Broncos QB Bo Nix breaks ankle during team’s overtime defeat of the Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix’s season is over after he broke a bone in his right ankle late in the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.
Broncos coach Sean Payton announced after the game that Nix was injured just three times before Denver scored a game-winning field goal. Jarrett Stidham will now start for AFC top-seeded Denver in the conference championship game next Sunday.
The shocking news came after Nix became the first QB not named Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow to defeat Josh Allen in the playoffs this decade.
The Broncos won after a back-and-forth battle in the fourth quarter and overtime.
After two scoreless drives to open the extra period, Nix led Denver on a 75-yard jaunt for the winning score, aided by two pass interference penalties on the Bills. Allen forced overtime by putting Buffalo in field goal position in the final minute of regulation, but he threw an interception in overtime that set up the Broncos’ game-winning field goal — its fourth turnover of the day.
“It’s extremely difficult, I feel like I let my teammates down tonight,” Allen said, while wiping away tears, after the match.
He added: “It’s been a long season. I hate the way it ended. It’s going to stay with me for a long time.”
For Nix, Saturday’s victory was a statement effort in what was only his second career postseason start.
A year after throwing for just 144 yards in a 31-7 loss to the Bills in the wild card round, Nix threw for 279 yards and three scores in a victory.
His most impressive drive of the game came in the fourth quarter. Trailing 27-23, Nix led an eight-play, 73-yard drive capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass to give Denver a 30-27 lead with less than a minute remaining.
Nix was also successful in the final period, as his willingness to throw the ball deep led to two defensive pass interference penalties on Buffalo — one for 17 yards and another for 30 that put the Broncos inside the 10-yard line.
“He was fantastic when we needed him,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said afterward.
For Allen, the loss was the latest in a series of devastating defeats for a franchise that had become synonymous with playoff heartbreak. After losing four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s, Buffalo again failed to return to the championship round for the seventh straight season of Allen’s tenure.
Including Saturday, four of the Bills’ last five playoff losses came in one-score games, including two in overtime. The combined margin of defeat over these four losses is only 15 points.
Allen’s performance was boom or bust, as every Buffalo drive ended with a score or a turnover. Allen finished the game 25 of 39 for 283 yards and three touchdowns, rushing 12 times for another 66 yards. But he also threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles. All four turnovers came at particularly inopportune moments, including an ill-advised cough just before halftime that gave Denver three points.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive, I can’t do that,” Allen said of the play.
Allen’s final interception came in overtime when a Bills field goal would have ended the game.
Prior to the playoffs, Allen’s postseason losses were largely due to some of the best quarterbacks in the conference. But with Mahomes, Burrow and two-time MVP Lamar Jackson all out of the playoffs, Buffalo appeared to have its most favorable path to its first Super Bowl appearance since the 1993 season.
Instead, Allen — who had gone six straight playoff games without a turnover — gave the ball away four times and was ultimately beaten by Nix.
“I can’t win with five turnovers,” Allen said. “I fumbled twice, threw two picks. When you shoot yourself in the foot like that, you don’t deserve to win football games.”
Payton said, “We obviously weren’t ready last year, but we were today. »
