Bo Nix Calls Broncos Offense ‘Pitiful’ After 31-10 Loss to Chiefs in Davis Webb’s Debut
Bo Nix did not hide behind coachspeak after Denver’s 31-10 loss at Arrowhead on Monday night. Asked whether the players let new offensive coordinator Davis Webb down in his debut, Nix answered in one word: “Absolutely.”
Then he kept going. “I think players didn’t make it easy on him. Pretty pitiful actually. But he was to me in the headset, he treated it like he was a pro with it. … We called exactly what we prepared and what we wanted to get and we just didn’t execute and then we were behind. I don’t think we did a whole lot of good consistently to win the game.”
Respect the honesty. Nix is in his third year and he just took a bullet for a 31-year-old coordinator calling plays in the NFL for the first time. That is what a franchise quarterback is supposed to do.
The numbers are ugly enough to justify the word
Denver finished with 10 points and 176 total yards from scrimmage. Kenneth Walker, by himself, had 191 yards from scrimmage for Kansas City. One running back outgained an entire NFL offense.
Nix went 17 of 28 for 131 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Courtland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle, the receiver pairing Denver is counting on, combined for three catches and 13 yards. You cannot script your way out of those numbers.
This was a big night for Webb, who replaced Joe Lombardi in February. It was the first time Sean Payton has handed play-calling duties to anyone else in his three seasons in Denver, which is not a small concession from a coach who built his reputation on calling plays. Webb was a candidate for head coaching jobs earlier this year, so Payton is not alone in believing in him.
Nix is right that the design was not the issue in the way most people will assume. Denver was down early and running from behind against a Chiefs team that had just taken the crowd out of it.
The defense was the actual catastrophe
Here is the number that should terrify Denver more than anything the offense did. The Broncos missed 28 tackles, which produced 247 yards after missed tackles, the most any defense has surrendered in a game since at least 2018, per NextGenStats.
Since 2018. Not this season, not this decade of Broncos football. That is a league-wide worst going back eight years, and it happened in Week 1.
That stat explains Walker’s night far better than any offensive-line breakdown does. You do not accidentally miss 28 tackles. That is technique, angles and effort failing at the same time on a Monday night in your division rival’s building.
So while Nix takes the blame and the postgame cycle chews on the word “pitiful,” the harder truth sits on the other side of the ball. Denver’s offense was bad and fixable. Denver’s tackling was historically bad, and that is a problem you cannot game-plan away in six days.
Webb will get better. He called one NFL game. The defense just set a record nobody wants, and that is the thing Payton should be losing sleep over.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.