Two key elements Broncos can build on from Bo Nix’s Ugly Day vs. Jets

It wasn’t nice on Sunday Denver Broncos Rookie quarterback Bo Nix. With just 60 yards on 12 of 25 passes (48% completion), Denver’s 10-9 victory over the New York Jets felt more like something from the Tim Tebow era of incompetent passing than what Broncos Country probably expected from the 12th pick in this year’s draft, who was coached by Sean Payton.

The Broncos were able to pull off the win thanks largely to one of the NFL’s best defenses in the first quarter of the season.

The weather in East Rutherford, New Jersey undoubtedly played a big role, especially in the first half. It wasn’t just Nix who had problems on Sunday. On the other side of the field, future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who had an outstanding performance last Thursday night (281 yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions), also had major problems.

Rodgers appeared to be far less affected by the elements and had more positive plays on Sunday, finishing with 225 yards and completing 57.1% of his passes. Still, it was a slop-fest all around at MetLife Stadium.

While Nix’s overall performance on Sunday wasn’t exactly stellar, he turned things around after a historically inefficient first half. Again, the elements played a role, but this is football and Nix is ​​playing in an open-air stadium – this won’t be the last time he has to perform in adverse weather conditions.

Going 7 of 15 for -7 yards through the air in the first half looks like a stat line a quarterback at, say, New Mexico State would put up on the road against Alabama – not one from an NFL passing attack.

Statistically speaking, Nix had a very poor game overall on Sunday, but he did enough to help Denver win. The first half was absolutely brutal, but in the second half he made some big throws down the field to gain big yards and move the Broncos’ offense with an outstanding drive enough to score a touchdown – his first NFL Pass result. It was enough to lead the team on an 87-yard drive to find the end zone and go 3 of 3 on third downs when Denver had been 0-9 up to that point in the game.

Two key standouts from Nix’s performance on Sunday, despite the lack of many positives, were the rookie quarterback’s on-field attitude and body language, as well as his ability to avoid negative plays on the field. For many rookie quarterbacks who struggled as much as Nix did on Sunday, it would have been enough to get caught in a shell and spiral out of control.

After so many problems throwing the football, it wouldn’t have been shocking if Nix tried to do too much, hold on to the ball too long and make a game-changing negative play by giving it away to the other team.

Nix never seemed to be in the game as his body language seemed consistent. Yes, his mechanics in the dropback passing game suggested some level of hustle. Still, he never seemed completely exhausted on a day when hardly anything was going well in the passing game.

When Payton was asked after the game if he had lost faith in Nix, he responded with a “hell no.”

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Nix’s appearance of calm and collected demeanor when things were going so badly will certainly be beneficial to his teammates in the future, as there will be a lot of adversity and problems for the Broncos to face in the future.

Most impressively, Nix avoided the disastrous offensive plays that helped the Broncos fight for field position and forced the Jets to earn their yardage and nine total points. Nix threw no interceptions that day and was not sacked.

Zero sacks, as opposed to Rodgers getting five sacks on the other side, is remarkable and a testament to Nix as well as Denver’s defense. Sacks are both a quarterback statistic and an offensive line metric.

While there weren’t too many positive plays from Nix on Sunday, his ability to avoid sacks and protect the football was enough to put the Broncos defense on its feet and win on Sunday. A play like Nix yesterday won’t be enough to make it in most cases in the NFL, but it worked in the script against the Jets.

The Broncos need to find a way to pass the ball more consistently as the season progresses, but perhaps playing in terrible weather conditions against a stout defense on the road will be an outlier compared to future performances. Regardless, Nix’s unwavering, consistent body language on the court, his even-keeled confidence and consistent ability to avoid big negative plays is something to continue to build on and was enough to pull off a gutsy win on Sunday.

After an 0-2 start, the Broncos took a 2-0 lead away from home on the East Coast and are back in contention.

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