The Broncos’ play in the fourth quarter Sunday will go down in NFL history, but Sean Payton was thinking a lot more Monday about the first three quarters against the New York Giants.

In the 33-32 win at Empower Field at Mile High, Denver stormed back from fourth-quarter deficits of 19-0 and 26-8. When Wil Lutz’s game-winning 39-yard field goal split the uprights on the final play, it gave the Broncos 33 points in the quarter, the most in their history in any quarter and tied for the second most by any NFL team in a fourth quarter. The Broncos also tied for the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in team history.

But what about the first three quarters? The Broncos (5-2) didn’t score a point and managed just 180 total yards.

“There’s a sense of urgency, certainly,’’ Payton, Denver’s third-year coach, said before having an extensive film session with players on Monday. “I would say the one thing more concerning is us playing better in the earlier quarters, including (quarterback Bo Nix). … Offensively, we really didn’t amount to anything until we got into the end of the game, fourth quarter. Mental errors, mistakes, snaps, wrong reads, you name it.”

Payton spoke to the media Monday before linebacker Dre Greenlaw was suspended by the NFL for one game for, according to the league, chasing after referee Brad Allen at the end of the win over the Giants and verbally threatening him as he tried to leave the field. Greenlaw was back in action after missing the first six games with a quad injury. Barring a successful appeal, Greenlaw will sit out Sunday at home against the Dallas Cowboys (3-3-1) and return for Denver’s Nov. 2 game at Houston.

Regarding the offensive issues in the first three quarters Sunday, Payton was asked if he will continue to call the offensive plays. Former Denver quarterback Ben DiNucci wrote on social media Sunday, when the Broncos were down 13-0 at halftime, “Is it time for (quarterbacks coach) Davis Webb to call plays in Denver?”

“No,’’ Payton said of there being any change entering the game against the Cowboys. “I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff of how we’re operating.”

In the first three quarters, Nix completed just 11 of 25 passes for 105 yards. But after that, he was 16 of 25 for 174 yards and became the first player in NFL history to have two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs in the fourth quarter. The second-year man directed his sixth career fourth-quarter comeback win.

“It is a credit to Bo, but it’s a credit to the entire team,’’ guard Quinn Meinerz said when asked about that statistic.

A day after the dramatic win, Meinerz talked about the resilience of the Broncos but also what they must do to correct what went on in the first three quarters.

“It’s about a DNA of this team, of always fighting and never going to give up and not flinching,’’ Meinerz said. “That’s a culture that we’ve been building here.”

And the first three quarters?

“We’ve got to put some drives together and try to get some points,’’ Meinerz said. “We’ve got to have that mentality going into games, starting fast and being able to get some points.”

Denver sure got plenty of points in the fourth quarter during Alumni Weekend. The Broncos on Sunday had about 160 former players on hand, the 2015 Super Bowl-winning team was honored during a 10-year reunion and the late Demaryius Thomas, a star receiver on that team, was inducted into the Ring Fame.

Members of the 2015 Super Bowl 50 team watched from a suite. There wasn’t a lot of the commotion for much of the game, but there was euphoria in the fourth quarter.

“Everybody was high fiving,’’ said Ryan Harris, a tackle on the 2015 team. “Everybody was screaming, and it’s what everybody came for besides the Giants fans. … That was a miraculous comeback.”

Indeed it was. Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga touched upon it Monday.

“Amazing game,’’ Hufanga said. “One of the cooler ones that I’ve been a part of. It was definitely a surreal moment just to see the fight in our team, the adversity that we had to fight back from and finish off a tough game. In the closing moments, the offense they just balled out in that fourth quarter and the defense came up with stops when we needed to get stops.”

Hufanga, though, knows there is plenty the defense must do better after a game in which the Broncos gave up a season-high point total and 387 yards, their second-most allowed in 2025. That dropped Denver from No. 2 in the NFL in both scoring and total defense to No. 4 in both categories.

“We did make a lot of mistakes,’’ Hufanga said. “Things that we need to clean up. Things that we can fix or improve on.”

That is exactly what Payton had in mind Monday.