Overdogs, If You Please: How Nix and the Denver Broncos Outgrew the Underdog Narrative

When in this world the headlines read
Of those whose hearts are filled with greed
Who rob and steal from those who need
To right this wrong with blinding speed
Goes Underdog!

– Second verse, Underdog theme song

After Sunday’s win against the Green Bay Packers, Bo Nix was at the podium, and a CBS reporter asked him what the team had shown everyone after coming into the game as underdogs – even after winning their last 10 in a row coming into the contest. Nix righted that wrong with lightning speed and through his frequently-flashed megawatt smile, said:

“That we’re the overdogs.”

Broncos faithful both cheered and reconsidered their knowledge of the English language. Thank goodness the hypercompetitive Nix has a sense of humor, even as the words came out of his mouth. Thank goodnesser (hey, we’re all making up words now) that Nix’s heart is probably even bigger than his talent or his even temperament. He took his suddenly-hot language changeup, had some fun with it, and knew he could make it into something more. Within hours, he had turned it into a money-raising machine to help out the Denver Rescue Mission over the holiday season. Remarkable.

But what Bo also knows is football, and that may have never been more evident than his performance against the Packers on Sunday. His 134.7 quarterback rating was a gem, aided by zero turnovers, zero sacks, four passing touchdowns, and a FedEx Player of the Week award for his performance. Even more apt, his ascendant play over the course of the season has made his “Overdog” statement mathematically correct, even if it was linguistically askew. The question about the Broncos all season long has been whether or not the offense would be able to improve and perform when the games started getting even more crucial towards season’s end. “They lucked into another one” has been a pretty common refrain outside of starry-eyed Broncos fans all year, applauding the defense, and cautioning that the offense might eventually cost them when it all started to really count.

And realistically, it still might. But as the level of play on that side of the ball has risen week over week, it is starting to seem no more likely that the offense will have a bad game than the defense will, with leaders on both sides of the ball excitedly speaking to the room they still have to improve. That neither side of the coin is nowhere near its full potential.

Those are notions that ought to send a shiver of fear through the rest of the league, as the national folks who were reviewing Denver’s play coming out of Week 15 and calling then “the most complete team in football”, and the team nobody wants to face come playoff time.

It seemed a little ahead of the curve when head coach Sean Payton was speaking of the Broncos potential to win it all this year before the season even got started. You felt as if he’d already gotten the team way out ahead of expectations by taking them to the playoffs in Nix’s rookie season, and so maybe the big talk was just playing with some house money to get the team to start setting their sights a little higher.

Nearly four months later, nobody is chuckling at Payton’s predictions now. Through all of the drama, comebacks, and close calls, this team is two last-second field goal away from a 14-0 record, with a chance to redeem one of those losses at seasons end against the Chargers. If they have already locked up the one seed at that point, they may not care to bother with such things. Who could have imagined?

Sean Payton is who. Bo Nix is who. Pat Surtain is who. Nik Bonitto is who. Those three player, plus 50 more. Add a practice squad, a coaching staff, and front office, that’s who. This organization sees what is possible, and even though most of it hasn’t been around for the proud and historic moments of the past, they take it so seriously as to already somehow astoundingly have the team back there. The expectations are high once again at Dove Valley, and all feels right with the world once again if you are a Broncos fan.

Even if they stumble on their way out this season, and they very well may not, you see what this team has put together in short amount of time with dedication, deep talent, and deep pockets. If they stay focused on that goal, you should expect this Broncos team to be overdogs for the foreseeable future.