For the first time in the 2023-24 season, and for the first time in the Sean Payton era, the Denver Broncos have won a game! The Broncos defeated the Chicago Bears on the road, at Soldier Field, by a score of 31-28, after trailing by 21 points in the third quarter.
The Broncos were up 7-0, then, the Bears scored 28 unanswered points, and finally, Denver scored 24 unanswered points, and secured the dub with a Kareem Jackson interception.
The Broncos have scored at least 30 points twice this season.
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 1, 2023
They never reached 30 points in the Nathaniel Hackett era. (They had 31 points in Week 18 last year with Jerry Rosburg as head coach.)
Denver has as many 30+ games in the last 3 weeks as it did in the previous 26.
With that being said, let's take a look at the biggest takeaways from the game ...
1. Russell Wilson played great, especially in the second half:
Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson had a great game, and as mentioned above, his second half was great. He had his second 3-touchdown game of the season. Russ and the offense had a great first drive, which ended in a Jaleel McLaughlin 18-yard touchdown. It was a screen pass from Wilson. Following that touchdown in the opening offensive drive, the offense struggled a little bit. They had only that TD drive in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they had three drives, but all three were destroyed by flags.
Denver started the second half on offense, but once again, a flag demolished the drive. With four minutes and 11 seconds, the Broncos had their second drive of the second half, which ended in a Brandon Johnson 4-yard touchdown. Then, Russell Wilson had another huge drive which ended in a 13-yard touchdown by Courtland Sutton. Additionally, Wilson led the Broncos to a game-winning drive, with less than three minutes to go in the fourth quarter. He had a 48-yard pass to rookie Marvin Mims in that game-winning drive.
Wilson and the offense scored three touchdowns in their three red-zone trips, he had no turnovers and finished the game with the following stats ...
- 21/28 completions/attempts
- 223 passing yards
- 13 rushing yards in four carries
- 3 passing touchdowns
Wilson has nine passing touchdowns in four games, just for you to get an idea, his 9th touchdown pass last season was in the 14th game of the season ...