The Denver Broncos' nine-game winning streak came down to the outstretched arm of pass rusher Nik Bonitto. In a wild, back-and-forth affair against the Washington Commanders on Sunday night, the Broncos pass rusher swatted a Marcus Mariota two-point pass attempt to a wide-open Jeremy McNichols to preserve a 27-26 overtime victory.
“Yeah, he kind of drifted back kind of far too, so I knew he was just kind of buying time, so at that point he was just trying to make a hard run and throw the ball, and I ended up knocking it down and ended up winning the game,” Bonitto said after the win, via the team’s official transcript.
The ending play came after the Broncos couldn’t slow Mariota and the Commanders offense, which marched 18 plays and 86 yards to kick the game-tying field goal to send the game into overtime, and executed an 11-play, 70-yard OT drive to set up the potential game-winner.
Bonitto nearly had the game-ending sack nine plays before the swat, but Mariota slipped out of his grasp and heaved a pass, forcing a defensive pass interference on safety Talanoa Hufanga.
“Yeah, I apologize to my teammates on that one,” the pass rusher said. “You know, I got the club on, and there's no excuse and I have to find a way to make the sack and grab them and finish them, but I'm glad we ended up still winning anyway on that.”
The club that hindered the sack got the swat.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton called a timeout before the two-point try, with defensive coordinator Vance Joseph switching the pressure look, which eventually got Bonitto free on the QB.
“It's kind of one of those Kodak situations where you want to just get a picture to see if they're going to come back and give you the same look,” Payton said. “It was a zero pressure. So Nik's the free rusher and the irony is the ball hit his club hand, but it was good play by him.”
Mariota, who had been slippery all evening, had McNichols wide open in the flat if he could have gotten the ball over Bonitto.
"The DC, Vance [Joseph], was doing a good job mixing up zero and showing zero [blitzes] and dropping out," Mariota said. "And then on the two-point, he brought zero -- I knew I had to try to get some depth and give our guy a chance. He made a play on it, and that's the way it goes."
The swat preserved the Broncos' nine-game winning streak and moved them into a tie with the Patriots atop the AFC playoff picture ahead of New England's Monday night tilt with the New York Giants. It marks the longest win streak for Denver in a season since Weeks 6-17, 2012 (11 straight wins), and is tied for the fourth-longest win streak in Broncos franchise history.
It’s not always pretty for the Broncos, who have won their last four games by a combined 10 points. Sunday, the offense sputtered at times, and the defense couldn’t get off the field late. But they keep finding ways to win games when the pressure is on.
"I was told a long time ago by one of my many offensive coaches that pressure is a privilege, and not many people get to be in that opportunity,” quarterback Bo Nix said. “So, if it's going to be me who gets this opportunity, I am going to make the best of it. It doesn't always go your way. Fortunately for us, it's gone our way in these games. Last year, we were on the opposite end of these close ones, so I understand what it's like to be on the other side of things. But you just, kind of, keep moving on, and you've got to have a belief that you're just going to find a way.”
Sunday night, they found a way with one final big swat.