DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos are atrocious on offense, depleted on defense and shaky on special teams. All they do is find ways to win.
Ja’Quan McMillian intercepted Sam Darnold’s pass in overtime Thursday night and Wil Lutz kicked a 53-yard field goal that gave the Broncos a 17-14 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
The Broncos emerged from a tough six-week season-opening stretch with a 4-2 record despite an injury-riddled roster and a shaky quarterback, and the Seahawks (3-3) lost for the second time in five days. They also matched their loss total from last season, when they won their second Super Bowl title.
The Broncos won despite Bo Nix throwing for just 107 yards, J.K. Dobbins leading the rushing attack with a mere 41 yards and managing a meager three first downs and 168 yards of total offense — less than half the 353 yards piled up by the Seahawks.
“I don’t know why we can’t really push the ball vertically right now,” Nix said. “But defenses are just sitting back and hanging out. … Hopefully we find a way to get more out of it.”
Nix was as honest as he’s been to date in his postgame comments about Denver’s scuffling offense.
“We’re definitely capable, we’ve shown it,” he said. “And, you know I don’t know where the disconnect is right now, to be honest with you. … I just think we’re really, for some reason, struggling to find those explosive plays, and that’s what makes an offense really spectacular: Is finding explosive plays. And right now, we don’t have those.”
Denver’s depleted defense came to the rescue yet again, hitting Darnold 17 times and collecting five sacks.
“The quarterback’s getting hit way too much,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “Everybody sees that.”
“You’ve got to give credit to those guys,” Darnold said. “They’ve got a really tough defense, really good defense coordinator in Vance (Joseph).”
On Seattle’s opening drive in overtime, McMillian intercepted a pass intended for Rashid Shaheed at the Denver 43, the second pick of the night by Darnold, who completed 27 of 51 passes for 278 yards without a touchdown.
Those stats were better than Nix’s. He barely topped 100 yards on 17-of-27 passing after throwing for 123 last week in a tight win over the Chargers.
Jason Myers’ 34-yard field goal tied it at 14-all with 3 seconds left in regulation and capped an 11-0 Seattle run over the final 5 1/2 minutes. The Seahawks started their game-tying drive at midfield after a 31-yard punt return by Shaheed.
“No moral victories in the league,” Macdonald said. “It’s a bottom-line business, production business. But I’m proud of our effort. I’m proud of the resolve of the team. I’m proud of our connectedness of our team.
“However, there’s things that we need to get better at quickly, and we know those things; they’re within our control, and that’s what we do. We find solutions, and we get things figured out, we move forward, and we evolve.”
That’s essentially what Sean Payton was saying in the winning locker room.
“Defensively, we were magnificent,” said Payton, who acknowledged, “I’m a little bit of a realist to know that 4-2 could easily be 2-4.”
Denver appeared to have victory in hand when Kris Abrams-Draine intercepted Darnold’s pass at the Denver 30 with 1:25 left in regulation, but the Broncos burned just 15 seconds of clock before punting.
After scoring just three points on their first eight drives, the Seahawks put together an 11-play, 67-yard masterpiece that ended with running back George Holani scoring from a yard out. Darnold’s 2-point pass to Shaheed pulled Seattle within 14-11 with 5:41 left.
Dobbins had a 4-yard touchdown run and fellow running back R.J. Harvey took a direct snap and scored from a yard out on Denver’s next drive for a 14-3 halftime lead.
The Seahawks’ most promising first-half drive ended at the Denver 34 when Nik Bonitto punched the ball from Shaheed’s grasp and inside linebacker Justin Strnad recovered.
True to form
The Seahawks franchise fell to 19-30-1 in overtime and the Broncos improved to 33-23-2. That’s second-best in the NFL.
“It was a good win,” Payton said, “but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Injuries
Seahawks TE Elijah Arroyo left late in the first half with an apparent right shoulder injury sustained while diving for a fumbled ball.
The Broncos were without star CB Patrick Surtain II and starting safety Talanoa Hufanga, both out with ankle injuries. RB Tyler Badie injured a thumb in the second quarter.
Up next
Seahawks: Host the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 25.
Broncos: Host the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 25.
