John Fox during the second quarter against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. (Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)
Denver Broncos head coach John Fox got to celebrate a giant 35-24 comeback win in his hometown of San Diego. A homecoming doesn’t get much better than that.
Fox stood in the locker room after the game with his players surrounding him.
“Remember, if we can ever put 60 minutes together, what we can be,” Fox said. “We’ll take ‘W’s’ anyway we can get them, but we’ve still got to figure out how to put 60 of them together. Game balls to everybody who made this trip.”
Cheers rose from his players who put up 35 points and a defensive shutout in the second half of a nationally televised game against the Chargers.
Imagine the possibilities, though. A full game of good Broncos football. In the first six games, the Broncos have been outscored 98-42 in the first half. However, the Broncos have outscored the competition 79-6 in the fourth quarter.
The Broncos attempted late-game comebacks against the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, and New England Patriots, but the Broncos lost by 6, 6, and 10 points, respectively in those contests after being down by 20, 20, and 24 points in the second half.
“We showed a lot of fight and resilience early in the season by coming back on teams, but we didn’t seal the deal,” Champ Bailey said. “In this locker room at halftime, everybody still felt like we could win, and you could tell the confidence flowing through the locker room, and we showed it out there in the second half.”
Monday night’s comeback proved to be a different story than the other three weeks. The comeback started earlier which is what made all the difference.
“When you looked at it, they had about 150 yards total offense and it was 24-0, so we kind of presented that to the football team,” Fox said about what he told the team at halftime.
It was the second coming of the Denver Broncos after the halftime speech.
“I’ve been a part of some comebacks,” Peyton Manning said. “You have to have all three phases kind of contribute. Everybody kind of has to do their part. You have to have a tipped ball or a bounce go your way.”
That’s exactly what happened. The Broncos opened the second half with a touchdown strike to Demaryius Thomas. Then four forced turnovers by the Broncos defense unveiled the beginning of the stunning comeback.
CB Tony Carter scooped up a fumble and took it 65 yards for the score. He also added an interception. CB Chris Harris got in on the act with his two interceptions, one of which he ran in for the score.
“You don’t do that very often, especially against a pretty good football team,” tight end Jacob Tamme said. “It shows the type of heart that this team has.”
A full game of Broncos football would be downright scary for the rest of the league.
“Right now, up until now, after six games, we got the second half figured out,” Fox said. “Now we’ve got to get the first half figured out.”
It’s the perfect team goal heading into the bye week. The drawing boards are up, and the Broncos will reevaluate with energized hearts.
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