Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix took ownership in the team's tough loss against the Los Angeles Chargers in which he was a step too far on a number of throws. He also called out the team in a way they needed to hear after the harsh reality of starting 1-2 settled in.
The Chargers didn't just beat the Broncos on Sunday. That would be acceptable. The problem is that the Broncos lost to the Chargers. They found ways to put themselves in horrible situations. They failed to capitalize on opportunities. And they had far too many penalties.
And Nix pointed out after the game that those are self-inflicted errors costing the team over the course of the game.
Bo Nix puts Broncos' loss to Chargers in Week 3 in important perspective
"It just felt like we kept going backwards and had no explosives when we needed them. We had the ball with a chance. You know, that drive just felt like we didn’t do anything. It felt like we just kept going backwards and had long field position and long third downs. In this league, it’s not going to cut it...
...You can’t kick a field goal, and then it just felt like we got down there and it was just penalty, penalty, penalty moving us back. You’re not going to score on a top red zone defense when you’re moving backwards.”
Broncos QB Bo Nix (via team PR)
This isn't Nix calling out other members of the offense, but obviously owning up for his part in it as well. Operational errors ultimately come back to the head coach and quarterback, but Nix is right. You can't have penalty after penalty -- and the Broncos had 10 of them in this game -- and expect to win games.
The unfortunate thing is that some penalties were being called against Denver in this game that you almost never see in NFL games, and coming on the heels of a "leverage" penalty against the Colts, you begin to raise your eyebrows a bit.
The Broncos were called for a questionable offensive offsides penalty. They were called for an illegal formation when Garett Bolles was apparently lined up too far back. They were called for defensive holding at the line of scrimmage. They were called for offensive pass interference in the tight red zone.
Operational errors like that will bury a team over the course of a game. The Broncos only had nine total first downs against the Chargers because they were constantly shooting themselves in the foot. They had an awful time on third downs, averaging 3rd-and-11 (plus) over the course of the game.
That would explain why the team was just 2-for-13 on third downs. They failed miserably on the early downs and had too many negative plays and penalties. Nix knows it has to be corrected, and hopefully, we'll see a renewed focus in Week 4 against the Bengals.