Quarterback Bo Nix: Mounting Broncos errors at end of Colts loss ‘started with my turnover’
Bo Nix sat on the visiting team bench at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in shock over the game’s final moments.
The joy of a missed 60-yard Colts field goal to seal a close win was replaced by disbelief when a penalty on edge rusher Dondrea Tillman for “leverage” gave Indianapolis another attempt. Colts kicker Spencer Shrader didn’t miss twice. The Colts escaped with a 29-28 win over the Broncos.
“You go from feeling like you just escaped after those last few errors, and then (losing),” Nix told reporters in Indianapolis. “I always hate putting the game in the officials’ hands. But a big call there at the end. Sometimes, it doesn’t go your way.”
Just don’t expect Nix to place blame on Tillman or any other teammate who faltered in the fourth quarter. He said: “If this game came down to one play, we would just do that one play, and I’ll go home. Save a lot of guys a lot of grit and effort and a lot of pain from playing the full game.” But the second-year NFL starter is willing to look in the mirror, too.
The Broncos led, 28-23, early in the fourth quarter when Nix led a drive inside the Colts’ 30-yard line. On third-and-short, Nix floated a pass intended for wide receiver Courtland Sutton that was intercepted by Colts safety Cam Bynum. What happened?
“I just missed,” Nix said, and then repeated. “I just missed.”
He later elaborated to reporters in Indianapolis.
“I felt like it slipped away from us. It got away,” Nix said. “We made errors at the end that cost us, and it started with my turnover, and then I felt like that’s when we lost a little bit of our momentum. We lost a chance at, at least three points there when you’re already in the red zone, if not a touchdown. If I just hit that pass. But other than that, we played well for three quarters. But we’ve got to finish in the fourth against a good team like that.”
Yet Nix flourished in the first half. He entered the break 12 of 15 passing for 115 yards and three touchdowns. Nix facilitated a breakout game for wide receiver Troy Franklin — “He’s starting to look like his college self again,” Nix said — with Franklin logging 8 catches for 89 yards and one touchdown. Denver also established the run with J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey combining for 17 carries, 96 yards, and a Dobbins touchdown.
“I thought we ran the ball well. Our o-line did really good,” Nix said. “We came out the game with three straight runs. Ran it right at them. I thought out backs ran the ball well. We were able to get first downs in the run game … and that was really good to see. I think that just opened up a few other things on those longer drives. When it looked like we were moving down the field, it was really smooth because of the run game.”
Tight end Evan Engram and Sutton each recorded just a single catch. Nix said the Colts were effective in limiting their success, opening the door for Franklin’s big game and the early run success. But cascading self-inflicted errors following his interception — a missed 42-yard Wil Lutz field goal, a 5-yard penalty on Dobbins for spiking the football, and Tillman’s game-extending penalty — proved too much to overcome.
Nix finished with 206 passing yards, three touchdowns, and one costly pick.
“You could talk about my interception. You could talk about the field goal. You could talk about the missed opportunity on one of the drives,” Nix told reporters in Indianapolis. “We went three and out and could have gone and got points. It’s a whole game that comes down to a few key moments. Unfortunately, we had some negative key moments tonight. We gave ourselves every chance to win the game, and then at the end we just shot ourselves in the foot.
“Good teams bounce back from that, and great teams don’t do that. They don’t beat themselves. We’re growing and developing. We’re still molding as a team. We’ve got a long season ahead of us, and we can’t let this loss turn into two.”
