The Denver Broncos offense was stuck in the mud all night long, failing to move the football on third down (2-for-12) and in the red zone (1-for-5), but when they needed their first and only touchdown the most, quarterback Russell Wilson came through with a 15-yard TD to receiver Courtland Sutton with 1:03 to go for a 21-20 victory. Sutton’s receiving touchdown streak was extended to five games, tying him for the third-longest such streak in team history. They ended up winning the turnover battle three to nothing, but had to settle for five field goals over the course of night until the final game-winning drive. Their defense halted the Vikings in their tracks on fourth-and-25 from their own 21 with 23 seconds left, forcing a Joshua Dobbs incompletion over the middle to seal the victory.
Wilson’s 38 game-winning drives and 30 fourth-quarter comebacks are both tied for the most in the league since 2012, the span of Wilson’s career, with Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
With the victory, Denver now has reeled off four wins in a row to get back into the AFC playoff race. It’s the team’s first four-game winning streak since 2016, the first season following their Super Bowl 50 victory. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense has made an unfathomable turnaround in 2023, allowing 17 points per game since Week 7 during their winning streak, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the fewest in the league. That’s as stark a contrast as it gets from Weeks 1-6 when they allowed an NFL-worst 33.3 points per game, including 70 in Week 3 road loss at the Miami Dolphins. Their 68 points allowed since Week 7 is two points fewer than those 70 points they surrendered in Week 3.
