Broncos QB Bo Nix Offers Telling Response After Beating Texans
Bo Nix can relay an entire sequence of plays from memory long after they have passed by. The Denver Broncos’ second-year QB still has a short memory, and it served him well in Week 9 against the Houston Texans.
Nix and the Broncos’ offense grinded their way to an 18-15 victory against the NFL’s No. 1 defense in scoring and overall.
It took all four quarters, but Nix led the Broncos into position to win the game, which they did.
Bo Nix Gets Honest About Short Memory After Broncos’ Win
GettyBo Nix #10 of the Denver Broncos signals to a teammate during a play against the New York Giants.
Nix completed 18 of 37 passes for 173 yards, with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception in the Broncos’ win over the Texans.
Nix was 9-for-16 for 76 yards and threw his touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The Broncos scored 11 points in the fourth quarter. Nix guided them into position for teammate Wil Lutz to successfully attempt the game-winning field goal try.
But he had to shake off the slow start and his turnover.
“I‘ve learned a different kind of patience as I’ve grown. In high school, I was not very patient. It was like an every drive thing. And if I did have to get off the field, and we had to punt, it was the world. And in college, it was learning how to win certain battles, and field position, and just getting completions, and checking it down, and moving to the next play,” Nix told reporters on November 2.
“You just have to eventually learn, as a quarterback, how important that next play really is. And if you can just get into a better situation than you were the play prior, then you did your job.”
Nix certainly did that, scrambling for 34 yards on the Broncos’ final drive of the game, including a 9-yarder to set up Lutz’s field goal. Nix and Broncos head coach Sean Payton noted how expectations have changed, and this team expects to win games like this.
Still, Nix, the No. 12 overall pick in 2024, knows this is still just the beginning for him.
Bo Nix Looking to ‘Maximize Potential
GettyBo Nix #10 of the Denver Broncos looks on after a win against the Dallas Cowboys.
Nix reiterated that he has simply “learned how to get to the next play better” and has “a little bit more patience.” It helps that Nix entered the league as the most experienced QB in NCAA history, logging 61 collegiate starts.
He has already seen the growth in himself from last season, but he is not satisfied.
“Each level, I just feel like I’ve been able to learn a lot and grow a lot. And I’m definitely not the same as I was this time last year, much less than when I was in high school,” Nix said.
“I’ve come a long way. Still got so much to learn, which is the fun part. But I’m going to continue to work, not stop, until I maximize my potential. Don’t know when that would be, but I’m excited because there’s a lot to learn a lot to grow from. Gives us another opportunity next week to go out there and change it up. But I’m sure we’ll learn from the mistakes we make next week as well. So, I just learned learn how to be a little bit more patient and go into the next play.”
Up next, Nix and the Boroncos will face their AFC West rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders, at home on “Thursday Night Football.”
Blackhawks have progressed to learning next-level details of Jeff Blashill's defensive system
SEATTLE — Coach Jeff Blashill’s aggressive defensive system appears to be working relatively well for the Blackhawks.
They rank 12th in the NHL in goals allowed per minute during five-on-five play, although Spencer Knight’s excellent goaltending has contributed to that stat.
In terms of expected goals allowed, they rank 21st, but even that ranking is much improved compared to the last few seasons. Their analytics are less atrocious across the board, according to Natural Stat Trick, plus they’re improving over time.
The Hawks’ system encourages their defensemen to follow their marks and pressure the puck toward the perimeter of the defensive zone to try to kill plays quickly. It subsequently puts pressure on everyone — defensemen and forwards alike — to box out effectively because there’s less team support in the interior of the zone and around the net.
The Hawks have done a good job of boxing out, giving Knight clean sight lines to make saves. They’ve blocked only 25.4% of opponent shots, and that’s largely intentional; they want to reduce traffic wearing any color.
Now that they’ve gotten accustomed to the basic tenets of the system, Blashill has shifted toward coaching and explaining next-level intricacies. There’s still a ways to go until they master it completely.
“You can’t teach every little detail in a system right away,” Blashill said recently. “You give the main version of it, and then you start to teach the details within it as you go. That’s what we’ve tried to do. Part of it is just repetition. We try it in practice, get those reps, [get more] repetition in games and then guys get more comfortable with it.”
That’s true in all areas, not only the defensive zone. The Hawks have dived into greater detail about plays at both blue lines, forechecking strategies, penalty-kill entry defense and all sorts of other things. On Sunday, they practiced setting up below the goal line on five-on-three power plays — a trendy thing.
In the defensive zone specifically, though, a critical detail they’ve worked on involves cutting the zone in half vertically. That requires not only blocking lanes for always-dangerous seam passes but also cutting off pucks rimmed around the boards before they make it to the opposite corner.
To do that, Hawks wingers must pressure the opposing defensemen at the point, block their shooting lanes and angle them in such a way that their only option is to rim the puck down low.
“[We need to] find where the puck is and get our body or stick in the lane where it makes him uncomfortable to shoot,” forward Colton Dach said. “You have to have a good angle, as well. If you go straight at him, he could make the play around you. But you’ve just got to find a way to make him force the puck low.”
If a Hawks defenseman has his eyes up and can recognize and anticipate that’s about to happen, he can stop boxing out — leaving his man in front of the net — and jump the play, so he reaches the puck first behind the net. Blashill calls it “cutting the bottom off.”
Then he can send the puck back toward the side it came from or, if he has enough time, orchestrate a breakout by looking for a tape-to-tape pass.
“That’s the next progression to allow us to play less D-zone and put the puck in the forwards’ hands, which is where we have a lot of speed and skill,” defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said.
“That’s a tough balance as a D-man, [deciding] when to box out or when to jump off your check a second early. But we watched some clips [Thursday about] understanding when the puck is at the point, maybe just take a look — more than you would.”
