Bo Nix tied a career high with four touchdown passes, Courtland Sutton had seven receptions for 113 yards and a TD catch and the host Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 34-26 on Sunday.
Nix finished 23-for-34 for 302 yards passing for Denver (12-2), which has won 11 straight, holds the top seed in the AFC and clinched a playoff spot with the victory.
Troy Franklin, Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Michael Bandy each caught touchdown passes, while RJ Harvey scored another on the ground for the Broncos.
Jordan Love completed 24 of 40 passes for 276 yards and threw a touchdown to Josh Jacobs, who also scored on the ground for Green Bay (9-4-1). Love was intercepted twice, with the second interception coming after Harvey put Denver ahead by eight.
It was a costly game for the Packers, who lost wide receiver Christian Watson to a chest injury and defensive end Micah Parsons to a left knee injury. Both happened in the third quarter.
Watson was hurt on a deep pass that was intercepted by Patrick Surtain II and Parsons went down with a non-contact injury in the final minute of the third.
Brandon McManus kicked two field goals to give Green Bay a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter. Nix threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Bandy to make it 7-6, but Love’s 14-yard TD strike to Jacobs put Green Bay up 13-7.
The Broncos answered right back, with Nix and Humphrey connecting to put Denver ahead 14-13 with 1:56 left, but McManus again gave Green Bay the lead with a 35-yard field goal to make it 16-14 at halftime.
Jacobs scored on a 40-yard run to increase the Packers’ lead to 23-14 early in the third, and after a Denver punt, Surtain picked off Love, and the Broncos turned it into a 14-yard TD pass from Nix to Sutton.
Denver forced a punt and then took the lead on Nix’s 23-yard TD pass to Franklin on the last play of the third quarter, but a failed two-point conversion kept it 27-23.
McManus’ fourth field goal, a 37-yard boot, made it a one-point game with 10:55 left before Harvey sealed the win for Denver with a TD run from the 4 with 7:27 left.
Green Bay got the ball back at its 38-yard line with 1:07 left but Love threw four straight incompletions.
–Field Level Media
