Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The Denver Broncos are an American football team. This season they win many games.
On Sunday, the Broncos won again. They beat the Carolina Panthers. The score was 26 to 21.
It was a close game. A close game is a game with almost the same score for both teams. The Broncos have now won 16 close games in a row.
This is a new record. No team in the league has done this before. The old record was 15. The Broncos' fans are very happy.
- team
- A group of people who do a sport together.
- season
- The months of the year when a sport has its games.
- win
- To be the best in a game.
- beat
- Won against another team.
- score
- The number of points each team has.
- close
- Here: with almost the same points for both teams.
- in a row
- One after another, with no break.
- record
- The best result that anyone has ever had.
Level 2 — Elementary
The Denver Broncos have set a National Football League record that surprised many experts. On Sunday, 8 November, they beat the Carolina Panthers 26 to 21 in Charlotte.
It was their sixteenth win in a row in a one-score game. A one-score game is a match that ends with a difference of eight points or fewer, so either team could have won near the end. The old record of 15 belonged to the Indianapolis Colts of 2008 and 2009.
The hero on Sunday was the defender Nik Bonitto. With less than two minutes left, he knocked the ball out of the hands of Carolina's quarterback, Bryce Young, and picked it up himself. Soon after, Denver's quarterback, Bo Nix, ran one yard for a touchdown.
The Broncos now have seven wins and two losses this season. Some people say the team is just lucky. Head coach Sean Payton does not like that idea. He says some of those games should not have been so close.
- experts
- People who know a lot about a subject.
- in a row
- One after another, with no break.
- difference
- The amount by which one number is bigger than another.
- belonged
- Was owned or held by someone.
- defender
- A team member whose job is to stop the other team from scoring.
- quarterback
- The team member who leads the attack and throws the ball.
- touchdown
- A score worth six points in American football.
- lucky
- Having good things happen by chance.
Level 3 — Intermediate
The Denver Broncos keep winning the kind of game that is supposed to be a coin toss. Their 26-21 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte on Sunday, 8 November, was their sixteenth consecutive win in a one-score game, a new National Football League record.
A one-score game is one decided by eight points or fewer, the most a team can gain from a single possession. Statisticians usually treat such results as close to random, which is why streaks tend to be short. The previous record of 15 was set by the Indianapolis Colts across the 2008 and 2009 seasons, when Peyton Manning was their quarterback.
Sunday's win followed a familiar script. With under two minutes remaining, linebacker Nik Bonitto sacked Carolina quarterback Bryce Young, stripped the ball loose and recovered the fumble himself. Three snaps later Bo Nix pushed across the goal line from one yard out. Nix finished with 237 passing yards and two touchdowns, and Denver improved to seven wins and two defeats.
Whether this is skill or fortune is now a lively argument. Head coach Sean Payton has pushed back against the suggestion of luck, adding that some of the games should never have been close in the first place. Commentators also noticed an echo of history: ten years ago the Broncos beat the same opponent in Super Bowl 50, a game also turned by a defender knocking the ball from the quarterback's hands.
- coin toss
- Throwing a coin to decide something. Here: a result that depends on chance.
- consecutive
- Following one after another without interruption.
- possession
- A period when one team has the ball and can try to score.
- random
- Happening by chance, without a pattern.
- streaks
- Series of the same result again and again.
- fumble
- Losing hold of the ball in American football.
- fortune
- Luck.
- opponent
- The team or person you compete against.
Level 4 — Advanced
In a league engineered for parity, close games are meant to be the great equalizer: decided by a bounce, a flag or a gust of wind, and split more or less evenly over time. The Denver Broncos are defying that arithmetic. Their 26-21 defeat of the Carolina Panthers on 8 November was their sixteenth straight victory in a contest settled by a single score, eclipsing a National Football League record that had stood since Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts won fifteen in succession in 2008 and 2009.
The latest instalment was characteristically nerve-racking. With fewer than two minutes left, the linebacker Nik Bonitto reached Bryce Young, dislodged the ball and fell on it himself; three snaps later the quarterback Bo Nix burrowed over from a yard out. Nix threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns, Denver moved to seven wins against two losses, and the symmetry with Super Bowl 50, when a Broncos pass rush dismantled the same franchise, was lost on nobody.
Analysts are divided over what the streak means. The orthodox statistical view holds that records in one-score games regress sharply toward even, so a run of this length is mostly variance that will eventually correct. If each such game were a fair coin flip, sixteen in a row would occur about once in 65,000 attempts. The alternative reading is that Denver may have built repeatable late-game advantages: a ferocious pass rush and a composed young quarterback.
Sean Payton, the head coach, rejects the language of luck but offers a twist of his own, noting that several of these games ought not to have been tight at all. That is both a boast and a warning. A team good enough to dominate should not need rescuing so often, and one that keeps needing rescue is living closer to the edge than its record implies. For now the Broncos hold a mark that may outlast the debate about how they earned it.
- parity
- A state in which all sides are roughly equal.
- equalizer
- Something that makes unequal sides level.
- eclipsing
- Doing better than something, so that it seems less important.
- dislodged
- Knocked out of position.
- symmetry
- A close similarity between two things.
- variance
- Differences in results that are caused by chance.
- composed
- Calm and in control.
- boast
- A proud statement about your own achievements.
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