Denver quarterback Bo Nix had just come off the field after the Broncos’ seventh consecutive victory.
“I’ve been booed before, and I’ll be booed again,” Nix said at his postgame press conference. “Not going to be the last time. It’s obviously unfortunate. You don’t want your own fans booing you.”
But the fans at Empower Field at Mile High did some booing during Denver’s 10-7 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, who dropped to 2-7 while the Broncos improved to 8-2.
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The Broncos blasted the Dallas Cowboys 44-24 on Oct. 26 as Nix threw four touchdown passes. But an 18-15 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday was followed by Thursday night’s 220-yard output by the Denver offense.
“We just have a tough, resilient football team,” Nix said. “We find ways to win. Usually right now, it’s the defense leading the charge. They just continue to get us the ball back. A bunch of sacks tonight – a few that were in field-goal range that knocked them out. You’ll win a lot of games with the defense playing like that. And then tonight we had a spark with a little special-teams play. At some point, we got to start moving the football and scoring points.”
After opening the game with four straight three-and-outs, the Denver offense took advantage of a fourth-down sack of Las Vegas quarterback Geno Smith that started the Broncos at their 47-yard line.
Denver got its initial first down of the game on a 13-yard run by running back JK Dobbins with 5:18 left in the first half, and Nix’s 43-yard completion to tight end Pat Bryant put the Broncos in position to tie the game at 7-7.
Nix tossed a 7-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Troy Franklin with 2:41 left in the first half.
In the second half, Denver got to the Las Vegas 36 but missed a 59-yard field-goal attempt, opened a possession at the Raiders 33 after an interception and ended up punting and started at the Las Vegas 12 after a blocked punt.
The blocked punt set up Wil Lutz’s 32-yard field goal with five seconds left in the third quarter that made the difference on the scoreboard.
Daniel Carlson’s attempt to match that field goal from 48 yards went wide right with 4:26 to play, and the Broncos ran out the remaining time, with an 18-yard Nix-to-Franklin completion and a quarterback sneak producing two of the three first downs on the series.
Nix completed 16-of-28 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions and ran five times for minus-2 yards.
Nix’s passing-efficiency rating of 54.2 was the second-worst of his NFL career. The former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn quarterback’s only lower rating came in his first NFL game at 47.5 in a 26-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 8, 2024.
“I think you got to stay level-headed and understand it is the NFL and seven wins are hard to come by, so you’re doing something right,” Nix said. “But at the same time, you’re also doing something wrong because there’s plenty left on the table, I think. Between penalties and just some sluggish football, we’re just not playing very good.
“It starts with me. I got to be better, and the rest of the guys will follow along. We got to find some juice somewhere. We got to find something, especially against a good defense like that. There’re plays to be had, we just got to find them.”
In its next game, Denver (8-2) plays the Kansas City Chiefs at 3:25 p.m. CST Nov. 16 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
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