Broncos For Real? NFL.com Weighs in on Whether it's 'Fact or Fiction'

Sean Payton has the Denver Broncos pointed in the right direction. This team is now a bona-fide playoff contender.

It goes with the territory that somewhere along the line, the national media would start piggybacking on the Broncos' success. NFL.com has been slowly trending toward buying into the hype generated by the Broncos' five-game winning streak.

It came as no surprise on Tuesday when NFL.com's Adam Schein officially jumped on the Mile High bandwagon, ranking the streaking Broncos in the fourth position on his Fact or Fiction list. The premise is whether a given assertion is "Fact" or "Fiction." 

4) Denver is indeed for real

Yup, factual. Denver (6-5) is tied with Philadelphia for the longest active winning streak at five games. And over the past four outings, the Broncos have knocked off four teams that are currently .500 or better: the Browns (7-4), Vikings (6-6), Bills (6-6) and Chiefs (8-3).

This is not a fluke. It's representative of what we expected from Sean Payton, before his team started off at 1-4 by losing to Josh McDaniels' Raiders, blowing an 18-point lead to the Commanders, giving up 70 points to the Dolphins and dropping the Nathaniel Hackett revenge game. All of that is deep in the rearview now. Vance Joseph's defense buttoned up big time, while Russell Wilson is playing clean, efficient football.

I can't wait for this Sunday's big game in Houston. What a matchup, with rookie sensation C.J. Stroud going up against Denver's revitalized defense, which is led by a pair of stars in the secondary (CB Pat Surtain II and S Justin Simmons). Payton has really turned this entire organization around: Suddenly, you can't count out these Broncos in any matchup.

Denver's damaging early-season capitulations, which Schein highlighted, might yet come back to haunt the team when it's all said and done. Even if the chips don't fall the Bronocs' way, the manner by which they overcame the 70-point nightmare against the Miami Dolphins and a 1-5 start has been remarkable.

As Schein points out, the Broncos took the setbacks on the chin way before they started to morph into a classic nuts-and-bolts Payton-type outfit. Payton held the line and retained Vance Joseph as his defensive coordinator when many would have wielded the ax, especially in the wake of the humiliation in South Florida.

During the fallout of Week 3, Payton's unflinching faith in Joseph, who was seriously under fire, was called into question by fans and the media alike. To his massive credit, Payton didn't blink and has been rewarded with a defense that has since risen from the ashes like a Phoenix.

Multiple wins have come off the back of the Broncos' reborn defense, giving up an average of only 16 points through its last four games. Complementary football has been put back on the menu.

Veterans like Surtain and Simmons have played a major part in Denver's stunning revival, but stellar coaching also brought essential changes in both attitude and personnel. Schein is not the only one salivating over this weekend's matchup between the hard-hitting Denver defense and the Houston Texans' dynamic rookie QB.

It's simply another fence to jump on the Broncos' greater mission of making the playoffs. This classic matchup of the bull against the matador promises to be box-office viewing.