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Coral Smith’s takeaways:

1. Nix has arrived. Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix put together by far the best game of his young career in leading his squad to their fifth win in the last six games. Nix’s second quarter did most of the damage, as the Broncos scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives of 55, 92 and 44 yards. Two came through the air, with the third courtesy of Nix’s legs. He now has four rushing touchdowns on the season, leading his team. The onslaught slowed a bit after halftime with a large lead established, but one more passing touchdown sealed the deal as Nix finished with highs in pass yards (284), touchdowns (3) and passer rating (124.2). His targets were spread well among his pass catchers, completing at least one pass to eight different players, with three having a catch of at least 16 yards. Nix even got his tight ends involved, a position from which the Broncos have seen few contributions in the pass game so far this season. Two of his touchdown passes went to Nate Adkins and Adam Trautman, the latter of whom made an impressive one-handed grab for his score. It took a couple of games for the rookie QB to get settled in the NFL, but the last few weeks have shown steady improvement that should make any Denver fan excited.
2. Young’s second chance squandered. Sunday marked another opportunity for Bryce Young to start at quarterback after Andy Dalton was sidelined due to a sprained thumb, but given a chance to prove why Carolina should turn to him going forward, Young came up empty. The game got off to a promising start for the Panthers offense even with key contributors Diontae Johnson and Adam Thielen unavailable. After the defense forced a fumble to give Young the ball in Denver territory, he drove down the field 49 yards in 10 plays, completing throws to four different players and finishing with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Legette to give Carolina the initial lead. But it just went downhill from there, with Young making bad throws and exhibiting mental mistakes, more of what had led to his benching in the first place. The Panthers had just one first down the next six drives, which featured four punts and two turnovers on downs, the second of which came on a failed fake punt. The Panthers got some movement going in the second half, but two promising drives ended in interceptions, the latter at the goal line, making Young’s TD pass to Jalen Coker with under a minute to go only worth a moral victory. Young finished 24-of-37 passing for 224 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, though that doesn’t nearly convey the struggles through most of the game. It was not nearly what he or the Panthers wanted to see from the man who was supposed to be their quarterback of the future.
3. Denver D rides high. Young got in his own way in a couple of moments on Sunday, but it would be remiss not to credit the Broncos defense for their big part in the win. Denver’s multi-faceted pass rush did its job, with nine different players getting at least one QB pressure, per Next Gen Stats. Denver ranked second in the league in sacks coming into Week 8 and added a couple more on Sunday, with Nik Bonitto recording his sixth straight game with at least one sack, the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest such streak by a Broncos player since Von Miller did it in 2018. And even when Young could get the ball out, the coverage was there, with Patrick Surtain II and Ja’Quan McMillian each getting an interception to stifle promising drives for the Panthers. It was the fifth game this year the Broncos defense allowed fewer than 14 points. While the offense was finding its footing with Nix at the helm, the defense held down the fort. And now that both sides of the ball seem to have hit their stride, the Broncos find themselves in a good position almost halfway through the season, sitting in second in the AFC West at 5-3 despite starting 0-2.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Panthers-Broncos (via NFL Pro): Bryce Young saw most of his success against man coverage, completing eight of 12 passes for 82 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. His +18.5% completion percentage over expected against man is his highest rate in a game with multiple such attempts in his career (16/25, 142, INT, +0.9% CPOE against zone coverage).

NFL Research: Bo Nix became the first quarterback in Broncos history with at least three passing touchdowns, at least one rushing touchdown and zero interceptions in a single game. The only Denver QBs with three-plus pass TDs and one-plus rushing TDs were John Elway (twice), Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler, but each had an interception in their game.