The Bron­cos were run­ning out of time.

Den­ver had failed to score a touch­down in four red zone trips against Min­neso­ta on Sun­day night, and trail­ing by five with 69 sec­onds left in the fourth quar­ter, the team need­ed to reach the end zone to keep its win streak alive.

The Vikings defense brought the heat on first down, forc­ing quar­ter­back Rus­sell Wil­son to step up in the pock­et and launch the ball toward a streak­ing Court­land Sut­ton in the back cor­ner of the end zone

Using all of his 6‑foot‑4 frame, the vet­er­an wide receiv­er leapt and snatched a 15-yard touch­down pass over cor­ner­back Mekhi Black­mon to beat Min­neso­ta 21–20 at Empow­er Field at Mile High.

“Once I saw (the ball) com­ing to me, I couldn’t wait for it to come down,” Sut­ton said. “There were defend­ers around me so I had to go make a play.”

While the Bron­cos con­tin­ue to search for their sweet spot on offense, the one con­stant has been Wilson’s con­nec­tion with Sut­ton in the red zone.

A week ear­li­er, the two hooked up for one of the most improb­a­ble touch­down pass­es in the NFL this sea­son — a 7‑yard heave on fourth down that end­ed with Sut­ton pulling an absurd toe-tap in the end zone. On Sun­day night, it was more of the tra­di­tion­al jump ball that’s been Sutton’s bread and but­ter through­out his career.

Wil­son has thrown eight of his 16 red zone touch­down pass­es to Sut­ton this sea­son. The SMU prod­uct has 99 yards on 11 catch­es inside oppo­nents’ 20-yard line through 10 games.

Sut­ton said anoth­er play starts when­ev­er Wil­son scram­bles out of the pock­et. And at that point, it comes down to impro­vi­sa­tion — and mak­ing sure he stays in Wilson’s line of vision to make a play.

“Try to find a void,” said Sut­ton, who fin­ished with a team-best 66 yards on four catch­es on Sun­day night. “And if you find the open hole, (Wil­son) usu­al­ly sees it as well.”

Head coach Sean Pay­ton said Sut­ton has been “out­stand­ing.” He cred­it­ed Sutton’s strong hands and the con­fi­dence lev­el between he and Wil­son for their shared success.

While Sut­ton has been a touch­down machine in the red zone, he has also dis­played tremen­dous bal­ance, con­trol and abil­i­ty to catch 50/50 balls. Once again, he showed off his bas­ket­ball hops on the go-ahead touch­down grab against Minnesota.

Bron­cos safe­ty Justin Sim­mons said Sut­ton is one of the best 50/50 pass catch­ers he has ever seen.

“It’s more like 70–30 when the ball is thrown in his area,” Sim­mons said. “The way he (can) keep his body in bounds (and) con­tort his body to catch (with) one or two hands is great.”

Despite not record­ing a sin­gle 100-yard receiv­ing game this sea­son, Sut­ton has man­aged to make an out­sized impact halfway through the sea­son. He has the sec­ond-most touch­down recep­tions in the league, and has caught at least one TD in five straight games.

Dur­ing this four-game win streak, Sut­ton has deliv­ered when­ev­er Wil­son and the team need­ed him. On Sun­day against the Vikings, he stepped up once again, and the Bron­cos were reward­ed with a .500 record.

“He’s that per­son that Russ needs,” left tack­le Garett Bolles said. “(No.) 14 does what he needs to do.”

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