In his sixth game as Auburn’s quarterback, Bo Nix completed 11-of-27 passes for 145 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions in a 24-13 loss to Florida. Now in his second season as the Denver Broncos quarterback, Nix had that game from Oct. 5, 2019, on his mind this week.
As a freshman from Pinson Valley High School, Nix had helped Auburn start the 2019 season with five consecutive victories before the Tigers lost to the Gators.
Why would a downer of a game from six years ago come to mind for Nix now? The Broncos haven’t lost since Sept. 21.
In the two most recent of its seven consecutive victories, Denver scored a total of 28 points. And while Broncos coach Sean Payton said of the offensive slump, “I think it’s not Bo,” plenty of outside observers think otherwise.
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During his press conference this week, Nix was asked what allowed him seemingly to shed criticism so easily. The quarterback termed that a “great question” and spent more than three minutes giving his answer.
“For whatever reason, in life and in football, people think that we have this opportunity to doubt or question or hype up or tear down these guys,” Nix said, “and just really in sport in general, we make this entertainment business a lot bigger than what it is, and we forget that everybody’s just out here having a good time, having fun, doing the best they can. But for me, it’s quite simple really. I deleted all my social media. I don’t even have it. So unless somebody says it to my face, I don’t really hear it. And nobody’s ever bold enough to say it to your face. So really I don’t get on social media.
“There was a time to where it was early on in my career at Auburn. We were undefeated. We went to Florida, and we lost. And that’s when I really actually got to know the bad side of this sport. And it’s unfortunate, for sure. But at the same time, it’s what comes with the territory, and it’s also a gift because it allows other people to see how you respond to adversity, and there’s a lot of younger kids out there, there’s a lot of people who want to be in our shoes. They want to grow up and be just like us, and, hopefully, they’re better. But it’s good for them to see that not everything’s pretty, not everything’s happy go lucky.
“It definitely doesn’t go like you planned. If it was like I planned, I would have won every national championship in college. We would have won the Super Bowl last year, and we’d be undefeated right now. But, unfortunately, the other team is trying to do the same thing, so life’s not about being fair. You’re going to go through ups and downs, you’re going to be faced with adversity, and, honestly, a lot of people aren’t going to like you. And I think the thing that it comes down to, you know, the Bible talks about humility. The Bible talks about not being selfish. And it would be selfish for me to think that I’m owed a certain amount of respect or something else. And it’s like we’re all human. We’re all going through this battle together. But when the Bible talks about humility, it’s all about seeing other people, being a great teammate, being a great role model to other people who are watching.
“At the end of the day, you just got to do your best, and the best is good enough for me, and the best is good enough for the Lord. That’s all he asks you to do. And so I’m proud to be in this situation. I know it’s not easy, but a lot of things in life worth having aren’t easy. And so I can promise you, win a Super Bowl one day, people are going to say the same thing. My dad’s won state championships, and he’s come off the field and people are like, ‘Hey, coach, you think we can run the ball more next year?’ Like, we just won the state championship. So there’s always going to be negativity, always going to be people in positions that literally have no idea what it’s like, no idea what we’re going through. But at the end of the day, it truly is a blessing because you can impact other people through it all.”
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Nix can be critical of himself, too, although he acknowledged, “It’s a lot tougher to lose these games when you know you have things to work on as opposed to winning them and knowing that you got things to work on.”
“We probably take for granted winning the games,” Nix said, “because we’re not, you know, it’s not aesthetically pleasing or it’s not as good as we want it to look. But at the end of the day, you play to win, and a win is the only thing that’s going to matter in weeks to come. You know, they don’t care about stats. They don’t care about what it looked like or if the offense or defense played well. They just care if you won, so we just got to find reasons to continue to win, and I do think that when we start playing with all three phases of the game, all three playing well, I think it’s going to be a lot more fun.”
Denver’s winning streak has pushed the Broncos to an 8-2 record – one game ahead of the Los Angeles Chargers at the top of the AFC West standings and 2.5 games ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs, who have won the past nine division titles.
Denver will have an opportunity to cripple Kansas City’s chances for a 10th consecutive AFC West crown at 3:25 p.m. CST Sunday, when the Broncos and Chiefs square off at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
“They have a really strong defense,” Nix said. “They’re going to provide a different challenge than what we’ve seen, and we got to execute on all levels on offense. We got to run the ball efficiently, we got to do a good job completing passes, getting them in tackling situations and then sustain drives with third-down conversions, and that’s going to help out our defense a lot, and then it could help us out just with scoring points, just sustaining drives.”
Nix said he’s excited to play against Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The two-time NFL MVP and three-time Super Bowl MVP has been the opposing quarterback for Nix once previously – Kansas City’s 16-14 victory over Denver on Nov. 10.
“It’s one of my favorite parts of the NFL when you look up and you’re playing a great player,” Nix said, “ones that are going to be Hall of Famers someday. So it’s exciting for me. It’s exciting for the team as well. But, you know, there’s a lot of those kind of guys you play each week, and I feel like every week you’re going to play somebody that’s going to end up making a name for themselves in the long run.
“So for us, it’s just this week, it’s our next opponent, and you just got to treat them like the next one, like the next opponent. Don’t make it bigger than what it is and just go out there and continue to do what we’ve been doing the last several weeks and just find a win.”
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