Phew.
Jessica Hansen finally can breathe again. It was touch and go there for a minute as she took in every last gut-wrenching moment of what ultimately was a 24-17 victory by her beloved Broncos in Sunday’s nail-biter of a playoff game against the San Diego Chargers.
Like every other Broncos fan among the 76,969 that packed Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Hansen finally exhaled. Then cheered.
“I’m feeling so, so, so excited,” Hansen, of Brush, said after the game, her voice hoarse from yelling. “And so, so, so relieved. It’s absolutely relief. This is one more step.”
The victory meant salvation for fans still grieving last year’s playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, scenes of which weighed heavily on their minds. The Chargers scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, and it looked like, for a moment, that history might repeat itself.
“This is the Ravens again! This is worse,” one fan shouted.
His neighbor in the seat below him threw up his hands and stormed off, unable to watch anymore.
Even before the game Hansen and her husband, Kevin, were feeling angst.
“I don’t exactly know how to put it into words,” she said. “It’s the most exciting and scary feeling. You don’t want to be walking out of the stadium like we did last year.”
As fellow tailgater Chris Rawlings explained: “This is the most important game they’ve ever played. Because of the Chargers — because it’s Philip Rivers — if we lost this game, we could never recover out of it.”
Few would admit it, but they were worried. They wondered: What about the wind, which was so cold and fast it whipped cheerleaders’ hair and sent hundreds of orange balloons into the sky a little too soon? Would the Broncos’ defense hold up? How would they play without Von Miller?
Rawlings was confident, he assured. But he wore his game-day Broncos boxers, just in case.
In the parking lot, Broncos “official superfan” Ralph Williams reminded fans to have faith.
“If we have this many people believing the same thing is going to happen, it will,” he said as he gazed at the parking lot full of tailgaters in orange and blue, which included a man shirtless beyond orange paint who said, “I have no doubt in my mind we will win this game.”
Fans’ trepidation wore, though.
“Anytime we can draw the first blood, that puts them on the hot seat,” said John Croissant, of Windsor, whose eyes stayed glued on a set of big-screen TVs as he watched the game in the warmth of a lower level.
Jesse Frank, of Aurora, wouldn’t have left his seat except to the go to the men’s room, where he and a growing line of others screamed and hooted at the TV as they waited. The fans started to think they had it made. But then, they weren’t so sure.
Heads kept warm by horse hats fell into orange-gloved hands.
Even Trennah Nantkes, 9, could barely control her nerves. So when the Broncos’ finally clinched the game, “it was a relief that I didn’t have to be nervous anymore,” she said.
But as fans skipped and galloped and high-fived and screamed and chest-bumped their way out of the stadium, they tried not to get cocky.
“You gotta beat the best to be the best, and New England is the best,” Matt Bury, of Denver, explained between shrieks and yelps as fans all around him watched the Broncos nervously hang on. “Plus, we’ve got to go to work tomorrow.”