DENVER _ It's not lucky anymore.
This is simply what they do. The Broncos could leap from Union Station and land in a first-class Amtrak seat. But you can bet they checked the wind first and had a teammate down below to catch their fall. They'd bankrupt a blackjack table, but only after counting cards. They catch trophy trout on the first cast, but only because they tied the right fly.
The Broncos beat the Panthers 21-20 late Thursday at Sports Authority Field.
Maybe in the offseason the NFL awarded the Broncos an additional nine lives, perhaps as compensatory lives since Peyton Manning is gone. More likely, it's way past time the football world gave the Super Bowl champions what they earned. How about a little respect around here?
Going 6-1 last season against the mighty Panthers, Patriots, Steelers, Packers and Bengals wasn't enough to peg the Broncos as favorites in their home opener. They were underdogs, in Las Vegas and in the eyes of NFL media.
Which 2015 season were they watching?
"We won because we continued to battle and battle and believe," Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said after Carolina kicker Graham Gano missed a 50-yarder wide to the left.
The Broncos trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter. Trevor Siemian was the quarterback. Last season he was quarterback who was cast as Cam Newton on the Broncos scout team. If you win a game under that scenario _ against a Panthers outfit that looks as big and bad as it did a year ago, if not bigger and bad-der _ a lot of good things, not lucky things, had to happen.
Start with Siemian. The Broncos did. How about the nerves on that guy? It was Siemian who led them back. First he did some dumb things, the low point being a floater that wouldn't even qualify as a duck. A dead duck, maybe. The Panthers intercepted the pass and the 76,671 folks sardined into Mile High groaned as one big, unhappy family.
At that point, the preferred hashtag was NeverTrevor.
Later, it morphed into ForeverTrevor.
Siemian's first career completion went for 11 yards to Demaryius Thomas. His first career win will never be forgotten. Siemian finished 18 of 26 for 178 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. His final quarterback rating was 69.1. Cam Newton's quarterback rating was 69.5.
Trevor's parents flew in from central Florida for the game. Walter and Colleen Siemian remember the time Trevor rode a horse named "Wharf" in Steamboat Springs on his first trip to Colorado. Now they can remember the time their son beat the reigning MVP as quarterback of the Super Bowl champions while 120 million people watched on television.
Siemian's sweet things outweighed his dumb things. One of the sweet things was when he dropped a perfect screen pass to C.J. Anderson, who earned his fancy new contract, and Anderson scored a 25-yard touchdown.
Siemian wasn't done yet. Maybe his coolest thing _ emphasis on cool, as in cool-headed _ was the yard he didn't gain. On third down, Siemian skedaddled for a first down. But instead of reaching to the Carolina 10-yard-line _ which would have given the Broncos first-and-goal from the 10, a shaky spot to be _ he stepped out-of-bounds at the 11.
Couple plays later, the Broncos got a first down at the 1. Couple plays after that, Anderson scored another touchdown, the game winner. Sweet move, kid.
"That's the way he's been," Kubiak said of Siemian. "I've sat down with a lot of quarterbacks the night before games. This kid, he's exceptional."
How long will Siemian hold off first-round pick Paxton Lynch? That's a question for later. Considering the magnitude of the Super Bowl 50 rematch and how Siemian handled the burn against one of the NFL's nastiest defenses, he fits right into this resilient mix for now. On a prime-time stage fit for the NFL MVP, the quarterback making his first career start turned himself into the story.
"We've got a resilient team," Siemian said. "I think you saw that tonight."
Let it be known Von Miller (3-0) still owns Cam Newton (0-3). Miller just put him on layaway for three quarters. Miller's sack of Newton, his first big play of the game, turned Mile High into one of his favorite things, a dance party.
Of Denver's last 16 wins, 12 came by a touchdown or less. This one was like a lot of the other ones, dangerous to fingernails and shaky heart conditions.
But whether their quarterback is Brock Osweiler or Manning or Siemian, the proper referendum on the Broncos must arrive at some point.
They're not lucky. They're just good.
