As a playcaller, Sean Payton understands there are moments when you have to throw out the analytics, trust your gut and have a “don’t care” attitude.

Down by 10 to the Ravens, and desperate for points on fourth-and-goal in the first half, the Broncos encountered one of those moments. Rather than settle for a field goal, Denver’s head coach took a gamble.

Following Bo Nix’s hand-off to running back Javonte Williams, the Broncos quarterback took off for the goal line. Simultaneously, Williams tossed the ball to Courtland Sutton, who delivered a spiral under heavy pressure to Nix for a leaping 2-yard touchdown catch.

The play — which resulted in Denver’s only touchdown in the 41-10 loss to Baltimore — required a week of preparation, perfect execution in the moment and Payton being willing to roll the dice when the time was right.

It marked the third instance that he’s dialed up a trick play through nine weeks, and the Broncos sport a perfect batting average.

“(Payton doesn’t) care how risky (it is). If it feels right, (he’s) gonna call it,” tight end Adam Trautman told The Denver Post. “When Sean does that, it puts a lot of confidence in us.”

Payton doesn’t have a philosophy on when to call trick plays. The team goes into each game with a handful of what he calls “off-pace or change-of-pace plays,” and then he relies on instinct for when to utilize them.

The first time Payton dug into his bag of tricks was in Week 2’s loss to Pittsburgh. He had Williams behind the center and Nix on the outside. Nix received the ball on a pitch from Sutton before delivering a deep throw to wideout Josh Reynolds for a 49-yard reception.

Weeks later in a 28-14 win over the Panthers, Nix threw a backward pass to Sutton before the 29-year-old wideout fired the ball across the field to a wide-open Michael Burton for a 28-yard reception. The play was met with displeasure from Carolina players given the time (4:29, fourth quarter) and score (28-7, Broncos) at the time of the call. Payton brushed aside that criticism a day later, saying simply “play better.”“We get surprised whenever he puts something together,” Sutton said.

For the players, the fun part is the week of preparation that goes into it. Williams said the plays are practiced on a week-by-week basis. A play will be introduced on the first day, then the team will work on it throughout the week.

Such plays require strong attention to detail since players are often asked to play out of position — like Sutton suddenly turning into a pass thrower rather than a pass catcher.

Whenever the play is called, there’s a level of excitement among the team because it adds a bit of creativity to the offense.

More importantly, it shows Payton’s trust in his players to make the magic happen.

“It’s a nice wrinkle,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey told The Post. “It gets people on their toes and it’s something for the defenses to think about.”

Added Sutton, “Sometimes plays get left on the shelf for weeks, and some of them die on the shelf. Whenever you get a chance to take one off the shelf, it’s pretty cool to watch it come to life.”

Matchups play a big factor. The Broncos go into the practice week with certain plays that could be beneficial against certain defenses.

In Denver’s game against Baltimore, Payton said the Ravens showed a coverage look that opened the door for Nix’s touchdown grab.

However, Payton didn’t anticipate the Ravens being so close to tackling Sutton or safety Marcus Williams applying tight coverage on Nix. “I wouldn’t have called it if I knew it would have been that close,” Payton admitted after the game.

Even though the play was closer than expected, it gave Sutton something to brag about.

The SMU product is 2 for 2 for 30 yards this season and has a perfect passer rating of 158.3. For his career, Sutton is 4 for 4 for 84 yards, averaging 21 yards per attempt.

“I haven’t seen anything that Court can’t do,” Williams said.

“When we had a home run derby, he hit the most home runs. If we have a 3-point shootout, he’s hitting the most 3-pointers.”

If the Broncos have the opportunity to run another trick play, Williams hopes he has a chance to showcase his arm strength.

“I’d rather be the one throwing (the ball) instead of catching it,” Williams said. “You never know how the ball is gonna come out when it’s not the quarterback, so there’s a lot of pressure on (whoever is) catching it.”

That didn’t seem to bother Nix, who not only leaped to make his touchdown grab in tight coverage but also twisted his body to stretch the ball across the goal line.

McGlinchey is still amazed by his quarterback’s ability to make that happen.

“Maybe, he needs to catch a couple more of them,” he said.