Hackett managing a close game? Wilson with a 4th-quarter comeback?

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Season- saving win? Nathaniel Hackett actually smiled for the international cameras as he watched those final seconds tick down before calling timeout. Russell Wilson nearly matched him, grin for grin. The flight home — and perhaps GM George Paton’s mindset at Tuesday’s trade deadline — just might’ve been flipped by the victory. And now we’ve seen it with our own tired eyes: Hackett managed a close game late. Wilson led a fourth-quarter comeback. Jolly good, chaps. Jolly good.

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Keep it simple: Please. It’s no coincidence that the simpler the Broncos make the offense, the more competent it looks. (It also doesn’t hurt when Russ finds KJ Hamler and Jerry Jeudy in the red zone.) Look no further than a nine-play, 98-yard touchdown drive. Rookie tight end Greg Dulcich accounted for 78 of those yards, with 38 coming on a seam route that the former UCLA star took all the way to the Jags’ 1-yard line. Dulcich averaged 21.8 yards on the first four times he got targeted.

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Dumb football, part I: The Broncos finally finding the end zone and then almost IMMEDIATELY picking up a delayof-game on the ensuing kickoff might be the most 2022 Broncos thing ever. The NFL average for delay of game flags called this season, per Nflpenalties.com, was 2.47 per team as of Sunday morning. The Broncos now have five. They had two — TWO! — all of last season. Dumb never rests.

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Dumb football, part II: K’waun Williams whistled for a low block on defense? Gentlemanly Justin Simmons flagged for taunting? Simmons flagged again, this time was for defensive holding? Pat Surtain II whistled for pass interference? And that was all on one Jags secondquarter drive. One. Drive. Thanks to a miracle — and Simmons’ leaping, acrobatic interception at the goal line — it didn’t lead to any Jacksonville points.