Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix didn't look like himself in the team's 31-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Week 1.
Nix, who averaged 1.35 sacks per game through his first two seasons in the NFL, was sacked four times on Monday. He also fumbled three times in a single game after totaling just three fumbles in all of his rookie season and four fumbles in 2025.
Nix was making his first regular-season appearance since breaking his ankle in the divisional round of last season's NFL playoffs in January. After an ugly loss on Monday, the QB was asked if it seemed like Denver was rusty on the night.
“Not really," Nix said flatly.
Perhaps the QB was anxious in his first game of consequence since his injury. If it wasn't rust,
it's hard to pinpoint what else would have caused Nix to seemingly take a big step back from last season. So, what happened?
“When you give a good team a lot of chances, short fields and long yardage situations on third downs, a good team like that is going to exploit it," Nix said. "We had way too many penalties, way too many negative plays, turnovers, putting our defense in bad spots. From a whole offense, team, we just didn’t play very good.”
To be fair to Nix, not all of the offensive struggles fell on him. But he certainly didn't play well. Denver will need to get things turned around quickly with a tough stretch of games on deck.
"We know we have to be better," Nix said. "There are a lot of guys in that locker room that are going to take ownership and be better. It starts with me, and it starts with our offense. We’re going to be better. We don’t have a choice but to get better. It was a nasty wake-up call today.”
Up next, the Broncos will host the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) at Empower Field at Mile High in Week 2.
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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Bo Nix had a 2-word response when asked if Broncos felt rusty vs. Chiefs
