At 10-2, surging Broncos turn attention to AFC’s top seed: ‘It’s our moment right now’

LANDOVER Md In the ticks before the rep that d shape the winding path lying before them the Broncos heart and soul gathered his defense in the end zone at Northwest Stadium There was little complexity in linebacker Alex Singleton s message coming off a timeout Nobody needed a reminder of the stakes Calm down Singleton remembered telling Denver s defense before the Commanders do-or-die two-point conversion attempt Sunday night Relax They were hardly satisfied with their effort outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper scoffed postgame in smeared eye black that the Broncos looked like they d had a week off which they had None of that mattered in this miniscule sliver of time Make one play and contest s over Singleton recounted telling them Doesn t matter how we got here Just make this play and this encounter s over Did it matter how they arrived to that two-point conversion locked in an overtime battle with a - Commanders gang Sure That had no bearing on the seconds that followed as Nik Bonitto swatted away a Marcus Mariota pass like an amped-up kid on a Nerf hoop Did it matter they were diced up by Mariota on that drive a backup quarterback who punched above his salary Sunday Sure That had no bearing on the bright-orange jerseys chasing Bonitto across the field in glee after a - win a stream of goldfish swimming upstream towards something bigger Did it matter how they arrived at - a sequence of messy games producing a record that s temporarily tied for the best in the NFL Sure But these Broncos are here and there is nothing else to shoot for at this point than the top seed in the AFC and a first-round playoff bye I think there should be nothing else on our minds Singleton reported The Post after the challenge That s why winning like this matters This locker room has rarely been shy about acknowledging Super Bowl hopes dating back to training camp They re not shy about acknowledging their aim at a No seed now riding a nine-game win streak Head coach Sean Payton mentioned Monday he came off last week s bye focused on cleaning up a couple issues penalties turnover differential to improve Denver s shot at the highest practicable seed And when petitioned Sunday night if he felt the top seed in the AFC was realistic Payton responded that was the silliest question of the night We re competing for it Payton noted But certainly we respect the other teams in our conference But certainly we re competing for it The men who listened in within that final players huddle Sunday and who watched from the sideline know how rare this is Forget the Broncos general direction as a franchise for a moment as the Walton-Penner Ownership Group has handed out over million in offensive and defensive-line extensions across the last year and a half The -year-old Singleton has been on several teams that were nowhere close back in Philadelphia and across earlier years in Denver and was adamant Sunday night that the previous four years of Broncos teams didn t have the same widespread belief in each other that this one does -year-old defensive tackle D J Jones has been on a couple teams that were plenty close back in Super Bowl days with the San Francisco ers and knows there s no other option but all-in I mean you gotta shoot for that Jones informed The Post requested about the No seed If you don t shoot for that you don t got a chance to make anything of it It s our moment right now So we ve gotta take full advantage of it If not now when he was postured When Jones repeated It s a window for every crew Selected teams get hella windows You ve been on them he was postured Yeah Jones affirmed But we gotta win right now By any means Any and every means have played out across these games Particularly on the turf at Northwest against the Commanders The Broncos had a chance to tuck the meeting away early in the fourth quarter before Bo Nix otherwise excellent threw a pick directly to Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner They had the championship won in overtime after a touchdown drive on offense and a fourth-down tipped interception by Brandon Jones only for leaders to call the play back for pass interference on safety Talanoa Hufanga as Payton already had removed his headset They were outdone in net yardage and first downs and time of possession and their defense had key trouble containing Commanders tight end Zach Ertz catches for yards It hasn t been pretty And the locker room wasn t happy with the process on Sunday We know we gotta tighten up and we want to make this push for real defensive tackle Malcolm Roach reported The Post We gotta clean up the details and be better It s kinda getting to the point where we see what we gotta clean up and if we really want to accomplish what we want to accomplish we gotta be a lot better Related Articles Broncos-Commanders statement card Bo Nix Nik Bonitto provide exclamation marks in OT win PHOTOS Denver Broncos outlast Washington Commanders - in OT NFL Week Broncos survive wild OT beat Commanders - to run winning streak to nine games Renck Bo Show remains a hit especially in clutch but Broncos cannot keep winning this way Broncos downs Yo Denver haters nothing lucky about cancer survivor Alex Singleton helping seal Broncos th straight win The good news to Roach Greater part everyone s first reaction in the locker room postgame amid the smoke machine and thumping boombox and general raucousness of the Broncos Club Dub was to acknowledge they had stuff to clean up as Roach revealed Quarterback Nix echoed that from a postgame podium noting these Broncos goal was to make a deep playoff run We re clearly not there yet Nix declared They are in striking distance of that deep playoff run thanks to this nine-game streak The Broncos have won four games in a row by a field goal or less They ve won seven straight one-score games And the path ahead won t be any easier with four of their final five regular-season games against teams with winning records Gotta be desperate Jones mentioned repeating himself You ve gotta be desperate You ve gotta be desperate every night Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis