Now that the Broncos’ season has come to an end, it’s time to look back at how the team improved throughout the year, the key victories that defined their run, and how their journey ultimately ended just one game short of the Super Bowl.

Going into this season, nobody really expected much out of the Broncos. They ended last season in a first round exit to the Bills in a 31-7 loss, and an overall record of 10-8, and people expected much of the same going into this season. But oh how wrong everyone would be. 

The season didn’t start out so hot, though. The Broncos started with a 1-2 record, winning their first game against the Titans, and then losing to both the Colts and Chargers in back to back games. After this, the team would start to get hot, with a dominant win over the Bengals, then a victory over the Super Bowl champions, the Eagles, followed by a dominant performance over the Jets and a comeback win over the season after winning a 26-8 game with 6 minutes left in the game. 

Overall, the team would go on a 11-game win streak before losing to the Jaguars. The team wouldn’t lose their momentum, however, as they then proceeded to beat the Chiefs and avenge their loss to the Chargers, propelling them into the playoff with a 1st round bye. Boom, just like that a team that was average at best had transformed into a top 5 champion contender, seemingly overnight. 

However, the close wins and difficult games had just begun. Now that the weak teams were out of the way, the Broncos would be truly tested against the best teams in the league. Many people expected this to be the team’s downfall. Despite this doubt, however, the opposite would happen. The Broncos first challenge was the dominant Bills, a team which was gunning for a ring this year, and they showed it. The Bills had the Broncos in the first, ending the quarter 7-3, and then in the second, they proceeded to give up 17 points. 

Now, they did kick a field goal, so the game was only 10-17 going into the third, and both teams kept up the momentum with the Broncos being up 23-17 into the third, and this is when the Bills kicked it into high gear. The Broncos scored 7 in the 4th, but they couldn’t keep up with the Bills, who scored 13, sending the game into overtime. This is when it happened. The most controversial play of the Broncos whole season- the interception from Ja’Quan McMillian on Bradin Cooks. Now many people say this was a catch, but it wasn’t; it was an interception because he got the ball away from the receiver before he hit the ground. 

In the end though, no matter how controversial it was, it didn’t matter, because the Broncos secured their spot in the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. However, this is when the bad news broke. On the second to last play of the game against the Bills, Bo Nix broke his ankle. This meant that despite winning the game, the Broncos were almost guaranteed to lose to the Patriots. That injury is what could be the difference between a Super Bowl, or just another playoff team, and the worst part was that the inexperienced Jarrett Stidham was put in the most important role of his career. Stidham would have to be the difference-maker now. In spite of the negativity and hate, this couldn’t stop him from giving his all as he went out and played a solid game. 

Broncos head coach Sean Payton stated, “I thought he fought hard in tough conditions. I think we’re going to look at the film. I know this. I’m going to look at it and be critical of myself, and I think there were a number of things that we just had to do better.” 

Now admittedly, the Patriots are a great team, and were deserving of an AFC championship appearance, but in reality, the Broncos should have won. The most surprising part of this game was easily Jarrett Stidham. In only his 4th career start, Stidham threw for 133 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception on 17 completions for 31 attempts. This showed a lot of people that he could be capable of starting on a bad team like the Raiders or Jets and still have remote success. 

Given all the success that the Broncos demonstrated in a shortened playoffs run all due to an injury, I don’t think it’s crazy to say that next season, they have potential to not only make it all the way to the Super Bowl, but to go all the way and close the deal.