NEW ORLEANS — In the history of the Broncos, we’ve seen some crazy stuff. But there’s never been anything like the Miracle on the Big Muddy. The way Denver beat New Orleans 25-23 might not have been impossible. But it was harder than skipping a stone across the width of the Mississippi River and offered proof the NFL is stranger than fiction.
Have you ever heard a football stadium filled with 73,138 fans make a noise that sounded like: How the heck did that just happen? Me neither. At least not until Sunday, when Broncos rookie Justin Simmons blocked an extra-point attempt after what appeared to be the winning touchdown by New Orleans. Broncos teammate Will Parks scooped up the football, then ran 84 yards for the tiebreaking score, tiptoeing the sideline on his way to the end zone.
In a victory that defied explanation, I begged Parks to tell me how it happened.
“I took ballerina,” he said.
Say what?
With a straight face, Parks insisted the defending Super Bowl champs owed a victory coach Gary Kubiak labeled “a defining moment” of this season to his grandmother. Her name is Aldo Parks. She lives in Philadelphia. Years ago, she enrolled young Will in ballet class.
“My toes start hurting from doing that stuff all day,” said Parks, recalling how embarrassed he was as a 10-year-old when his granny dragged him off to dance school. “I did ballet for about a week.”
The lesson that stuck was how to step lightly on the toes, finally useful when Parks dashed in his white football cleats next to the white boundary line of the Superdome, with Saints chasing him all the way to the end zone with an improbable score for a defensive two-point conversion.
Sorry, Grandma. Ballet was not for Parks.
“That ain’t what I do,” he said. “I hit people.”
With one minute, 22 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees had hit Brandin Cooks with a 32-yard touchdown pass feathered perfectly only inches out of the reach of Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby.
“That ball hung in the air for so long, but I lost it in the lights,” Roby admitted. “So I was really mad at myself.”
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With the score tied at 23, all New Orleans needed was one lousy extra point to take the lead. But then the emotion swung from what looked to be a certain Denver defeat to victory in the single beat of a broken heart. With a loss, the Broncos would have had a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach, with a quarterback controversy and more hard questions than easy answers during their upcoming bye week.
Yes, Denver has issues. The offensive line puts Trevor Siemian through the meat grinder. A 7-3 record could easily be 5-5 if the Carolina Panthers had not missed a last-second field goal during the season opener or special-teams coach Joe DeCamillis had not dialed up a perfect extra-point block call that New Orleans coach Sean Payton admitted the Saints never saw coming.
Despite winning Super Bowl XLIV at the beginning of the decade, there’s still a little Aintap in the spirit of New Orleans football.
“Thatap what you call creative losing, don’t you think?” said Dave, a sage, old usher directing traffic from the press box to the locker rooms after the game. “I thought I had seen the Saints lose every way possible. But this was a new one for me.”
Some might suggest the Miracle on the Big Muddy is an unsustainable way for the Broncos to win games. Cornerback Chris Harris begs to differ.
“Thatap basically the way we’ve been winning games for two years now,” he said.
On the eve of the game, Kubiak had addressed a team bruised physically and spent emotionally. His message was short and to the point. Kubiak told the Broncos: “I just want to see everybody fight.”
The way Kubiak wins football games is not often pretty. These Broncos are all guts, no poetry.
“Coach Kube talked about he wanted to fight all game. And thatap what we gave him. Thatap what he got,” Parks said. “Thatap what y’all need to put on our name now: ‘We fight for the full 60 minutes.’ And if you want to go 75 minutes, we’ll go 75. We’ll probably go 76.”
In a Denver locker room rocking with laughter, I dared Parks to do the near-impossible one last time Sunday. As a dance aficionado, could he name me a single male star of the ballet?
The young NFL rookie stared into space, pondering, until a smile filled Park’s face and the perfect answer crossed his lips.
“James Brown!” declared Parks, certain the Godfather of Soul busted tighter moves than Mikhail Barisyhnikov.
Dear Miss Aldo: Thank you. This win felt nice. Like sugar and spice. So good, so good.
