In spite of the team's unexpected success—all those comebacks helped the 2011 Broncos earn the franchise's first playoff berth since 2005—Denver's management, led by hall-of-fame quarterback John Elway, decided to shake things up in the offseason. They signed free agent quarterback Peyton Manning (an oldie but a goodie), shipped Tebow to New York, and looked to start fresh by building an offense that they hoped would be capable of scoring points before the final period. But while the new Broncos have some distinct differences from the team that Tebow led just a year ago—they no longer run the read option on offense—one thing that hasn't changed is the team's habit to win by coming from behind.

The 2012 Broncos are 3-3, and two of those victories resulted from fourth-quarter comebacks. In week one against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Manning threw a final-quarter touchdown to Jacob Tamme that gave the Broncos the lead for good, and then engineered another scoring drive that ended in a field goal. In week six, the Broncos trailed the San Diego Chargers 0-24 at halftime and 14-24 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Manning once again rallied the troops and threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns to give Denver the win. That game was so dramatic some have called it Peyton Manning's greatest comeback ever, which is not small praise since, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Manning has led 37 fourth-quarter comebacks, the most of any NFL quarterback since 1960. Even when the Broncos lose, they rally late. In each of the team's three losses this season, the Broncos have outscored opponents in the fourth quarter by a margin of 35-0. This is a team that seems preordained to play well down the stretch, and opponents have not figured out a way to stop the Broncos offense from coming alive late in games.

These stats raise the question why, over the past two seasons, has the Broncos offense been able to score so reliably late in games? Other than the switch from Tebow to Manning, most of Denver's offensive players were with the team last season. Is the unit's ability to mount late comebacks some sort of statistical outlier, or is it indicative of something else entirely?

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since 2003 the Broncos have had 22 fourth-quarter comebacks. That ties them with the Carolina Panthers for second most in the NFL during that time period. The Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts (Peyton Manning's former team) both had 24 fourth-quarter comebacks over that stretch. So even in the seasons before Tebow mania and Manning, the Broncos were no strangers to coming from behind.

Conventional wisdom holds that an NFL team's ability to mount fourth-quarter comebacks directly correlates with the downfield passing skills of its quarterback. The reasoning behind this line of thinking is that when teams fall behind late, they tend to ditch conservative play calling and just start throwing the ball downfield. Accurate passers thrive in this type of offensive scheme. Of the 10 quarterbacks with the most fourth-quarter comebacks since 1960, seven are already in the pro football Hall-of-Fame and three (Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady) will be inducted as soon as they are eligible. This is one of the reasons that Tebow's ability to engineer come-from-behind victories was such an anomaly: Tebow is not a great downfield passer, and yet last season he continued to find ways to make enough plays to pull-off late victories.