After clicking into rhythm in the fourth quarter a week ago, Sean Payton’s offense kept humming on Sunday against the Cowboys, hanging a 44-24 win on a shoddy Cowboys defense as Denver improved to 6-2. Here’s The Denver Post’s report card from the day.
OFFENSE — A
The only leash that could stop the Broncos on Sunday was their own. The Cowboys were down three members of an already-inept secondary in Denver, and Payton responded with an onslaught of sucker punches that never let up.
The ideal version of this Broncos offense came to life on Sunday, as fits and starts over seven weeks gave way to a largely clean end-to-end game. Yes, Bo Nix had a head-scratching pick on Denver’s first drive. Yes, Courtland Sutton dropped a touchdown in the third quarter. But in sheer operation — no messy personnel groupings, no Payton timeouts to iron out a call — Nix orchestrated affairs with cold precision, finishing 19 of 29 for 247 yards and four touchdowns in dicing up soft Cowboys coverages. Payton refused to get cute with complicated red-zone concepts, calling for three straight carries on one second-quarter goal-line sequence, and the Broncos’ run game responded with a collective 180 yards. An all-around beauty.
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DEFENSE — A
Sure, the Cowboys still moved the ball well on several occasions, but little felt easy for a league-best Dallas offense. And the Broncos earn high marks in particular here for withstanding a couple of injuries to Pat Surtain II, as their star cornerback didn’t come out of the locker room after halftime with a shoulder injury and then was quickly downgraded to out for the game.
CB2 Riley Moss continued to step up both opposite and without Surtain, finishing with six tackles and four pass deflections as the Broncos held Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in check. Vance Joseph’s defense continued to make massive plays in massive spots: an end-of-first-half pick by rookie Jahdae Barron, a crucial couple of sacks by John Franklin-Myers and Zach Allen. Up 20 points early in the fourth quarter and needing a stop to seal the Cowboys’ fate, reserve outside linebacker Dondrea Tillman provided the nail in the coffin: a diving pick that he chugged back for 38 yards, a gutsy return on a gutsy day for Joseph’s unit.
SPECIAL TEAMS — B+
The Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin had a couple of decent kickoff returns on Sunday, but coordinator Darren Rizzi’s units largely kept the Cowboys under wraps and freed up Marvin Mims Jr. for perhaps his best performance of the year in the return game. Mims got loose for one 46-yarder off a third-quarter kickoff, bouncing off a couple of tackles. Rookie RJ Harvey, too, earned his kickoff-return duties back after seeing them stripped in Week 7. Good stuff here.
COACHING — A
This was Payton’s best performance of the year, full stop. At halftime, Dobbins had 51 yards on seven carries and five different Broncos had at least two targets. There wasn’t an ounce of let-up in the second half, either, as Payton was dialing up deep fade balls for Evan Engram up 37-17 with seven minutes left. The screen game was working. The run-pass distribution was working. The trickery — a direct snap in the second quarter to RJ Harvey — was working. This was a kitchen-sink game for Payton, and an end-to-end masterclass in play-calling and game flow. Joseph’s defense pulled off a tour de force, too, in holding the Cowboys to a single second-half touchdown without Surtain.
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