play0:25Theo Johnson catches tipped ball and goes in for 41-yard TDTheo Johnson catches the ricocheted pass and stiff-arms his way in for a 41-yard Giants’ touchdown.
play0:28Bo Nix punches in go-ahead TD to give Broncos leadBo Nix runs it 18 yards into the end zone to give Broncos their first lead of the game.
Jeff LegwoldCloseJeff LegwoldESPN Senior WriterJeff Legwold covers the Denver Broncos at ESPN. He has covered the Broncos for more than 20 years and also assists with NFL draft coverage, joining ESPN in 2013. He has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999, too. Jeff previously covered the Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans at previous stops prior to ESPN.Follow on XJordan RaananCloseJordan RaananESPN Staff WriterJordan Raanan covers the New York Giants for ESPN and can be heard hosting on ESPN Radio. Raanan joined ESPN in 2016.Follow on XOct 20, 2025, 12:33 AM ET
Wil Lutz drills 39-yard FG to seal Broncos’ comeback win (0:36)Wil Lutz kicks the winning field goal for the Broncos as time expires. (0:36)
Theo Johnson catches tipped ball and goes in for 41-yard TDTheo Johnson catches the ricocheted pass and stiff-arms his way in for a 41-yard Giants’ touchdown.
Bo Nix punches in go-ahead TD to give Broncos leadBo Nix runs it 18 yards into the end zone to give Broncos their first lead of the game.
DENVER — As the man in the vest, the one who keeps the clock for the network television broadcasts and lets the officials know when it’s time to restart the game, spun his arm to signify the start of the fourth quarter, the Denver Broncos were in a bad place Sunday afternoon.
They were mired in a multitude of mistakes on both sides of the ball, down 19-0 to the New York Giants, with few possibilities and even fewer reasons to hope.
The Giants had gained 292 yards on the usually stout Broncos defense in the first three quarters, with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart throwing two touchdown passes, The Broncos had punted six times on offense and had six possessions go for 21 or fewer yards.
“Not where you want to be,” Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said. ” … But at some point we’re going to go down and score, it may be too late, but at some point we’re going to go down and score … We scored a quick one in the fourth and it was like once we scored and got the two-point conversion, we knew how to play all of a sudden.”
After 45 minutes of zero points, the Broncos ended up with 33 in the fourth quarter, needing all of them to shock the Giants 33-32. Broncos reporter Jeff Legwold and Giants reporter Jordan Raanan provide a glimpse inside a wild final quarter that turned a sleeper of a game into a back-and-forth contest that saw three lead changes in the final two minutes and a walk-off, game-winning kick.
THE BRONCOS’ FIRST touchdown was far from conventional, as wide receiver Troy Franklin dove to catch a deflected pass in the back of the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown, putting Denver within 19-8 with 14:08 left in the fourth quarter. But perhaps in a show of karma, the Giants’ ensuing touchdown also came on a ricochet.
On third-and-17 from the Broncos’ 41-yard line, Dart threw a pass intended for wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson that Denver safety Talanoa Hufanga just missed. But the ball clanked off Robinson and into the air. Tight end Theo Johnson plucked it out of the sky in stride, moving from the right to left. He then raced down the left sideline and into the end zone for a 41-yard score.
Theo Johnson catches tipped ball and goes in for 41-yard TD
Theo Johnson catches the ricocheted pass and stiff-arms his way in for a 41-yard Giants’ touchdown.
That play put the Giants up 26-8 with 10:14 left, with them seemingly re-establishing control of the game. New York had a 98.9% win probability at that point.
Giants edge rusher Brian Burns: “It might have been a sense of getting a little comfortable. We had a decent lead, a nice-sized lead.”
The Broncos responded with 13-play, 74-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Nix and a 2-point conversion pass to Franklin to put the Broncos within 26-16 with 5:01 to play.
Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke: “You have a 13-play drive, 17-play drive, 19-play drive, whatever it is, regardless of altitude those drives start to weigh on you.”
Broncos coach Sean Payton: “Body language is important to me. It’s hard to do something like that if your body language isn’t right … we finally started making some plays.”
Nix: “We’re just resilient.It’s not easy mentally to continue to fight like that and put everything on the line. But there was really nothing to lose.”
DESPITE THE BRONCOS’ two touchdowns, the Giants had a 97.4% chance to win when they got the ball at their own 30 with 5:07 left. Two Cam Skattebo runs netted five yards, giving the Giants a third-and-5 with 4:56 left.
The Broncos brought seven men on the third-down play. They were playing man coverage, but inside linebacker Justin Strnad dropped into coverage at the last second. Dart wasn’t able to get the ball over his head. Strnad intercepted the pass and returned it to the Giants’ 19-yard line.
Strnad: “We sent some pressure at Jaxson (to) try and force his hand a little bit and he tried to sneak one by me. I think he just tried to fit it behind me.”
Dart: “My feet got a little stuck in the ground. I have to be way better than that. It’s unacceptable. Yeah, I have to be better.”
Payton: “When he first caught it I thought there was a 40 on their team. … It’s like a double whammy, not only do you get the ball, you get it there. That was probably the difference between winning and losing.”
The Broncos scored four plays later, on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Nix to rookie running back RJ Harvey. The following extra point cut the Giants lead to 26-23 with 3:51 to play, and the Broncos now had a 19.1% chance to win.
THE BRONCOS DEFENSE held the Giants to two yards and a three-and-out in the following possession. After Marvin Mims Jr. returned the punt to the Broncos’ 32-yard line, the Broncos had a bobble or two on offense, putting them in a third-and-11 from their own 32 with 2:14 left.
But Nix found Mims for a 31-yard gain to the Giants’ 38, then found tight end Evan Engram up the left sideline for 20 more two plays later. On first-and-10 from the Giants’ 18-yard line on the first play after the two-minute warning, Payton dug out a run play the Broncos had used last season against his old team, the Saints.
Nix sprinted around the left end on a QB sweep for the score and the Broncos went ahead 30-26, their first lead of the game, with 1:51 to play.
Payton: “We got man [coverage], we kind of saved that little crack series — we ran it a little bit in New Orleans a year ago, so [Nix] has got good enough legs. And if you watch the film, everyone on defense is on the right side of the field and you’ve got your left tackle and quarterback [on the left side].”
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II: “I don’t know [if we were gassed]. Can’t give up 33 points in the fourth quarter.”
Bo Nix runs it 18 yards into the end zone to give Broncos their first lead of the game.
THE GIANTS GOT the ball back at their own 35-yard line with 1:51 remaining. Plenty of time for their rookie QB to rebound to be the hero.
Dart: “I never felt like we were going to lose the game. I looked at the clock when they scored and said we have a lot of time left. And I had no doubt that we were going to go down there and score.”
The Giants looked to be in trouble. They were facing a fourth-and-19 with 1:08 remaining, but Dart found Robinson in the middle of the field for 19 yards. Tack on a roughing-the-passer penalty on Broncos defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers and the Giants were still in business.
The catch and penalty moved the ball to the Broncos’ 40-yard line, and on third-and-10, the Giants got another reprieve. Broncos cornerback Riley Moss was flagged for pass interference against Giants receiver Beaux Collins on the Broncos’ 2-yard line, a call that enraged Payton so much that he sprinted to the middle of the field to express his displeasure to the huddle of officials near the goal line.
The drive concluded with Dart taking a QB sneak 1 yard for the score with 37 seconds remaining. It was originally ruled down short of the end zone, but replay showed that Dart had dove and fully extended over the goal line before his knees hit the ground.
McAtamney: “First one was on me. Gotta make the kicks. Not gonna shy away from that. I’ll take full responsibility.”
THERE WERE 37 seconds when the Broncos took over on their own 23-yard line. Nix immediately found Mims for a 29-yard gain to move the ball to the Giants’ 48-yard line.
Daboll: “[There were] two double robbers sitting right there in the middle part of the field, different than what we did (in Week 2) at Dallas, man-to-man with two routers, they hit a cut and they didn’t look over their left-hand side.”
Okereke: “I think we anticipated the concept. They ran a deep dagger, the No. 3 and No. 2 receiver going vertical. And one ran a dig. They were trying to hit that dig. We had the dig covered. It was a tough play. The window, the in-breaker and the [No. 2] guy running forward, he kind of just fell in. It was bang-bang. Guys were there. They just made a play in a critical situation. That is what it takes to win games in this league.”
The Giants had rushed three on the play to Mims, with eight in coverage. That didn’t sit well with the players.
“Drop eight!” Burns said incredulously among a series of expletives as he walked through the bowels of the stadium towards the locker room.
A neutral zone infraction on Burns, who wasn’t able to get to the line of scrimmage before Nix spiked the ball to stop the clock, moved the ball to the Giants’ 43 with 18 seconds left. At that point Broncos kicker Wil Lutz said he began to think that might have to attempt a kick of 60 or more yards with the game on the line, so he had started to prep himself for that.
Lutz: “The weather today was incredible, so that helps, the conditions were awesome. I try to never put a number on it. We go 64 [yards], 65 each way in pregame to just kind of see where we’re at. Obviously, I’m not going to let pride get in the way here, you got to keep it straight. … We are kicking it no matter where it is. In that situation specifically, there was no line. We were going to give it a chance wherever the ball was when the clock called for a field goal.”