To many, the Broncos defied the odds this season. They tied a franchise record with 14 regular-season wins and won the AFC West for the first time in 10 years. They claimed the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. With that in mind, tackle Mike McGlinchey was asked following their 10-7 loss to No. 2 New England in Sunday’s AFC Championship at Empower Field if the Broncos eventually would realize they exceeded expectations this season. “Out expectations were to get past this game, so I don’t think we exceeded expectations,’’ he said. Broncos coach Sean Payton did start talking about winning the Super Bowl last April when players arrived for offseason drills and the talk continued throughout the season. So there was some feeling after Sunday’s loss that it had been Super Bowl or bust. “I feel like the goal was always the Super Bowl, especially when you get in the playoffs,’’ wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. told The Denver Gazette. “But at the end of day, that didn’t happen.” Others players, though, said the Broncos did indeed defy the odds. They defeated Buffalo 33-30 in overtime in the divisional round for their first playoff victory since they won Super Bowl 50 in 2015. The Broncos might be heading to Super Bowl LX had starting quarterback Bo Nix not suffered a broken ankle in that game, forcing the Broncos to turn to backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who hadn’t thrown a regular-season pass in two years prior to Sunday. Stidham completed 17 of 31 passes for 133 yards with a touchdown and an interception while being hampered considerably by blustery wind and snow covering the field in the fourth quarter. “I’m real proud,’’ outside linebacker Nik Bonitto said. “Nobody thought we were going to make this far. Maybe some of you all (in the media) didn’t think we were going to make it this far. We’ve proven so many people wrong this year. We fell short of expectations we have for ourselves. I’m just happy for how we fought this year.” The Broncos went 11-2 in one-score games during the regular season then had a one-score win over the Bills. Sunday marked their first one-score loss since a 23-20 setback Sept. 21 at the Los Angeles Chargers. Safety Talanoa Hufanga called it “special” that the Broncos won “all of these close games we had.” He said “there is only one winner at the end of the season” and the Broncos “weren’t that team yet.” Guard Quinn Meinerz made note of how far the Broncos have come. The five-year veteran suffered through three losing seasons before Denver, with Sean Payton in his second season, went 10-7 in 2024 to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015. “I’m proud of this group just because it’s been an honor and a privilege to be a captain and serve this team and be a part of the growth of this program,’’ Meinerz said. “We brought in a bunch of really good players, and we had a lot of doubt this entire year.” Meinerz was referring to outside doubt. McGlinchey had touched upon that last Monday. “Everybody’s been doubting us since we’ve been doing this,’’ McGlinchey said then. “We’ve won 14 games (in the regular season) and people are saying we’re the worst one seed in the history of the playoffs and all that stuff.” The Broncos proved some doubters wrong in the playoffs by defeating Buffalo and playing the Patriots to a one-score game with a backup quarterback. But that wasn’t enough for McGlinchey to say they exceeded expectations this season. ...read more read less