When the schedule dropped back in the offseason, everyone penciled in the Denver Broncos' Week 9 matchup in Baltimore against the Ravens as a loss. Historically speaking, playing in Baltimore is a brutal task for anyone, much less a team starting a rookie quarterback and one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.
So nobody should have been surprised by the result on Sunday. Although we all held out hope that the Broncos could pull off an upset, they were the biggest underdogs in the NFL in Week 9 and we saw that Vegas was actually giving the Broncos a little too much credit putting them as just 9.5-point underdogs.
Despite the fact that most of us saw it coming, rookie QB Bo Nix still had the perfect word to describe getting whooped 41-10.
Broncos rookie QB Bo Nix calls losing to Ravens in blowout fashion "miserable"
“This is miserable; it’s no fun. You never want to lose games like this. You never want to lose, period, but obviously, it’s inevitable sometimes. But you don’t want to lose like this, so it is miserable, and we do have to face it. You either sit there and point fingers at someone, someone else, or you sit there and take ownership of it. The only way to get over it and not be in the situation anymore and to continue to find ways to improve is to look internally. That’s what we’re going to do, starting with ourselves and starting with me. There are a few different things you can do, but it’s just a more important, more valuable, decision to say, ‘I, as an individual, have to get better,’ and it starts with each person, and then eventually, you start changing games like this.”
-- Broncos QB Bo Nix (via team PR)
Miserable is right. Nobody likes losing, but we had all hoped to see the Broncos at least take this game into the 4th quarter with the Ravens. The unfortunate reality is, when the Broncos pushed within 17-10 with just over a minute left in the 2nd quarter, the next time Bo Nix came out onto the field for an offensive series, the score was already 31-10 and the game was well out of hand at that point.
At that stage, I think we all just kind of hoped to see the Broncos' young players going out there and making plays, but the Ravens unfortunately got their first couple of quick defensive stops and forced the Broncos to punt in the second half of the game.
This game didn't get out of hand because of Bo Nix, which is one of the small silver linings for the Broncos here. Nix had an interception on the first drive of the game, but it's one of those plays where you really just wish that plays like this one below could be credited to the wide receiver somehow instead of the quarterback...
Although Nix has had accuracy issues at times this season, his receivers have let him down far more than he's let them down. This is just one of many examples in recent weeks, even in some of the Broncos' blowout wins.
And those missed opportunities are part of the reason this kind of loss is so "miserable" to begin with. Lil'Jordan Humphrey should be catching this football. Javonte Williams should have reached the footbal to the first down marker. Nix should have hit a wide-open Troy Franklin on 4th down for what could have been a touchdown.
As Courtland Sutton said after the game, "If 'ifs' were a fifth we'd all be drunk."
