On the Denver Broncos’ third snap against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, former Lanett High School defensive back Trikweze Bridges intercepted former Pinson Valley High School quarterback Bo Nix.
But it got a lot better for Nix.
“You can’t go into a shell the rest of the game,” Nix said. “That’s not going to do anybody any good, including myself. Definitely was not happy about it. But what can I do? Go back and change it? Got to move forward. You can only change the future and go make the plays in front of me, and that’s what we did.”
The former Auburn star threw for four touchdowns as the Broncos defeated Dallas 44-22 to extend their winning streak to five games.
“He was magnificent,” Denver coach Sean Payton said of Nix’s performance. “He was outstanding.”
After the opening turnover, Denver scored touchdowns on six of its eight possessions, with a field goal (after a penalty nullified a TD) and a punt on the other two, to pull away from the Cowboys, who entered Week 8 with the most yards and the second-most points in the NFL.
“We played really well,” Nix said. “All cylinders -- run game, pass game, third downs, base downs. We played well in the red zone, scored points. I think only one field goal. But we played well when we needed to. Our defense played well; got us the ball back a lot. Just overall, a really good performance by us.”
Nix completed 19-of-29 passes for 247 yards on Sunday. Nix’s four-touchdown-pass performance was his third in Denver’s past 15 regular-season games.
Nix threw touchdown passes of 25 yards to wide receiver Troy Franklin as Denver took a 14-3 lead with 3:04 left in the first quarter, 24 yards to rookie wide receiver Pat Bryant to extend the advantage to 27-10 with 39 seconds left in the first half, 7 yards to Franklin for a 37-17 lead with 12:48 remaining and 5 yards to rookie running back RJ Harvey to push the margin to 44-17 with 7:14 to play.
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Harvey also ran for two touchdowns, including a 40-yarder with 8:13 left in the first quarter after Dallas had opened the scoring with a field goal.
Denver ran for 179 yards on Sunday, with running back J.K. Dobbins contributing 111 on 15 carries.
“Ran the ball really well,” Nix said. “Man, those guys are doing a great job at the point of attack right now. We’re running at people, and we’re just doing a good job of getting a hat on a hat and our backs are doing a great job of making guys miss when there’s an extra guy. We’re making explosive runs, and that was the biggest thing for today was early on we were able to run for 8, 9, 10 yards a carry – I know that’s probably not the statistic – but when you’re doing that every once in a while in the drive, it changes things.
At 6-2, the Broncos play the Houston Texans at noon CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston in their next game.
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