DENVER — Pat Surtain II admitted he had lost hope.
The Denver Broncos hadn’t scored until the fourth quarter Sunday, trailing the New York Giants by 18 points with just over 10 minutes left, then by two with 37 seconds left. But they somehow sprinted into the locker room at Empower Field at Mile High with a thrilling 33-32 victory that left Surtain and his teammates stunned.
“We fought until the end,” Surtain said. “In this league, no matter how far behind you are, there’s always a will and there’s always a way.”
Before Sunday, teams had lost 1,602 consecutive games while trailing by at least 18 points with six minutes remaining. Denver, however, 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 one quarter, it’s kind of crazy,” Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said. “It’s just everything we had to do, we did it… By any means necessary.”
It was 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 two in a final quarter.
The Broncos had made a big mess on both sides of the ball that resulted in a 19-0 deficit late in the third quarter. Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart had been largely untroubled 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 on its first nine possessions.
“We had to find a way to clean up our mess,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.
Things started to change 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 left.
“I was thinking about how I was going to answer questions if we were cleared,” Nix said. “…Once we scored and got the 2-point conversion, it was like we knew how to play again.”
But the Giants responded. Tight end Theo Johnson scooped up Dart’s deflected pass 41 yards for a 26-8 lead with 10:14 to play.
The Broncos responded with a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, then added a 2-point conversion to make the score 26-16. And then, almost like 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 attempted to throw 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 savage.
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 Giants’ next 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 midfield to express his displeasure with the officials — put the ball on the Broncos’ 1. The Giants then scored on a sneak Dart for a 32-30 lead with 37 seconds left.
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 game-winner on the final play of the game.
“I’ve never been down so much and I’ve never been able to come back,” Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto said. “It was crazy. I’m still a geek.
Giants captain Dexter Lawrence said the loss hurt even more than New York’s loss to Dallas last week, when the Giants took the lead with 25 seconds left in regulation but lost in overtime.
“I can’t give up 33 points in the fourth quarter,” Lawrence said.
A point of contention for the Giants appeared to be their defensive approach in the final minute. Brian Burns, whose two sacks brought his total to nine, came off the field screaming in frustration for rushing only three men and leaving eight in coverage on the 29-yard toss to Mims on Denver’s final possession.
“Drop eight!” Burns said amid a string of curses 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 refused to answer. Lawrence paused unusually long when faced with the same question.
“Leave that to the coaches,” he said.
ESPN’s Jordan Raanan contributed to this report.
