In the first game of Denver quarterback Bo Nix’s second NFL season on Sunday, the Broncos lost four turnovers.
But for Tennessee quarterback Cam Ward, the game was the first of his first season, and the Denver defense smothered the 2025 NFL Draft’s No. 1 pick and the Titans offense in the Broncos’ 20-12 victory.
Ward completed 12-of-28 passes for 112 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Denver sacked the No. 1 pick six times, and Ward had one of the Titans’ two lost fumbles.
But after Titans safety Xavier Woods picked off Nix and returned the interception 16 yards to the Denver 29-yard line on the second play of the second half, Joey Slye kicked his fourth field goal of the game to give Tennessee a 12-10 lead with 11:56 left in the third quarter.
In the remainder of the game, the Titans gained 21 yards on 24 plays.
The Broncos responded with a 13-play, 48-yard drive to take a one-point lead on Wil Lutz’s 33-yard field goal with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
Denver put the game away with a four-play, 80-yard drive that started with a 50-yard run by RJ Harvey and ended with a 19-yard run by J.K. Dobbins as the Broncos went up 20-12 with 7:37 to play.
The touchdown came after Denver’s Marvin Mims fumbled away a punt at the Broncos 24-yard line. But Tennessee ended up punting from the Denver 49 after back-to-back sacks of Ward totaled 27 yards in losses.
“It’s the best feeling when you got a great defense,” Nix said. “Just over and over, they got us out of a jam and continued to do that throughout the game. The one that really sticks out is (the Titans) get the ball down one, and we get two sacks and get them out of field-goal range. That’ll change the game in a hurry, change the environment, get guys back into the game, and it was awesome to see.”
Denver went for it on fourth-and-1 at its 46-yard line with 5:07 to play, and the Titans stopped Nix for no gain. But a no-gain rushing attempt and two incompletions preceded a punt on Tennessee’s opportunity to tie the game.
Nix completed 25-of-40 passes for 176 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions and ran eight times for 18 yards.
The former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn standout threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Courtland Sutton as Denver took a 10-6 lead with 16 seconds left in the first half.
“Well, we won,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said about Nix’s performance. “That’s the first thing I thought. Look, I thought he hung in there. He battled. Made some critical plays for us in the second half relative to their coverages. But, yeah, overall his job is to lead us to scores. I thought he played real well in the second half, and we won the game.”
Former Auburn teammate Roger McCreary picked off Nix on the Broncos’ second possession at the Tennessee 46-yard line.
In the second quarter, Nix lost a fumble at the Denver 32-yard line on the Titans’ only sack of the game. It was the first lost fumble of Nix’s NFL career.
“You don’t ever want to throw interceptions,” Nix said. “But when you do, as tough as it is, you just got to move on and respond with positive plays after that. Both times, I thought, I had decent vision. It was a 50-50 that didn’t go our way. Probably shouldn’t have thrown both of them.
“You live and you learn. Sometimes you can be too aggressive, and I was too aggressive. I just ultimately got to be smarter than that and take care of the football, especially with our defense. As well as they’re going to play this year, I can’t put them in bad spots.”
Denver had lost its past six games when it had at least four turnovers, dating to a 27-20 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Jan. 3, 2016, despite five turnovers, and owned a 34-124-2 record all-time record with four or more turnovers.
“Got a lot to learn from, got a lot to grow from, which is good,” Nix said. “First game of the season, you’re going to have some hiccups. It starts with me. I got to do a much better job, play better. I feel like I’m always going to say that.”
The Broncos play the Indianapolis Colts at 3:05 p.m. CDT Sept. 14 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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