Five Sacks, 17 Hits, Three Takeaways: Denver's Defense Took Down the Champs

Broncos Country, wake up happy. Denver just beat the defending Super Bowl champions in prime time, and the defense did it the hard way.

Our Take: Ignore the scoreless second half for a minute. When a defense plays 82 snaps and still closes the game in overtime, that's a unit that can carry this team through the winter.

Per DenverBroncos.com's Cover 4, the Broncos sacked Sam Darnold five times, hit him 17 times and forced three takeaways in the 17-14 overtime win over Seattle. Seven different players got in on at least half a sack, and Malcolm Roach led the team with four quarterback hits. Nik Bonitto punched the ball loose from Rashid Shaheed in the second quarter and Justin Strnad recovered it. Kris Abrams-Draine picked off Darnold late in regulation, and Ja'Quan McMillian's interception on third-and-7 in overtime set up Wil Lutz's 53-yard game-winner.

The offense did its damage early, with back-to-back touchdown drives for a season-high 14 first-half points against a defense that ranked No. 1 in yards allowed entering the week. J.K. Dobbins scored for the second straight week and RJ Harvey scored his first touchdown of the season. Seattle rallied from 11 down in the fourth before the defense ended it.

Denver is 4-2, has won four of its last five, is unbeaten at home and is now 6-0 in the throwback uniforms. What to watch next: whether the offense can finish second halves the way it starts first halves.

Sources: DenverBroncos.com, Cover 4