Broncos Head coach/offensive play-caller Sean Payton dug deep into his tricks during Sunday’s loss to Baltimore and pulled out a treat: the unofficial “Denver Special.”

In which wide receiver Courtland Sutton threw a touchdown to quarterback Bo Nix, who made a leaping, contested catch over a Ravens defender — the only time they crossed the paint in a humiliating 41-10 blowout.

After the game, Payton hung up the call to an inquiring media.

“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “They play zero-funnel coverage. It can get complicated. We have a series of zero-funnel knockers, but one of them, the guy who technically doesn’t get the attention of humans, is the QB. But if you don’t get zero-funnel, then check for another game. We have the right image. I wouldn’t have called it if I knew it would have been that close. They did a good job. Courtland made a good throw. It was a tight goal.”

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Although it was a losing effort, Nix set one more piece by NFL History Payton’s draft made him just the third QB ever to receive a passing TD, a rushing TD and a TD during his rookie season.

“We called it at the right time,” Nix said of the trick play. “We knew they were going to be in a zero chute, and the guy made a good play of pulling back and falling behind, and Courtland looked pretty good again on that play.”

Nix finished the afternoon 19 of 33 for 223 yards and one interception, adding 36 yards through the ground and two through the air. The Broncos fell to 5-4 this year, but remain as the seventh seed in the AFC playoff.

Next up is a road date with the 7-1 Kansas City Chiefs – the division rivals’ first meeting in 2024.

“As a young team you have to find ways to not let this happen again,” Nix said Sunday. “As an older team, with guys who have been around for a long time, they can just flush it. Move on to the next one and start playing. But I think we really need to look at this and see why it happened and try to fix our mistakes , so that it doesn’t happen to us again, otherwise we will end up in the same situation again.”

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