The Lead
The Broncos needed late-game heroics to will their way back into their 'Thursday Night Football' matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, and a couple of key veterans delivered with highlight-reel plays.
Wide receiver Courtland Sutton's acrobatic one-armed touchdown catch with just over six minutes remaining brought the Broncos within a score, and defensive end Zach Allen's 11-yard sack of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes forced Kansas City to attempt a 52-yard field goal on its ensuing possession.
After the Week 6 slate was complete, those two plays stood out among the most impressive plays of the week in NFL Next Gen Stats' weekly rankings.
Sutton's catch ranked as the fourth-most improbable completion of the week with a 22.4 percent likelihood of completion, according to Next Gen Stats' model. The model takes into account its Air Distance, Air Yards and Receiver Separation metrics to calculate the probability. Only wide receiver Brandon Johnson's Hail Mary touchdown catch in Week 2 and wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr.'s 38-yard catch in Week 3 had lower completion probabilities for the Broncos this season.
The reception also gave Sutton his fourth touchdown reception of 2023, making him the first Broncos player since 2014 to record four touchdown catches through the first six games of a season. The sixth-year receiver finished the game with four catches for 46 yards and the score.
"I thought Courtland made an unbelievable catch, an unbelievable job," quarterback Russell Wilson said after the game. "We isolated him one-on-one with the corner and he ran a great route. He went up and got it. I tried to give him a chance, and he did a great job of bringing it down."
Allen's fourth-quarter sack of Mahomes extended his streak of games with at least one sack to three games, but it also registered as one of the fastest sacks of Denver's season.
Next Gen Stats clocked Allen's time from snap to sack at 2.87, making him one of four players to record a sack in under three seconds in Week 6. One of Allen's teammates, outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, accomplished the feat in Week 4 with a sack of Chicago's Justin Fields in 2.5 seconds.
Both players will look to make more impressive plays and help the Broncos capture a home win against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
