Jahdae Barron got to see the trailer before the movie.
Months ago, in the heat of the Denver summer, Barron and the Broncos’ defense lined up for a short-yardage scrimmage drill in training camp. A running back split out wide, leaving the quarterback in an empty formation against an all-out blitz. Safety Talanoa Hufanga trotted down to guard the running back on the left side of the field, left one-on-one with plenty of space. Barron watched as Hufanga jumped the running back’s option route and intercepted the pass.
If that sounds like a play from the Broncos’ 30-26 win over the Los Angeles Rams, it’s because it was nearly identical to Hufanga’s 66-yard pick-6 on Sunday night, Barron told The Denver Post.
“This one was obviously cool, but I saw him do it in practice,” Barron told The Post after Sunday’s game.
The key difference: one was in a nearly empty practice field in Centennial, while Hufanga’s pick on Sunday night came in front of 76,000 at Empower Field on “Sunday Night Football.” It also came in the fourth quarter, against a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback and a Super Bowl contender. And it broke an NFL record, with Stafford surpassing Brett Favre to become the NFL’s all-time leader in pick-6s.
So, which was one better?
“Obviously tonight,” Barron chuckled.
The Rams, already up 19-16, were driving into Broncos’ territory when Denver forced them into a third down. Los Angeles running back Kyren Williams, who caught six passes for 70 yards on Sunday, split out wide. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph called an all-out blitz, leaving his secondary players one-on-one against the Rams’ receivers. Que Robinson was left with an unobstructed path to quarterback Matthew Stafford after the Rams slid their offensive line to the right. Robinson didn’t get to Stafford, but put his hands up, trying to obstruct the quarterback’s vision.
“I needed to have a faster reaction, actually,” Robinson told The Post.
After Stafford threw the pass, Robinson turned around expecting to have to tackle a receiver. Instead, he watched as Hufanga stepped in front of the slightly wayward pass. Patrick Surtain II didn’t even see the interception. He said he just knew something had happened after the crowd’s reaction, Surtain told The Post. Riley Moss saw the play unfold and had one thought.
“Oh my god, run,” Moss told The Post.
Safety Devon Key, linebacker Justin Strnad and defensive tackle Eyioma Uwazurike were all on the sideline. Key immediately started sprinting alongside Hufanga down the sideline after he intercepted the ball. Uwazurike was running “jumping and screaming,” and Strnad just muttered the same thing as Moss.
“I lost my mind,” Uwazurike told The Post.
Eyioma Uwazurike with a hilarious answer on his reaction to the Talanoa Huganga pick-six.
— Sam Jane (@sam_jane230)
The interception would have caused pandemonium for any player, but the fact that it was Hufanga made it extra special for his teammates. All offseason, Hufanga worked on improving from a zero-interception 2025 campaign in which he dropped at least five potential takeaways. He worked on the Jugs machine catching passes before practice, talked to his defensive teammates about wanting to atone for the dropped picks and told the media that the Broncos’ lack of takeaways started “with me.”
Earlier in the game, it looked like the same Hufanga from the previous season. He dropped an easy interception early in the game and then had another slip through his fingertips early in the third quarter. While Hufanga didn’t talk about the potential picks with the other safeties during Sunday’s game, “he knows you gotta get that one,” Key told The Post.
“I had to have a pep talk with myself. I dropped two at the beginning of the game and that was in (my mind),” Hufanga said.
The self-talk worked. After Hufanga missed the interception in the third quarter, he recorded the pick-6, a critical third-down sack off the edge, and the game-sealing interception with zeroes on the clock. He finished the game with five total tackles, one sack, three pass deflections and a touchdown. That stat line earned him NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” ball and coach Sean Payton handed him another one in the locker room.
“He obviously gets a game ball. The interception for the touchdown was the play of the game,” Payton said. “I love him, I love coaching him.”
Stafford's ball thrown into the pressure to Kyren Williams was a little behind and Hufanga just jumped it. Credit Que Robinson on the pressure.
Massive plays on back-to-back drives by the safety.
— Sam Jane (@sam_jane230)
After the interception, Hufanga still had to run nearly 70 yards. At the Rams’ 35-yard line, he encountered Stafford. It would be reasonable to expect that a 26-year-old safety who ran a 4.64 40-yard dash would break a nearly 40-year-old quarterback’s tackle attempt, but Hufanga got flashbacks on his return to a play earlier in his career. While with the San Francisco 49ers in 2022, . He outran the quarterback on that play for a pick-6, but wasn’t so sure he could replicate that this time.
“Nobody gives Stafford enough credit for how fast he is,” Hufanga said. “As he gets older, he gets faster. I caught the ball and I was like, ‘I don’t think I can outrun him.'”
Hufanga cut to the left side, narrowly avoiding Stafford’s diving attempt to trip him up. He stumbled, but managed to keep his feet en route to the end zone. His teammates laughed about it afterward, saying they would have given Hufanga a hard time if Stafford had managed to bring him down.
“We worked on our hands, now we got to work on our speed,” Key joked to The Post.
While the interception was the “play of the game,” the Broncos needed more than just that from their safety. On the Rams’ ensuing drive, Stafford led them on a four-play, 1:11-minute drive that gave Los Angeles the lead again. After Denver’s offense responded with a go-ahead touchdown, the Rams drove the ball down to the Broncos’ 19-yard line. Stafford, who is known as one of the clutch quarterbacks in NFL history, had one play to win the game.
He forced a pass to Rams’ star wide receiver Davante Adams near the goal line. Hufanga stepped in front, easily intercepting the pass and absorbing a huge hit from Williams. Ballgame.
It was Hufanga who gave the Broncos the lead. He was also the one to preserve it.
“It was nobody more deserving than him,” Moss told The Post.
