The Denver Broncos don't always make it easy on themselves, but far more often than not this season, they've won. That can't be said about plenty of teams that have been touted as Super Bowl contenders this season.
Sunday night's Broncos game wasn't unlike many of Denver's previous 11 contests. The defense was good. The offense had some good drives and then disappeared for a few at a time. The running game never got in a rhythm. Bo Nix made some great passes and some alarming ones. And when time was up, they were shaking hands at midfield as a winner.
The Broncos moved closer to winning their first AFC West championship since 2015, but it wasn't easy against the Washington Commanders. After Denver's offense couldn't put the game away in the fourth quarter, but after Washington tied it in end regulation, the Broncos had a quick scoring drive that ended with a touchdown run by rookie R.J. Harvey. The defense gave up a touchdown after that, but stopped a 2-point conversion when Washington went for the win, when Nik Bonitto knocked down a pass that was likely going to be a score. Denver escaped with a 27-26 overtime win.
DENVER WINS NINE IN A ROW! 🤯pic.twitter.com/4GeC32uSbC
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC)December 1, 2025
Other teams might look prettier this season. But there are only two teams remaining this season with only two losses. Denver (10-2) won't apologize for that. You can still win in the NFL by playing stellar defense and grinding out close games.
Denver gets a challenge
Many of the top teams in the NFL heading into Week 13 took on bad losses. It was clear early in Sunday night's game that the Broncos were going to be in a tight game despite taking on an opponent who is well out of theplayoff picture.
The Broncos settled for two short field goals to start the scoring, then Washington got the first touchdown on an 8-yard Chris Rodriguez Jr. run right through the middle. The Broncos led 13-7, scoring a touchdown on a great pass from Nix to Courtland Sutton. On the the play, Nix delivered a fantastic pass right before his leg hit the ground, but that lead didn't last long.
Treylon Burks, the former first-round pick of the Tennessee Titans famously drafted with the selection the Titans got in the A.J. Brown trade, made one of the catches of the year. In the corner of the end zone, with Broncos cornerback Riley Moss all over him, Burks hauled in a touchdown with one hand, drawing immediate comparisons to Odell Beckham Jr.'s famous one-handed catch when he was with the Giants.
TREYLON BURKS CAUGHT THIS 🤯(via@NFL)pic.twitter.com/cJevNUuNRA
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports)December 1, 2025
OBJ showed love for Treylon Burks WILD one-handed TD 🙌pic.twitter.com/3hOADSw4jp
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports)December 1, 2025
The Commanders, at 3-8 coming into the game and without quarterback Jayden Daniels, led the Broncos 14-13 after Burks' spectacular play. The Broncos had a 9-2 record coming in, but they didn't look at all dominant for most of the first three quarters. That happened to a lot of the so-called best teams in the NFL this week.
Broncos can't put game away vs. Commanders
The Broncos have a stifling defense and an inconsistent offense, and that leads to plenty of their games being ugly. Denver took a 20-14 lead and it seemed like maybe it could start to lean on Washington at that point and cruise to a comfortable win. That didn't happen.
Nix had a terrible interception in the fourth quarter, seemingly never seeing linebacker Bobby Wagner over the middle and throwing it right into his chest. That immediately gave Washington some life, though the Commanders got only a field goal out of the gift.
The Broncos needed one big drive in the fourth quarter to put the game away and couldn't do it. Their four fourth-quarter drives ended in an interception and three punts. The Broncos put trust in their defense to win the game, but eventually Washington moved the ball. Given three minutes to get a field goal, Mariota made some big passes, including one on fourth-and-6 to keep the game alive, and Jake Moody hit a 32-yard field goal on the final play of regulation to send the game to overtime.
Washington elected to kick off to start overtime — the strategy of how to handle that with the new regular-season overtime rules has been debated, but in this case it gave the Denver defense a much-needed rest — and the Broncos' offense came alive. A 41-yard pass from Nix to Evan Engram set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Harvey. That forced Washington to score a touchdown or the game would end. There were plenty more theatrics to go.
The game seemed to be over on a fourth-down interception, but the game continued on a defensive pass interference penalty on Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga. Denver made absolutely nothing easy on itself Sunday night.
The Broncos caught a break. On a touchdown to Terry McLaurin, rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. was called for holding. Instead of a touchdown, it was third-and-14. But Mariota, who played very well against a good defense, came back and hit Deebo Samuel for 38 yards to the 2-yard line. A run play was stopped for a loss, then Mariota threw two incomplete passes including one to Zach Ertz that he had in his grasp but couldn't haul in. On fourth-and-goal, Mariota hit McLaurin for a touchdown, and Washington went for the 2-point conversion.
Bonitto came up huge to knock down Mariota's pass and Denver had the win.
It wasn't the type of dominating performance you'd expect for a 10-2 team, but it was a win.
