Bo Nix deserves an A+ in the fourth quarter, but the first three quarters count too

Bo Nix keeps winning late, but the midday show says most of what he has put on film this season has been bad football

Nov 13, 2026, 3:17 PM

Watch: Bo Nix has underperformed this season, but he SHOWS UP when it matters most! | Dover and Cecil | 22 seconds

Bo Nix keeps winning late, but the midday show says most of what he has put on film this season has been bad football.

Bo Nix has a familiar pattern by now. He starts seasons slowly and gets better as the year goes on. In his third season, the slow part has lasted longer than usual. He has had good games, including his last two against Kansas City and Carolina. Week to week, though, the problem is the same: he can’t seem to get going early, and then the fourth quarter starts and he looks like a different quarterback.

The Broncos are 7-2, hold the lead over the AFC West and are coming off a record 16th straight one-score win. A lot of that is because of what Bo Nix does late. On a recent edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, Cecil Lammey said that doesn’t erase everything that comes before it.

“Bo Nix has been pretty bad for most of this season,” Lammey said.

That’s a harsh grade for the starting quarterback of the AFC’s top seed, but the season backs it up. In the opener at Kansas City, Bo Nix threw an interception and fumbled three times in a 31-10 loss. In San Francisco, he completed 1 of 9 throws of 10 or more air yards, and Mark Schlereth counted five or six open chunk plays in the first half that Nix didn’t throw. Against Seattle, he threw for 107 yards, the second-worst passing game of his career. Benching him was quietly discussed amongst Broncos Country.

Lammey made sure to give credit where it’s due.

“Now if we based it on 4th quarter, his 4th quarter grade would be like an A, or an A+,” Lammey said.

The late-game record is hard to argue with. Denver scored 14 unanswered fourth-quarter points to beat Jacksonville. It came back from 16-0 down at halftime to beat the Rams. It scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter against Kansas City before the goal-line stand that sealed the win. Most weeks, whoever the opponent is, Bo Nix plays his best when the game is on the line.

“‘Cause that’s what he does. He just wins in the 4th quarter,” Lammey said.

That fits what Joel Klatt said earlier this season. He’d rather have a quarterback who looks messy for three quarters and plays like a warrior late than one who looks polished and folds when it matters. Nix has been the first kind of quarterback all year.

Lammey’s point is that three quarters is most of the game.

“So it’s like an A+ in the 4th quarter, but I can’t ignore the first 3 quarters. There’s more of them,” Lammey said.

That’s why the overall grade can’t be as high as the fourth-quarter grade. The fourth quarter is one-fourth of every game. When Bo Nix is off the rest of the time, the offense falls behind, the defense has to protect bigger leads or make up deficits and the Broncos end up needing another comeback. Denver has trailed at some point in every game this season, and the offense has spent most of the year near the bottom of the league in yards and points.

Lammey summed it up without softening it.

“There’s more of them. We have more bad football from Bo Nix this year, than we have good football,” Lammey said.

Both things are true. Bo Nix has been one of the league’s best fourth-quarter quarterbacks, and he has also played a lot of bad football in the first three quarters. Winning is still the job, and he keeps doing it. But needing a fourth-quarter rescue nearly every week makes the margin very thin, and that’s harder to rely on in January.

The bye week gives Bo Nix and Sean Payton time to look at the film. The last two games suggest he may be turning the corner, especially his patient touchdown to Pat Bryant against Carolina. If he can carry some of that fourth-quarter play into the first three quarters, Lammey’s overall grade will go up, and the Broncos won’t need a comeback every week.