Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos earned a 33-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints Thursday night football in Week 7. Here are five quick insights from the win.

1. Cody Barton had a day to himself: The journeyman linebacker finished the game with eight tackles, one sack, one pass breakup, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. He returned 52 yards for a touchdown. Barton also had a score canceled out by a defensive penalty earlier in the game. He was a key part of defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s roster.

2. The Broncos had a historic day on site: Denver finished the game with 225 rushing yards, the team’s best single-game total since 2013. Javonte Williams led the way with 14 carries for 88 yards and two touchdowns. Williams took on a hapless Saints defense and looked perhaps his best since his knee injury in 2022. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix also had a big day rushing with 10 carries for 75 yards. The only hiccup on the ground occurred when rookie Audric Estime recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter, marking his second career fumble after just his eighth career touch.

3. Ex-Saints came up big for the Broncos: Denver kicker Wil Lutz went 4-for-4 on field goal attempts and 3-for-3 on extra point attempts for 15 points. Broncos linebacker Kwon Alexander also started against his former team after being undrafted from the practice squad. The veteran linebacker had one tackle and recovered a fumble.

4. Bo Nix needs to calm down: Nix did a great job playing with his legs, and he looked calmer and more accurate once Denver built a lead, but he had an ugly start to the game. Nix seemed to have anxious feet in the pocket and he threw some ugly, inaccurate passes early. He also had a bad throw that should have been intercepted by Tyrann Mathieu just before halftime. Nix got better as the game went on, finishing the day with a 61.5% shooting percentage and no turnovers, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

5. That meant a lot to Sean Payton: Leading up to the game, Broncos players downplayed it as “just another game,” and Payton made no bones about facing his former team, at least not in front of the media. However, it was clearly an emotional night for the coach and the players had some extra motivation to win one for Payton in New Orleans. The evening couldn’t have gone better for Denver’s coach.