Initial thoughts from the Broncos’ 20-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2 at Empower Field:
1. Classic Bo returns: He threw wildly off his back foot. He missed open guys. He checked down. He avoided throwing across the middle of the field. You know what else Bo Nix did in a huge home-opening win over Jacksonville Sunday? He tucked and ran for a first down. He kept swinging after a first-half interception. He found Nate Adkins in the end zone. He rallied the Orange and Blue in the second half, coolly helping the hosts outscore the Jaguars 17-3 after the break. In other words, Super Bo was back, baby. For the final 30 minutes of Week 2, the Broncos felt like it was 2025 all over again. And they got there, in no small part, because Nix put up a second-half passing line of 11 for 15 for 132 yards and a score. Bo wasn’t as quick-twitchy or as assured as a year ago. But it was light-years of improvement over that collapse in Kansas City — and perfect timing.
2. Another flag? Again? It wasn’t just that the Broncos had been whistled for 10 penalties with 4:40 left to go in a one-score game, kids. It was the timing of the miscues. With 11:03 left in the first quarter, cornerback Riley Moss got flagged for illegal use of the hands, a sin that wiped out a Nik Bonitto sack-fumble of elusive Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Safety Talanoa Hufanga landed a delay-of-game call on Jacksonville’s last drive of the first half, one that handed the visitors a first down at the Denver 26. That set up Jags kicker Cam Little’s booming rocket shot of a 44-yard field goal, a boot you could hear halfway to Parker that gave the Jags a 10-3 lead at intermission. The lousy timing didn’t let up after the Broncos had scrapped their way back into the game, either: A combo sack of Lawrence with six minutes left in the tilt on a third-and-2 was wiped out after Pat Surtain II was called for illegal contact downfield. Mercy.
3. Red zone disaster: The Broncos have looked like a different team inside the 10-yard line lately. And by “different,” we mean they’ve looked more like a Pop Warner team. Of course, new offensive coordinator Davis Webb can’t have nice things, can he? With 9:40 left in the game, the Broncos were 1 for 3 inside the red zone against the Jaguars and 0 for 2 in the first half. Too, too, too cute. With 9:16 left in the first half, the Broncos had three cracks inside the Jags’ 1-yard line. They whiffed on all of them. What should’ve been a gimme putt ended with a 21-yard Wil Lutz field goal that left nobody happy. Well, nobody except the Jags. The Broncos got back to the red zone on their next drive thanks to a diving, one-handed Troy Franklin catch up the left boundary. On third-and-goal from the 9, Nix heaved a rainbow off his back foot into the back left corner of the end zone for Courtland Sutton. Only the Jags’ Jourdan Lewis got there first and plucked it out of the air. Where was the fullback dive? A little north-and-south with Adam Prentice?
4. Tebow broke the flag: No. 15 never, ever waved the white flag as the Broncos’ QB1. But waving an orange flag, as it turns out, might have been a bridge too far. Tim Tebow, whose brief Broncos tenure (2010-11) was short on seasons but long on drama, returned to Empower Field Sunday to wave and plant the ceremonial flag during pregame pyrotechnics. One problem: after a few wild swings by No. 15, the flag itself flew off the pole and into the stands behind him. Tebow had the wayward fabric returned to him, which he then proceeded to wave as if he were putting out a particularly nasty kitchen fire. “The flag wasn’t strong enough,” the ex-Bronco and ex-Florida Gator cracked via a video he posted to his X.com feed. “That was unreal.”
