Broncos report card: Feel-good marks across the board vs. undermanned Panthers, but exam season awaits

OFFENSE — A-

Bo Nix authored easily his best pro performance to date, accounting for four total touchdowns. With hardly any pressure to worry about, the rookie quarterback stood in the pocket and threw darts around the field. It marked just the second time the Broncos have scored four offensive touchdowns in a game under head coach Sean Payton and the fourth time in the past three seasons. If you want to quibble, Denver really didn’t have much of a run game for most of the early part of the contest. It hardly mattered, though. After a fumble and a punt on their opening two drives, Nix and company scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions.

DEFENSE — A-

The Broncos defense got off to a rocky start, giving up four first downs, missing several tackles and surrendering a touchdown — albeit one set up by a Lil’Jordan Humphrey fumble — to the anemic Panthers offense on its first drive. From there, though, Vance Joseph’s group did its thing. They allowed just one first down from the 6:24 mark of the first until late in the third quarter. The Panthers didn’t score again until the closing seconds. Pat Surtain II and Ja’Quan McMillian each intercepted Bryce Young. It was the kind of lockdown performance that’s become expected from this group.

SPECIAL TEAMS — B

Another week, another quality outing for the Broncos’ punt team. Riley Dixon hung a beauty of a punt up that Tremon Smith tipped to Lucas Krull. Krull managed to keep it out of the end zone and the Broncos downed it at the 1-yard line. It was the fourth time they’ve done that already in seven games this season.

Overall, it was a clean outing in the third phase. The Broncos did fail on a fake field goal early in the fourth quarter — a false start that bumped the attempt from 55 yards to 60 was the real problem. It felt more like a “get it on tape” moment for Payton and company, who were already up 28-7 at that point.

COACHING — A-

Payton and the coaching staff did a good job of making sure Denver didn’t overlook the undermanned Panthers. By the time the game started, the home team was favored by 13 points, a monster betting line in the NFL. But after a terrible start the opening possession both ways, the Broncos looked like a team set on making sure Carolina didn’t smell upset in any real way.

Payton would never say it in the run-up to the game, but he knew this could be a chance to get Nix in rhythm ahead of a brutal road back-to-back at Baltimore and Kansas City. Denver managed just that, in part by dropping Nix back 29 times in the first half alone. Now, can they make it pay off even bigger over the next couple of weeks?

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