“Listen, we knew they had good speed,” Payton said. If the Dolphins are a Jaguar, the Lions are a Lambo, especially on Ford Field’s fast track. But, Lord help ’em, they can’t keep up with the swifter ones. It’s the NFL’s worst-kept secret: The Orange & Blue can bang with any roster in the circuit. 7 seed because of nights just like the one that fried our retinas in the Motor City.īecause what kryptonite is to Superman, speed is to the Broncos. The 7-7 Broncos are brash but blemished, the sort of team the AFC elite are secretly rooting to see crash the party as a No. The frustrating part of the sequence is that Payton’s Obi Wan Kenobi got absolutely lapped by Dan Campbell’s Anakin Skywalker. You’ve got to make that clear and obvious and get that done (in the red zone).” You can’t leave that up to a judgement call. “I don’t know that it had any bearing on the outcome of the game, but yeah, you’ve got to punch that in. “Yeah, that was tough,” Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey said of the Lions’ 42-17 whupping. With his 7-6 team in the middle of a playoff chase.

The frustrating part of the sequence is that, although Payton had 15 minutes and change left to play with, instead of throwing a red flag, the man threw in the towel. With 46 seconds left in the third quarter.Īgainst an offense that your defense had shown few signs of stopping.