We want to Boo-lieve.
Honest, Bo Nix. We do. It’s your alter ego that Broncos Country can’t trust.
Bo Nix fears no defense, no down, no distance, no deficit. Bo Nix plays with the gleam of the Lombardi Trophy and with stones cut straight from Castle Rock.
Boo Nix, though?
Cruelly. Agonizingly. At home. To a sorry Pittsburgh or Baltimore team that was lucky to even make the postseason bracket in the first place.
“Overall, I thought we didn’t play with the tempo and the passion we normally play with,” Nix said after a “meh” afternoon against the Chargers, one that saw him throw for just 141 yards and zero TDs in a 19-3 Broncos victory.
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“There’s a lot that goes into that. It’s Week 18. It’s the last game of the year. You get kind of (up) 10-0 weird early. It’s just a strange football game. (You) prepare for one thing all week and then get something different. You don’t know who’s gonna show up …”
Boo Nix, Bo’s darker side, showed up against the Chargers. Big-time.
No. 10 threw high. He threw wide. His protection, a strength all season, broke down so badly that there were free rushers everywhere. For the first time in a long while, the Broncos’ shining light looked as if he was running for dear life.
And even when he had time, everything was just a little off. A little too fast. A little too fine. A little too clever. Heaters when the play demanded a change-up. Curveballs when the receivers were expecting sliders.
Nix was sacked four times on Sunday. Context: He’d only been taken down by an opposing pass rush five times over the entire month of December.
On one fourth-quarter dropback, Nix had what felt like about 15 seconds, untouched, to scan the field. He stood like Joe Flacco, flat-footed, until the pocket collapsed, taking Denver’s QB1 along with it.
And out came the field goal unit. Again.
“BOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Empower Field cried.
“How do you sort of process that booing, that reaction, especially at home?” I asked Nix later.
“Well, it’s our job to give them a bit of quality experience,” the Broncos QB replied. “And they show up to see us win. And obviously, we’ve won a lot of games this year.
“But it’s good … you take for granted winning. I think it’s going to be good to have that same passion, that same energy flipped and go against the opponent in a few weeks.
“But I think at the end of the day, they’re not really booing me. They’re not booing a certain player. They’re not booing a certain coach. It’s just kind of the whole thing (where), once one guy does it, (they all do). It’s part of the game.”
And it took a village to help make Nix look lousy. Broncos wideouts struggled with separation most of the afternoon. The red zone calls were curious (again); the red zone execution was atrocious. After four touchdowns in four trips against Green Bay, Denver has crossed the plane just three times over its last nine red-zone trips going back to that Jacksonville debacle.
“He’s ballsy, man,” left tackle Garett Bolles said of Nix. “He knows exactly what he needs to do. No moment’s too big for him. No pressure’s too big for him. He’s just calm and collected. delivers the ball to our playmakers, relies on us up front to get the job done. You know, we moved the ball that we needed to move the ball. Obviously, we didn’t score the points we wanted to score. But we scored enough to win, and that’s all that matters.”
You hope coach Sean Payton’s been saving the good stuff for the postseason. Because he and Nix haven’t been on the same page, let alone the same book, since that win over the Packers on December 14.
“We’ve got to clean some things up,” Payton said. “And we will.”
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Because Boo Nix? Bo Nix suffers the upset. Boo Nix goes three and out in the playoffs, repeatedly, when it hurts the most.
“So I gotta do next time we get in that spot,” Nix said. “I gotta have better urgency, be a little bit of a spark. And then the rest of the guys will do the same …
“I’ve been booed before. And I’ll be booed again.”
Make us Boo-lieve, Broncos.
Which one’s it gonna be? Boo Nix rushes. Boo Nix pushes. Boo Nix forces throws. Boo Nix watches on the sidelines, helpless, while the Ravens or Steelers or Bills start running wild.
Bo Nix has our faith. Bo Nix has our hearts. Bo Nix spends six seconds scratching confetti out of his hair, wearing a smile you can see all the way to Santa Clara.
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