EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — As rookie quarterback Bo Nix stood on the sideline in of Sunday's win over the Jets, he knew the game didn't have to be pretty.
He and the Broncos' offense didn't need to be perfect, and they didn't need to win in style.
They just needed to win.
"It's not going to be a picture-perfect game when the weather's like that and they have a good defense," Nix said after the Broncos' 10-9 win over New York. "You're going to go out there, and it's going to be a tough game. You're going to have to have some grit and some discipline — some toughness — at the end to pull those out. That's what we did."
In golf, it's often said there's no pictures on the scorecard. As Courtland Sutton pointed out Sunday, there's no pictures in an NFL game book, either.
"It's like golf," Sutton said. "No one's going to really ask how you did it. They just want to see the final score. Us being able to get the win was amazing."
An hours-long rainstorm put points at a premium and made life difficult on both offenses, and Head Coach Sean Payton said "weather was a factor" in Denver's first-half offensive performance. After failing to score in the first half, though, Nix and Co. found a way to make plays when it mattered in the final two quarters.
Perhaps the biggest play of the game came on third-and-11 from the Broncos' own 24-yard line with Denver trailing 6-0. Nix, who completed seven passes for minus-seven yards in the first half, dropped back and delivered a strike to Courtland Sutton for a first down into Jets territory. Before the play, the Broncos had totaled just four first downs in the game, but the in-breaking route kick-started a vital Denver possession.
"Big play," Payton said. "We had finally gotten some dry weather. … Good protection, it was a great throw. … [A] real big play when we needed it."
Nix called the completion "huge" in determining the outcome of the game, and he followed the play by later capping an 11-play, 87-yard drive with his first career touchdown pass to a wide-open Sutton.
"To see a young dude go out there and handle that the way he did against a really good defense, it was really inspiring," Sutton said. "I'm happy, man. I'm happy to see him continue to [take] these steps forward."
The Broncos, though, also relied heavily on their rushing attack as they played through the driving rain. On the touchdown drive, Denver ran the ball seven times for 36 yards, including a 12-yarder by Javonte Williams that pushed Denver to the New York 11-yard line.
A possession later, after the Jets had scored a field goal to retake the lead, Denver imposed its will on the ground. The Broncos recorded three rushes of at least nine yards, highlighted by Williams' 16-yard scamper to the New York 35-yard line that put Denver in position for the game-winning field goal. Williams finished with 16 carries for 77 yards on the afternoon.
"We needed to open up holes and show [Williams'] talent, and that's what we did today," tackle Garett Bolles said. "… We just grinded it out and our backs found the running lanes and they hit the holes and we did what we needed to do today."
The Broncos' go-ahead drive also showed an ability to embrace the elements and find a way to win.
"Sometimes you've just got to punch them in the mouth, man," Bolles said. "That's just what it is, and that's what we needed to do."
The Broncos finished with 126 rushing yards, which marked their second consecutive week with at least that many yards.
And while Nix finished with just 60 passing yards, he did contribute a series of key throws when the moment demanded it.
"It didn't matter if the weather cleared up," Nix said. "I had to go out there and contribute and be efficient and find ways to get us in the end zone — find ways to win the game at that point."
The performance, as Nix said, may not have been picture perfect. The result, though, surely was.
