Paul Klee: Bo Nix embraces chaos with career-high passing night, 28-3 beatdown of Bengals on Monday Night Football
Bo knows and embraces chaos.
It’s the most endearing hallmark he’s shown Broncos Country through 22 games of the Nix era.
Right before halftime of a 28-3 beatdown of the hopeless Cincinnati Bengals Monday night with 75,000 of his friends at Empower Field, Nix interrupted his coach’s plan and put the chaos of a two-minute drill in a bear hug.
“Bo kind of bailed me out,” Sean Payton conceded after.
Bo’s plan?
Instead of “clocking” the football and settling for a field goal, the initial idea, Nix zipped a laser to trusty wide receiver Courtland Sutton for a touchdown and 21-3 halftime score. Game. Over.
“There was a little bit of chaos, but we made it work,” Nix said.
Chaos can take your breath away like a punch to the gut as the Broncos learned the hard way in walk-off defeats the previous two weeks against the Colts and Chargers. Those last-second field goals hurt like heck.
But if the Broncos found a quarterback who leans into the chaos, instead of running away from it, they are about to go on a run over the next month and a half. With the Broncos and their recent narrow losses as a perfect example, the NFL has reminded us it’s a league of crazy.
Without all-world quarterback Joe Burrow, the Bengals had no chance against the Broncos.
Without a quarterback who’s calm and cool when things get crazy, no team in the NFL does.
On a festive night when Nix passed for a career-high 326 yards, the second-year quarterback wasn’t among the three most compelling storylines. Those would be, in no particular order, J.K. Dobbins becoming Denver’s first 100-yard rusher in 38 games; the Broncos’ defense throwing a shutout for the final 54 minutes of game time; the Chihuahua puppies who raced at halftime.
A blowout with the result never in doubt was just what the Broncos needed.
“The last few weeks here stunk,” said Nix, who wore those heartbreaking defeats on his sleeve and returned with a career-best passing night and 512 yards of total offense.
The secret sauce included a handful of “spontaneous plays” at the line of scrimmage, Payton said. Chaos. And Nix ended Cincinnati’s night with that 20-yard touchdown to Sutton with only 8 seconds on the clock. More chaos.
Yes, Nix is 0-7 against AFC heavyweight quarterbacks Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Burrow, who unfortunately is out for the season due to injury. He next gets a shot at the king of the NFC, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Super Bowl champ. Maybe Nix can make some headway over on the other side of the bracket.
But it’s also quite possible Nix deserves the benefit of the doubt as the second-year quarterback here.
Colorado is kinda tough on its quarterbacks, if you’re new around here or hadn’t noticed. I remember a game against the Jaguars in 2013, when the Broncos were 26.5-point favorites and got booed into the locker room at halftime — even though Peyton Manning’s outfit was leading at the time.
Nitpicking the quarterback is part of our DNA, which makes sense when the bar was set by Manning and John Elway. Don’t like it? There are other options for quarterback employment, like the Bears or the Browns or the Buffs.
Nix embraces the pressure and attacks the chaos, as he did Monday. Almost half of his passing yards, 153, came against the Bengals’ blitz, according to Pro Football Focus. Nix also converted 11 first downs against the blitz. The Bengals had nine total.
“Find ‘Court’ and throw him the ball,” Nix explained.
The Broncos are positioned to go on a run here. The next six opponents have a combined record of 8-15-1, and that includes Philly’s 4-0 record. Only one opponent in that stretch currently has a winning record. Looks good on paper.
The Bengals are a measuring stick only if it’s measuring the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
There’s no way to tell from Monday night if the Broncos offense found its identity (“All 31 other teams are working to figure out who they are. We’re not different,” Payton said); if the penalties are a blip or a serious problem (Denver had seven more); if Nix can beat the best of the best quarterbacks in his way.
“There’s always going to be noise,” he said of the wave of criticism he did, in fact, notice.
Chaos, however, doesn’t concern Nix.
In a league of crazy, that should be a good place to start.
