Initial thoughts from Broncos’ Monday night visit to Buffalo in Week 10 at Highmark Stadium:
1. Big Russ cooks: Russell Wilson just cooked Josh Allen in his own kitchen. And with arguably his worst throw of the night.
Social media is going to have a field day with Big Russ’ underthrown ball to Jerry Jeudy that set up Wil Lutz’s game-winning 36-yard field goal — on the second try.
But give the credit where it’s due: Wilson completed 24 of 29 pass attempts in one of the NFL’s most hostile environments (Although against a defense that’s pretty badly beat-up.)
Wilson didn’t just make good decisions on the move — he looked pretty light on his feet. Wilson’s 30 rush yards were his second-most in a road game as a member of the Broncos. And the stats matched the eye test, whether it was stepping up in the pocket to evade the rush or working the zone read with tailback Javonte Williams.
Broncos Country will rue having four drives that started in Bills territory that amounted to only six points. Big Russ ain’t back to his mid-teens form. But he’s turned back the clock, with a few exceptions, in almost all the right ways.
2. Mission Highly Improbable: How rare was Courtland Sutton’s piece of toe-drag magic for the Broncos’ first TD of the night? It darn near broke the NFL’s probability computer. According the league’s Next Gen Stats tracker, the completion had a probability rate of just 3.2%, making it the most “unlikely” touchdown since the NFL began tracking using the “Next Gen” system. His seventh score of the season set a new single-season high in TDs for the veteran wideout with eight games left on the slate. It’s also the first time Sutton has notched touchdown grabs in four straight games as a pro.
3. Moreau magic: It couldn’t have been as simple as just giving CB Fabian Moreau line up opposite Pat Surtain II, right? When it comes to the Broncos’ defensive turnaround since the middle of October, it sure looks that way. Moreau’s leaping interception of Buffalo’s Josh Allen late in the first half took the air out of the home crowd and set up a Broncos field goal to end the second stanza. Fun fact: In the 29-year-old Moreau’s first 10 quarters as a Denver starter, the Orange and Blue had given up just 34 points and three passing scores while picking off opposing QBs five times.
4. Gentlemen, start your engines!: Two extra-point whiffs? Yeah, that stung. But fire-drill props to special teams coach Ben Kotwica, who had the field-goal unit rocking like a pit crew at the Daytona 500 on the 40-yard make that ended the first half. With no timeouts, the Broncos got their kicking crew set to let it fly in just under 11 seconds, with Lutz’s kick leaving the tee with three ticks left on the clock before it split the uprights. It’s hard to imagine that kind of execution on the road, in a pinch, sticking the landing with similar crispness a year ago.
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