LANDOVER, Md. — In the ticks before the rep that’d shape the winding path lying before them, the Broncos’ heart and soul gathered his defense in the end zone at Northwest Stadium. There was little complexity in linebacker Alex Singleton’s message, coming off a timeout. Nobody needed a reminder of the stakes.
Calm down, Singleton remembered telling Denver’s defense, before the Commanders’ do-or-die two-point conversion attempt Sunday night. Relax. They were hardly satisfied with their effort; outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper scoffed postgame in smeared eye black that the Broncos looked like they’d “had a week off,” which they had. None of that mattered, in this miniscule sliver of time.
“Make one play, and game’s over,” Singleton recounted telling them. “Doesn’t matter how we got here. Just make this play, and this game’s over.”
Did it matter how they arrived to that two-point conversion, locked in an overtime battle with a 3-9 Commanders team? Sure. That had no bearing on the seconds that followed, as Nik Bonitto swatted away a Marcus Mariota pass like an amped-up kid on a Nerf hoop. Did it matter they were diced up by Mariota on that drive, a backup quarterback who punched above his salary Sunday? Sure. That had no bearing on the bright-orange jerseys chasing Bonitto across the field in glee after a 27-26 win, a stream of goldfish swimming upstream, towards something bigger.
Did it matter how they arrived at 10-2, a sequence of messy games producing a record that’s temporarily tied for the best in the NFL? Sure.
But these Broncos are here, and there is nothing else to shoot for — at this point — than the top seed in the AFC and a first-round playoff bye.
“I think — there should be nothing else on our minds,” Singleton told The Post, after the game. “That’s why winning like this matters.”
This locker room has rarely been shy about acknowledging Super Bowl hopes, dating back to training camp. They’re not shy about acknowledging their aim at a No. 1 seed now, riding a nine-game win streak. Head coach Sean Payton said Monday he came off last week’s bye focused on cleaning up a couple issues — penalties, turnover differential — to improve Denver’s shot at the highest possible seed.
And when asked Sunday night if he felt the top seed in the AFC was realistic, Payton responded that was “the silliest question of the night.”
“We’re competing for it,” Payton said. “But, certainly we respect the other teams in our conference. But certainly, we’re competing for it.”
The men who listened in within that final players’ huddle Sunday, and who watched from the sideline, know how rare this is. Forget the Broncos’ general direction as a franchise for a moment, as the Walton-Penner Ownership Group has handed out over $500 million in offensive and defensive-line extensions across the last year and a half. The 31-year-old Singleton has been on several teams that were nowhere close, back in Philadelphia and across earlier years in Denver, and was adamant Sunday night that the previous four years of Broncos teams didn’t have the same widespread belief in each other that this one does.
30-year-old defensive tackle D.J. Jones has been on a couple teams that were plenty close, back in Super Bowl days with the San Francisco 49ers, and knows there’s no other option but all-in.
“I mean, you gotta shoot for that,” Jones told The Post, asked about the No. 1 seed. “If you don’t shoot for that, you don’t got a chance to make anything of it. It’s our moment right now. So we’ve gotta take full advantage of it.”
If not now, when, he was postured.
“When,” Jones repeated. “It’s a window for every team. Some teams get hella windows.”
You’ve been on them, he was postured.
“Yeah,” Jones affirmed. “But we gotta win right now. By any means.”
Any and every means have played out across these 12 games. Particularly on the turf at Northwest against the Commanders. The Broncos had a chance to tuck the game away early in the fourth quarter, before Bo Nix — otherwise excellent — threw a pick directly to Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner. They had the game won in overtime after a touchdown drive on offense and a fourth-down tipped interception by Brandon Jones, only for officials to call the play back for pass interference on safety Talanoa Hufanga, as Payton already had removed his headset. They were outdone in net yardage and first downs and time of possession, and their defense had significant trouble containing Commanders tight end Zach Ertz (10 catches for 106 yards).
It hasn’t been pretty. And the locker room wasn’t happy with the process, on Sunday.
“We know we gotta tighten up, and we want to make this push for real,” defensive tackle Malcolm Roach told The Post. “We gotta clean up the details, and be better. It’s kinda getting to the point where – we see what we gotta clean up, and if we really want to accomplish what we want to accomplish, we gotta be a lot better.”
The good news, to Roach? Most everyone’s first reaction in the locker room postgame — amid the smoke machine and thumping boombox and general raucousness of the Broncos’ “Club Dub” — was to acknowledge they had “stuff to clean up,” as Roach said. Quarterback Nix echoed that from a postgame podium, noting these Broncos’ goal was to make a “deep playoff run.”
“We’re clearly not there yet,” Nix said.
They are in striking distance of that deep playoff run, thanks to this nine-game streak. The Broncos have won four games in a row by a field goal or less. They’ve won seven straight one-score games. And the path ahead won’t be any easier, with four of their final five regular-season games against teams with winning records.
“Gotta be desperate,” Jones said, repeating himself. “You’ve gotta be desperate. You’ve gotta be desperate every night.”
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