{"id":416945,"date":"2025-12-01T09:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416945\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:57:10","slug":"commanders-broncos-takeaways-bo-nix-and-denver-defense-survive-overtime-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416945\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders-Broncos takeaways: Bo Nix and Denver defense survive overtime thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nicki Jhabvala, Nick Kosmider, Alex Valdes<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a matchup of former Oregon quarterbacks, Bo Nix got the upper hand on Marcus Mariota \u2014 but it took a while.<\/p>\n

Nix led a 76-yard touchdown drive in overtime, and the Denver Broncos stopped a 2-point PAT to defeat the Washington Commanders 27-26 at Northwest Stadium on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Nix passed for 321 yards as Denver maintained a two-game lead in the AFC West. Mariota finished with 294 yards as Washington (3-9) lost its seventh straight game.<\/p>\n

After Mariota\u2019s 3-yard scoring pass to Terry McLaurin brought the Commanders to within a point, head coach Dan Quinn opted to go for a 2-point conversion and win the game. But Denver linebacker Nik Bonitto pressured Mariota and batted away his pass to end the game.<\/p>\n

Commanders finally looked competitive<\/p>\n

The ending belied the chase: Mariota\u2019s pass on that 2-point attempt was batted at the line after McLaurin scored the game-tying TD in overtime. It felt like an unceremonious ending to a significant game for the Commanders \u2014 one that could have been a significant, momentum-changing win. It was still a loss, but this was the most competitive this team has looked since Week 5 against the Los Angeles Chargers. It also showed how much the Commanders have improved in all three phases. \u2014 Nicki Jhabvala, Commanders writer<\/p>\n

Burks\u2019 catch gets OBJ\u2019s attention<\/p>\n

Treylon Burks\u2019 one-handed touchdown reception in the third quarter might be the catch of the year \u2014 one of several surreal catches in Week 13<\/a> \u2014 and it came only 20 days after he had finger surgery. The former first-round pick had an Odell Beckham-esque grab in the end zone with Riley Moss glued to him in coverage. Fittingly, Beckham, whose famous catch with the Giants was 11 years ago this month, noticed it and reacted with a post on X<\/a>. \u2014 Jhabvala<\/p>\n

D much improved under Quinn<\/p>\n

Back to the defense: The Commanders\u2019 improvement on defense since Quinn took over the play-calling is astounding. Virtually the same personnel couldn\u2019t get off the field a few weeks ago, but it more than held its own against the Dolphins and came up with big play after big play against Denver. Granted, the Commanders faced two not-stellar offenses, but considering how badly they were losing games, this is a remarkable turnaround for Washington. \u2014 Jhabvala<\/p>\n

Almost sprung a leak<\/p>\n

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph calls it leaky yardage, the gains that come beyond what a play should produce if his defense is playing its assignments soundly. For much of this special season for Joseph\u2019s unit, Denver has been able to dry up the scourge of leaky yardage.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the case Sunday night \u2014 and it almost led to an epic collapse. Alas, Bonitto screamed free off the edge and knocked down Mariota\u2019s pass to spoil a would-be winning 2-point conversion.<\/p>\n

When Mariota hit McLaurin for the score in overtime, it appeared to be the final blow for a defense that couldn\u2019t get off the field for much of the night. \u2014 Nick Kosmider, Broncos writer<\/p>\n

Too many yards after contact<\/p>\n

The Broncos gave up 76 rushing yards in the first half alone \u2014 their biggest yield in the opening two quarters all season \u2014 and much of that came after contact. Denver had limited quarterback scrambles and designed runs better than any other team in the league entering Sunday\u2019s matchup, but it gave up a 12-yard scramble to Mariota on third-and-12 during a first-half drive that ultimately ended in a touchdown.<\/p>\n

The Broncos led the league in both third-down and red-zone rate defensively entering Sunday\u2019s game. When Burks hauled in an acrobatic one-handed touchdown catch late in the third quarter, the Commanders were 6-of-7 on third down and 2-of-3 in the red zone. The Broncos\u2019 league-leading pass rush had produced only one sack to that point.<\/p>\n

The Broncos then produced six consecutive third-down stops, but on the last of those \u2014 a third-and-25 \u2014 Mariota hit McLaurin for 19 yards and then converted a fourth-and-6 with a pass to Zach Ertz, who proved a difficult cover for Denver the entire night.<\/p>\n

In overtime, Mariota twice broke free from would-be sacks on another fourth-and-6 and got off a throw that ended in a pass-interference penalty on Talanoa Hufanga. Ultimately, the Broncos made the one play they had to have, keeping their hunt for the No. 1 seed alive. \u2014 Kosmider<\/p>\n

Bo knows game-winning drives<\/p>\n

Nix stood tall, trusted his protection and saw Evan Engram flash across the middle. With a calm, fluid whip of his right arm, Nix delivered the pass and watched his tight end do the rest.<\/p>\n

The 41-yard pass play preceded an RJ Harvey touchdown run on Denver\u2019s opening drive of the extra period and gave Nix his sixth game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime this season \u2014 the most in the NFL.<\/p>\n

It was an emphatic statement drive for the second-year quarterback that came after Denver struggled to grab control of the game in the second half.<\/p>\n

The Broncos began their final four offensive possessions of regulation protecting either a 6- or 3-point lead. The results of those four possessions: interception, punt, punt, punt. The Broncos simply didn\u2019t win enough early downs to stay on the field and put the game away.<\/p>\n

Life without J.K. Dobbins hasn\u2019t been easy for the Broncos. When the veteran running back went down with a foot injury after Denver\u2019s Week 10 win against the Raiders, he was fifth in the NFL with 772 rushing yards \u2014 a constant in an offense that has been sporadic in stretches.<\/p>\n

Sean Payton said during his halftime interview on NBC that the Broncos needed more balance after dropping back 25 times and calling 10 designed runs in the first half, with some of that disparity created by a pass-heavy, two-minute drive for the Broncos. But Denver never found that balance and made closing out the game on the road a difficult task. Harvey and Jaleel McLaughlin averaged only 3.2 yards per carry combined.<\/p>\n

Still, the Broncos got Nix\u2019s best when they needed it most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nicki Jhabvala, Nick Kosmider, Alex Valdes In a matchup of former Oregon quarterbacks, Bo Nix got the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":416946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8999,62,67,132,68,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-416945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-denver-broncos","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115643720915250473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}