“I felt like it slipped away from us,” Nix said. “Got away. We made errors at the end that cost us. Started with my turnover and then felt like that’s when we kind of lost a little bit of our momentum. Lost a chance at at least three points there when you’re already [near] the red zone, if not a touchdown, if I just hit that pass. We played well for three quarters, but [we’ve] got to finish in the fourth against a good team like that.”<\/p>\n
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor broke free for a 68-yard carry on the next drive, the biggest play of a 215-yard performance from the running back. Still, the Broncos held the Colts to a field goal, and outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper nearly had an interception on third-and-8 as Denver brought pressure on Daniel Jones. Yet while the Colts were just 2-of-6 in the red zone on Sunday, the penultimate field goal brought them within two points.<\/p>\n
“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a few times,” cornerback Pat Surtain II said. “We didn’t capitalize and get off the field defensively like how we should’ve. It was just one of those games. In the NFL, you’ve got to win the close ones \u2014 find a way to win. We didn’t.”<\/p>\n
And yet, again, it seemed the Broncos had earned a win on their next possession. Running back J.K. Dobbins carried three consecutive times for a first down to start the drive. Nix found tight end Evan Engram for a first down to keep working the clock. Dobbins broke free for a 23-yard dash to push the ball to the Colts’ 25-yard line. Even after a pair of penalties, the Broncos still fought back to give Wil Lutz a chance at a 42-yard field goal. The kick, though, hit the upright.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, everyone’s got to look in the mirror and figure out what they can do better to help the team get over the hump there,” said tackle Mike McGlinchey, who emphasized the loss didn’t fall solely on Lutz or any one player. “There’s no way we should’ve lost that game. We had probably six or seven opportunities in the second half to end it, and we didn’t. Coach said it best after the game: You’ve got to learn to win. But in order to do that, you’ve got to stop losing. We gave that game away today.”<\/p>\n
The final example came on the last drive of regulation, as the Colts missed the kick \u2014 and then were given a second chance at a game-winning field goal. And instead of a second consecutive win to begin the season, the Broncos somehow left Indianapolis with a loss.<\/p>\n
“There will be a bitter taste in our mouth for a little bit,” Payton said, “and it’s because we put ourselves in a position to control that game late \u2014 and then it slipped out of our hands. It’s hard.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I felt like it slipped away from us,” Nix said. “Got away. We made errors at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[1010,232,231,258,60080,2426,7,17412,6,1004],"class_list":{"0":"post-369477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-aric-dilalla","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denver-broncos-at-indianapolis-colts-2025-reg-2","13":"tag-denverbroncos","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-game-day","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115207294499538421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}