Broncos deliver stunning upset win over Cowboys behind defense, rushing game

The Broncos delivered a stunning upset of the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, riding a dominant defense and navigating a rash of injuries in a 30-16 win at AT&T Stadium.

A 10-point underdog, the Broncos never trailed as the defense denied the Cowboys on four fourth-down conversions and held the league’s top-ranked offense in check until two garbage-time touchdowns.

The Broncos’ ground game paved the way with a season-high 190 rushing yards, including the first 100-yard game by rookie Javonte Williams as Denver built a 16-0 halftime lead. That laid the base for the Broncos’ first win against a team with a winning record in 2021 and the most impressive triumph of coach Vic Fangio’s three-year tenure. Denver improved to 5-4.

In the wire-to-wire victory and first game of the post-Von Miller Era, the Broncos dominated despite several injuries, including right guard Graham Glasgow (ankle), right tackle Bobby Massie (ankle), defensive lineman McTelvin Agim (knee) and cornerback Pat Surtain (knee), all of whom exited. But the Broncos overcame those injuries early en route to building a 30-0 lead.

Plus, six days after trading the face of the franchise, Von Miller, rookie Jonathon Cooper — Miller’s replacement at outside linebacker — registered two sacks and four tackles.

Denver’s defense stuffed Dallas on fourth down attempts on the home team’s first two drives, setting a physical tone early against an offense that had averaged an NFL-best 454.9 yards per game coming in. The Cowboys sputtered throughout the first half, looking out of rhythm as quarterback Dak Prescott failed to settle in and running back Ezekiel Elliott couldn’t find holes to run through.

The Broncos scored on three of their four possessions.

A methodical 11-play, 80-yard drive put the Broncos ahead 6-0 on Melvin Gordon’s 3-yard scoring run. Brandon McManus missed his first extra point of the year.

Teddy Bridgewater followed that up with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Tim Patrick on Denver’s next drive, putting the Broncos up 13-0 in front of a stunned home crowd.

Denver added a 53-yard field goal from McManus with 3:46 left in the second quarter to go up 16-0, but the Broncos didn’t head into halftime without attrition. Massie exited in the second quarter with an ankle injury, then Glasgow had to be carted off with a leg injury after being hurt on the final play of the half.

Despite that bad luck to end the first half, the Broncos got a huge break to open the second half. Denver went three-and-out and Sam Martin’s punt was blocked to apparently set Dallas up in scoring territory. But because the Cowboys touched the blocked punt after it had crossed the line of scrimmage, and then Jonas Griffith recovered, the Broncos got the ball right back with a new set of downs.

Bridgewater then led Denver on a 10-play, 72-yard march that culminated in McManus’ 27-yard field goal. That made it 19-0, after which the Broncos stopped the Cowboys again on fourth down on the next possession.

The teams then traded a missed field goal (McManus’ second miss of the year) and a punt before another long Broncos TD drive put the game out of reach and Cowboys’ fans headed to the exit.

A 40-yard catch by Kendall Hinton set up Teddy Bridgewater’s one-yard TD run, and the two-point conversion pass to Courtland Sutton that followed made it 27-0.

Caden Sterns’ second interception of the season then set up McManus’ 42-yard field goal, which extended the rout to 30-0. Dallas finally got on the board with Malik Turner’s TD catch, plus a two-point conversion, with 4:08 left. The Cowboys added another late score via another Turner TD catch with less than a minute left.

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