Bo Nix Delivers the Message Broncos Fans Needed to Hear-cachiusa

Winning 14 games and securing home-field advantage for the playoffs as the No. 1 seed didn’t stop the boos from raining down on Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos’ offense in the team’s 19-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

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“It’s funny. It’s our job to give them a good quality experience. They show up to see us win,” Nix said post-game. “Obviously, we’ve won a lot of games this year, but it’s good. They’re not going to be complacent. They want more.”

Nix issued a warning of sorts to Broncos Country to guard against complacency and never take winning for granted. It’s a salient message, considering how scarce wins were around Denver for nearly a decade.

“I hope that we’re never the fan base that just sits back there and just, ‘No, we’re going to win the game,’ and doesn’t get up on their feet, doesn’t cheer because that’s when winning becomes redundant, and you take for granted winning,” Nix said. “I think it’s going to be good to have that same passion, that same energy, flipped and go against the opponent in a few weeks.”

When the boo birds start in, as they did on Sunday, Nix doesn’t take it personally. He doesn’t feel they’re necessarily aimed at him. It’s more of the whole-enchilada type thing.

“I think at the end of the day, they’re not really booing me, they’re not booing a certain player, they’re not booing a certain coach, it’s just kind of the whole thing,” Nix said.

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The negative reactions of some home fans won’t diminish the vast achievements of Sean Payton’s team this season. After all, this was the team that overcame the Russell Wilson-induced salary cap purgatory rather spectacularly, emerging with the top seed and a first-round playoff bye.

“Look, am I ever happy? No, but we shouldn’t be as coaches,” Payton said post-game. “There are some things when we watch that film that we’ll be like, ‘Ah.’”

What matters is the result, in Payton’s estimation.

“When people ask, ‘What’s the benefit of the [No.] 1 seed?’ Many will say it’s the rest,” Payton said. “I personally think it’s the elimination of a game that you don’t have to play.”

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Obvious frustrations weren’t confined to the stands either. Nix turned the focus on himself for Sunday’s struggles on the offensive side.

“Well, I should’ve done a better job today having more urgency in the huddle and getting us going,” Nix said. “I felt like I failed us on that.”

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Now that Nix and Payton have some extra time to get things ironed out, hopefully, the Broncos’ offense can find that elusive sense of urgency. Even so, veterans like wide receiver Courtland Sutton are aware that grinding things out is sometimes how the cookie crumbles in this ultra-competitive league.

“A win is a win. I don’t care if it’s 3-2. It doesn’t have to be exciting,” Sutton said. “At the end of the day, you have to have more points than the other team, and you get the ‘dub.’ I know that the style points aren’t out there. I know all of the fantasy people—everybody kind of gets upset with us because we probably don’t do what they want us to do. At the end of the day, our job is to have one more point than the other team, and that secures a victory. We were able to do that today.”

That’s not to say that Payton and company won’t be eager to get back in the meeting rooms to strategize ways to shift the Broncos’ offense out of neutral. The spluttering nature of the Broncos’ offensive performance will only serve to fuel the national narratives claiming they’re not a particularly worthy top seed in the Conference.

When it comes to their playoff opponents, nobody cares about the media narratives. As the No. 1 seed, the Broncos now have a sizable target on their backs, but they’ve afforded themselves the valuable commodity of bonus time to fix things.