Denver’s defense lowered the boom on the New York Jets and the Broncos did enough to leave London with a 13-11 win on Sunday.
The Jets (0-6) had minus-10 net passing yards and quarterback Justin Fields was sacked nine times, but New York had a lead late and a chance to kick a long game-winning field goal on the final drive.
Wil Lutz punched in a 27-yard field goal with 5:06 remaining to give the Broncos the two-point lead. Nik Bonitto notched Denver’s seventh sack of Fields, getting the ball back to quarterback Bo Nix only 90 seconds later.
But the Broncos (4-2) couldn’t move the chains.
Jets edge rusher Jermaine Johnson dragged down Nix to force a Denver punt and New York was at midfield when the two-minute warning arrived. Fields was put on his back an eighth time before hitting wide receiver Garrett Wilson for a seven-yard gain to the Denver 44. After an incompletion to Wilson, the Jets opted to bypass a 61-yard field goal try and kept the offense on the field on 4th-and-8.
Jonathon Cooper pushed Fields up in the pocket where Justin Strnad closed out the game with Denver’s ninth sack. Cooper had two sacks and Strnad added 1.5.
Nix completed 19 of 30 passes for 174 yards. Fields completed nine passes for 45 yards.
Kickers claimed the spotlight at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a field-position struggle dominated by defense. The Jets led in the fourth quarter for the third time this season but remain winless.
Nick Folk made three field goals and Jets punter Austin McNamara kept the field tilted in New York’s favor with 355 yards on seven punts.
Denver arrived in London on Tuesday on the energy of an upset of the previously undefeated Philadelphia Eagles on Monday and leaves with a half-game lead in the AFC West.
The first passing yards of the second half for Nix came on a play-fake pass to tight end Evan Engram, moving the chains with the nine minutes to play. Facing a third-and-7, Nix’s 26-yarder to the left flat to wide receiver Marvin Mims — the longest play from scrimmage in the game — and consecutive positive gains on the ground by J.K. Dobbins landed Denver in the red zone. But two Nix incompletions and a Dobbins stuff forced Lutz’s second field goal of the game.
Despite only 76 total yards of offense entering the fourth quarter, the Jets stayed alive thanks to mistakes by the Broncos.
The Jets reclaimed the lead with five minutes left in the third quarter, jumping on top 11-10. Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz was flagged for holding in the endzone, clasping onto Jets defensive lineman Michael Clemons as he steamrolled into the backfield with a bull rush that parked Meinerz on his rear end. Nix dropped back from the Denver 3, targeting wide receiver Troy Franklin on a seven-step drop. Franklin was called for offensive pass interference, which the Jets declined, to accept the holding penalty resulting in a safety.
Nix and Nate Adkins hooked up for a 16-yard TD as time expired in the first quarter.
Lutz drilled a 57-yard field goal after Denver opened the game with a turnover on its first drive. The Jets took a 3-0 lead on Folk’s 52-yarder four minutes into the game, and put the Jets back on top (6-3) with a 41-yard field goal.
