Here's how the Broncos passed the test of character Sunday against the Panthers

CHARLOTTE — If 2020 has taught us anything, it is this: It can always get worse.

But has also been a test of character.

Most of us have endured an unremitting blizzard of punches over the past 11-and-a-half months. The Broncos are no different.

Consider this: For a while Sunday, I didn’t know if 5,768 was the attendance count or the number of woes that had befallen the Broncos by the time tight end Noah Fant took the long walk from the Broncos’ sideline to the south tunnel at Bank of America Stadium. He became the second Bronco to fall victim to illness Sunday; left tackle Garett Bolles was the first, missing a game for the only time in his pro career.

By that time, Drew Lock looked around the huddle and didn’t see Fant, Bolles, Courtland Sutton, Ja’Wuan James, Graham Glasgow or Albert Okwuegbunam. And that offense had to hold up the tent to make up for a defense that didn’t have two starting defensive linemen, two starting cornerbacks, its slot cornerback and its future Hall of Fame edge rusher, Von Miller.

Even against the rebuilding Carolina Panthers, it seemed as though the Broncos had absorbed too many blows to succeed.

Instead, the Broncos enjoyed their finest hour of the year in a 32-27 win.

It started with their game plan. On offense, it involved allowing quarterback Drew Lock to get comfortable with rollouts, play-fakes, screens and other short to intermediate passes. Even without the ill Bolles and the injured Glasgow, Lock was able to find a rhythm he has rarely enjoyed this season. Instead of swinging for the fences from the start, he focused on getting on-base.

“That’s exactly what it was. It was just about me coming in and doing my job,” Lock said. “Knowing that if I just play my game and let it come to me, then the big ones will come.”

They did. K.J. Hamler, Jerry Jeudy and Tim Patrick combined for four receptions of at least 30 yards. Hamler’s deep strikes were for touchdowns. Patrick and Jeudy’s long receptions set up short-range touchdown passes.

Lock, like many of the players who were available Sunday, has dealt with his share of woe. He entered Sunday dead last among eligible quarterbacks in passer rating. He missed nearly three games to a shoulder injury and another due to a close contact with the COVID-19-positive Jeff Driskel. But he overcame it all for a moment in the sun — a moment with significance that can only become clear with time.

Diontae Spencer was another Bronco to deal with woe. The promising punt and kickoff returner saw chunks of this season waylaid due to injury and COVID-19. He missed five of the Broncos’ previous seven games in all.

Sunday, the only thing missed involving Spencer was tackles — by Carolina’s Trenton Cannon and Myles Hartsfield. Spencer left them grasping and sprawling as he dashed 83 yards for the touchdown that put the Broncos up 6-0 in the game’s opening moments.

Finally, it was the defense itself that overcame.

The duct-tape-and-baling-wire cornerback corps held up for just over two quarters. In the final quarter and a half, it collapsed, as Teddy Bridgewater and his receivers had their way with the Broncos’ secondary. Carolina marched to scores on four consecutive second-half drives, whittling a 15-point Broncos lead down to five points.

After the Broncos’ offense went three-and-out, Carolina regained possession with 2:48 left and designs on a game-winning drive.

The defense, diced for the previous four possessions, found its form just in time. Pressure poured in on Bridgewater, leading to a Dre’Mont Jones sack and Josey Jewell forcing a hurried, errant pass. The last throw, on fourth-and-8, was a get-it-away pass to Curtis Samuel that the receiver caught eight yards short of the line to gain to seal Denver’s win.

“All 11 of us dug deep and we executed, and we were able to get a stop,” safety Kareem Jackson said. “I wanted guys to continue to fight and play with that intensity and drive to get a stop.”

They did. sealing a victory that was the encapsulation of three words Fangio has spent the season hammering home to his players as they navigate a season unlike any that a Broncos team has ever faced:

“Improvise and adjust.”

The Broncos didn’t just listen to Fangio saying those words all season. Sunday, they did exactly what he implored.

This was a win that dripped with potential long-term significance for young Broncos like Lock, Hamler, Netane Muti, Calvin Anderson and Michael Ojemudia, all of whom came up big.

But most of all, this was a validation of Fangio’s ability to keep the team focused and persistent, even as their world seemed to crash around it.

Imagine what Fangio can do with a team that doesn’t have an injured list that measures in the dozens. Imagine how his defense could look with a complete collection of cornerbacks and pass rushers.

“For guys to step in play the way they did today, it says a lot about the guys in this locker room being fighters,” Jackson said.

Imagine what the Broncos might look like next year if fortune smiles on Fangio and his men.

2020 is ending in darkness. 2021 brings a dawn of fresh hope. And for the Broncos, it won’t just bring a return to health. It will give them a chance to show that the character they built during this nightmarish year will give them a spine of steel.

In what we all hope to be more normal circumstances, that will serve them well.