Run game, defense power Broncos in OT win against Seahawks - ESPN

DENVER — In a season in which the Denver Broncos' offense has struggled mightily to construct many scoring drives, let alone big plays, they used just enough small ones to grind out a 17-14 overtime victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night in Empower Field at Mile High.

In coach Sean Payton's second game since he took back playcalling duties from offensive coordinator Davis Webb, the Broncos put together a 16-play drive for their first touchdown of the game — their longest drive of the season — to go with a nine-play, 79-yard touchdown for their second one. Denver then survived without another scoring drive.

Payton has preached a need for a reduction in «calories» in the offense as well as more physicality in the run game to make life easier on quarterback Bo Nix. All while the Broncos' defense, which was without All-Pro Pat Surtain II and safety Talanoa Hufanga in the secondary, continued its quarterback-harassing ways. Denver had its second consecutive game with five sacks and an overtime interception from Ja'Quan McMillian.

The Broncos ran it more than they threw it in the Week 5 win against the Los Angeles Chargers and had the scale tipped squarely toward the run game most of the night against the Seahawks — 26 runs compared to 27 pass attempts before Wil Lutz kicked the winning field goal.

«It's special, that's what we sign up for,» Lutz said. «If you don't want that moment, you're not made for it. You kind of saw how the game was unfolding and the chance it was going to come down to the field-goal unit.'»

The victory might not have been suitable for framing, given the Broncos didn't score after the first quarter and had to survive an 11-point fourth quarter from the Seahawks, but it was enough by the