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Jeff Legwold
DENVER — Bed Surtain II admitted he had lost hope.
The Denver Broncos hadn’t scored until the fourth quarter Sunday, trailed the New York Giants by 18 points with just over 10 minutes left and then by two with 37 seconds to go. But they somehow sprinted into the locker room at Empower Field at Mile High with a thrilling 33-32 win that left Surtain and his teammates amazed.
“We fought to the end,” Surtain said. “In this league, no matter how much you’re down, there’s always a will, and there’s always a way.”
Before Sunday, teams had lost 1,602 consecutive games when trailing by at least 18 points with six minutes to play. Denver, though, changed that with 33 points in the fourth quarter, its most in a quarter in franchise history and tied for the second most in a quarter in NFL history.
“I don’t even know how we scored 33 points in a quarter, that’s kind of insane,” Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said. “It’s just whatever we had to get done, we did it … By any means necessary.”
It marked the largest fourth-quarter comeback for a team that had not scored in the first three quarters in NFL history. And Nix became the first player in NFL history to rush for two touchdowns and throw for two in a final quarter.
The Broncos had made a significant mess of things on both sides of the ball that resulted in a 19-0 deficit at the end of the third quarter. Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart had been largely unhindered by the Broncos’ usually swarming defense, throwing for 210 yards and two touchdowns to that point. And the Broncos’ offense was forced to punt six times in its first nine possessions.
“We had to find a way to clean up our mess,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.
Things started to turn for Denver when Nix hit Troy Franklin for a 2-yard touchdown pass, then converted the 2-point conversion to make it 19-8 with 14:08 to play.
“I was thinking about how I was going to answer questions if we got shut out,” Nix said. “… Once we scored and got the 2-point conversion, it was like we knew how to play again.”
But the Giants answered. Tight end Theo Johnson took Dart’s deflected pass 41 yards for a 26-8 lead with 10:14 to play.
The Broncos answered with a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, then added a 2-point conversion to make it 26-16. And then, almost to a player, the Broncos said linebacker Justin Strnad came up with the play that made the improbable possible.
Facing a third-and-5 at their 35, Dart tried to sneak a pass over Strnad’s head, but he intercepted it and returned it to the Giants’ 19. The Broncos scored four plays later to cut the lead to 26-23.
And then things got really wild.
The Broncos forced a three-and-out, and Nix quickly finished a six-play, 68-yard drive with an 18-yard TD run that gave them a 30-26 lead with 1:51 to play.
But eight plays into the next Giants possession, a pass interference penalty on Denver’s Riley Moss in the end zone and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on an enraged Payton — who went to the middle of the field to express his displeasure with the officials — put the ball on the Broncos’ 1. The Giants then scored on a Dart sneak for a 32-30 lead with 37 seconds to play.
On Denver’s final possession, Nix hit Marvin Mims Jr. for a 29-yard gain and then Courtland Sutton for a 22-yard gain, setting up Will Lutz‘s 39-yard winner on the game’s last play.
“I’ve never been down by that much and be able to come back,” Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto said. “It was crazy. I’m still geeked.”
Giants captain Dexter Lawrence said the loss hurt even more than New York’s defeat to Dallas in Week, when the Giants took the lead with 25 seconds remaining in regulation but lost in overtime.
“Can’t give up 33 points in the fourth quarter,” Lawrence said.
A point of contention for the Giants seemed to be their defensive approach in the final minute. Brian Burnswhose two sacks upped his league-leading total to nine, came off the field yelling in frustration about rushing only three men and dropping eight into coverage on the 29-yard throw to Mims on Denver’s final possession.
“Drop eight!” Burns said among a series of expletives as he walked through the bowels of the stadium toward the locker room.
When asked about it afterward, Burns pursed his lips, turned his head away and declined to answer. Lawrence had an unusually long pause when faced with the same question.
“Leave that to the coaches,” he said.
ESPN’s Jordan Rain contributed to this report.
