Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix’s season is done after he broke a bone in his right ankle late in the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime win against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.
Broncos coach Sean Payton announced postgame Nix sustained the injury only three plays before Denver kicked a game-winning field goal. Jarrett Stidham will now start for Denver, the top seed in the AFC, 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 postseason 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 game-winning score, aided by two pass interference penalties on the Bills. Allen forced overtime by getting Buffalo into field-goal position in the final minute of regulation, but he threw an interception in OT that set up the Broncos’ winning field goal — his fourth turnover of the day.
“It’s extremely difficult, I feel like I let my teammates down tonight,” Allen, while wiping away tears, said postgame.
He added: “It’s been a long season. Hate how it ended. It’s gonna stick with me for a long time.”
For Nix, Saturday’s win was a statement effort in what was only his second career postseason start.
A year after he threw for only 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 spearheaded an eight-play, 73-yard drive capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass to give Denver a 30-27 lead with under a minute to go.
Nix also came through 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 after.
For Allen, the loss was the latest in a string of devastating defeats for a franchise that’s become synonymous with postseason heartbreak. After losing four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s, Buffalo has now failed to make it back to the championship round for the seventh straight season of Allen’s tenure.
Including Saturday, four of the Bills’ last five playoff losses have come in one-score games, including two in overtime. The combined margin of defeat in those four losses is only 15 points.
Allen’s performance was boom or bust, as every Buffalo drive ended in either a score or a turnover. Allen finished the game 25 of 39 for 283 yards and three touchdowns, running 12 times for another 66 yards. But he also threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles. The four turnovers came at especially inopportune moments, including an ill-advised cough-up right before halftime that gifted Denver three points.
“Just trying to be aggressive, 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.
Leading into this postseason, Allen’s playoff defeats had come largely at the hands of some of the conference’s best quarterbacks. But with Mahomes, Burrow and two-time MVP Lamar Jackson all absent from the playoff field, 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 postseason games without a turnover — gave the ball away four times and was ultimately outdueled by Nix.
“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.”
Said Payton: “We obviously weren’t ready last year, but we were ready today.”