Bo Nix suffered a broken ankle in the Denver Broncos’ thrilling playoff win over the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night, head coach Sean Payton has announced.
The Broncos quarterback will now require season-ending surgery, coming as a disaster on an otherwise historic night for the franchise.
It is a devastating outcome for both Denver and Nix, who played an integral role in the dramatic 33-30 overtime victory which sealed their first AFC Championship game appearance for 10 years.
Payton said he sustained the injury on a keeper where he lost two yards and was tackled by safety Cole Bishop, shortly before Wil Lutz’ game-winning field goal in overtime.
Nix was limping after the play, but there was no indication that he suffered such a serious injury.
On the next play, the 25-year-old threw a deep pass to Marvin Mims Jr. that drew a 30-yard pass-interference flag and got the Broncos well into field-goal range. He then took a knee to center the ball for Wil Lutz’s game-ending 23-yard field goal.
Bo Nix suffered a broken ankle in the Denver Broncos’ thrilling playoff win over the Buffalo Bills
The Broncos quarterback is now set for season-ending surgery, head coach Sean Payton says
‘He’s such a strong, faith-based guy,’ Payton said about Nix. ‘He’s sitting in the hallway with his family and coming over and we’re all talking to him.
‘He knows that God’s got a plan for him and he said he had (a broken ankle) in high school and then he said he had one at Auburn.’
‘And I said I didn’t realize that. I said if I had known that I wouldn’t have drafted you,’ the Broncos coach joked.
As his starting quarterback now prepares for surgery, Payton must turn to understudy Jarrett Stidham in next weekend’s AFC Championship game.
Stidham will start against either the New England Patriots or Houston Texans, who battle it out in the other AFC Divisional game on Sunday.
‘He is ready,’ Payton said about his backup quarterback. ‘We’ll be ready for the next challenge.’
The Broncos have not contested an AFC Championship game since 2015, when they went on to win Super Bowl 50.
Lutz’s overtime field goal sealed a pulsating 33-30 victory on Saturday and sent Denver to a conference title game for the 12th time in franchise history. They are 8-3 in those games.
Nix had just helped Denver reach the AFC Championship game for the first time since 2015
He got the better of the reigning NFL MVP in Josh Allen, whose playoff hopes were ended again
In Nix’s absence, backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham will now start for the Broncos next week
Josh Allen, Nix’s opposite number, and the Bills (13-6) again were denied an opportunity to win the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy. Buffalo has been knocked out in the divisional or championship rounds in six straight seasons under Allen and coach Sean McDermott.
Allen and Nix traded go-ahead touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and Buffalo’s Matt Prater kicked a 50-yarder to send it to overtime.
After the Broncos punted on the opening drive, Allen threw a deep pass to Brandin Cooks that would have put the Bills in field-goal range, but Ja’Quan McMillian snatched it away for an interception as both players tumbled to the ground.
Two pass-interference penalties on Buffalo gave the Broncos 47 yards and set up Lutz´s winning kick. Tre’davious White, who was called for the second one that moved the ball to Buffalo’s 8, threw his helmet down in disgust while arguing and got an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty.
In the NFC, the No. 6 seed San Francisco 49ers (13-5) were taking on the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks (14-3) in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The No. 2 seed Chicago Bears (12-6) will host the No. 5 seed Los Angeles Rams (13-5) in the second game Sunday.
