In the fourth quarter of his professional life, Broncos coach Sean Payton has slowly learned that playing it conservatively only speeds the clock toward the final gun, when the chance to win a championship will be dead and gone. “They say as you get older, maybe you don’t drive in the rain at night,” Payton said Thursday. “I can’t let that happen.” Payton knows better than anyone that he squeezed 14 victories out of this feisty Denver team by being a fuddy duddy. So here’s a toast to the crusty curmudgeon on the Denver sideline for putting the mania back in Broncos Country. But on the road to the Super Bowl, it’s all gas, no brakes. “When I was younger, I’d run a reverse on the 8-yard line and think nothing of it,” Payton mused. “As you get older, you think of all the ramifications. And so I have to remove that.” After being bored to tears by his winning game plans so conservative, I wondered if they were penned by a playground monitor rather than an innovative play-caller. Here’s hoping Payton is bold enough to go for the kill shot when he has the Buffalo Bills in his sights. “Daring at the right time, but not reckless, those are the things I find that are challenges compared to when I was 33 (as a brash assistant coach) in New York,” Payton said. “Part of that was being raised by a father who was in casualty claims and insurance. We had no trampolines, we had no swimming pools, we couldn’t ride motorbikes. We knew where every sharp edge was …” From decades of coaching experience, Payton can follow the blueprint for building a winning culture with his eyes closed. But does he have the nerve to completely trust his players to take a big swing of the hammer in the NFL playoffs? Payton celebrated his 62nd birthday four days after putting the once-mighty Kansas City Chiefs in their place on Christmas and only two sleeps before he sounded like your crabby uncle by declaring New Year’s Eve “the most overrated holiday” on the whole dadgum calendar. Well, we genuinely appreciated the avuncular warning to stay home and get to bed early, Coach Metamucil. But what happened to the swashbuckling Mayor of Bourbon Street who had the Saints come marching home with the Lombardi Trophy 16 years ago after he dared to open the second half of Super Bowl XLIV with an onside kick, with New Orleans trailing Peyton Manning and Indianapolis by 10-6? It takes bold strokes of the pen to rewrite the history book. “I know there’s never been a Super Bowl won by a coach with two different teams,” Payton said after Denver clinched the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC. That realization can get a 62-year-old coach to think about the race against the clock to build a legacy. Almost exactly 48 hours before kickoff of a playoff game against Josh Allen and the Bills, Payton stood in front of a microphone on the edge of the team’s practice field and waxed philosophically for a solid 20 minutes. This was not the combative son of a gun that Payton can be when his temper is running hot. It was story time with Uncle Sean. He delivered a seize-the-day and go-for-the-gusto sermon. “I said this to the players: There’s going to be a time when all of us have to get off (the football field),” Payton said. “But you know what? Not today. Not today.” The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC. But why should they feel any pressure? Heck, half the NFL universe still has trouble believing this football team is for real. While no team in the league won more consistently in the regular season than the Broncos, their constant need for fourth-quarter heroics has them rated no better than seventh in the eight-team playoff field, when the numbers are crunched by ESPN’s Football Power Index or Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings. Even the most die-hard believers didn’t expect Denver to fashion a 14-3 record while carrying the dead salary-cap weight of the Russell Wilson mistake. That’s why I hope Payton approaches this home game against Buffalo like he’s playing with house money. Both Buffalo and Denver have an affinity for controlling the tempo and milking the clock with long drives. But with the home crowd on the Broncos’ side and a championship-caliber defense having his back, if Payton dares to ambush the Bills with quick early strikes, it could put Allen on his heels in the face of a fierce pass rush.  So trust that gutsy call on the playsheet instead of pondering all the ramifications of what happens should a calculated gamble fail. Be decisive and fearless. “That’s the thing I’ve got to focus on,” Payton said. He’s drilled this Denver team on how to play football the right way. Now it’s time to let these Broncos run free. ...read more read less