dpWith Tim Tebow as his witness Sunday, Bo Nix remains easier to appreciate than explain.
The crowd booed him after the first drive.
He threw a back-pedaling interception in the end zone, fooled into thinking he had an easy score to Courtland Sutton before cornerback Jourdan Lewis dropped into coverage.
The Broncos faced a 10-point halftime deficit and were 2-for-17 on third downs on the season. They trailed by a touchdown entering the fourth quarter.
There is just something about the final period that allows the Broncos to separate truth from embarrassment. Nix delivers final lines like Hannibal Lecter, closing arguments like Jack McCoy.
His heartbeat slows. His blood runs cold. John Elway and Peyton Manning forged their legacy on moments like this. But the comparison is not apt, at least not yet. They were Hall of Famers, the greatest prospects ever.
Nix conjures images of Tebow playing his best late, with much better accuracy. The ground was Tebow’s favorite receiver before he took over games with comebacks that still require video evidence to believe.
Tebow returned to the stadium for the first time as the alumni flag planter, a mini 15-year reunion to acknowledge how he brought back Mile High Magic to a fledgling franchise.
In typical Tebow fashion, he messed up the beginning of his assignment, waving the pole so hard the flag slipped off, before rescuing the moment with a two-handed blanket wave.
No quarterback has played better in the fourth quarter than Nix over the past two seasons. He followed the script again, completing 8 of 9 passes for 88 yards as the Broncos offense shook off the cobwebs and woke up Thunder.
Broncos 20, Jaguars 13.
Denver distanced itself from the season-opening humiliation, leaving truths that are again self-evident.
Fact: The Broncos are still contenders in the AFC, even if the Bills look ridiculous and the Bengals are cast as this year’s Patriots.
Fact: The Davis Webb and Nix partnership can work, despite national analysts, namely former Jets coach Rex Ryan, calling for Sean Payton to snatch back play-calling.
Fact: The Broncos offense is better when Jaylen Waddle is a primary target on routes, not an overqualified ruse.
Against a gnarly Jaguars defense, which helped spearhead a nine-game regular-season winning streak entering Sunday, the Broncos moved the ball with ease, reaching the red zone five times. If Denver scored on one of its three first-half attempts from the 1-yard line, “this game would have looked a lot differently,” Nix said.
Good teams respond well to bad losses, and none was worse than Monday’s debacle for Nix, Webb and Payton. If this team was who we think they are, they would bounce back.
History, frankly, demanded it.
Since 2020, teams that started the season 0-2 had a 15.7% chance (8 of 51) of reaching the playoffs, compared to 43% for teams that started 1-1. Yes, the Broncos made the postseason in 2024 despite going winless the first two weeks, but they also didn’t have a schedule that features the Rams, 49ers, organic chemistry and calculus.
Indicative of a team and a quarterback defined by mental and physical toughness, the Broncos did not panic. And Nix did not wilt after his brutal first-half pick.
“I think the (close) wins are just as important,” said Nix, who completed 22 of 31 passes for 288 yards. “They teach you how to overcome adversity and the challenges of the season.”
The coaches let the players hear it during the week without demeaning them. And the players, Nix among them, did the most important thing by “pointing thumbs inward” as All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz put it.
Accountability leads to ownership. And unshakeable confidence.
“If we want to carry on anything from last year, it’s that we are a second-half team,” left guard Ben Powers said, “and more importantly, a fourth-quarter team.”
The Broncos’ final 15 minutes unfurled like this:
— Touchdown, with Nix converting on a third down to Waddle and on a mini-bootleg to tight end Nate Adkins to knot the score at 13.
— Touchdown, with Nix connecting with tight end Evan Engram on a 17-yarder by a shoestring and drawing a 22-yard interference call on Travis Hunter on a pass intended for Courtland Sutton.
— Ran out clock, soaking up 4 minutes, 41 seconds on the feet of rookie Jonah Coleman and a 29-yard Nix pass to Waddle on third down that Ziplocked the win.
To Broncos Country, whose toes were dangling from the ledge and fingers on fire over the idea of Nix as a franchise quarterback, were you watching? This wasn’t a flashlight at the end of the tunnel. This was a team and a quarterback returning to the spotlight where they belong.
Nix can be maddening. But he finds a way to keep winning. He has five career victories when trailing by double digits. Only Josh Allen has more since 2024.
“Bo is a dawg. He doesn’t shy away from any moment,” said Waddle, who caught eight passes for 138 yards after posting one catch in the opener. “He is phenomenal, man.”
Nix has turned losses on their head and stolen wins. He is probably never going to flip all critics because they projected him wrong in the draft.
What Nix does, by securing games like this, is confirm a culture. The Broncos are selfless, focused on the end result, not the stat sheet.
They applied internal pressure, knowing the biggest improvements happen from Week 1 to Week 2. The last thing the Broncos wanted was to face the Rams in the Walmart Bowl on Sunday night with their season on the brink.
“It is a race to improve,” Meinerz said. “And finishing.”
The new Broncos with Nix looked a lot like the old Broncos with Nix.
You could say they planted their flag.
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