Broncos' historic comeback leaves Giants reeling and reflecting on missed opportunities

DENVER (AP) — Brian Daboll would love to have Sean Payton's problems.

“Mental errors, mistakes, snaps, wrong reads, you name it,” Payton rattled off Monday as the thrill of Denver's 33-32 comeback against the New York Giants gave way to an agonizing film session littered with what-ifs.

Denver's slow-starting offense produced zilch for three quarters before Bo Nix tore through the NFL records books in becoming the first quarterback in league history to run and throw for multiple touchdowns in a fourth quarter, something he topped off by needing just 35 seconds to move the Broncos (5-2) into field goal range for the game-winner as time expired.

In the midst of the celebration that followed Denver's historic comeback from a 26-8 deficit with less than six minutes remaining, Payton warned that come Monday the Broncos would pay the price for their sins on offense and a defense that was bamboozled all afternoon by rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Denver's win was just the second in 3,679 NFL games since the 1970 merger by a team that trailed by at least 18 points in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter. And the Broncos were the first to do so in regulation — Peyton Manning did it in overtime with the Colts in 2003.

“There are certainly a lot of guys that are hurting right now,” Daboll said Monday following the Giants' excruciating flight home. “But they gave everything they had and we came up short. That was a tough one, make no mistake about it, but you’ve got to get back on your horse."

Here's a look at some of the crucial moments that allowed for one of the greatest comebacks — or meltdowns — in the league's 104-year history.

Filling in for injured Graham Gano, kicker Jude McAtamney missed two extra points, one in the second quarter and the other after Dart dived across the goal line with 37 seconds left to restore New York's lead at 32-30.

That first missed extra point led Daboll to go for 2 after Tyrone Tracy Jr.'s 31-yard run made it 19-0 in the third quarter. It was a classic example of chasing points.

The math says kicking the extra point would force the opponent to have to score three TDs to catch up.

“That’s the decision that we made,” Daboll said. “That’s what was on our chart and that’s what we went with. That’s what I went with.”

Linebacker Brian Burns came off the field fuming about how the Giants had rushed just three defenders and dropped eight into coverage on the first play of the final drive when Nix threw a 29-yard pass to Marvin Mims Jr. at midfield.

“Look, there are plenty of plays that we had opportunities to make throughout, I’d say, the fourth quarter and we just came up short,” Daboll said. “So, it’s not about one play. Like I said, it’s not about one player. It’s not about one specific side. It’s a collective and I can do a better job.”

Linebacker Bobby Okereke said, “We’re a bunch of fiery competitive dudes. Obviously, frustrations boil over in a tough emotional loss like that. The way the momentum was swinging, it was up and down. I think that’s positive for us as a team to get those frustrations and emotions out. Us as grown men have the accountability to get better.

"We talked about it today. It’s not one player, one coach, one position group. Everybody really had their hands in the pot in this loss.”

The catalyst in many ways for Denver's comeback was inside linebacker Justin Strnad's interception of Dart's pass with 4:47 remaining and the Broncos trailing 26-16.

The Giants had called for consecutive hand-offs to Cam Skattebo that forced Denver to use its first two timeouts, but on third-and-5 from their 35, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka called for a pass when a run would have forced the Broncos to burn their final timeout. Moreover, if they didn't get the first down, a punt would have forced Denver to chew up more clock and more yards.

Under pressure, Dart tripped and threw right to Strnad, who returned it to the New York 19, setting up the score that made it 26-23.

“I thought we had a good play called,” Daboll said, refusing to criticize Kafka's call.

The Giants went three-and-out on their next possession and Denver took its first lead on Nix's 18-yard scamper around the left end with just under 2 minutes left.

Not all the miscues Sunday were Daboll's.

Payton may have been calculated in running onto the field to yell at the officials after a debatable pass interference call on cornerback Riley Moss with the ball at the Denver 2 in the final minute — after all, his unsportsmanlike conduct flag only cost the Broncos a yard.

And that actually played out in Denver's favor because Dart took it in from there, diving across the goal line on first down for the go-ahead touchdown with 37 seconds left.

If it's at the 2, maybe the Giants don't call for a keeper or perhaps they burn up more clock before punching it in. Either way, 37 seconds was exactly what the Broncos needed to secure their comeback.

“I just wanted them to hear me,” Payton cracked about the officials afterward.

No matter the mistakes and the aesthetics, the Broncos are riding a four-game winning streak and sit alone atop the AFC West for the first time since Week 4 of the 2016 season.

The Giants find themselves in the NFC East cellar and on the wrong end of one of the most improbable comebacks in gridiron history.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) passes against the Denver Broncos during the first half of an NFL football game in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) runs toward the end zone to score against the New York Giants during the second half of an NFL football game in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

New York Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger, left, and quarterback Jaxson Dart walk off the field after an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) celebrates after an NFL football game against the New York Giants in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

WESTMINSTER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 1, 2026--

Vantor, the leading provider of unified spatial intelligence from space to ground, has been awarded its third National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Luno contract to provide NGA and other U.S. Government agencies automated, near real-time orbital intelligence of high-interest objects in space.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260401774885/en/

Under the $2.3 million contract, Vantor will utilize its high-resolution imagery of space objects, also known as non-Earth Imagery (NEI), to deliver intelligence on priority objects in low Earth orbit, including providing alerts when anomalies are present. The analysis will be largely automated, marking a significant step forward in eliminating manual processing and accelerating timely and actionable insights for Space Domain Awareness.

“In a contested domain like space, awareness is everything,” said Susanne Hake, Executive Vice President & General Manager, U.S. Government at Vantor. “Still, it’s the one domain where exquisite visual intelligence is extremely hard to come by, creating literal and figurative blind spots. Our NEI capabilities are one of the few technologies that can provide high-resolution visual intelligence of objects in space, providing intelligence analysts and decisionmakers with a deeper understanding of the behavior and intent of high-interest space objects—a decisive edge in an increasingly complex environment.”

Vantor’s orbital intelligence capabilities can provide insights into a space object’s features, health, velocity, and movements, including whether an object is changing orbit—a situation that could endanger the safety of U.S. assets in space. Vantor satellites can capture images of other spacecraft at an industry-leading resolution of less than 10 cm from hundreds of kilometers away, making it possible to quickly characterize those space objects and determine their health and status.

This award marks the third win for Vantor under NGA’s Luno program. Vantor previously announced a Luno contract to automatically detect land use land cover change at global scale, enabling NGA to anticipate where maps and their features may require updates. And in June, Vantor was awarded a Luno contract to deliver AI/ML-generated object detection services to identify assets across air, maritime, land, and rail domains; determine counts at specified locations; detect trends and anomalies; and perform advanced spatial and temporal geospatial intelligence analysis.

“These awards reflect the core of Vantor’s mission—to deliver real-time intelligence faster than the speed of threat, from space to ground,” said Hake. “By integrating our persistent monitoring, change detection, and space-domain awareness capabilities, we’re empowering our partners to understand and act on threats across every domain, before they emerge.”

The Luno program—made up of Luno A and Luno B—is part of NGA’s ongoing efforts to execute an agile acquisition strategy that unlocks the capacity and innovation of the commercial geospatial industry.

About Vantor

Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence to unlock a more autonomous, interoperable world. We give decision makers and operators the power to build a unified intelligence picture, delivering the clarity they need to navigate what’s happening now and shape what’s coming next. We fuse data from the world’s most capable imaging satellites with real-time sensor feeds from space, air, and ground to create an AI-ready digital twin of Earth. Our spatial intelligence platform automates every part of the cycle—from tasking to collection to production—to update and analyze this foundation at the pace of change. Our products drive deeper mission-critical insights and connect the next generation of autonomous systems across the defense, intelligence, and commercial landscape.

Vantor non-Earth image of a Chinese imaging satellite, collected under the NGA Luno B contract. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite features a large deployable antenna that enables high-resolution radar imaging from orbit.