Payton’s confidence in Nix leads to the Broncos first win

The Denver Broncos went on the road and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3. It’s a tough place to play, but Sean Payton’s team was ready with a good gameplan on both sides of the ball.

The Broncos move to 1-2 this season. They’re staying in West Virginia this week on their two-game East coast road trip. Up next is the New York Jets in Week 4, but what did we learn from Sunday’s game?
After the game, Payton was excited about the win.

“It’s a good win – a good road win – against a good team. I credit the players. I thought we played well in the front on both sides of the ball. [When you look] at certain statistics, [like] the pressures, the turnovers, the rushing, and then third downs – all of those kind tipped in our favor. Credit the players, though, the leadership. We had a good week of practice. We came in with the right frame of mind. It wasn’t our best game but certainly it was good enough today,” Payton said.

Here are three observations from the Broncos win over the Buccaneers in Week 3.

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Going Downfield

Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix has thrown a lot of passes this year, but they’ve mostly been shorter passes on underneath routes. Against the Buccaneers, Payton had Nix attacking with passes down the field.

The game opened with outside throws down the field to wide receivers Courtland Sutton and Josh Reynolds. That aggressive approach helped to back off the traditionally aggressive Buccaneers defense. The math is simple; if they stack the box to stuff the run it equals one-on-one matchups on the outside.

Nix is a confident passer, and it’s easy for him to make this read. It was nice to see Payton trust the rookie to do just that. With enough time to throw facing pressure, Nix was able to pluck apart the pass defense with big throws on the outside.

Payton was happy to see the Buccaneers bring pressure because they he could call passes to be uncorked deep.

“That is where it went against a heavy blitz – this is a team that, historically, is hard to run the ball against. We have played here a number of times and coached in a number of games against Todd [Bowles]. He does a great job. [The Buccaneers] provide some challenging pressure looks. There is a safety or a blitz every other play so if you are not careful you will end up with some minus runs. I felt like we wanted to be aggressive early and run it later in the game. All those things happened,” Payton said.

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Chains Kept Moving

Payton showed confidence in Nix with aggressive throws early. Nix rewarded that confidence with a performance that kept the chains moving. For the Broncos to hit a rhythm on offense, something they didn’t do much in the first two games, they needed to have more plays to call. That comes from keeping the offense on the field with sustained drives.

You measure a quarterback by what he does on third down, under pressure, and in the red zone. Nix was not sacked on Sunday, and he was cool under duress. The team scored more points and was more efficient near pay dirt. Add in the fact the offense was able to go 4-of-13 on third downs, but they also went 2-of-3 on fourth downs.

Bold plays helped them keep drives alive. This allowed them to open the playbook more than they had in the first two games.

Nix was pleased with his team’s performance on third downs.

“Well, I thought everything was having success and we were moving the ball, keeping the chains moving. We had some third downs – we were efficient with them, and we got first downs. Now, that’s the difference with these games – if you can convert on third downs, you stay on the field for longer and you eventually score some points,” Nix said.

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Heat on Baker

The Broncos defense played a great game. Like the offense, they had a good plan entering the game and that began with pressuring Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield early and often. From the first drive on – and for most of the game – Mayfield was scrambling for his life.

Mayfield was sacked seven times by the Broncos on Sunday. In addition, they were able to get nine quarterback hits on the veteran quarterback. Overall, Mayfield seemed uncomfortable on his home field.

The Broncos did it with blitz packages, they did it with coverage, and they also got pressure while only rushing four players. This was a great performance by Vance Joseph’s defense all the way around.

Payton was happy that Nix wasn’t sacked, and he was thrilled that Mayfield was sacked so much.

“[This was] better than the other way around. I think we made [Mayfield] hold [the ball]. I think we made him hold it some. That is a credit to coverage. I haven’t seen the tape, but I think we made [Mayfield] hold [the ball].” Payton said.

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