Bo Nix vs. Eagles on Sunday afternoon was something special.
Sure, the Broncos young quarterback started out rough. So did the entire Denver offense.
But the way Nix led the Broncos offense in the second half to take down the Super Bowl champion Eagles in Philly was the confidence-building win everyone needed.
Bo Nix vs. Eagles: A superb second half comeback
After getting down 17-3, Nix and the Broncos offense was sensational in the second half to come all the way back to win 21-17.
The Broncos offense started the game against Philadelphia like they had in almost every game this year: Slowly and mostly terribly.
Their first half drives looked like this:
- 3 plays, 6 yards, punt
- 12 plays, 32 yards, field goal
- 6 plays, 24 yards, punt
- 4 plays, 17 yards, punt
- 5 plays, 21 yards, punt
- 3 plays, -3 yards, punt
Just like the their first three games of the year, the Denver Broncos offense was desperate and broken.
Still, thanks to an extraordinary effort by Denver’s defense, the Broncos were only down 10-3 at halftime to the world champs. On the road. On a short week.
But the offense continued to sputter out of the break: They punted twice more in a streak of six straight punts to end drives.
Meanwhile, the Eagles pushed their lead to 17-3 and the game looked over, even with most of the second half to play.
The offense had generated a mere 145 yards on the day to that point.
Then, Nix and the offense finally kicked it into gear.
He started spreading the ball around, hitting Evan Engram and Courtland Sutton multiple times for short gains, while Sean Payton mixed in the run. With 14:23 left on the clock, the Broncos made it into the red zone for the first time all day.
And they made sure to make it count; J.K. Dobbins went in for the score.
Philly punted back after only four plays. Nix and the hot offense were ready.
The young gun-slinger connected on much-needed intermediate routes to Engram and Sutton. Then he hit Sutton past the sticks on 3rd and long, for a 34-yard gain back into the red zone. Finally, Nix hit Engram for the tight end’s first touchdown of the year.
Then, Payton made the biggest call of his coaching tenure, electing to go for 2; Nix completed to Troy Franklin to go ahead 18-17.
Phenomenally, the defense forced another 3-and-out punt by Philly. And the offense did what good teams do; they ran clock, put another field goal on the board and cemented the victory.
Nix nearly perfect in 4th quarter comeback
In the 4th quarter, Bo Nix vs. Eagles was 9-of-10 passing. It’s not just that; Nix was 14-of-18 in the second half of the game for 163 yards and 1 touchdown.
That means he completed an astonishing 77.8% of his passes after halftime, when the lights were brightest and the pressure was on.
“There were a handful of plays in the first half that I know he’d want back,” Payton said after the signature win of his coaching tenure in Denver. “But that all being said, man, you can feel his leadership when it matters and then you can feel the confidence with his teammates when it matters. So, he played exceptional in the second half.”
It’s one thing to start out hot and ride that throughout a game. It’s another to be ice cold and then finish on fire.
Nix showed a lot of moxie to battle back against a great defense, on the road. And he did it all while not turning the ball over a single time.
Nix has now stacked two straight solid performances in a row. After the season-high 326-yard, 2-touchdown performance in the win over the Bengals, he threw for 242 and 1 TD vs. the Eagles.
And it seems like he has come out of the fog where he started the season.
This year, Nix threw three interceptions in the first two games. Last season, he threw four picks in the first two weeks, then threw eight over the last 15 games.
So, there’s certainly hope he can stay on this hot streak of protecting the ball while also making plays.
Beyond the turnovers, Nix was forcing the ball into covered receivers at the beginning of this season. He’s now exploiting what the defense gives him instead.
“It’s a great win,” Nix said after the victory. “It proves that we can go on the road and beat these tough teams and we can beat a tough team to play. So that’s good for our confidence…A lot of teams struggle before they go to London, but we focused on this trip, we focused on this game and we went out and got it done.”
This was the biggest win in Nix’s short career, and the biggest win of the Sean Payton Era in Denver. It was also the biggest win for the franchise since the Super Bowl 50 victory a decade ago.
Now, the Broncos have a chance to use that confidence and ride the momentum during what should be an easy slate of games.
Denver (3-2) heads to London to face the Jets (0-5) next Sunday morning before playing the Giants, Cowboys, Texans, and Raiders. Those teams have a combined 6-18 (.250) winning percentage.