Game balls from the Broncos 20-13 win over Dolphins

The Denver Broncos came to play on Sunday and frustrated the Miami Dolphins on offense and on defense. The 20-13 score was closer than it should have been as there were some big plays left out there for Denver and some ticky tack calls that negated some others.

As for game balls, the Broncos gave one to an all-time great and Hall of Fame running back Floyd Little who has been placed in hospice care this weekend.

“Today we are going to talk about a new stage in Floyd’s journey. ... Hospice,” Little’s former Syracuse teammate Patrick Killorin wrote on Facebook. “Floyd’s courageous battle with a difficult disease [cancer] is now at a critical stage in his life. This is a time when a husband and wife must make important decisions regarding potential end of life decisions.”

Little saved the Broncos franchise when it needed saving the most. He’ll forever be atop the Mt. Rushmore of Broncos, because without his efforts in the late 60s there wouldn’t be a Denver Broncos. So here’s our Mile High Salute along with our prayers to Floyd Little and his family.

For the win over the Dolphins, we also have a few players to reward for their play. Here are the stars from that win.

Justin Simmons

Justin Simmons had a slow start to the season, but by the time he had a few games under his belt he has been back to his old All Pro self. I was bummed a ticky tack penalty negated an early interception by him, which frankly, would have made this game a two score affair. He earned back all of that which was taken away from him with an end zone interception of Ryan Fitzpatrick in waning moments of the game to seal a Broncos 20-13 victory over the Dolphins. For the love of God, pay that man! - Tim Lynch

Drew Lock

Many will say the prevailing learning from this game is that the run game helped Lock. While that’s certainly true to an extent, I think it goes the other way. I actually believe the ability to get the run going and stick with it was made possible by Drew Lock’s play, particularly early on. He made some big plays on key 3rd downs early in the game that allowed Denver to keep a drive going and keep the run game churning. You can’t run the ball consistently when you’re going 3 and out constantly, and you have to convert 3rd downs to avoid that.

Denver’s offense overcame adversity early on and Lock was a big reason for that. He shook off an early INT and shaky start to pilot the ship for what finally looked like a complete, somewhat competent offense.

It wasn’t a world beating performance, but it’s one we’ve been asking from Lock all season, play within the offense and lead the team, and he did that today. - Jeff Essary

Phillip Lindsay

We’ve known for a while that Lindsay is the heart and soul of the Broncos offense. It seems Pat Shurmur (finally) got the hint. Lindsay was the spark plug that ignited Denver’s offense on Sunday with his 16 carries for 82 yards. Here’s hoping Shurmur keeps feeding Phil the remainder of the season. It’ll help if the offensive line continues to play as well as it did, as Joe mentioned. - Ian St. Clair

Offensive Line

Until I go back over the tape it’s hard to single out just one offensive lineman. As a unit they were great today. The Dolphins zero blitz looks have given opponents fits because they adjust to the protection’s slide. It’s why those amoeba looks were so intimidating, because you really couldn’t tell who was coming until after the snap. They did close to nothing after the first drive of the game. Lock didn’t get sacked and the Broncos ran at will to the right, often behind Garett Bolles and Dalton Risner pulling. Stoked to go back and see what a difference Demar Dotson makes for the whole offense. - Joe Rowles

DeShawn Williams

I didn’t even have DeShawn Williams on my Broncos bingo card this year. Still he showed up huge in the win over the Dolphins. He was a constant presence in Miami’s backfield. He harassed Tua Tagovailoa, sacking him twice. Without Shelby Harris to anchor the line, it was a committee effort, but Williams was a huge part of that committee. - Adam Malnati

Malik Reed

- Sadaraine

Who gets your game ball from the Broncos-Dolphins game?