Before the Broncos turned Patrick Mahomes upside down in Week 8 and shook him like a snow globe, No. 15 was Showtime.

He’s been Redbox ever since.

Mea culpa, VJ. I was wrong. We were wrong. Broncos Country wanted a scapegoat for that 70-burger in Miami. Your office was the closest to the sacrificial altar.

And if the wonks who vote on NFL Assistant Coach of the Year are paying attention, that baby oughta be your to lose, Vance. You got it right. Sean Payton got it right. George Paton got it right. Greg Penner got it right.

Instead of shedding blood, the Broncos shed disgruntled veterans. Instead of blowing up the bathroom, they retiled the shower. Every little tweak hit like a sledgehammer.

They identified a new boundary corner (Fabian Moreau) who could handle the traffic from QBs avoiding Pat Surtain II. They found a star in nickelback Ja’Quan McMillian, a college free agent out of East Carolina whose quiet case for a Pro Bowl nod — seven TFLs, two interceptions and two fumbles forced over his last eight games — gets louder by the week.

They handed the keys to Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper and Nik Bonitto, then watched them drive tackles batty. No team in the NFL has more sacks over the past three weeks than the Broncos’ 18.

Explosion plays vanished. Missed tackles felt like unhappy accidents. In his 13 games as defensive coordinator, Joseph’s defense somehow transformed from a rusty, flaming dumpster into Optimus Prime. Welcome to The Vance Vance Revolution.

If the buddy-cop tandem of Payton & Paton are half as smart as they think they are, they’ll get in Penner’s ear, rip up whatever’s left of VJ’s contract and let Joseph name his price.

It’s been so long — too long — since Broncos Country found something they could trust falling in love with again. You don’t let that feeling walk away easy.

Now that you mention it, the last seven weeks have been so much fun, the only thing missing for Joseph’s cadre is a clever nickname, right? Some proper shorthand, along the lines of “Orange Crush” and “No-Fly Zone”, for one of the most remarkable defensive units in the history of a franchise that’s been defined by them.

Open to suggestions, of course. “Team Takeaway?” “The Turnover Train?”

Here’s another stab, take it or leave it: The Mahomes-Wreckers.

The NFL is an unabashed cut-and-paste, copycat league. Other great defensive minds have proffered theories toward an antidote for the logic-bending, gravity-defying, generational genius of Mahomes, the Chiefs’ QB1.

Joseph might’ve just written the definitive book on the subject.

Before Kansas City visited Empower Field on Oct. 29, the Chiefs were 6-1. The Broncos were roadkill.

On a cold day in Hades, VJ’s defense forced five turnovers, picking off The Grim Reaper twice and sacking him three times.

“Well, you know, Mahomes was sick”, they sniffed.

“Yeah, it was the snow,” they scoffed.

Was it?

In Kansas City’s six games that followed, the Chiefs are 2-4. The defending Super Bowl champs have scored a Shurmuresque 19 points per game during that stretch, while surrendering 1.83 sacks per tussle.

Context: In the seven games before Broncos 24, Mahomes 9, Andy Reid’s finest averaged 25.4 points per game and allowed just one sack per tilt.

During that 6-1 start, Mahomes threw for at least 280 yards four different times. During the 2-4 run since, one that includes the Chiefs’ first loss to the Broncos in forever, No. 15’s only managed to hit that mark once.

So much for sick.

So much for snow.

“Vance and these guys have done a really good job of bringing combinations, if you will, which makes it a little harder,” Payton reflected Monday.

“I think it’s a little bit contagious. I think there (are) certain plans you have for certain styles and certain quarterbacks. Some of these guys are too good to sit in the pocket and they’re too talented. Somehow, you have to disrupt the passing game. And it’s either at the line of scrimmage and re-routing receivers, or it’s with the quarterback. (VJ’s defense has) done a good job.”

When the recovery becomes even more impressive than the failure, it’s not just good, coach. It’s historic.

And when the stuff this league is cutting and pasting is yours, it’s not just flattery. It’s gospel. The AFC West is a race again, and Hallelujah.

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“We’re in a horse race,” quarterback Russell Wilson said Sunday, after the Broncos dismantled those Thunderdolts from Los Angeles. Denver routed the Chargers 24-7 in a game that was no contest after a devilish Denver defense broke the spirit and stole the soul of Los Angeles quarterback Justin Herbert with a goal-line stand early in the first quarter.

But enough of my silly football poetry. Let’s just stick to the facts, ma’am: Since the last Sunday in October, when they snapped a 16-game losing streak to Kansas City, the Broncos’ record is 6-1, while the dead Chiefs walking are 2-4.

Playoffs? Playoffs! Playoffs?

Yes, and a Wild Card berth is not the only prize the Broncos can aim for down the stretch of this NFL season. With four games remaining in the regular season, Denver finds itself only one game out of first place in the AFC West, a division the Chiefs have won seven years in a row.

By now you’ve memorized the M.O. of these Broncos. Play nasty defense, harass the quarterback, pound the rock and wait for one big play from quarterback Russell Wilson that, more times than not, seems to end with a no-freaking-way catch by Courtland Sutton.

“He’s like a big power forward,” said Broncos coach Sean Payton, admiring the way Sutton wins 50-50 balls as much with his muscle as his hops.

The big play that secured this W for Denver arrived with five minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the third quarter, when some jazzy improvisation between Wilson and Sutton resulted in a one-handed grab of a 46-yard touchdown pass that staked the Broncos to a 17-0 lead.

On a play that went delightfully off script when the Denver offensive line allowed Wilson more than six seconds to improvise before throwing the football, Sutton made touchdown magic by listening to a voice inside his head.

“Top down,” Sutton recalled. “Literally I heard (Wilson) in my head saying: ‘Top down.'”

Perception is the result of recognition. Exploit the space the defense has given.

The little confession by Sutton that Wilson was the little birdie in his ear delighted the veteran quarterback.

Sutton “did a great job, because he was going deep, came back for a second and then went deep again,” Wilson said.

That chemistry between a quarterback and receiver, in which no words needed to be spoken, was worth six points to the Broncos.

I mention this football ESP between Wilson and Sutton for a very specific reason. While nobody in the NFL mentions Wilson in the same breath as Mahomes when speaking of elite quarterbacks, anybody who has watched the championship reputation of the Chiefs slowly unravel can tell you this truth: The K.C. offense has been reduced to not much more than whatever magic can be conjured between Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.

While Mahomes and Kelce have connected on 80 passes for 896 yards and five touchdowns in 2023, Denver’s QB-WR1 duo has exceeded that production in the most important category, with Sutton hauling in 53 catches for 799 yards and 10 touchdowns — the most scores by any Broncos receiver in a single season since the late, great Demaryius Thomas in 2014.

“I try to play with a certain attitude and demeanor and it came from the way (Thomas) played the game,” Sutton said.

In a city where a gallon of regular gas costs $5.19, Los Angeles has too many problems the other six days of the week to worry about the Chargers on Sunday. Broncos Country achieved such an overwhelming and nearly unopposed takeover of SoFi Stadium that Denver linebacker Alex Singleton felt confident exhorting the crowd for noise before the snap of a fourth-down play by backup Easton Stick, who replaced Herbert after the most overrated quarterback in the NFL departed with a finger injury.

With a 7-6 record, there’s every reason to believe the Broncos can end their long playoff drought, so long as they sweep the remaining AFC teams on their schedule (the reeling Chargers, wretched Patriots and reprehensible Raiders).

All the AFC rivals ahead of Denver in the wild-card race now feel the hot breath of Blucifer on their necks. The Broncos are taking names, checking boxes and kicking keisters. The long playoff drought is close enough to being over that everybody who loves this team can almost taste the champagne.

Win by win and week by week, Payton noted, “It’s one less question about one more demon we have answered.”

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“We bought it used. Very used,” Keith Matocha, father of Colorado School of Mines QB John Matocha, told me with a laugh as his son’s top-ranked Orediggers pounded Kutztown, 35-7, to punch a second straight ticket to the NCAA Division II football national championships.

“And we weren’t very smart. We’re from Texas. It’s 2-wheel drive in a pickup, so he gets stranded quite often. So his lineman roommates ended up hauling him around quite a bit.”

As the snow that frosted Marv Kay Field reminded Keith of the worst decision of his son’s young life, the party below us reminded him of the best.

“Definitely the goal was to get back (to the NCAA championship),” the elder Matocha said of his son, who completed 30 of 37 passes, threw for three scores and ran for another to improve Mines’ record to 14-0 and launch them into a winner-take-all title game against Harding (Ark.) on Saturday in McKinney, Texas.

“So they can talk about ‘one game at a time’ all they want. But at the end, it was always about getting back to McKinney. So, yes, very determined. Very focused.”

A friend slid carefully to Keith along the icy bleachers, patting Dad on the shoulder as he passed.

“Bring home one more!”

Then another friend.

“Five years. It’s been great.”

Then another.

“Happy for all of you. Way to go.”

And another.

“You won’t have to fly out again.”

Keith, whose family lives in Houston, smiled at that last one.

“My brother lives very close to (McKinney),” dad explained. “So we get to go sleep on their floor.”

One more. One. More.

At least they know the drill. More to the point, so do the Diggers. In hindsight, John Matocha reflected, just getting to the title game for the first time as a program last December felt like Mines’ big victory.

The Diggers were just happy to be there. Ferris State was angrier. And faster. And bigger. Much, much, much, much bigger.

“When I sat up there (in the stands at McKinney) and (Ferris) ran that first sweep,” reflected Mines alum Tom Dimelow, who sat a few rows over from the Matochas. “I said to myself, ‘My God, Vince Lombardi must be smiling today.'”

Marv Kay, bless his soul, not so much. Ferris went up 27-0 at the half and rolled to a 41-14 victory.

“We felt we’d made it,” the younger Matocha, who just passed Chicago Bears QB Tyson Bagent for the No. 1 spot on the NCAA’s all-time carer passing TD chart, recalled earlier in the week. “We felt like the hype overcame us, and it may have affected our preparation and our execution.

“This year, it’s not a surprise, or ‘Oh my gosh, we made it.’ We have the experience to back it up now. … We’ll be more prepared.”

They’ve got the beef, too, if Saturday was any harbinger.

Mines nose tackle Kyle Bahnsen, a 305-pound ball of angry, split a double-team in the first half and forced Bears QB Judd Novak to throw the ball to the Heavens or risk an early audience with the angels. Novak heaved a wounded duck that got picked off in the end zone by Diggers safety Collin Romero. Kutztown never really threatened through the air again.

And despite the Golden Bears making a concerted effort to load up in the box, Mines racked up 165 rush yards on 29 carries anyway. And the fakes off the read option allowed Matocha to find 6-foot-4 Flynn Schiele (11 catches, 181 receiving yards) either all alone or matched up in single coverage against 5-9 corner Antaun Lloyd, whom he posted up the way Nikola Jokic posts up small-ball centers.

“They’ve got a great offensive line,” Kutztown coach Jim Clements said. “They are going to be hard to beat (in the championship).”

One more. One. More.

Mines athletic director David Hansburg had Texas on the brain Saturday, too. He watched the postgame news conference, leaning against a far wall, in a gray cowboy hat.

“You get that in McKinney?” I asked.

“Aspen,” he said with a grin.

“Is that from the Coach Prime collection?”

Hansburg shook his head, removed his chapeau and pointed at the tiny name burned into the brim: OREDIGGERS.

Welcome to Golden, where the dream lives.

“It’s what they play for,” Keith Matocha reflected proudly. “And a lot of these kids stuck around to go make it happen, right? I mean, you’ve got a lot of kids — I think (Mines coach Pete) Sterbick has said, they’ve got other things to do. And they stuck around to go for it. … I didn’t know if they could make it this far. Certainly not with the consistency that they have. But they’ve proven it.

“All of a sudden, it’s a reality now.”

One more, Blaster. One. More.

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Ron, free thinker

Kiz: As a kid who first fell in love with sports through college football, I’m a guy that loves voting for the Heisman Trophy. But it frustrates me that being a quarterback is now almost a prerequisite for winning the award. In years past, I have voted for dominant defenders such as Will Anderson Jr. and Ndamukong Suh. While I think quarterback Jayden Daniels of Louisiana State is an intriguing NFL prospect who might look good in a Broncos uniform, the only finalist for this year’s award I seriously considered putting anywhere on my three ballot slots was Michael Penix Jr., whose transfer to Washington after an injury-plagued career at Indiana struck me as a near-perfect fit for the story of college football in 2023.

With the instant media coverage of sports, nothing is a surprise anymore, including the Heisman winner.

B.V., San Antonio

Kiz: The 24/7/365 sports babble is fine by me. It’s fun. When it gets to be too much, I can easily switch to music by The National, Spoon or Olivia Rodrigo. But it bugs me when my media brethren get entrapped by groupthink. My Heisman ballot seldom follows the crowd, which leaves me open to ridicule. And that’s also fine by me. The players I voted for in 2023: No. 1, receiver Malik Nabers, who’s the best player on LSU’s team; No. 2, Jordan Travis of Florida State, the quarterback who had a huge impact on both an unbeaten team and the playoff field, and No. 3, Colorado School of Mines quarterback John Matocha, whose grit and spirit represents everything college football should be.

The Heisman Trophy reveal used to be exciting. When Colorado running back Rashaan Salaam won the award in 1994, it was awesome. But by 2015, when Valor Christian alum Christian McCaffrey should’ve won it and finished second, it became less exciting to me. Now? The Heisman is like the NFL, completely quarterback centric.

Chuck, SkoBuffs!

Kiz: With all the debate about whether Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy or some other quarterback deserves to be MVP of the NFL in 2023, let me humbly add: Are y’all nuts? I’ve never been granted the privilege of determining something so important as most valuable player of America’s sports obsession, and maybe that’s best for all concerned. But, in my not-so-humble opinion, two candidates you won’t hear mentioned anywhere else stand above this year’s field: Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill and McCaffrery, whose versatility as a running back makes San Francisco the most dangerous championship contender.

And today’s parting shot takes offense to my crazy idea that the Avs need to address a hole in their lineup at second-line center.

Keep trying, Kiz. You once again are trying to show your three readers that you know something about hockey. But you don’t!

Scott, hockey enforcer

While Denver has little margin for error to secure a wild-card berth, the notion that Payton deserves strong consideration for Coach of the Year if Denver recovers from a 1-5 start to get in the Super Bowl tournament is pure poppycock.

Broncos CEO Greg Penner and team ownership paid Payton a reported $18 million salary to fix Russell Wilson, not dig a hole and then regularly drop hints that the mess was his quarterback’s fault.

No contender for a wild-card berth in the AFC has an easier schedule than what awaits Denver.

With two games against the Chargers’ Brandon Staley, who’s a dead coach walking, a Patriots squad so bad it might get Bill Belichick fired, and Raiders that will already be packing for Cancun on the final weekend of the regular season, if Payton can’t get Denver to the playoffs from here, he richly deserves a grade of “F” for his first season in Colorado.

We haven’t forgotten Payton declared at the outset of training camp he would be ticked off if the Broncos failed to make the playoffs. So why should we not grade Payton’s work by his own words now?

Maybe the real genius of Payton’s success in New Orleans was quarterback Drew Brees. And if Wilson is so wretched, how did Seattle coach Pete Carroll figure out how to drag him twice to the Super Bowl with the Seahawks?

In victory or defeat with the Broncos, Payton has been quick to shove Wilson under the bus and slow to acknowledge it’s the coach driving the orange-and-blue bandwagon that somehow surrendered 70 points to the Dolphins, while also losing to quarterbacks named Sam Howell and Zach Wilson.

The latest example: Payton lamented that his team fell victim to chaos in the red zone during the final minute of a 22-17 loss at Houston. Wilson let panic get the best of him and he threw an interception in the end zone, ruining the chance for the Broncos to win the game and take control of their playoff destiny down the stretch.

While Wilson bears a heavy responsibility for a bad mistake at the worst possible time in this crucial loss to the Texans,  who should ultimately be held accountable for the defeat?

With the football in their possession and the clock winding down in clutch time, the Broncos looked so confused that if we didn’t know better, I would suggest they looked like a poorly coached team.

“I think as a teacher, we always have to examine the why. Did we explain it well enough? Did we cover it well enough? How could we have done a better job ourselves?” Payton said. “If you hand out a test to your students and two-thirds of them are getting C’s and D’s, then you have to look at yourself.”

Thanks for that refreshing moment of accountability, Mr. Payton.

For a master of the NFL universe, it took Payton far too long this season to realize that Wilson is never going to be Brees. Only after the record dropped to 1-5 did Payton fully accept that his Broncos must win gritty, not pretty, by leaning on their defensive talent and asking Wilson to put down his ego, hand off the football to Javonte Williams and throw the majority of passes short and outside the numbers, where interceptions seldom happen.

By putting back together a defense that was in shambles in September, maybe defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has had as much or more to do with the Broncos’ revival as Payton.

None of us is as arrogant, glib and grumpy about the NFL as Payton. He’s a football genius, as Payton makes it clear to everybody who’s not.

But the crazy-rich Waltons didn’t pay Payton anywhere in the neighborhood of $18 million per year to finish 9-8 and be stuck with a draft pick in the middle of first round, when all the marquee quarterbacks, from USC’s Caleb Williams to North Carolina’s Drake Maye to LSU’s Jayden Daniels, will be off the board and long gone.

We might all be fools, me most of all. But we all would be foolish to give Payton a pass and lay the blame on Wilson if the Broncos fail to make the playoffs.

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There are reasons for it coming across that way, one of which we’ll get into shortly. But let’s say this, too: To be fair to the GTW peanut gallery, not a single soul on our crack team said Coach Prime couldn’t recruit. Or that he couldn’t sell, as confirmed by the commitment of mega high school tackle Jordan Seaton, the latest feather in the man’s talent-building cap, earlier this week.

But GTW’s overall stance hasn’t changed. Yes, 4-8 is a heck of a lot better than 1-11. Yes, Boulder is back on the national college football map. But as to other parts of The Great Deion Sanders Experiment? Jury’s still out.

Coach Prime wants … “privacy?” — F

And Prime hasn’t exactly engendered our sympathies when he stiff-arms local media outlets in favor of video operations run by family members and friends — or in favor of paid business partners.

His program. His media team. His rules. His message. Sanders has had multiple camera crews following him around darn near everywhere for the 12 months in which he’s been employed by CU, and fair enough. But you can’t have it both ways. Because Sanders also had the gall, during a series of interviews with national outlets earlier this week, to tell People magazine this:

“You always wish that you had a little more privacy. But the same thing that makes you shine will show your blemishes. So, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. You can’t just want everyone there when the hype machine is rolling, you have to understand there’s another side to this.”

There is. And good on a man who brought his own Amazon Prime crew and at least two YouTube channels north with him to acknowledge that, at least. Still: A reality show and reality itself, even on Planet Prime, aren’t always the same thing.

You signed up for this, Coach. Both sides. All sides.

More Denver college hoops cred — A-.

Our little “football” state keeps building up steam as a college hoops one, doesn’t it? CU features a future NBA lottery pick (Cody Williams) and has the seeds of a potential NCAA tourney resume already planted. CSU, king of the locals, heads into a big Moby Arena tussle with Saint Mary’s on Saturday sitting at 13th in the AP Poll, unbeaten (9-0) and a sexy pick to win the Mountain West.

Don’t tell anybody, but an early strain of March Madness seems to be catching on at other men’s hoops outposts across the Centennial State, too. Air Force sports a 7-2 record with three “true” road wins, already tying a single-season record for away victories before the middle of December. DU — hockey school, not a football one — sports the nation’s points leader, and No. 2 points-per-game scorer as of Friday, in guard Tommy Bruner. Yeah, he’s a volume shooter (Bruner leads the country in shots, with 180, going into Saturday). But when you’re connecting on your treys — Bruner was good on 4 of 9 attempts from distance in a loss at CSU this past Wednesday — at a 46.3% clip, dude, fire away.

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It would really hurt to waste a hockey club blessed with the generational talent of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

Here we are, far enough into the NHL season for anybody in this dusty old cowtown not unhealthily obsessed with the mediocre Broncos to see the Avs have as good a shot as any team in the league to win a championship this season.

Except for one troublesome thing, and it’s the same old irksome thing: Colorado still hasn’t found a solid way to replace center Nazem Kadri from the fire trucks that rode through Denver during that glorious victory parade in 2022.

There’s a nagging hole in this team’s championship dream at 2C.

Can the Avs solve this problem without making a trade? Nothing in a 4-2 loss to Winnipeg gave me much reason for optimism.

When the Avs took the ice on Thursday night, their second-line center was … Ross Colton?

Don’t get me wrong. Colton is a bundle of hustle and heart, good on the forecheck and in the room. But isn’t that pretty much the definition of a third-line center on a legit championship contender?

Not to suggest Avalanche coach Jared Bednar has lost confidence in Ryan Johansen, a righteous dude who Colorado got for 50 cents on the dollar in an offseason trade with Nashville. But I don’t think it was just my imagination running wild to think Bednar got a little testy when recently asked to explain why Colton has surpassed Johansen in ice time.

“I don’t have to (justify it). There’s nothing saying that Ryan Johansen needs more ice time than Ross Colton,” Bednar said. “If Ross Colton’s played well and doing the job that he’s doing, then he’s earning more ice.”

Bednar has done an admirable job guiding Colorado to the top of the Central Division in another year when the hockey gods have not exactly been kind to a team winning at a remarkable rate despite the absence of captain Gabe Landeskog, winger  Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Girard.

But does Bednar have enough firepower at his disposal to compete with Las Vegas and Dallas when the playoffs roll around, if Colorado must depend on defenseman Makar to be the team’s de facto 2C behind MacKinnon?

Super Joe Sakic is the best thing to ever happen to hockey in Colorado, but now that he’s taken a step into the shadows, we still don’t know if general manager Chris MacFarland has what it takes to re-invent a championship roster.

Well, good Boy Scout that I am, let me offer a helping hand:

Go make a freakin’ deal!

Yes, there’s the very sticky issue of the Avalanche being stuck against the NHL salary cap with little room to breathe, much less wiggle.

But the genius of creative thinking and the guts to make hard choices were the trademarks of the late, great Pierre Lacroix, who stubbornly believed any year the Avs didn’t win the Cup was a failure.

MacFarland has the contacts around the league, so I’ll leave the grunt work to him. I’m just the idea guy, work-shopping the problem.

If I dare to dream big, let’s find the money and convince Minnesota it needs to rebuild and won’t regret trading 26-year-old Joel Eriksson, who has scored a dozen goals already this season, to a division rival. If that’s too much to ask, could Columbus be persuaded to part with 30-year-old Boone Jenner, who scored 26 goals last season in 68 games? Or is Jenner not a big enough upgrade on the talent Bednar can now send over the boards from the Avalanche bench?

As spectacular as Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen can be, this core hasn’t achieved as much as Las Vegas. Dallas has a strong and younger core than Colorado.

With no clear-cut favorite to win this season’s championship, the Avs need to do whatever’s necessary right now to get their mitts back on the Cup.

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In this edition of the Kickin’ it with Kiz podcast, Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla talks sports betting, bourbon, Broncos and the controversy surrounding the College Football Playoff. Among the topics discussed:

• Kiz is joined by Denver Post staff Nuggets beat writer Bennett “Benito” Durando as they break down the College Football Playoff and the game lines they are eyeing this weekend.
• Kiz talks Broncos and their chances for a playoff Berth after winning five of their last six games.
• Nate Kiszla, son of Kiz, stops by to talk bourbon with his pops.

The Kickin’ it with Kiz podcast is brought to you by Argonaut Wine & Liquor, featuring Buffalo Trace.

Subscribe to the podcast

SoundCloud | iTunes | Google Music | RSS

Producer: AAron Ontiveroz
Music: “Bumble Bees” by Schama Noel

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This sticky problem goes beyond the way Wilson and Payton process plays and analyze the game in real time.  What we’re witnessing is nothing less than a minor football miracle, because during this remarkable 5-1 stretch of success that has pushed the Broncos back in playoff contention, I sometimes wonder if this quarterback and this coach are even watching the same game.

While Wilson preaches faith that a struggling Denver offense is thisclose to a happy breakout of touchdown dances, Payton grouses about “chaos” in the red zone and laments receiver Jerry Jeudy has reason to be frustrated after repeatedly being undetected by his quarterback as he runs wide open down the field.

With not another misstep allowed against four AFC foes left on their schedule, the Broncos worked Wednesday on strategy to beat the Los Angeles Chargers. I asked Wilson what’s the process and line of communication between him and Payton in assembling the game plan.

“What’s the process?” Wilson replied. “It’s a long one, a very long one.”

And, apparently, a flawed one. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Payton’s vision for what the Denver offense could be has not translated into fireworks on the scoreboard. While Wilson praises his coach without fail, Payton barely conceals his contempt any time the Broncos make a mess of the masterpieces he has created on the big canvas of play calls he carries on the sideline.

During six losses by the Broncos in 2023, they’ve averaged 19 points per game, which is a slight improvement on the lousy job done by Nathaniel Hackett, but has done little to enhance Payton’s reputation as the genius that can fix Wilson and return a quarterback in his mid-30’s performances worthy of Pro Bowl recognition.

Ask Payton about the 22-17 loss to the Texans that snapped Denver’s  winning streak and he focuses on the potential explosive plays that were duds and the scoring opportunities squandered. “There were a number of them in that game …” he said. “There are four or five sequences that you can point at and be like, ‘Holy cow.’”

Wilson, however, viewed his work as good enough when he moved the chains on fourth down by tucking the football and scrambling instead of spotting Jeudy running free for a touchdown pass during the second quarter in Houston.

“We’re 5-1 in the past six games. You can’t forget that … We have a lot of confidence in this locker room in who we are and what we’re going to do and how can can go about it.” said Wilson, whose eternally sunny outlook is frequently in stark contrast to the dark-side-of-the-moon criticism from his never-satisfied coach. “I believe that’s the team were are the past six games. And we can be even better.”

To the credit of their professionalism and competitive spirit, Wilson and Payton have found a way to win games together. But that doesn’t mean this coach and quarterback are having much fun doing it. It’s gritty. Not pretty. Russ doesn’t cook the way he did in Seattle, although Payton can frequently be seen stewing on the Denver sideline. There’s little to indicate they have forged a mutual respect built to last.

I’m hear to preach the good news that the Broncos will make the playoffs with a 10-7 record, provided they find a way to sweep their four remaining AFC opponents by beating the Chargers twice, joyfully celebrating Christmas Eve by beating Scrooge Belichick, then finding some way to just win against the Raiders, baby.

But it’s fair to ask: Does Payton have full confidence in Wilson to get this job done?

And should the Broncos fall short of the playoffs, would the huge financial repercussions of cutting Wilson be enough for Payton to grimace and bear the mistakes of his veteran quarterback for another season?

Barring a complete and utter collapse, Denver figures to be on the board in the middle of the first round in the 2024 NFL draft. The marquee quarterbacks – Caleb Williams of USC, Drake Maye of North Carolina and Jayden Daniels of Louisiana State – all figure to be gone in the top 10.

So, if given the chance, would Payton really end this far-less-than-perfect relationship with Wilson to take a chance on Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr., whose extensive injury history is cause for consternation, or Oregon’s Bo Nix, who might not be anything more in the NFL than Kenny Pickett 2.0?

Like it or not, Payton and Wilson might be stuck with each other.

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“How was the game?” they’ll ask him.

“Saw the win yesterday, John.”

“That was a heck of a flip you took. You OK?”

(He is.)

“The community is phenomenal,” Mines’ all-everything quarterback said by phone in advance of the top-ranked Orediggers’ Division II football playoff semifinal tussle with Kutztown Saturday at Marv Kay Stadium.

“It’s good for me. I enjoy it. It keeps me grounded. I couldn’t be more thankful.”

As the reigning Harlon Hill Trophy winner and a grad student in Mines’ computer sciences program, Matocha gets about 14 minutes of sleep during a good week. But the man’s committed his Sunday mornings to St. Joseph, dang it, win or … umm … win.

A few years ago, when parishioners were looking for help with some tech stuff, the Houston native volunteered to join the AV ministry, adding a pinch of nerd to The Word.

“I was like, ‘I can figure that out, I can do that,'” Matocha recalled.

“It’s a good accountability partner for me, making sure I attend mass. Sometimes, the Sunday morning after a game, I’m not feeling too hot. But I’ve got a job to do. It gets me up.”

Touchdown Johnny’s gotta confess: This past Sunday morning was one of the tougher ones.

See, during the NCAA Division II quarters last Saturday, against Central Washington, Matocha launched that fearless 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame of his toward the end zone.

One hitch: A defender rose up to meet him in mid-air.

As a Mines grad, Matocha immediately grasped the gravity of the situation. Certainly well enough to know the physics weren’t on his side.

The scraggly signal-caller pretty much got himself spun like Broncos legend John Elway doing the helicopter at Super Bowl XXXIII against the Packers. As he stretched the ball out, Matocha’s helmet wound up somewhere west of Morrison.

“Not the smartest move,” the quarterback chuckled. “But I’d do it again. I’m ready to hopefully get in the end zone a few more times this weekend.”

Naturally, somebody sent him clips of that Elway run after the game.

“Some of the still pictures were pretty surprising,” Matocha said. “(To be compared to) Elway, that is an honor. I will take it, even if it’s just one play. That would be cool if (my future), it’s (like) his career, too.”

And even if it isn’t, Plan B’s not too shabby. The Texan’s already accepted a job offer to become a software engineer with Tyler Technologies here in the metro once he’s completed his studies.

“But I’ve also talked to them about the possibility of pursuing athletics (as a career) and trying to continue playing football,” Matocha added. “And they’ve been flexible and understanding with football, which has helped. A lot.”

Tech wizards defying gravity makes for a refreshing change of pace from the other news of the week in college football, doesn’t it? Especially when the sport keeps rolling over to expose the seediest sides of its underbelly.

Florida State. The playoff. The transfer portal. Pay-for-play. New NCAA president Charlie Baker, seeing the writing on the wall, sent out a letter Tuesday proposing legislation that would create an entirely new subdivision in which universities could pay their student-athletes directly.

The devil’s in the details, but one of the major tenets of the new division is the ability to set its own rules as far as roster sizes, coaching staff size and transfers. Another tenet: That these schools have the financial coffers to set aside at least $30,000 each for half their student-athletes annually.

If you loved football in the early 1980s, a world in which an Alabama, Nebraska or USC could hoard a billion good players on its respective rosters, you’re going to love the next chapter. Baker’s Hail Mary is a lightning-fast jump to where this was always going — a college football “Premier League,” similar to the set up in European professional soccer, in which the uber-rich break off, make their own rules, game the system, hog most of the money and toss occasional scraps to the serfs.

While student-athlete compensation is long overdue, it’s also the kind of shock to the system that figures to eventually split the current Football Bowl Subdivision in half. In one corner, those who’ve got the TV rights cash to burn (most of the SEC, most of the Big Ten). In the other corner, those who don’t (CSU, Wyoming). With a lot of CUs, Cals and Stanfords in the middle, launching into painful debates as to where, how — or even if — they fit.

At Mines, they already know. The kids have got finals coming up. Matocha had three projects due Tuesday night alone toward his master’s. One of which is a governance robot to use on a subreddit in order to “spark engagement.” Which, if things land right, he’ll help present next March at the Human-Robot Interaction conference in Boulder.

Wait a sec.

Isn’t that … AI? The bots that Sports Illustrated just got busted for using? The stuff that’s designed to make your humble columnist obsolete?

“I’ve never had a phone interview,” Matocha countered, “with ChatGPT.”

Touche.

Never mind records. When it comes to legacies, Matocha cracks that he’s got too many blessings to count. And two more games to finish what last December started. Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

“National championships are fun and important,” he said, “but I’d rather have an impact on the community and grow those lifelong friendships more than anything. Although coming back with a ring on my finger wouldn’t be too upsetting, either.”

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