Former Bronco kicker Brandon McManus has three field goals for Packers. Broncos’ killer Josh Jacobs opened second half with 40-yard TD run.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — To a great extent this wasn’t a huge game for the Broncos.

A marquee matchup, yes. A highly entertaining show, you bet.

But the Broncos and Green Bay Packers are nonconference opponents, so the outcome had little playoff tiebreaker implications. The Broncos held the No. 1 AFC seed going into the game and they will still be No. 1 if they lost the game.

But they kept score so you might as try to have more than the other team. Besides, this contest involved two playoff-bound teams who both had talented quarterbacks.

And a quarterback show it’s been so far as Jordan Love’s Packers, with help from running back Josh Jacobs’ 40-yard touchdown run and three Brandon McManus field goals, lead Bo Nix’s Broncos, 23-14 early in the third quarter on an incredibly sunny, unseasonably warm mid-December Sunday afternoon at packed Empower Field at Mile High.

It was a balmy 60 degrees at kickoff. The back-and-forth game had Love and Nix exchanging long completions and touchdown passes in the first half. Love, the latest in a great 25-year run of Packer quarterbacks after Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, had completions of 26, 26 and 29 yards, plus a perfectly thrown 14-yard touchdown pass to running back Josh Jacobs.

Nix completed a 42-yarder to Courtland Sutton and threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to Michael Bandy – the first-ever for the six-year professional – and  a 5-yard bullet to Lil’Jordan Humphrey. Bandy and Humphrey, who knew?

At halftime, Love was 17 of 22 for 215 yards and a 122.3 passer rating. Nix was 11 of 12 for 122 yards and two touchdowns for a 148.6 rating.

To open the second half, the Denver D — which allowed either a TD or field goal on their first five series — was victimized by a long Riley Moss pass interference penalty and then 40-yard scamper by Jacobs.

A former Raider, Jacobs’ 830rushing yards and 10 touchdowns vs. the Broncos is by far his best producation against any opponent in his career.

With New England blowing a 21-0 lead and losing 35-31 to Buffalo at home, the Patriots fell to 11-3. The Broncos, who hold the tiebreaker over the Patriots, will be either 11-3 or 12-2 after their game against the Packers.

Green Bay, which is trying to hold off Chicago and Detroit in the NFC North, entered the game 9-4-1.

The Broncos now have to pay attention to the Los Angeles Chargers for the AFC West title. The Chargers eliminated the Kansas City Chiefs from the postseason with a come-from-behind, 16-14 win at Arrowhead. The Chargers are now 10-4.

Tensions for this marquee snapped pregame. The Broncos were on the field for the pregame warmups when the Packers jogged on the field. Packers’ defensive end Rashan Gary was jogging along a couple yards inside his sideline, crossing in front of Broncos’ inside linebacker Alex Singleton.

Singleton took territorial offense and gave Gary a one-hand shove. Gary jogged back at Singleton and both sides went at it with pushing, shoving and jawing. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix wound up yanking Nik Bonitto out of the skirmish and pushed him back toward the field. Denver’s inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw was in the middle of it, of course.

Starting right tackle Mike McGlinchey was questionable to play because of shoulder pain that popped up following practice Thursday. He didn’t practice Friday and there was uncertainty as to whether he would play until he had an early on-field workout about 3 hours prior to the game. He played and started. …

The Broncos got the ball first, but the Packers compiled a whopping 251 yards in total offense in the first half. The Broncos had 170.