5 Up, 3 Down in Denver Broncos Comeback Win Over Jacksonville Jaguars

The Denver Broncos comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars was due to both the offense and defense stepping up in a huge way in the second half.

Denver completed the comeback, scoring 17 unanswered points in the second half.

There's no doubt these Broncos are a Second Half Team™️. Carrying it over from last year.

Here's our 5 up and 3 down of the Denver Broncos 20-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

5 Up: Jaylen Waddle and Riley Moss on Fire vs. Jaguars

Finally, the Broncos remembered how to play football in the second half of their second game. Finally Jaylen Waddle became a part of the offense. And finally Riley Moss looked like a great cornerback again.

1. Jaylen Waddle

Waddle went off like I thought he was going to against the Chiefs in Week 1.

He did a little bit of everything in the game. He had a great catch on a crossing route in the middle of the field. He caught a deep ball along the sideline and was wide open because he made a defender fall down. Oh, and Bo Nix hit him for a 49-yard pass, too.

Unfortunately, the Broncos couldn't score from the 5 yard line on that drive, but more on that later.

Waddle was fantastic on Sunday. He was everything we were promised and hoped for all offseason since the trade for him. He used speed, intelligence, and great hands to shine as the best receiver in the game. Even when Parker Washington was giving the Broncos the business to start the game.

Waddle finished with 8 catches for 138 yards. Here's to many more 100-yard games this year.

2. Riley Moss

Riley Mossed those guys.

Specifically, his huge play came on an interception of Trevor Lawrence late in the third quarter.

“Turned my head and he threw it right to me,” Moss said after the game. “Yeah I was [surprised].”

That play flipped the momentum of the game.

It was 13-6, Jacksonville after the Broncos drive stalled and they settled for a field goal. The Jags were driving again, but Washington went outside and Moss ran his route better than the receiver and went inside, picking off the pass with ease.

Denver took the ball and methodically marched on their best drive of the day: 10 plays for 64 yards and the game-tying touchdown.

Moss almost picked off another pass late in the game and led the team with three passes defensed.

3. Bo Nix in the 2nd Half

Bo was bad in the first half.

But he caught fire in the second half. He threw for 134 yards on 11-15 (73.3%) passing. That included chunk pass plays of 14, 16, 17, 18, and 29 yards.

Davis Webb started rolling Nix out and he made multiple solid passes on the move. One of those included the game-winning touchdown pass on the play-action to Nate Adkins.

Nix in the second half was the elite quarterback the "Bolievers" in Broncos Country always talk about. He was a legitimate Top 10 quarterback in the second half (and the second half only).

Nix's passer rating was a superb 122.64 after halftime. He's only had four complete games with a higher passer rating, one last year and three in his rookie season. Including a game the Chiefs rested their starters in Week 18 that rookie year.

The thing Nix needs to do is put together more complete games of playing efficient, smart, confident football. He and this Broncos team both have that issue of playing well for only one half or even one quarter at times.

4. Jonah Coleman

Coleman came in and played a great game when RJ Harvey was ruled out and then J.K. Dobbins was sidelined with hamstring injury during the win.

Coleman ran with power and decisiveness all day long, cutting back and finding open space for solid gains.

In total, he ran 10 times for 39 yards including his first NFL touchdown. Then he did the Mile High Salute on a run that looked very much like Terrell Davis.

“I mean, you gotta pay respect to the guys that came before you,” Coleman said. “[Terrell Davis] is one of the best to ever do it.“

That kid's going to be special, man.

5. D-line

Zach Allen, Nik Bonitto, Malcolm Roach, and Que Robinson. This section is for you.

Bonitto had the brilliant forced fumble, though it was erased due to an illegal contact penalty, and three hits on Trevor Lawrence. Zach Allen was a menace but only earned one QB hit. Meanwhile Robinson and Roach earned the team's two sacks on the day.

While Lawrence picked the defense apart in the first half, mostly with Parker Washington, the defensive line stepped up in the second half. They forced him out of his comfort zone and into multiple turnovers.

Plus, the entire defense tackled much better than in Week 1. The D-line included.

3 Down

It definitely wasn't a perfect win. There were some downsides to it, as there always are.

Play calling

Davis Webb, how are you doing after two weeks, bud?

The first week, Sean Payton called Webb out in the media and said the run-pass balance was way off. Payton—who loves to abandon the run—said Webb abandoned the run too early in the loss to the Chiefs in Week 1.

"Our run-pass ratio was skewed and off," Payton said last Tuesday.

This week, it wasn't that he ran away from the run game, but Webb's play calls were still suspect at times.

The worst was after that 49-yard pass from Nix to Waddle. It was a thing of beauty and the Broncos had the ball at the 5 yard line. And yet, they couldn't score a touchdown.

Webb ran J.K. Dobbins right, middle, and left. All for -1 combined yard.

The third down run was the worst play call of the day. It was a pitch backwards from Nix to Dobbins, meaning the running back started three yards behind the line of scrimmage. And Nix even got stepped on by a lineman.

Other times throughout the game, it's tough to say whether or not bad play was from Nix's decision making or the play calling.

I will say, however, the final drive was rather well called by Webb. The Broncos ran out the clock and took that W.

So, much like how Nix warmed up, maybe Webb did too.

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Broncos BlitzRich Kurtzman

Bo in the 1st half

Bo Nix has struggled early in seasons and early in games.

If you look at his passer rating broken down by quarter, his first quarters (79.7) have been by far the worst. Nix actually starts slow and improves once he gets warm in the second quarter, then cools off a bit in the third, and is hot again in the fourth historically.

Call it the "Bo-ller coaster."

We saw that again yesterday. He went 5-8 in the quarter but one of those completions came for 1 yard on 3rd and 12.

As Nate Tice pointed out on Bluesky, Nix isn't letting plays breathe. He's processing too quickly, moving from read to read so fast that he's not allowing receivers to get open.

Nate Tice (@natetice.bsky.social)

gotta let the play breathe man. Nix is already throwing the checkdown and the Broncos WRs aren’t even close to breaking on their routes.

Bluesky SocialNate Tice

It's 2nd and 18 and you're throwing it to the running back for 6 yards instead of even seeing if your receivers get open?

Other times in the first half Nix looked uncomfortable in the pocket, backpedaling and scrambling wildly.

His worst throw of the day was the pick in the end zone. Not only can you not turn the ball over in the opponent's red zone, but he just tossed it up there for anyone to get.

He almost threw a second pick when he tossed a ball off his back foot on an out route. Just like that interception came when he was bailing backwards and off his back foot.

Nix's passer rating in the first half was 73.44, a far cry from his 122 rating in the second half.

Can Nix find a way to put together complete games on the regular? If so, that's when he will truly be the Broncos franchise quarterback.

Kris Abrams-Draine

The No. 3 down of the game was Kris Abrams-Draine muffing a punt. He jumped on it, but it was still a bad look. Marvin Mims doesn't do that if he's in the game and healthy.

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Rich Kurtzman was born and raised in Denver Colorado and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the aughts. He's been a professional writer since 2011, covering Colorado State football and men's basketball, as well as the Denver Broncos, for many outlets. Current Denver Broncos work can be found on Mile High Sports. Previous credits include CBS Denver and The USA TODAY Sports Media Group.