The Denver Broncos are now 12-3 on the season and could not win their 12th game in a row thanks to the surging Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that is probably a lot better than we think. Denver not only didn't win this game, but they lost by 14 points at home.
The offense was able to move the ball at times and did show some promise in the first half, but for the second game in a row, the defense was the worst Broncos' unit on the field, and it's now the second year in a row that Vance Joseph's unit has begun to collapse late in the season.
If you couple this with Brandon Jones being out and the potential for Dre Greenlaw to miss some time, the Denver Broncos could be hurting on that side of the ball, and if Joseph does not have any answers for the regressing defense, it could force the offense to bail the team out, and that could also mean Bo Nix has to turn into Superman.
Bo Nix might have to put on the cape more than ever before
We have seen the fourth-quarter heroics from Bo Nix many times this year, so it's not something that he and the offense can't do, but if the offense has to constantly bail out the defense, there is an issue. You would like to think that the unit is still going to be fine overall, but it might not be that elite unit that we saw earlier in the season.
Bo Nix has actually scored 20 total touchdowns this year in the fourth quarter, so he's shown signs of being able to carry this team on his back. His first-half and second-half stat splits are virtually identical, but he comes alive late in the game.
We saw this in the second-half of the Week 15 win over the Green Bay Packers, as Denver was trailing by as many as nine in the second-half, but the offense came alive, and it's really as simple as that. If opposing offenses are able to move the ball against this Denver defense, whether home or away, it's going to force the offense to really kick it up a notch.
One thing that has stuck out with Nix is that he does seem to remain quite cool later in the game and clearly does not mind throwing an interception - he doesn't hold back if the Broncos have to push the ball down the field, and his off-schedule ability adds a great element to the late-game heroics.
The hope here is that the Broncos can rebound in Week 17 and build up a little bit of momentum going into a massive Week 18 game. The Broncos' defense has now struggled late in the season for the second year in a row. Last year, Bo Nix probably wasn't as close to as developed as he is now, so Nix may have to turn into Superman to will this team to victory.