Terrific defense allows Broncos to stun Jets in the rain

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For a while during the offseason and preseason, one of the repeated glowing characteristics of rookie quarterback Bo Nix was he rarely makes the same mistake twice.

Even if that’s not quite true, as evident by Nix’s struggles repeatedly throwing shot puts through the first-half rain here Sunday, it is accurate to say mistakes or rough patches do not get the rookie rattled. 

In a fine display of mental toughness, Nix overcame a woeful first half in drenched conditions by connecting three times for big plays with top receiver Courtland Sutton in the second half as the rain tapered off. Nix finished a well-balanced, 92-yard drive with the first touchdown pass of his NFL career, an 8-yard lob to a wide-open Sutton, who had to go up to snag the ball and then toe-tap both feet before going past the end line.

It was the only touchdown in a defensive-dominated AFC game as the Broncos defeated Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets, 10-9 on a soggy, late-September Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.

“Our defense is out there dominating week-in and week-out,” said Broncos left guard Ben Powers. “And it’s just great to see. Our defense was playing inspiring football. To be able to help them out, get 10 points, that being enough in this league, it’s crazy. Especially against an offense as stacked as they have.’’

It may have been an ugly game to those who like entertaining, high-scoring, well-executed offensive affairs. And it was fitting that two missed 50-yard field goals by each team’s kicker in the final 87 seconds meant 0 plus 0 added up to the Broncos keeping their 10-9 advantage.

But there are no ugly wins. Only ugly losses.

“A gritty win,” said Broncos head coach Sean Payton. “Man. Proud of how we fought. We talked about it last week how games unfold. I don’t know that either team expected the weather to impact the game like it did that much in the first half. But nonetheless a good team that we played and we fought hard and it was good to get a win.”

Nix threw 4 interceptions and was sacked 4 times in his first two games, but there have been no picks and no sacks in his last two games. With Vance Joseph’s Denver defense playing so well, not turning the ball over is key No. 1 for Nix.

Nix and Sutton through the air, Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin on the ground, and outstanding Denver defense from beginning to end allowed the Broncos to even their record to 2-2 with a Throwback Uniform game coming next Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High.

The Broncos will formally induct former safety Steve Foley and tight end Riley Odoms from their Orange Crush era into the team’s Ring of Fame at halftime of the Raiders’ game. Foley and Odoms played in plenty of games in the 1970s like the one the Broncos just won here Sunday.

The Denver D sacked Rodgers five times and held Jets’ running back Breece Hall to 4 yards on 10 carries– including two stops on goal-to-go on the 1.

“Aaron Rodgers has played 20 years, there’s nothing he hasn’t seen,” said Broncos’ defensive end John Franklin-Myers, who played five previous seasons for the Jets and sacked his former teammate once. “But just understanding he’s human and we had to attack him.”

Rodgers has seen a lot, maybe, but not all. At the very least it’s been a while since he saw how Joseph mixed up his looks, coverages, and pass-rush schemes while also getting his players to swarm to the ball on every single play.

“That’s a good thing about V.J., he does a good job of changing up the looks, and players-wise, we did a good job of making everything look the same,” Franklin-Myers said.

The Broncos seemed doomed when their kicker Wil Lutz missed a 50-yard field goal — his first miss of any kind since last season — with 1:27 remaining, giving the Jets the ball at their own 45, and only down 1 point. A couple short Rogers’ completions and a pass interference call on Broncos’ cornerback Riley Moss –his second P.I. of the game — put the Jets in long-range field goal position.

But long-range was where the Jets stayed. Jets’ kicker Greg Zuerlein, who connected on all three of his field goals in the game, also missed from 50.

Broncos win. They are now 2-2 after going 2-0 on their 10-day, three-state road trip to Tampa Bay, West Virginia and New Jersey. Afterwards, Payton gave game balls to Broncos’ longtime operations boss Chip Conway and each member of the operations’ staff for all they did to coordinate the road trip.

“There’s a lot of work — now it’s not the Ringling Brothers or Springsteen Tour,” Payton said. “But there’s a lot of people that put in a lot of work and … it was worth it.”

Maybe next time, the Denver defense can stay on the tennis courts but the  Broncos’ offense has to practice outside in the rain. The Broncos’ offense was no match for the weather in the first half.

“It was huge to go on the road, get two tough wins against two really good football teams, two tough defenses, two tough offenses, you can’t say enough about our defense on this winning stretch,” Nix said. “They’re going to continue to give us the ball back. Now, we’ve got to find ways to score, more than just a few points, but that’s part of it. You find a way to win in this league, and that’s a big day. So, they kept them out of the end zone, and we found a way to get in the end zone one time, and that was the difference in the game.”

It steadily rained all morning and through the first half and most of the second half here Sunday. The wet remnants of Hurricane Helene that disrupted much of the Broncos’ practice preparation during the week at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia made its way to the Meadowlands.

It rained so bad Friday at the Greenbrier, the Broncos held a walkthrough practice at the resort’s indoor tennis and pickleball courts. Then again, had the Broncos instead went home and practiced in the dry, hot conditions of Denver, would they have been any better prepared?

There was no way to prepare to play a game in such inclement conditions. The rain and slick artificial surface here Sunday clearly hampered both offenses. 

The first quarter ended with the score 0-0 with the two teams combining for just 21 yards of total offense – 15 for the Jets; 6 for the Broncos.

The first quarter also ended with the Jets at the Broncos’ 1 yard line. A fumble by running back Tyler Badie gave the Jets good field position and a 34-yard pass interference penalty on Broncos’ cornerback Riley Moss put them there. (Badie was injured on the play and carted off the field with a back injury. He later checked out OK.)

 At halftime, the Jets lead the Broncos, 6-0 on two short, Zuerlein field goals.

At the 2-minute warning of the first half, the two teams had not yet cracked 100 yards in combined total offense.

The rookie Nix and 40-year-old Rodgers were both negatively affected by the elements in the first half. Nix was 7 of 15 for -7 yards at the half. He attempted a couple downfield throws but they were so far off target, Payton mostly had him throw behind-the-line or short, wide passes. (Thus the -7 yards.)

“When it rains like that for that long period of time, it’s hard to get new dry footballs out there, but that’s how it’s going to be,” Nix said. “They were having to do the same thing.

“Usually, these weather games, they turn into run-the-football games. And that’s what we did in the second half. So, it worked in our favor and we didn’t turn the ball over.”

Rodgers wasn’t that much better early, going 4 of 11 for 22 yards before he hit a wide open Alan Lazard across the middle for 25 yards on the first play after the 2-minute warning of the first half.

But the rain pretty much stopped for a few minutes in the third quarter, which coincided with the Broncos establishing a strong running game on their 92-yard touchdown drive. It was officially an 87-yard drive but it started with a false start penalty that set them back.

On the touchdown drive, Nix completed only two passes but they were for 29 yards and the 8-yard touchdown to Suttion. Williams had four carries for 20 yards on the drive, McLaughlin had 16 yards off three carries, and the Jets surrendered 19 yards on two penalties.

Williams finished with 77 yards off 16 hard-running carries while McLaughlin finished with 46 ayrds off 9 carries.

“We started opening up the holes and I found some creases and we made the most of it,” Williams said. “I feel like that’s what put us over the top. Running out those timeouts at the end and they couldn’t stop the clock and play the game how they wanted to (on their final drive) so that was advantageous for us.”

Nix, meanwhile, was 5 of 10 for 67 yards in the second half with 60 of those yards going to Sutton. Nix finished 12 of 25 for 60 yards and the touchdown with no interceptions and no sacks.

Rodgers also heated up as he was 24 of 42 but for only 225 yards with no touchdowns and five sacks. In what appeared to be the defensive play of the game, Rodgers on fourth and 10 and less than 2 minutes remaining, was sacked by safety P.J. Locke to give the Broncos the ball at the Jets’ 35 yard line.

But the offense only managed a couple yards, playing it safe for a 50-yard field goal attempt by Lutz. But he pulled it wide for his first miss of the season. The Jets got the ball back at their own 45 yard line with 1:27 remaining.

Rodgers moved the Jets to the Denver 32 yard line, but Zuerlein missed his 50-yard attempt wide right with 47 seconds remaining. Nix took two knees to finish it off.

Rain or no rain, the Joseph-coached Denver defense was impressive. 

“I thought Vance called a great game, as he has all year,” said linebacker Justin Strnad, in his first start in place of the injured Alex Singleton. “He prepared us so well for this game and can’t thank him enough.”

First play of the game, Joseph had Strnad, come on a blitz. Strnad, in his first defensive snap in three years, sacked Rodgers for an 8-yard loss.

“I remember coming through the gap and Aaron didn’t see me coming and I thought to myself, “I’m about to sack Aaron Rodgers,’’’ Strnad said.

 Strnad also had a tackle for loss as he stepped up big in place of Singleton, their standout leading tackler who suffered a season-ending ACL injury last week at Tampa Bay. How did Strnad maintain his confidence when he didn’t play a defensive snap in three years?

“The coaches. My family, my friends back home,” Strnad said, who lives in the Tampa Bay area. “Especially this week with the hurricane. A lot going on back home. So my family helped me out a lot with that. Which was huge. My family really. Everyone believed in me. Everyone’s always believed in me back home. You’ve got to be ready for that opportunity and it took a little while to get it. And I’m glad I got it.”

Late in the first quarter, Broncos running back Tyler Badie took a screen pass from Bo Nix, turned and got hammered from behind by Jets’ linebacker Quincy Williams. Badie fumbled the ball away, then gingerly half-jogged off the field, wincing while holding his back.

Next thing you know, Badie was down on the sideline, getting strapped to a backboard and carted into the locker room during a timeout. Payton refused to provide an injury update on the running back after the game but multiple sources told 9NEWS that Badie eventually checked out OK. Per multiple sources, Badie flew home while accompanied by a trainer Sunday night on a flight other than the team charter. 

Per source, Bromcos’ standout inside linebacker Alex Singleton will undergo surgery on his torn right ACL on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles. Dr. Neal ElAttrache will perform the operation. Singleton suffered the injury during Brandon Jones’ interception return last week at Tampa Bay. That was the eighth defensive play of the game. Singleton played 49 more defensive play on the torn ACL – an incredible feat of strength.

RELATED: Broncos lose standout linebacker to ACL injury

Singleton is a known disciple of the True Movement Method, which is a three-dimensional system that focuses on stability, mobility and strength, particularly with the quad, hamstring, groin and calf muscles pregame. That may have been why he was asymptomatic until there was swelling after the game, which prompted medical exams and the revelation of the ACL damage.

Rookie receiver Devaughn Vele and tight end Lucas Krull were again among the Broncos’ players on the game-day inactive list. …

Before the game, Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and former Jets’ quarterback Zach Wilson exchanged pleasantries on the field. Wilson was once again the Broncos’ emergency No. 3 QB. …

The Broncos’ top receiver at halftime was running back Javonte Williams with one catch for -1 yard. Rookie receiver Troy Franklin was the second-leading receiver with 2 catches for -2 yards. …

Cody Barton led the Broncos with 10 tackles.

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