DENVER — On the 12th day of Christmas, Santa John gave to you …

… the starting quarterback of the Broncos — for the 2020 season, at the least. Ho, ho, ho!

“What is there to hold back? Why hold back?” said Drew Lock, a holiday gift to Colorado.

No holding back now. The Broncos’ come-from-behind 27-17 win over the Detroit Lions was taking candy canes from a baby. Sunday’s result at Empower Field at Mile High did not convey a whole lot due to Detroit’s permanent residence near the cellar of the NFL. Boy, the Lions stink.

But Lock’s first four games spoke volumes about him and where the Broncos should go from here. They should go with Lock in 2020 and not spend a first-round draft pick on a QB. His Broncos beat the Chargers in Lock’s first start, the Houston Texans in his first roadie, lost in a frigid blizzard at Kansas City and, with only 9,674 no-shows Sunday, performed with tremendous heart and will in a telling triumph.

“I think this was a necessary trip that I’m going on right now,” said Lock, who morphed from gunslinger to game-manager with 25 (mostly short) completions on 35 passes, 192 yards, one touchdown (to DaeSean Hamilton) and no picks.

“I thought it was a good game for Drew,” coach Vic Fangio said.

Good, not great, and welcomed with open arms.

Lock, one sick puppy who coughed up phlegm at his locker, is 3-1 as a rookie quarterback. Fangio is 4-3 in the second half of a lost season, the tough part, when millionaire athletes check out. The Broncos had nothing to play for on Sunday. Zip, zero, nada. Yet still they played as if their jobs were on the line. There can be no better praise for a first-year coach and quarterback.

When the Oakland Raiders leave Mile High for the final time next Sunday, Santa John Elway can enter the offseason with two items checked off his list: coach and quarterback. Each has shown enough to believe the Broncos finally, thankfully, are on a road to somewhere. With five draft picks among the first three rounds and, perhaps, up to $70 million in salary cap room, the Broncos will exit the finale with the singular sentiment that defines Christmas.

Hope.

Lock may or may not be the man here for the next decade. But he has shown enough — six touchdown passes in four games, the same number as Joe Flacco in eight games — to warrant a new title: the starting QB for the 2020 opener. It was his job to lose, and he’s won it.

Broncos quarterback controversies are so 2016-2019.

“His swagger is contagious,” wide receiver Tim Patrick said.

“He’s getting better each game,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said.

The Broncos average 23 points per game with Lock, 16 without him. Sunday, they eclipsed 25 points at home for the first time since Week 1 of 2018. Just a hunch and just as important, the Broncos “played through some stuff,” as Fangio said, a sign they believe in the team’s direction. The illness that infiltrated the locker room left one-third of the team with headaches, tummy aches or “the snots,” as Lock called his ailment.

Gross, Drew. And the sickly among us feel you.

Fangio’s defense has been run over by a sleigh. Only four starters Sunday started in the season opener: Shelby Harris, Von Miller, Justin Simmons and Isaac Yiadom. They still held the Lions offense to under 200 yards — a first this season for Denver — and one touchdown. Or, just about what the Lions should manage here.

But through injuries and defeat, the bottom has not fallen out, as I suspected it might.

The Broncos front office is infatuated with Fangio as coach. They adore the guy, no matter the losing record guaranteed to be attached to his first team. Lock is growing on everyone in orange and blue, evidenced by his teammates allowing only one quarterback hit.

“Our record isn’t what anybody wants it to be. And we’re not proud of our record. But we are proud of this team,” Fangio explained. “When I say team, these guys play for each other, they play hard. It’s a one-for-all and all-for-one mentality.”

At Christmastime in Colorado, there is hope.

Finally, thankfully.

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Broncos head coach Vic Fangio watches a play from the sideline during the first half of Sunday’s game at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019. The Broncos won the game 27-17. ()