Bo Nix Bounced Back, Ran Wild as Denver Broncos beat Arizona Cardinals

Bo Nix bounced back.

This was the Bo Nix Broncos Country expected to see all season long.

And it was the first time Nix played like the guy we saw in 2024 and 2025, both in his aggressive throws and how he won the game with his legs.

Bo Nix Bounced Back, Ran Wild

Nix was pretty damn great in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Yes, it's "just" the Cardinals. Yes, their defense sucks. Yes, he was supposed to play well against them.

Sure, but this is the NFL after all. There are no easy wins. Every victory is earned.

And Nix balled out.

His first throw of the game was something we'd seen rarely this year; a 20-yard pass to Courtland Sutton. And he started the game decently overall, going 8-14 through most of the first two quarters, leading Denver to two field goals and the 6-0 lead.

Then, he broke out of the six-game slump he'd been in.

With four minutes until halftime, and the game now tied 6-6, Nix dropped back and then took off. He sprinted quickly and got a lot of help from teammates. Adam Trautman put his hands up to call for the football even though Nix was already past the line at that point, which keep the defensive back covering the tight end instead of pursuing the quarterback flying down the field.

Nix hit 19.9 miles per hour on the run, and then he got two blocks from Troy Franklin at the goal line before jumping into the end zone backwards.

It was the longest run by a quarterback in Denver Broncos history by 22 yards. Tim Tebow's 40-yard run in 2010 was the previous long. Tebow's was tied with Jake Plummer's 40-yard run back in 2003.

"I think it answers our question, can he still run?" Sean Payton said after the win. "We got match coverage and it just happened to be a route where we were pushing someone to the flat, someone on a deep corner, someone on a sail, the (running) back going that way, and believe it or not, the tight end— if you watch the ‘All-22’ (film), you're going to see a point where he climbs and from the center over, I think all the ‘eligibles’ (eligible wide receivers) are (on the) right. It was more of a match coverage, so it was a good decision (and a) big play.”

All that stuff basically says, "Every receiver is on the right side of the play and we know that if no one is open, he can run" without fully saying that it was a designed QB run from the jump.

It certainly seemed like a designed run. And it was supposed to get 15-20 yards, probably. But Nix took it all the way to the crib.

“I learned a couple things,” Nix said to Melanie Collins after the game. “I need to go a little bit more conditioning in the middle of the week. And then maybe everybody will stop asking me about my ankle officially.”

Nix also said he “blacked out” as he took off toward the end zone.

A Run Helped Nix Pass Better

That play broke him out of his slump. He was throwing the ball more confidently like we'd seen him do in 2025.

He came out after half and found RJ Harvey for a 52-yard touchdown that was brilliantly blocked by Ben Powers in the second level and Franklin in the third level.

While Harvey's touchdown was all him and good play-calling, Nix became only the fifth player in NFL history to run and throw for a 50-plus yard touchdown in the same game.

The others:

• Bo Nix at Ari. (10/25/26) 62-yard run, 52-yard pass
• Justin Fields vs. Det. (11/13/22) 67, 50
• Lamar Jackson vs. Mia. (9/18/22) 79, 75
• Cam Newton vs. Atl. (12/9/12) 72, 53
• Ace Parker vs. Brk. (10/9/38) 54, 77

What a wild list to be part of. There are two NFL MVPs and a guy in Fields who started three years before becoming a backup. And some dude named Clarence McKay "Ace" Parker back in the 30s.

Does that mean Nix will eventually be an NFL MVP or become a backup after Year 3? Or neither? We'll see.

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Nix to Mims for 47 yards

Another confident, brilliant throw Nix made came near the end of the third quarter. He read the defense perfectly, and when a defender fell off Mims, Nix dropped the ball in brilliantly before the next defender and Mims went to work.

He made a guy miss and nearly took it to the house. Which would've been a second 50-yard pass touchdown for Nix if Mims got in.

Waddle up the seam for 27 yards

A third explosive play of the day came on the next drive.

On 2nd-and-15, Nix dropped back and ripped a ball to Jaylen Waddle up the seam, putting the ball perfectly on his back shoulder for a 27-yard gain.

This throw was important for a few reasons.

One, getting Waddle more involved in the offense has to be a focus. He was targeted seven times on the day, which was great, and caught four passes for 48 yards. They need to keep feeding the penguin.

And two, it's the kind of throw we didn't see from Nix for a month. It was in the middle of the field and it was a pass over 20 yards. It was aggressive. Not passive.

Plus, it was important to winning the game. That chunk play took Denver from their 40 to Arizona's 33 and into field goal range.

Bo Nix Back on Track Just in Time for Chiefs Showdown

Nix finished the game 15-29 passing for 222 yards and one touchdown and he ran seven times for 73 yards and another score. His passer rating was 88.6, the second-highest mark of the year (Week 2 vs. Jax).

And his QBR was 80.6, the highest mark of the season.

Starting in the win over the LA Rams and going through the victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday Night Football, Nix was in a slump. He was seeing ghosts. He was hearing footsteps.

Nix was playing scared.

Benching him would've been boneheaded, and it was asked about by the media last week.

That incredible run to daylight injected him with the confidence boost he'd been needing all year long. Denver won 30-16 over Arizona.

It should be noted he hadn't been running nearly as much this year as his first two seasons. Finding that ground game now will help him going forward for the rest of of the year.

Sometimes the only way to play out of a slump is by making a massive play. That's exactly what Nix did, and then he continued to build on it as the game went on.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs were blown out by the same Seahawks Denver beat 10 days ago.

The "Chefs" didn't just look beatable, they looked very mediocre last night.

Seattle gave the Broncos a gameplan; shut down Kenneth Walker III and pressure Patrick Mahomes relentlessly.

Kansas City now comes into the Mile High City sitting at 5-1 while the Broncos are 5-2. The winner of Sunday's game will be in the driver's seat of the AFC West. Just like last year when the Chiefs came to town a week later in the season.

And while Nix is riding high, Mahomes is down in the dumps.

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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.