Defense bails out Broncos in OT win as Nix, offense struggle - ESPN

DENVER — With a 17-14 overtime win over the Seattle Seahawks finally in hand, Denver Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto was still trying to wrap his head around one of the numbers that told the story of the night.

The Broncos (4-2) had survived, somehow, despite the fact that the team's defense faced 82 snaps Thursday night in Empower Field at Mile High, just four days after a road win at the Los Angeles Chargers.

«82 snaps? Did I feel 82 snaps? Bro, every one of them,» Bonitto said with a tired smile.

The Broncos' defense sacked Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold five times, hit him 17 times and intercepted him twice, including once in overtime to set up Wil Lutz's 53-yard winning field goal with 4 minutes, 53 seconds left. It all enabled the Broncos to win even though Denver's offense finished with only 168 net yards and didn't have a drive longer than five plays on its last nine possessions of regulation.

The Broncos, without injured Pat Surtain II and Talanoa Hufanga, still had 12 different players hit Darnold at least once, believed by the team to be the most in an NFL game since at least 2006. It also was the second time this season the Broncos' defense had faced 82 plays (the Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Rams was the other) but this time it was on a short week.

«Defensively we were magnificent,'' Broncos coach Sean Payton said. „I don't know how many times we hit the quarterback, we got three takeaways.… The takeaways were huge… that was the difference, field position, all of that. They were fantastic.''

Said Broncos linebacker Justin Strnad: “We pride ourselves on being a dominant unit and we felt like we were that tonight. We knew we were going to get after [Darnold], that was part of the plan and we did that.''

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