Broncos vs. Eagles was Denver’s Biggest Win Since Super Bowl 50
Sunday’s Broncos vs. Eagles game–and the Broncos win–was the biggest victory since Super Bowl 50, basically a decade ago.
Damn, time really does fly.
And back then, the No Fly Zone didn’t let anyone pass the ball on them.
Since Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have missed the playoffs every year until last year, Sean Payton’s second in the Mile High City. And after their win on Sunday, these Broncos are definitely going back to the postseason this year.
Broncos vs. Eagles was Denver’s Biggest Win Since Super Bowl 50
There were no playoff games for the Broncos since Super Bowl 50 until last year, when they lost to the Bills in blowout fashion, but Sunday’s Broncos vs. Eagles game was like a playoff contest.
Denver rolled into Philly against an undefeated Eagles team. Not only were they 4-0 this year, but they’d won 10 straight games and 20-of-21.
Fly, Eagles Fly. High!
The Broncos, on the other hand, lost two games on the final play already this year. And they were 2-7 in one-score games dating back to 2024.
Payton’s improved the Broncos, sure. Going from bad to mediocre was easy. But going from mediocre to great? That’s another thing entirely.
Great teams beat other great teams, even ones that are better than them. Mediocre teams find ways to lose to great teams.
Yes, Denver was riding high after the beatdown of the Bengals on Monday Night Football. But Cincy was without Joe Burrow. That was a game the Broncos had to win.
Beating the Eagles? Forget about it.
Basically everything was going against the Broncos when they landed in Philadelphia. The Eagles were white-hot, Denver isn’t good on the road for 11 a.m. MT kickoffs, and the Broncos hadn’t beaten anyone worth a damn in years.
But Sean Payton led them to the biggest win in a decade.
Defensive Domination by Denver
Three years into the Sean Payton Era, and it remains ironic that the Broncos are a defensive-first team.
And Denver’s dominant defense was on display on Sunday.
They completely shut down Saquon Barkley, who had a 2,000-yard season last year. They–Patrick Surtain–shut down A.J. Brown, who was so upset he tried to steal the last gasp Hail Mary from Devonta Smith’s hands. They even shut down Jalen Hurts on the ground, and threw him to the ground six times.
Just like 10 years ago, these Denver Broncos are led by a monstrous edge rusher in Nik Bonitto, who racked up 2.5 sacks and leads the NFL with 7 so far this season. Bonitto not only has the speed and power to rush like Von Miller, he took two passes to the house last year, too.
Bonitto is this team’s Von Miller.
All told, Denver had five guys sack Hurts, including slot cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian on a brilliant rush that dropped all four defensive lineman into coverage.
One of my favorite calls of the week so far. Broncos showing everyone at the line of scrimmage, just to drop the 4 interior guys and bring both DBs off the edge. Saquon redirects to pick up Hufanga, but McMillan is a free runner and gets the sack
— JP Acosta (@acosta32jp.bsky.social) October 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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Damn, Vance Joseph. That was beautiful.
What Denver’s D did to the Eagles was spectacular. They forced seven punts on the day and held Philly to 2-11 on 3rd downs. And with the game on the line, the defense held strong, forcing three straight 3-and-outs to keep the offensive momentum going.
This team will go how the defense goes all year long.
Bo Nix and the Offense Finally Came Alive
Even though Nix and Co. brutalized the Bengals only six days before, they were awful to start the Broncos vs. Eagles game.
OK, they did take an early 3-0 lead, but followed that with six straight punts and fell behind 17-3.
Denver’s offense was desperate and broken once again. It was a mix of too-conservative play calling by Payton and a lack of execution by Nix.
The young QB drifted too far back on one 3rd down, allowing the EDGE to sack him for a 13-yard loss, out of field goal range. On another 3rd down, Nix completed a pass but short of the chains.
Nix has earned the nickname “checkdown merchant” due to his penchance for throwing the ball short. As Ted Nguyen put it in The Athletic Football Show two weeks ago, the Broncos have no intermediate passing game. It’s all short or deep shots.
Even after the Eagles opened the second half with a touchdown drive, Nix and the O couldn’t answer.
lol what an absolute joke.
Shit throw by Bo, the route wasn’t even run to the sticks. Just terrible offense.
Desperate and broken: That’s what the Denver Broncos offense was a few weeks ago, that’s what it is again today.
[image or embed]— Tariff Tim and the “Groceries” (@sportsballitics.bsky.social) October 5, 2025 at 1:18 PM
At that point, Broncos vs. Eagles was over. Done. Put it to bed, Denver’s dropping to 2-3.
But then, somehow, the Broncos offense rose from the dead.
Nix dinked and dunked down the field, and J.K. Dobbins ran the ball in from 13 yards out. The Broncos had life!
After a Philly 3-and-out, the offense rode the momentum of their first successful drive of the day. And this time, FINALLY, Nix threw some intermediate passes and they worked. He hit Evan Engram for 14 and Courtland Sutton for 18 yards. Then, on 3rd and 15, connected with Sutton past the sticks and let him run into the red zone. Then, Nix found Engram in the middle of the field and the new tight end made a miraculous dive to score.
Sean Payton’s gutsy 2-point call
But none of it mattered without Sean Payton’s great, gutsy 2-point conversion call. Down 16-17 with 7:36 to play, most coaches would tie the game up with a PAT. Not Payton.
He dialed up a conversion attempt and a beautiful play from Nix to Franklin for 2.
And the two-point conversion is good. 👀
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 5, 2025
📺: @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/XM8x50plTl
“Well, number one, we felt situationally with time left on the clock. We came here to win a game and I had two or three calls that I loved,” Payton explained of why he went for 2. “So, sometimes you use those calls inside the five, but we got to a call that I had a lot of confidence in and the guys executed. It was perfect. But we felt–I think there were seven and a half minutes. Let’s do that. Let’s keep being aggressive…”
Hell yes, coach. Well done.
Going for 2 there was huge for that particular game–now known as “Philly 2-for-won”–because the Eagles weren’t just tied late, they were trailing. It put the pressure on them to find a way to score.
Going for 2 also proves they can do it again if need be later this season.
And it showed that Payton is willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if that means taking the big risk over the easy points.
Beating the world champions in their house, in a game no one expected the Broncos to win, is exactly the kind of confidence-boosting win this team needed. And it came at the perfect time.
Denver won while every other AFC West team lost on Sunday.
Now, at 3-2, the Broncos face an incredibly easy stretch of five games against mediocre and bad teams.
They face the Jets (0-5) this Sunday in London, then the Giants, Cowboys, Texans and Raiders. Combined, they have a 6-18-1 record (.250 winning percentage).
Denver has a legitimate chance of running the table and improving to 7-2 by mid-November with the Chiefs coming to town.
While Broncos vs. Eagles was a one-score game Denver finally won, the Chiefs are now 0-3 in one-score games this year. Their mojo seems to have completely run out. Travis Kelce is beyond washed, they have no O-line, and their best playmaker is still suspended for driving 119 MPH and injuring 6 people.
The Chefs could easily go 1-3 between now and the showdown at Mile High, and the Chargers face some tough teams in the near term too.
If there was ever a time to build a lead in the division, this is it.
Of course, that’s what great teams do. Mediocre teams find ways to lose.
Something tells me Payton’s Broncos will use this win to propel them forward through this easy stretch and the entire season.
Other big wins since Super Bowl 50
Since Super Bowl 50, it’s been rough going in the Mile High City. Like driving a Toyota Prius up a mountain pass; they weren’t equipped for the job.
Denver’s on their sixth head coach during that 10 year timespan which included three different 5-win seasons.
There definitely were a lot of stinkers along the way.
- The 51-14 drubbing at the hands of the LA Rams on Christmas Day in 2022.
- A 48-19 ass-kicking by the Bills in Dec. 2020.
- A 51-23 whoopin’ put on by the Eagles in Philly in 2017. Of note: That was also at 11 a.m. MT and the last time Denver played there before this win.
- Honorable mention: 2016 Christmas Day loss, 33-10, to the Kansas City Chiefs that helped eliminate the Broncos from the playoffs.
Broncos vs. Eagles in 2025 is without a doubt the biggest win for the franchise in 10 years. But there have been a few other big games. Unsurprisingly, they came under Payton’s watch.
Buffalo in 2023
Russell Wilson led a late-game comeback win over the Bills in Buffalo, which included Courtland Sutton’s toe-tapping catch in the end zone.
That’s a TD. 🙌@SuttonCourtland | 📺: ESPN
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 14, 2023
pic.twitter.com/zaG23qCKWa
The Bills actually marched back down and took the lead in that game, though, and it took a 2-minute drive by Wilson, capped by a Wil Lutz field goal to win 24-22.
Chiefs in 2023
That Bills game came two weeks after the win over Kansas City. Going back to 2015 (yet again) the Chiefs beat the Broncos 16 straight games leading into that Oct. 2023 game. But Payton led his Broncos to the 24-9 victory in arguably the worst game in Patrick Mahomes’ career. He threw two picks that day and was sacked three times.
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