Renck: Blame Sean Payton’s play-calling if you must, but truth is Bo Nix needs to play better

Nobody is complaining But we all know what is coming The Broncos cannot keep winning this way by stinking for long stretches then creating goosebumps that leave us running for the history books It is not sustainable like making every green light when late for work Denver is the performer hitting with bloopers Regression looms without a module correction Blame Sean Payton s play-calling if you must But here s the thing Bo Nix has to play better Time for the captain who is a dude in the fourth quarter to prove he s The Man for a full match It is something we have not seen since the rout of the Bengals Want to be considered a top quarterback Outplay the Cowboys Dak Prescott who is on a career heater This is not what Broncos Country wants to hear For a fan base that grew restless and desperate for a reason to believe after quarterbacks failed to replace Peyton Manning Nix represents hope He is the reason the Broncos are relevant a notion enforced by his spectacular rookie season But this year has looked different uneven Nix has given us all the feels with his nervy finishes and this cannot be ignored The Broncos boast a four-game winning streak but the last three defy logic Nobody is demonstrating consistency on offense Not the coordinator Dick Monfort will sell the Rockies before Payton gives up play calling Not the running backs Not the receivers Not the marquee free-agent tight end Evan Engram the coaching staff maddeningly ignores in the first and third quarters Engram has targets in those spots in six games But Nix deserves blame too It comes with the expectations this season We know we have an execution predicament Nix acknowledged Wednesday The statistics over the last quarters reveal splits more common for the Rockies at home and on the road Of how Bo Nix has been forced to overcome No Nix In the fourth quarters against the Eagles and Giants and first quarter against the Jets Nix completed of passes for yards and four touchdowns including two rushing In the other nine quarters Nix is of below for yards and zero scores Tom Brady becomes Brady Quinn Greg Maddux becomes Mike Maddux There has been so much chatter about starting faster The issue is the middle of games Where s the beef The Broncos have not scored in the third quarter since Week They have not scored in the second quarter since Week Nix makes us forget these donuts with his late work Nobody has to be a star Courtland Sutton is the closest thing the Broncos have among the skill players when he goes video match mode Truth is Nix cannot keep making up for the deficits on the scoreboard and deficiencies around him Not against good teams Sorry Giants fans your crew is plucky but little else The Cowboys are average but their offense is not Nix is not going to be able to cover for another barren stretch against a Dallas offense that averages points per challenge on the road and features the triple-threat of Jake Ferguson George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb What has to happen First Nix demands to hit a meager deep balls He has been inaccurate on those throws Payton for all of the customer in-box complaints schemes guys open Nix has to nail a sparse or at least give his targets an opportunity to make a play or draw an interference call We know he can do it as evidenced by his work against the Browns Bengals and Bills last season Not connecting leads to an overreaction Payton leans on passes behind the line of scrimmage nobody does it at a higher rate and screens Those require elite execution blocking play-making That rarely happens Is various of this on Nix with ball placement and timing Yeah Can it be fixed Sure But there is a more viable fix Get Nix into rhythm with the mid-range challenge and play-action passes The completion that got him right against the Giants came with left in the third a -yard out to Sutton Then the run match happened And Nix was part of it Until last Sunday his designed rushing attempts were down from a year ago There is no good reason Nix should run for less than yards per challenge He is one of the best athletes on the field Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos pitches to RJ Harvey during the first quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Empower Field at Mile High on Monday Sept Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post If teams want to use man coverage the Cowboys experimented with more of it last week then Nix should take off And Payton has to dial up runs for his quarterback not waiting until the final minutes when everyone is frantic and desperate Related Articles Broncos HC Sean Payton Gambling embarrassment involving good friend Chauncey Billups hits heavy Javonte Williams revenge challenge Broncos happy for resurgent RB but hoping to slow his Dallas roll Broncos-Cowboys scouting summary Pat Surtain Riley Moss face Dallas s dynamic duo CeeDee Lamb George Pickens Broncos podcast What Sean Payton s organization must do to run win streak to vs Cowboys How Zach Strief Broncos built offensive line progress machine and why it might decide their AFC West fortunes Franchise quarterbacks make everybody better There are times Nix has made things worse In the first two games he struggled He wasn t seeing the field and he was reacting to pressure that wasn t there He determined himself against the Bengals but it has been a mixed bag since Payton for sure creates issues by asking too much of Nix he is in his second season not his th and getting him to the line of scrimmage late a process muddied by personnel changes But Nix has dealt with mechanical flaws and become too structured forcing throws instead of taking easy first downs with his legs Because of the dumpster fire that preceded him numerous want to give Nix an out when things don t look right myself included Things have changed The Broncos want to play into February So when Nix leads an offense that went straight possessions without a touchdown over the past two weeks we cannot excuse it Nix is not having the same year even if his projections touchdowns interceptions are close to and He goes into a cocoon for long stretches Then he goes Canton in the fourth quarter Last Sunday he was outplayed by Jaxson Dart for minutes He wasn t getting a lot of help Again we expect more from a franchise quarterback We expect him to make everyone better like he did in his latest comeback Nix is talented smart and clutch But if he wants to move into the league s upper crust taking this group with him do it against Dak Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis