Broncos see faith rewarded with win, provide hope…

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Broncos have believed for weeks that they could beat a team like the Cowboys.

With a top-end secondary, a dynamic running game and a veteran quarterback, the Broncos had faith they could compete against the NFL’s best.

This was a team with playoff aspirations and hopes that they could be different than the previous five iterations of the Broncos.

And for the last several weeks, they had to keep that belief despite a lack of results.

The Broncos spent the first eight weeks of the season taking care of business against teams like the Giants, Jaguars and Jets, but they lost four consecutive games against teams in the playoff hunt.

On Sunday afternoon, in a 30-16 win over the previously one-loss Cowboys, things were different.

“How ’bout them Broncos?” asked Head Coach Vic Fangio as he entered his postgame press conference.

Those Broncos didn’t just win their Week 9 game in Dallas; they dominated it. Denver turned in a stifling performance on defense — Dallas didn’t score until there were less than five minutes to play — and Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon III ran wild to the tune of 191 combined yards.

It was a performance that seemed more than unlikely after the Broncos struggled to churn out a win against the 2-6 Washington Football Team. And it was a performance that surprised no one within the Broncos’ locker room.

“That’s the standard,” safety Justin Simmons said, “and that’s what we expect out of each other.”

As the Broncos suffered four consecutive losses in October, there was mounting criticism and doubt outside of UCHealth Training Center. The Broncos never wavered — and with Sunday’s win over the NFC East leaders, they showed what they can be at their best.

“Honestly, our mindset never changed even when we lost those four games,” Teddy Bridgewater said. “It was like, ‘Hey, we just got to find a way.’ It was, Find a way to end this losing streak,’ and now it’s still, ‘Find a way — find a way to continue to win.’ And that’s just the mindset. There’s no, ‘Hey, man, we’re on top of the world.’ OK, we beat a great team, but at the same time, we’ll watch this tape tomorrow and we’ll think, ‘OK, we could’ve did this better, we could’ve did that better.’ And that’s the thing about this game: It can humble you. As long as we stay humble as a team, we can really do some things to move in the right direction. The moment you get too high, sometimes that rug gets snatched from underneath you and you fall flat on your face, and we don’t want to experience that again.”