The Denver Broncos have set a new NFL standard for close-game success, beating the Carolina Panthers 26-21 in Week 9 to extend their streak of one-score wins started by Bo Nix to 16 straight games.
That breaks the previous mark held by Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes, which came during the 2023-24 seasons and included the playoffs. It is a notable milestone, but it also comes with an asterisk of sorts: the Broncos keep winning these tight games, and Sean Payton made it clear that not all of them should have been that close.
What the streak means
Payton said, “Part of it pisses me off,” and added that “there’s a few of them that you would say shouldn’t have been one-score games.” His point was simple. Denver has found a way to finish, but the team has also left room for cleaner wins.
That is the broader story of Bo Nix’s early NFL run. He was criticized after a narrow Broncos win over Seattle in overtime in mid-October, when Ryan Fitzpatrick said, “It was really frustrating to watch” and called the quarterback’s play “almost disrespectful to the quarterback position.” But Denver’s results keep pointing in a different direction.
Nix keeps finding answers late
Against Carolina, Nix led two fourth-quarter scoring drives in the 26-21 win. He finished with 237 passing yards, two touchdowns and six completions on seven attempts for 72 yards in the fourth quarter alone. It was his 13th career fourth-quarter comeback, and it fit the pattern Denver has built around him.
Last season, Nix had five fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives. The Broncos were down to the final stretch again on Sunday, but the quarterback said the message in the huddle stayed the same: “It seems like it’s always the same feeling,” and, “There’s always a look in the huddle like, ‘Hey, guys, we don’t have a choice right here, and we gotta go make something out of it.’”
He also said, “Today, those second-half touchdowns were really, really important,” and explained that he tries to be “extremely aggressive when I get the opportunities.”
A record, and a reminder
The Broncos’ 16 straight one-score wins started by Nix now stand alone in NFL history. That is the headline, and it matters because records are not usually built this way: not by blowouts, but by repeated late-game execution, a few breaks and enough poise to finish.
At the same time, Payton’s comments suggest Denver knows the streak does not tell the full story. The Broncos lost by double digits to Kansas City in Week 1, and Payton still sees plenty of room for improvement. As he put it, “we still have some work to do.” For now, though, the numbers are the numbers, and Bo Nix and the Broncos own the league’s new one-score benchmark.
