NFL teams often defer after winning the coin toss, opting to receive the ball after halftime and beginning the game on defense.
When the Denver Broncos won the coin toss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, they elected to receive the ball. That was an early statement from Broncos coach Sean Payton.
“Yeah, look, I typically, like most coaches, will defer and every once in a while, you send a little message and we felt like we had a good set of openers,” Payton said after the game.
After receiving the ball, Denver marched 70 yards in six plays and took a 7-0 lead off a Bo Nix touchdown run. Then the team never looked back.
“I think he made that decision just off of making a fast start. And, I wasn’t necessarily shocked by it, but whatever he wanted to do, that’s what we were doing, and we came out and did exactly what we wanted,” Nix said of electing to receive the opening kickoff. “We went down and got a touchdown. And I think that set the tempo and set the tone for the game.”
After setting the tone early, the Broncos dominated the rest of the game in an eventual 26-7 victory on the road. Nix came out slinging the ball and Denver’s offense had its best performance through three games this fall.
“When you start the game with an explosive pass play, you get ‘Court’ [Courtland Sutton] involved early, you win a one-on-one, you flip the field in one play — it opens it up for a coordinator,” Nix said. “I thought Coach Payton did a good job of going right back to it.
“We hit Josh [Reynolds] on the other side and then we get points and we get a touchdown on that first drive. That’s really important to start explosive, but you can’t just hit one. You have to come back and continue to finish out drives. It was good to see that on the first one.”
Nix totaled 263 yards on Sunday and he took no sacks and had no turnovers. It was the best performance of his career thus far and perhaps a sign of things to come for the Broncos’ offense.
