EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Bo Nix had watched these moments, and Zach Allen had lived them.

One minute and 27 seconds to play. No timeouts. Ball at the Jets 40-yard line. Needing just a field goal to win.

In a Hall of Fame career, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers again and again delivered in similar scenarios. He'd already recorded one game-winning drive in 2024, and he notched four during his latest full season.

After the Broncos' 10-9 win over the Jets, Nix said he recalled watching Rodgers in moments like the one he faced Sunday. Allen later noted he'd been on the wrong side of one of those drives during his tenure with the Cardinals.

On Sunday, though, Rodgers and the Jets' chances of a comeback fell short.

"I was never on the sidelines for it, but I watched a lot of TV comebacks where he's marching on the last drive," Nix said. "Honestly, you've just got to put your hope in the defense. It's a scary sight with him with the ball at the end, but our defense came out today and won the game."

After Greg Zuerlein's 50-yard go-ahead kick sailed wide right, Rodgers sat on the bench and grimaced as he looked up toward the sky.

The four-time NFL MVP had just jogged gingerly off the field after absorbing the final hit on a game full of them. The Denver defense made it that sort of day for the Jets' offense.

Rodgers was sacked five times — the most he's been brought down in a single game since 2020 — and the Jets failed to score a touchdown. The Broncos became the first team to hold a Rodgers-led team without a touchdown since Sean Payton's New Orleans Saints limited Green Bay to three points at the start of the 2021 season.

"It's tough to do against him," Payton said of bringing Rodgers down five times. "He's someone who's real good with his protection IDs, and he's also someone who he knows if he's short one [blocker] and he knows right away. He'll send a guy in motion. He's extremely smart. You might go another 20 games before you see that happen to him. That was part of the success today."

In the fourth quarter, the Broncos earned three consecutive stops while protecting a one-point lead — and they sacked Rodgers on two of those three possessions. Even after allowing 28 yards on New York's final possession, Denver forced a critical incompletion on third-and-6 to force the Jets to attempt a 50-yard field goal. That hit, delivered by Jonathon Cooper, sent Rodgers to the bench with the first home performance of his career in which his team did not score a touchdown, according to CBS Sports.

"You know who you're going against," outside linebacker Nik Bonitto said. "There's nothing that he hasn't seen in his career. Just knowing that we got out there and found a way to get a stop, it was really encouraging."

The Broncos' defensive heroics, though, were not reserved for the final moments. As Denver's offense struggled in the first half, the Broncos' defense kept the team in the game. In one particularly critical sequence, cornerback Riley Moss was whistled for pass interference in the end zone on a deep shot from Rodgers on third-and-11. The Jets held a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and had a chance to take a 7-0 lead on a Broncos team that had yet to record a first down. Instead, Denver earned three consecutive stops to force the Jets to make a fourth-down decision. While New York initially lined up to attempt the conversion, a false start pushed the Jets back and led to a field goal.

When the Jets added another field goal late in the first half, that goal-line stand ensured the Broncos faced a six-point deficit rather than of two scores or more.

"Big stop," Payton said. "There's a number of these [moments] — probably five of them — that we'll look back on and say they were important to the end result. That certainly was one of them."

Added cornerback Pat Surtain II: "[When] our back's against the wall, that's where we rise up to the occasion."

In total, the Broncos' defense held the Jets to 4-of-17 on third down and 64 rushing yards, and the unit didn't give up a non-penalty-induced first down until 12:34 to play in the first half. Following the game, Allen credited Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph for a varied rush plan that created issues for the New York offense.

"That's all V.J.," Allen said. "V.J. did a hell of a job kind of mixing it up and everything like that giving different looks. I think up front, too, we're really confident in our four-man rush and we take a lot of pride in that. I think today was just another day we kind of proved that if you give guys one-on-ones, they'll win them across the board. It's a lot of fun to play with this group, and hopefully we can keep on rushing the way we are and keeping on playing team defense."

Six different players recorded at least a half sack, and Denver also recorded eight tackles for loss and 14 quarterback hits.

Joseph's unit has been dialed in for the first month of the season, entering Sunday's game with the third-ranked total defense and a top-10 scoring defense. After the Week 4 win, those numbers should only improve. Denver has allowed one touchdown over the last two weeks and less than 10 points per game over its last three contests.

Surtain, who held Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson without a target for much of the game, expects Denver's defensive standard to continue.

"We're just going to keep on building [and] keep on performing," Surtain said.

On Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Surtain and Co.'s performance led directly to a Denver win.