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Sep 21, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton (14) reaches for a long pass 4th down in the second half against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Bo Nix Gives Blunt Take on Brutal Missed Deep Throws in Chargers Loss

Originally posted on Denver Broncos on SI
By Chad Jensen | Last updated Sep 21, 2025 10:25 PM ET

The Denver Broncos came up short again on the road in Sunday's 23-20 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. In back-to-back weeks, the Broncos squandered a fourth-quarter lead, and left the field on the wrong end of the equation with an opposing walk-off field goal.

However, fans are asking themselves this: if Bo Nix had connected on even one of his three deep overthrows, would the Broncos still have lost this game? That's a tough one to answer.

The woulda-coulda-shoulda game is a slippery slope, but there's no doubt that Nix was off-target at SoFi Stadium, especially on his vertical throws, and it cost his team. If you minus his 52-yard touchdown strike to Courtland Sutton in the second quarter, it would have been a rather grim day at the office for Nix, who finished the game 14-of-25 for 153 yards and a touchdown.

Nix missed on a savvy play-call earlier in the game, when Broncos head coach Sean Payton called a flea-flicker on a third-and-long. Marvin Mims Jr. had yards of daylight separating him from L.A.'s defense and nothing ahead of him but real estate and the end zone. Nix put too much air on it.

However, the real killer was Nix's overthrow to Sutton late in the fourth quarter when the Broncos really needed to stay on the field after the Chargers had tied the game 20-20. It was a third-down throw that will likely keep Nix up at night reliving it.

After the game, Payton took a paternal, encouraging tone on Nix's misses, as if they were just fractionally off-target.

“The route at the end is kind of like a seam—almost a double move. And then, look, the third-and-long flea-flicker was close," Payton said of Nix's big misses. "So sometimes, if it’s a double move, your eyes can betray you a little bit. But I thought he’s throwing it real accurately, putting the ball in good places. Protecting it."

COURTLAND SUTTON WIDE OPEN TD

DENvsLAC on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/d19K5VaYe4
— NFL (@NFL) September 21, 2025

No Turnovers

Aside from his fourth-down touchdown strike to Sutton, that's about the only other positive fans can take away from Nix's Week 3 performance: he didn't turn it over. And that's something, after he logged three giveaways in the season-opener, and tossed an interception in Week 2 that came in the fourth quarter, which began a momentum swing that the Broncos couldn't arrest.

Nix finished Week 3 with a quarterback rating of 87.6. For those Broncos fans who've been a little anxious about the second-year quarterback's early returns, he only added fuel to the fire at SoFi Stadium.

"Looks like the common thread is just being a step too far, and not hitting them," Nix said post-game of his three overthrows.

Common Themes

In the Broncos' two losses, there have been several common themes. This offense has been penalized too much, it hasn't been able to establish the run consistently, and it saved its worst play for the most important situation of the game: crunch time. Sunday was eerily similar to how the Broncos choked one away last week at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"It felt very similar. It felt like we kept going backwards, and we had no explosives when we needed them," Nix said post-game. "We had the ball with a chance, and that drive just felt like we didn't do anything. 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."

After the Chargers tied the ball game late in the fourth quarter, Nix was given the opportunity to drive down and get points with 2:31 left to go. The Broncos went three-and-out, punting with 1:53 left.

On the other side of the field, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert capitalized on his opportunity to hold the ball last, driving down for the game-winning field goal as time expired.

As disappointing as Nix's misses were in this particular game, Payton isn't worried about his quarterback's ball placement. He's not trying to pull Nix aside and have a conversation about accuracy. Football is a game of inches, and sometimes the distance isn't on your side.

“No, keep slinging it. There’s no conversation. Keep slinging it," Payton said. "The last thing you want is to... I mean, those are, man, almost spot-on, so yeah.”

Payton wants Nix "to be aggressive." The Chargers played a lot of zone coverage with a two-deep shell to take away the deep throw and keep everything in front of them. The Broncos created some opportunities to exploit L.A., but ultimately failed to deliver an effective counterpunch, outside of that Nix-to-Sutton touchdown.