The point of playing football games is to win football games and the Broncos were able to do that against the Seahawks on Thursday night, but the result didn’t shield their quarterback Bo Nix from some harsh criticism after the game.
During the Prime Video postgame show, former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick called Nix’s performance in the 17-14 overtime victory “garbage.” The Broncos picked up 153 yards on a pair of early touchdown drives that staked them to a 14-0 lead, but they only picked up two first downs over the rest of the night while punting seven times and the futility allowed the Seahawks to send the game to overtime.
Nix finished 17-of-27 for 107 yards and the team’s longest pass play went for 16 yards, which he said after the game was not part of a design to be overly conservative and that he doesn’t “understand why we can’t really push the ball vertically right now.” Nix said he recognizes the need to do that for the offense to pull equal weight to the defense in Denver.
“We’re definitely capable,” Nix said. “We’ve shown it and I don’t where the disconnect is right now to be honest with you. . . . I just think we’re really, for some reason, struggling to find those explosive plays and that’s what makes an offense really spectacular — finding explosive plays. And right now we don’t have those.”
The one positive that Nix could point to is that the Broncos did not turn the ball over while the Seahawks gave it away three times, including an overtime interception that set up Denver’s winning points. Head coach Sean Payton didn’t delve into the offense’s struggles beyond saying “we’re going to see a lot that we want to clean up,” but it is clear that his decision to take over playcalling has not solved all that’s wrong with Nix or the rest of the unit.
