DENVER -- In just four short weeks, Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock has seen all parts of the drawing board.

First career NFL start? Check.

First career NFL road start? Check.

First career NFL hometown start, first NFL blizzard and first pass rush really intent on rattling both his sensibilities and bones? Check, three times over.

And now first comeback win? Check.

Sunday's 27-17 victory over the Detroit Lions moved the Broncos to 6-9. The team has gone 3-1 in Lock's first four starts, and the second-round pick has been given a rather complete look at where his game is now and what he needs to do to improve.

"I would say ... I think this was a necessary trip that I'm going on right now," Lock said. " ... Go back and think about having a picture-perfect script for me in these last games, obviously the loss in Kansas City isn't that, but getting me as much experience as possible going into the next year where I can be the guy and say that I have certain experiences from this year that I can take into next year. I think that was big for my development and I think big for this program too."

Lock is the seventh different quarterback to start a game for the Broncos since Week 8 of the 2017 season. The Broncos have missed the playoffs four consecutive seasons and need a win over the Oakland Raiders in next Sunday's regular-season finale to avoid three consecutive seasons with double-digit losses for the first time since the 1960s. To say the team, its faithful fans and a football-hungry region are starved for a solution behind center is a rather tidy understatement.

And even the most optimistic of the Broncos' decision-makers can't definitively say they know after 16 quarters of work that Lock is finally the "it" guy -- Drew Brees, a future Hall of Famer, was once benched in Year 3 of his career after all. But even the Broncos themselves might not have been able to carve out a better look at Lock's game and composure than these past four games.

In Week 13, Lock's first start, the Chargers didn't go after the rookie aggressively, allowing the Broncos to survive his 11 yards passing in the second half and win on the game's final play.

In Week 14, his first road start, the Texans, coming off an emotional win over the New England Patriots, decided not to challenge Lock with any zone looks in coverage. Instead, Lock feasted on the Texans' man coverage with 309 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Then in Week 15, Lock got the full brunt of a bad-weather day, the pressure of a hometown start and a defense out to do what the first two defenses didn't. The Chiefs went after Lock early and often in a 23-3 Kansas City win. Lock was battered and completed just 7 of 18 passes and fumbled in the fourth quarter.

"Kansas City was a little different than this [Detroit] defense," Lock said. "What I've noticed besides that first week, what you'd like to expect, they're going to switch it up on you. You've just got to be a reactor."

Which happened Sunday. The Lions had a 10-0 lead over the Broncos and the hometown fans were more than a little unsettled. The Lions, Lock would say after the game, didn't play as much man-to-man as the Broncos had thought they would.

Besides adjustments, Lock had to deal with some adversity as well. The rookie, like many of his teammates, had dealt with an illness that had roared through the Broncos' locker room this past week. So much so that linebacker Von Miller called it "the flu game."

The Broncos had three backup offensive linemen in the game in the second half, yet they still rushed for 82 yards after halftime. Lock led three scoring drives, including two in the fourth quarter after the Lions had taken a 17-13 lead.

"I thought they played their butts off," Lock said of the line. "... We ended up pounding the ball with those new guys in there."

After starting the season 0-4 and with a roster that is suddenly the third youngest in the league, the 6-9 Broncos have a chance to head into an important offseason with a Week 17 win over the Raiders.

"We could be 0-4 and I would still have the same mentality going into this last one," Lock said. "Bottom line, if you win this last one, people are going to feel good leaving the stadium for the last time, getting into their cars, the little things, talking to their family. They're going to remember that feeling. ... That right now is our No. 1 goal."