DENVER — There was noise.
A surprising amount, really, for an 8-2 team to incur.
From social media to talk radio to national TV, there were a flurry of opinions about this Broncos team — and about their second-year quarterback.
As a slew of national media members picked the Broncos to fall to Kansas City, Bo Nix and Co. simply went to work.
"Having to deal with the pressure of being the starting quarterback at such a young age on such a successful football team, that mounts on your shoulders," tackle Mike McGlinchey said of Nix on Sunday. "He handled it with unbelievable, one, class, but two, toughness. The way that he practiced this week was so sharp. He looked it dead in the face and said, 'I'm going to be better.'"
In Sunday's 22-19 win over the Chiefs, Nix was that and much more. Against the Chiefs' fourth-ranked scoring defense, Nix delivered big play after big play to help the Broncos advance to 9-2 and presumably quiet the doubters.
"At the end of the day, you just got to block it out," Nix said after the game. "You can't involve yourself with what's outside the building, because if you do, it'll just bog you down, get you distracted and you start worrying about things you shouldn't be worrying about."
However Nix chose to approach the game, it worked. With the game tied in the third quarter, Nix delivered a perfect 35-yard strike to Troy Franklin on third-and-8 to push the ball into Kansas City territory. A few plays later, he converted another third down through the air, and Jaleel McLaughlin surged into the end zone two plays later for the game's first touchdown.
On the next drive, after the Chiefs responded with a touchdown, Nix hit Bryant for a 48-yard gain to open Denver's drive. In the third quarter, he was a near-perfect 7-of-8 for 131 yards and a 118.8 quarterback rating. Denver would kick a field goal to retake the lead later in the possession.
Then, trailing by three late in the fourth quarter, Nix engineered game-tying and game-winning drives. On the latter, he converted a third-and-15 from his own 21-yard line by firing a 20-yard pass to Courtland Sutton. With an incompletion in that setting, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs would have gained the advantage — and possibly driven for a game-winning score. Instead, Nix continued his fourth-quarter heroics.
On third-and-5, Nix delivered another pass for a conversion, and he then hit Franklin for a 32-yard gain that set Denver up for the game-winning field goal.
"He's outstanding," Head Coach Sean Payton said. "I think [he played] real well; he won. It's his job. He won against a pretty stingy defense that can give you problems. There were some big plays there."
Nix finished five yards shy of his second 300-yard performance of the season, and he was 6-of-11 for a season-high 171 yards on passes of at least 10 air yards, according to Next Gen Stats. The second-year signal caller did not turn the ball over and took just two sacks as he posted an 89.4 passer rating, including a 95.8 rating in the second half.
Through 11 weeks, Nix's five game-winning drives are tied for the most in the NFL this season with Caleb Williams. Only John Elway, with six game-winning drives in 1985, has ever posted more such drives in a season in franchise history.
"We don't care what other people think," tight end Adam Trautman said of Nix. "We know what we have in the building, and we know what he's made of. We don't really care what people have to say."
And while Nix's on-field play was impressive on Sunday, it was the mental toughness that stuck with his teammates.
"He's the leader of this football team," McGlinchey said, "and we should all take something from what he did today, because we don't win that game without him."
