What you just saw on Sunday, October 30th is precisely why the Broncos might still be playing come January 30th. It's remarkable how this defense steps up in the clutch. Denver scored 14 points off turnovers, while holding another opponent to 20 points or less. It was on one of those game-changing takeaways that the defense lost its leader, Wade Phillips, on a freak sideline accident. It reminded me of when Robert Brooks knocked Packers wide receivers coach Gil Haskell onto the concrete at Texas Stadium in the 1995 NFC Championship Game. Like the Chargers- Broncos contest, the crowd went silent as the game stopped for several minutes. That was more than two decades ago, when Phillips was the DC in Buffalo. Sunday, he was in the hospital, watching the end of Denver's win. And probably drawing up blitzes on a napkin next to some really lousy apple sauce and Ensure. (Great to hear everything checked out OK for @SonOfBum.)