Rubber, meet road.
The Broncos hadn’t even finished off a decisive, 28-14 win against Carolina on Sunday and coach Sean Payton already had his mind in the future.
He couldn’t put this win, Denver’s fifth in the past six games, to bed fast enough.
He couldn’t outline his checklist of all the ways his team had to improve loudly enough.
Payton knew what this game against the Panthers was: The next one on the schedule. A game his team absolutely should win. A chance to get his young quarterback into rhythm.
He also knew what it wasn’t: Good for any kind of true measurement about his group’s growth or, really, a fair fight.
In fact, Payton made two things clear after a victory that was not nearly as close or competitive as the final score indicated.
First: He wasn’t wild about the way his team executed against a bad Panthers team he couldn’t help but describe in blunt terms. The list of issues that rankled Payton included another slow start, a pair of fumbles by his wide receivers and a lackluster day running the football.
“I said, ‘We’re going to play in bigger games than this.’” the Broncos coach relayed of his postgame message to his team. “But in bigger games than this, some of those mistakes will cost you. We’ve got to take care of that.”
Second: He and his team are champing at the bit to measure up against Baltimore and Kansas City the next two Sundays.
“We have a big game this week against a much better team,” he said. “A much better team.”
Payton told a story recently about looking at rookie quarterback Bo Nix when the team was losing by three scores against the Los Angeles Chargers and imparting a lesson about one way life is different in the NFL than at Oregon.
Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos evades a tackle from Demani Richardson (36) of the Carolina Panthers during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
“We don’t have any — I’m not going to use a college team name because I don’t want to (offend anybody) — but we don’t have Such-and-Such University on our schedule,” Payton said earlier this month.
Well, this version of the Panthers is as close to Such-and-Such University as it gets at the pro level and Payton wasted no time using the matchup to his advantage.
He wanted to get Nix into a rhythm, so he set about throwing the ball early and often. Payton dialed up 29 passes against 12 run calls in the first half alone and watched Nix operate like he was dicing up Pac-12 defenses rather than the Panthers.
Nix put together easily the shiniest stat line of his young professional career, finishing 27 of 38 for 284 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked twice, but he also ran for a touchdown, too.
Nix had done some nice things over the first seven games but Denver entered Week 8 as one of the worst passing teams in the NFL by nearly any efficiency metric. Nix had thrown five touchdown passes against five interceptions — then added three TDs to his ledger Sunday alone.
He’d made plays largely outside the pocket over recent weeks but had plenty of time against a listless Panthers pass-rush to sit back and play within the rhythm of the offense Sunday.
“We have it in our arsenal,” Nix said. “We just have to go out there and execute it like we did. I thought we did a really good job of starting fast and doing it early. We caught a good rhythm there. Everybody on the field was making plays: Receivers, tight ends, running backs, it didn’t matter. The ball was being dispersed to a lot of positions and I thought that was good.
“It is tough on a defense when we are getting all those guys the ball.”
It was tough on Carolina’s beleaguered defense, to be sure.
Whether the Broncos have it in their arsenal against the upper echelon teams remains to be seen.
The Broncos have won five of their past six games and done so by beating up on mostly struggling teams. Tampa is 4-4 after losing Sunday and the other four wins came against teams that are a combined 7-25.
The combined record of the three teams Denver’s lost to: 13-9.
The combined record of their next three opponents (Baltimore, Kansas City and Atlanta): 17-6.
When Payton wants to make sure his team stays on its toes, he goes to one of the many pages he borrowed from Bill Parcells’ playbook and “creates a crisis,” as he calls it.
He didn’t have to look far Sunday.
Payton was miffed that his offense backtracked to 102 yards on 32 carries after a dominant outing against New Orleans.
He really didn’t like the fact that Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Courtland Sutton both fumbled the ball after catches.
Lil’Jordan Humphrey (84) of the Denver Broncos fumbles the ball while getting hit by Shy Tuttle (99) of the Carolina Panthers during the first quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
“It bothers you,” Payton said after telling the team radio broadcast postgame that he’d find new receivers if the current ones kept losing the ball.
He didn’t like the way his team handled the fourth quarter despite the fact it was in control the whole way and Payton himself dialed up a fake field goal and a wide receiver pass either to put them on tape for future opponents, rub an old NFC South foe’s nose in the mud or both.
Payton didn’t like that Vance Joseph’s defense gave up a garbage time touchdown drive in the waning minutes despite the fact that the group allowed no points and six total first downs in the nine drives before the scoring march.
“It’s not a good offense we played. That’s just the truth,” Payton said. “We expected (to play well) and we’re going to see a lot better teams.”
If any player left the locker room feeling too good about the team’s position Sunday — unlikely given Payton’s postgame demeanor — Monday assuredly will bring a stern film session.
“I’m never opposed to a coach getting after us because we want to get better,” left guard Ben Powers said.
Courtland Sutton (14) of the Denver Broncos runs for a gain during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
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Payton will like Nix’s calmness in waiting for Sutton to clear on a deep cross. Or the placement on a laser that resulted in an Adam Trautman one-handed touchdown grab. He’ll like a lot of what he saw from his rookie quarterback, really.
He’ll be hard on the rest of the group.
In that way, the coach got just what he wanted Sunday.
Nix found a rhythm and Payton plenty of nits to pick.
“This can happen sometimes: In losses, you can miss some things that are really, really good,” Payton said. “And in wins, if you’re not careful, you can miss some things that have to be cleaned up. So we’ll try to do that tomorrow and then flip the page for Baltimore and get ready for a real good team.”
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