Broncos Survive Late Collapse, Beat Defending Champion Seahawks 17-14 in Overtime

The Denver Broncos needed an overtime interception and a 53-yard field goal to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks 17-14 on Thursday night, surviving a second-half collapse that saw an 11-point lead evaporate before kicker Wil Lutz settled it in the extra period.

Denver improved to 4-2 with the win, while Seattle, which won Super Bowl LX over the New England Patriots in February, fell to 3-3. The result, in front of a national audience on Amazon Prime Video, was Denver's fourth one-score victory in six games and came at the cost of a clean final two quarters from a Broncos offense that managed nothing after halftime.

A big lead disappears, then an interception saves it

Denver built a 14-3 lead by the break on touchdown drives of 16 and nine plays, with running backs J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey each scoring. Quarterback Bo Nix and the offense were held scoreless the rest of the way, and Seattle, trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter, clawed back to force overtime behind quarterback Sam Darnold.

The deciding sequence came in the extra period. On third-and-7, cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian stepped in front of a Darnold pass for his first interception of the season and Denver's third takeaway of the night. Four plays later, Lutz drilled the 53-yard field goal that ended it, according to the Broncos' own account of the win and the league's official game page for the matchup.

The numbers that decided it

Denver's defense did the heavy lifting once its offense went quiet. The Broncos sacked Darnold five times, four of them on third down, part of a pressure count that topped 20 and included 17 quarterback hits. Linebacker Nik Bonitto forced a fumble from receiver Rashid Shaheed in the second quarter that linebacker Justin Strnad recovered, and cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine added a fourth-quarter interception before McMillian's game-sealer in overtime, bringing Denver's season turnover total to ten through six games, according to the team's defensive recap.

• Final score: Broncos 17, Seahawks 14 (overtime)
• Denver: five sacks, 17 QB hits, three takeaways
• Scoring by quarter: Seattle 3-0-0-11-0; Denver 0-14-0-0-3 (OT)
• Records: Denver improves to 4-2; Seattle falls to 3-3

How Denver got to 4-2

The win extended a pattern for coach Sean Payton's team. All four of Denver's victories this season have been decided by one score, three of them required fourth-quarter comebacks, and the Broncos are now 15-2 in one-score regular-season games dating to the start of last season. Denver opened 2026 at Kansas City and played five consecutive games against teams that made the 2025 playoffs; both of its losses came against the Chiefs and 49ers, who are a combined 9-0 this season.

Before Thursday, the matchup had been previewed as a clash of two teams unsettled at quarterback as much as it was a measuring-stick game between playoff contenders. The Associated Press preview of the Week 6 matchup noted both teams entered 3-2 and anxious to avoid a third loss, with Darnold having already thrown five interceptions in three games and Nix's own passing numbers trending down.

"We don't win that game without them," quarterback Bo Nix said of the Broncos' defense.

Payton was characteristically unsatisfied even in victory. "Defensively, we were magnificent," he said, while cautioning that the offense left plenty to fix. "We just played a real good team, and I feel like we can continue to improve," he said in comments on the team's 4-2 start, adding that Denver could easily be sitting at 2-4 given how competitive each of its games has been this season.

A title defense that has yet to find its footing

For Seattle, the loss is the latest sign that the roster that beat New England 29-13 in Santa Clara to win the franchise's second Super Bowl has not replicated that form through six weeks. The Seahawks entered Thursday with one of the NFL's top-ranked defenses by yards per play and takeaways, built around the same group that forced three turnovers against the Patriots in February, but their offense did not reach the red zone until the fourth quarter, by which point Darnold had already been sacked and hit repeatedly behind a line that struggled to contain Denver's pass rush all night.

The short week compounded the problem. Both teams had played Sunday before meeting again on a four-day turnaround for Thursday Night Football, leaving little practice time to adjust, and Seattle's offensive line showed it, allowing pressure on a steady diet of snaps that only intensified as Denver's defense wore the Seahawks down.

Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine said the defensive performance, which limited Seattle's own offense to playing from behind most of the night, reflected the standard the unit has set for itself this season. Linebacker Justin Strnad was more pointed about the game plan against Darnold specifically, saying the Broncos knew they would get after Seattle's quarterback and that defensive coordinator calls had the unit in position to do it most of the night.

What happens next

Both teams play again Sunday. Denver, which is unbeaten at home this season and has won six straight games in its throwback uniforms, turns to its next opponent looking to build on a defensive performance Payton called among the best of his tenure. Seattle will look to tighten a pass protection that allowed five sacks and to get its offense into rhythm earlier, with the margin for error in the NFC no more forgiving than it was a year ago when the Seahawks won it all. Both teams went deep into last season's playoffs, with Denver falling to New England in the AFC Championship Game and Seattle going on to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and neither has looked like a conference favorite through six weeks this time.