Sean Payton gives insight on the heated exchange with Bo Nix in the Denver Broncos' win over the Las Vegas Raiders

DENVER — Donned in 1977 throwback uniforms, Bo Nix had his breakout party on Sunday as the Denver Broncos‘ snapped their eight-game losing streak to the Las Vegas Raiders in a 34-18 win.

The first-round pick had not one, not two, but three touchdowns—two in the air and one on the ground—to help facilitate the most points the Broncos have scored since Week 14 of the 2021 season.

But despite all of that, the story coming out of the Broncos’ third-straight win wasn’t about his touchdowns, it was about another throwback, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

“It is part of the deal,” Sean Payton said after the win, talking about the heated and lively conversation he and Nix had on the sideline after the quarterback and Troy Franklin just missed on a 45-yard touchdown. “There is still a little bit of Ferris Bueller in this player that we have to get rid of. I’m talking about Bo. I love him to death and sometimes it is my love language.”

“I’ve watched the movie. I think it’s funny. That literally I think explains the situation,” Nix responded with a smile to his head coach’s remark. “We’re just out there with great competitive intensity and fire. We can have those conversations and move right back along and score another few touchdowns. It doesn’t bother us.”

In the third quarter, when Nix returned to the sideline after the long incompletion, he let his head coach have it, clearly raising his voice in frustration. Payton didn’t shy away and let the rookie have it right back.

The two went back and forth for a few minutes on the sideline.

“He turned and looked at me and said, ‘I love you,’ and I turned to him and said, ‘I love you back,'” Nix joked after the win.

But in all seriousness, what did the head coach mean by the first-round pick having “a little bit of Ferris Bueller” to him?

“It is just funny. Ferris is kind of quirky and doing his own thing once in a while,” Payton explained. “Did you watch the movie? Have you ever seen it? He still has some Ferris Bueller in him. He’s got some. Not mischievous, maybe a little bit kind of subtly. (laughs) There are times where you send something in, and I do not want it flipped. It gets flipped, but it is all good. He works his tail off. I am that way. It just is what it is.”

There it is.

Payton didn’t want the play to be flipped, but somehow it ended up getting flipped. Despite that, the play was inches away from being a 45-yard touchdown from Nix to Franklin.

“It was a single play. We had it flipped. He wanted it to the boundary, and we just kind of got confused there in the huddle. So I tried to get things right,” Nix said about flipping the play. “We ended up having it, had a chance and I overthrew it, but that’s a part of the game sometimes. With the huddle operation sometimes you just have to make the most of guys, how it is with the play clock moving. You just make the most of it, and fortunately it didn’t bite us.”

It didn’t bite the Broncos at all.

In fact, after that interaction, Nix went 5-for-5 for 54 yards and added a passing touchdown and rushing touchdown.

“We start with lead your team to wins, and lead your team to the end zone. I thought he did a good job of that,” Payton said, evaluating Nix’s fifth start in the NFL. “He made some really good plays with his feet. He is hard to sack. You worry about the matchup with [Maxx] Crosby and [Alex] Palczewski. There is a lot going on when he is coming off the bus and then the protections. I thought he played well.”

After the game, it was all love between the head coach and his hand-picked rookie quarterback. But in the heat of the game, the tempers raised over the flip of a play.