Broncos confident they can bounce back after loss to Texans

Almost any NFL team that wins five straight games has to do a lot of things well and also catch a little bit of luck along the way.

Such was the case for the Broncos between Oct. 19 and Sunday, when they reeled off victories in all kinds of ways — last-second heart-stoppers, grind-it-out slugfests and convincingly powerful wins against Kansas City and Cleveland.

Perhaps underrated as a strong point for Sean Payton’s team in that run: The Broncos jumped out to a lead in all five games, allowing themselves to play from ahead and, thus, play exactly how they wanted to.

They led Green Bay 9-0, Kansas City 7-0 (and 14-3), Buffalo 9-0, Minnesota 3-0 and Cleveland 140. The only points the Broncos surrendered in the first quarter came on a field goal from Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and only the Vikings led at all in the first half.

The defense otherwise had come out of the gates humming, and the offense more or less figured out a way to put at least some points on the board early in games.

Until Sunday.

Houston rolled out to a 10-0 lead and racked up 178 yards to Denver’s 23 in the first 15 minutes.

“It was tough. We got down in the beginning, a few plays didn’t go our way and we got down, had to change up our plan from what we wanted to do going in,” Denver center Lloyd Cushenberry said. “… We’ve just got to come out flying early.”

Against Houston, the defense started with a three-and-out but then gave up 13 points on three possessions. It gave up completions of 27 yards to Brevin Jordan on the first of that trio of drives, 52 to Nico Collins on the second and 59 to Collins on the third.

Meanwhile, the Broncos offense generated just two first downs over their first four drives and finished all of them by punting. They mustered just 48 yards over those possessions before finally managing 56 and a Wil Lutz field goal with 1 minute, 24 seconds left in the first half to put their first points on the board.

such clear postseason implications, particularly when they’d been talked about, acknowledged and even embraced all week. There’s no such thing as silver linings for teams in the hunt this late into the season, but the most productive way to channel that frustration now is to ensure it’s not a repeat problem and to take confidence from knowing that, as bad as the first part of the game went, they still had several chances to win it late.

Broncos players, for their part, said the fight from 1-5 to 6-5 gives them confidence that they can put the loss behind them and get on another winning streak.

“We’re still in the middle of everything and we’re still in a decent spot,” Cushenberry said. “We’ve just got to take care of business these next five games.”

The chore, of course, is figuring out how and why all three phases started so slowly.

“We let a guy run free early in the game on a punt rush,” Payton said. “Defensively, we’re off the field in a red-zone situation and we let a rookie bait us into a personal foul. That’s four points. Instead of finishing that game needing a touchdown, we’re kicking a field goal to win. Offensively, we talked about it: communication. Communication has to improve, especially on the road. Too many snaps where guys aren’t ready, or we didn’t get the shift, or we didn’t get the call.

“That’s troubling, especially this time of year.”

So, too, is going 0-of-11 on third down. And failing yet again to do anything with the first possession of the second half. And throwing three interceptions in your final four drives. And missing a shift on the game’s deciding play.

There’s plenty to go around from Sunday’s winning streak-snapper.

“All year long we’ve said we’re a tough group, resilient group. We’ve shown that,” Cushenberry said. “These next five games, it’s put up or shut up.”