DENVER — When all of the goals and objectives the Denver Broncos have in this season felt like they hung in the balance Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, it was the team’s most decorated player — cornerback Pat Surtain II — who came to the rescue with his first interception of the season.
“That’s why he is who he is, he always comes through in the clutch for us,” Cooper said. “That’s why he’s the best player.”
Surtain’s interception came with 12 minutes, 46 seconds left in the third quarter when the Broncos trailed by nine points and the Packers had scored on their first five possessions. After the play by the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the Broncos outscored the Packers 20-3, held them to 34 net yards passing in the second half and went on to a 34-26 victory in Empower Field at Mile High.
The team’s 11th consecutive win clinched the Broncos (12-2) a playoff spot, kept them on the inside track to be the AFC’s No. 1 seed and was their 12th consecutive victory at home over the past two seasons.
“That who he is, that’s what he does, that’s what we see every day,” said defensive tackle Malcolm Roach. “That’s just Pat.”
“It was huge, I think a play like that … just gets some adrenaline, gets some emotion back in the game,” said Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who finished with 303 yards passing and tied a career best with four touchdown passes. ” … Man, he went after that football and got it and that’s when I kind of felt like it kind of started to fall back on our side, the momentum did.”
Surtain missed three games earlier this season with a pectoral injury, the longest stretch he said he had missed at any level of football. He returned for the Broncos’ Week 13 game against the Washington Commanders and had been flagged three times combined in those first two games back.
With the Packers at their own 19-yard line to open their second possession of the second quarter, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love tried to test Surtain against one of the Packers’ fastest receivers, Christian Watson, deep down the middle.
Stride for stride with Watson, Surtain leaped as the ball arrived to win the battle for it at the Broncos’ 29-yard line.
“Obviously, it was a pivotal situation, we needed to make a play,” Surtain said. ” … I was like ‘We got to find a way’ … same formation look they threw a deep pass to him, [earlier in the game] and it was overthrown. I kept my leverage, played high and made a play on the ball.”
Surtain said he believes he is rounding back into form after the return from injury. His fellow starting cornerback, Riley Moss, had his first interception of the season as well Sunday.
“I feel like some people were trying to write me off couple games, I just had to bounce back and find my way through and that’s what I do,” Surtain said. ” … We’re not a finished product; we still got a lot of work to do and that’s the scary part. … I just feel like we got a lot more work to do and just correct some things, but man this team is going places, and I can feel that.”
