LANDOVER, Md. — As his right knee perched 2 inches above the ground, the Broncos’ season became lost in the clouds.
Everything seems possible when Bo Nix makes plays like this.
You saw it. You know it. You Bo-lieve it. Clear the schedule. Check Expedia for flights to Santa Clara in February.
Broncos survive wild OT, beat Commanders 27-26 to run winning streak to nine games
Late in the second quarter Sunday night, Nix stepped up in the pocket, sprinted forward and ducked his right shoulder to avoid Washington linebacker Preston Smith. It worked. Sort. Of. There was no hit, but Smith caught Nix’s right foot, leaving the quarterback no choice but to go airborne to prevent a sack, while firing a sidearm touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton.
Had Patrick Mahomes made this play, they would have stopped the game and given him an ESPY. With Nix, it provided a highlight of his potential, of what he can be on any given Sunday.
The problem? In the wake of their ninth consecutive victory, 27-26 over the Commanders, it is obvious the Broncos cannot keep winning this way. Not against good teams. Which are looming on the schedule in the final month.
On fourth down from the 3-yard line, Marcus Mariota drilled a laser to Terry McLaurin for the score. It set up a do-for-die two-point conversion. Nik Bonitto, quiet for most of the game, deflected Mariota’s pass for the walk-off victory.
Again. It was nervy. It was exhausting. But this is not sustainable.
The Packers, Jaguars, Chiefs and Chargers? Perhaps you have heard of them. They are all waiting, eagerly wanting to end Denver’s pursuit of the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
At the game’s ending, you could see the beginning of trouble. That overtime was required against one of the NFL’s worst defenses made that abundantly clear.
Nix had to complete all four of his passes in the extra period for 71 yards to set up R.J. Harvey for a score. And the defense needed a goal line stand — after a McLaurin touchdown was negated by holding only to be followed by a 39-yard pass to Deebo Samuel to the 1-yard line.
Sean Payton wants balance. Knows he should run the ball, even with J.K. Dobbins sidelined indefinitely with a foot injury. He writes it on his Waffle House play sheet, says it during halftime interviews as he did again on this winter-coat required evening at Northwest Stadium.
Thing is, Payton loves passing like Oprah loves good books. And it leaves the Broncos in a dangerous position if this trend continues. They need not apologize for a road win against a sorry opponent — and Washington without Jayden Daniels is akin Paul without the Beatles.
But, let’s set the bar a little higher, huh?
Through the chants of the sea of orange of fans behind the Broncos’ bench, you could hear the page being turned. This is becoming Nix’s offense again. His team. The Bo Show.
But this production is not ready for Broadway. Otherwise known as the NFL playoffs.
Nix provides hope. He needs help. Isn’t it obvious? Didn’t the fourth tell us all that?
Payton does not trust his run game as the Broncos deal with their sobering reality without Dobbins. He would have taken over in the second half with 50 yards, while siphoning the clock.
Payton repeatedly showed you what he thought of his replacements — RJ. Harvey, Jaleel McLaughlin, Tyler Badie — after Washington shaved the deficit to 20-17.
With 12:40 remaining in the game, Nix, who had thrown an ugly interception to Bobby Wagner in the previous possession to set up the Commanders scoring drive, promptly dropped back three straight times. It revealed why the Broncos entered Sunday leading in three-and-outs.
Nix completed a 2-yard pass to Marvin Mims, a 5-yarder to Pat Bryant and was sacked on third-and-3. The drive took 2 minutes, 13 seconds off the clock. Instead of creating room to exhale, it became another one of those games the Broncos find ways to win this season, and win ugly.
Then on third-and-4 from the Broncos’ 35-yard line with 3:04 left, Nix, who finished 29 of 45 for 321 yards, lined up in shotgun with an empty backfield. An incompletion to Sutton followed. They cannot keep doing this. It is leaving zero elasticity for the defense.
Let’s set the bar higher than, “Who cares what it looks like, only the scoreboard matters.”
That would have sufficed in any of the previous nine seasons after Peyton Manning. In fact, the last time the Broncos played here in 2017, Brock Osweiler represented the fifth quarterback change among three different players. His play wrecked the game.
But this team has a chance to do something special. Remember, Expedia, hotel rooms, and Tupac’s “California Love?” humming in our ears. It is all available to them. There is a real possibility that the postseason will feature no Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson.
There will never be a cleaner path in the playoffs. But it must be paved on the ground, unless Payton plans on switching to an uptempo offense (spoiler alert: that will never happen, and should not because it would undermine the team’s greatest strength).
The Broncos defense allows for bewildering mistakes, covers for a lack of discipline — Bonitto has to know better than to pull a player off an invisible pile even if it should have resulted in offsetting penalties — and the inability of the of Nix to play keepaway.
In the end, the Broncos delivered another victory. But for a team dreaming of a Super Bowl, they cannot keep winning this way.
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