ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It’s been a new Bo.
Over the past five games, Bo Nix has been letting her rip.
Since his uneven passing performance in a 33-10 win at New Orleans, Nix has been averaging 260 passing yards a game while throwing for 11 touchdowns against just one interception. In three of those games – against Carolina, Kansas City and Atlanta – he completed between 73.3% and 84.8% of his passes.
It was a different kind of game Sunday for Nix against the Las Vegas Raiders. There were more incompletions – hitting on 59.5% – but his impact throws were up as he threw for 273 yards and two touchdowns.
“You know what’s nice? In his college reports, I didn’t hear ‘darts’ or ‘down-the-field’ or ‘long arms’ or any of that stuff,’’ Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Monday in his day-after-game media conference call. “It’s hard to predict in a game. Like yesterday, I wouldn’t have guessed going in with the corner injuries the Raiders had that we were going to get that much Cover zero or blitz pressure. We thought we would get a lot more zone coverage, and it was actually the opposite.
“So yesterday quickly became a game where it wasn’t going to be a 72% completion type of game because they were in soft zone. It was going to be chunks or incomplete.’’
It was suggested that Nix’s arm has gotten stronger since he was in college.
“No, no, no,’’ Payton said with a chuckle. “Our pundits’ eyes in the beginning were weaker.”
Other topics Payton discussed:
Rookie receiver Devaughn Vele.
He’s become the Broncos’ No. 2 receiver the past three games with 14 catches for 183 yards combined.
“The strengths for him are his hands. You guys saw it in camp, he’s got strong hands in traffic. He’s a guy that plays well over the middle. He reminds me of Marquess Colston who I had in New Orleans for 10 or 11 years. In our staff meeting 20 minutes ago I said we’ve got to continue to find touches for him," Payton said.
“You’ve got a big target – I mentioned this to you guys – he’s 6'4 but he’s got a short inseam, so he’s someone who can get in and out of cuts. And I’m glad we’re getting towards the end of the season and not knowing about some of these rookies,” he said.
Why Broncos didn’t run the ball well against the Raiders and why Nix threw it 42 times.
“Look yesterday was going to be a tough day for any of the runners with the looks we were getting defensively," Payton said. "It was a heavy run front plan by the Raiders. And so quickly we had to adjust.”
That explains why Javonte Williams had just eight carries for -2 yards. Rookie running back Audric Estime had just nine combined carries for 31 yards in the past two games. He was in for just three carries against the Raiders, picking up 15 yards.
“With Audric I’ve got to continue to find his role because I feel like he can be that same type player [as Vele] at a different position that we’re not quite seeing yet because of the opportunity.”
Defensive end Zach Allen sat out the Raiders’ game with a right heel injury but there is hope he can play next Monday night against the Cleveland Browns.
“We should be fine there. I’m not going to hit any injuries today. We should be fine there.”
The play of safeties Brandon Jones and P.J. Locke.
“We’re better overall on the backend at that position than we were a year ago.”
Kareem Jackson and Justin Simmons were far bigger names, but they were also slowing down as 30-somethings. Jones and Locke have displayed far greater range.
Game management.
The Broncos burned their first of three second-half timeouts one play after the quarter break. They burned two more timeouts to prevent delay of game penalties, leaving no timeouts and challenges with the score 19-16 and still 5:34 left.
And then with a 26-19 lead and 3:38 remaining, Nix threw three straight incompletions – that took up just 15 seconds as Riley Dixon came on to punt with 3:23 remaining. It didn’t hurt them against the Raiders, but such questionable game management may bite them against another opponent.
“We don’t want to be the team burning [timeouts]. We have to be better in that area, that starts with me," Payton said. "Now end of game, there was a lot of, ‘Why this?’ We’re trying to win the game at the end of the game there. The last thing I was going to do was hand the ball off three times, use their time outs – they drive down the field and ... we’re getting these heavy looks, and I didn’t feel like with where we were at in the game relative to our decisions to attack them defensively, we weren’t there yet.
“To answer your initial question, we’ll be better and more efficient. We have to continue to look at the length of some of these calls. More importantly, I know how Bo looks at it. If he gets up there and he feels like — there is one specifically where I went immediately and called a timeout. So, we want to preserve them, but we also don’t want to have a bad play. On one of those timeouts, it was a third down and we came back in and—I’d have to go back and look at it—it ended up being something that was a positive [37-yard short pass in the flat to Marvin Mims Jr.] and we benefited from it. We’re constantly looking to streamline the communication process.”
Why he said last year’s Broncos wouldn’t have won a game like this year’s team did Sunday.
“There’s probably nine different...there’s guys like Malcolm Roach that bring this chemistry. It’s addition and subtraction," Payton said. "It’s not your sexy story about one quarterback for the other. That’s not the narrative here, that’s not the story at all. It’s a number of different changes. A new draft class, a Brandon Jones, a John Franklin-Myers, Malcolm Roach, on and on and on.
“Sometimes as a coach, you’re not certain as to, ‘Who was the most important one?’ or if there was a most important one. Then it was moving on—and you know this—with the changes, you have a different team. It’s not at all a one position discussion, it’s just a different team.”
But make no mistake, last year’s team was about veteran quarterback Russell Wilson, and this year’s team is about rookie Bo Nix. Wilson has moved on to Pittsburgh and he’s playing well. But Nix has proven to be a far better fit for a Payton-coached team.
