that they’d had no other option. So instead, the Broncos signal caller insisted that they chipped away at things much more incrementally as the clock kept on winding down.

“There is a time in the game where me and the boys are over there, and I see one of them kind of counting. I’m like, you know what, it’s probably best we don’t do that because that is a lot of numbers you have to count to," Nix revealed. "Let’s play one play at a time."

"Sure enough, we all smiled, nodded and just went on to the next play and on to the next drive. We went down and scored and kept making plays, kept making plays, kept making plays. Everyone got into a good rhythm. We felt like we were in a good spot there in the fourth quarter. Even when we scored to take the lead, we had to go do it again."

Oct 19, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) makes a pass during the first half against the New York Giants at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

"We are just resilient. We have a resilient group, and it’s impressive to win a game like that. It is not easy mentally to continue fighting like that and put everything on the line. There is really nothing to lose. It’s tough, but we have a tough team.”

Once the dust settles on a game which is sure to be immortalised forever by NFL – those who were there to see it will be far more inclined to say, "never again".

Even through his grin, Payton sounded as though he's leaning more toward being in the "let's never do this again" camp, but at least the relentless competitive grind of the league will ensure that the focus must shift almost immediately to future challenges.

“It’s the thing that we didn’t do a good job with a year ago. When we won, we won. We were in a lot of close games and they went the other direction," Payton admitted. "Then there’s still two out there—two field goals out there. That’s our game a little bit. That’s the reason it’s popular. That’s the reason television does so well. The system is set up in a manner to create that. Then you have to figure out ways to get the edge."

"Then it becomes a little contagious. You kind of begin to feel like you’re in every game. I can think of five or six, and I wasn’t smiling. [OLB Nik] Bonitto told me to smile. I said, ‘All right, I’ll smile.’ I just think there’s a lot of work ahead."

Take a deep breath folks; because this comeback for the ages could provide some timely answers all told, and it also could be a huge springboard for future success.

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